Multimedia learning

Richard E. Mayer examines whether people learn more deeply when ideas are expressed in words and pictures rather than in words alone. He reviews 12 principles of instructional design that are based on experimental research studies and grounded in a theory of how people learn from words and pictures. The result is what Mayer calls the cognitive theory of multimedia learning.

"Although verbal learning offers a powerful tool, Mayer explores ways of going beyond the purely verbal. Recent advances in graphics technology and information technology have prompted new efforts to understand the potential of multimedia learning as a means of promoting human understanding. In this second edition, Mayer includes double the number of experimental comparisons, 6 new principles - signalling, segmenting, pertaining, personalization, voice and image principles. The 12 principles of multimedia instructional design have been reorganized into three sections - reducing extraneous processing, managing essential processing and fostering generative processing. Finally an indication of the maturity of the field is that the second edition highlights boundary conditions for each principle research-based constraints on when a principle is likely or not likely to apply. The boundary conditions are interpreted in terms of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, and help to enrich theories of multimedia learning."--

Section 1. Introduction to Multimedia Learning. The promise of multimedia learning ; The science of instruction: determining what works in multimedia learning ; The science of learning: determining how multimedia learning works -- Section 2. Principles for Reducing Extraneous Processing in Multimedia Learning. Coherence principle ; Signaling principle ; Redundancy principle ; Spatial contiguity principle ; Temporal contiguity principle -- Section 3. Principles for Managing Essential Processing in Multimedia Learning. Segmenting principle ; Pre-training principle ; Modality principle -- Section 4. Principles for Fostering Generative Processing. Multimedia principle ; Personalization, voice, and image principles -- Section 5. Conclusion. Principles of multimedia design.