Module 7 - Multimedia Learning

Question 1

What are Richard Mayer’s 12 Principles

Answer 1

1. Coherence Principle: People learn better when extraneous words, pictures, and sounds are excluded rather than included. This principle emphasizes keeping learning materials concise and focused, avoiding unnecessary distractions.
2. Signaling Principle: People learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential material are added. This can involve using headings, bolding key terms, or using visual cues to direct attention to important information.
3. Redundancy Principle: People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text.789 This principle warns against overloading learners with redundant information presented in multiple formats.
4. Spatial Contiguity Principle: People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen. This encourages integrating text and visuals closely, placing text near the corresponding part of a diagram or image.
5. Temporal Contiguity Principle: People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively. This emphasizes synchronizing narration and visuals, ensuring that explanations coincide with the relevant part of an animation or video.
6. Segmenting Principle: People learn better from multimedia lessons presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit.161718 This supports breaking down complex information into smaller, manageable chunks that learners can process at their own pace.
7. Pre-training Principle: People learn better from a multimedia lesson when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts. This encourages providing learners with foundational knowledge and terminology before presenting more complex information or processes.
8. Modality Principle: People learn better from graphics and narrations than from animation and on-screen text.This suggests prioritizing narration over on-screen text, particularly for complex information, to avoid overloading the visual channel.
9. Multimedia Principle: People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.225 This fundamental principle emphasizes the effectiveness of combining visuals and verbal explanations for improved comprehension.
10. Personalization Principle: People learn better from multimedia lessons when words are in a conversational style rather than a formal style.52728 This encourages using a friendly and relatable tone, using personal pronouns, and avoiding overly academic language.
11. Voice Principle: People learn better when the narration in multimedia lessons is spoken in a friendly human voice rather than a machine voice This principle highlights that learners engage better with a human presence and conversational tone.
12. Image Principle: People do not necessarily learn better from a multimedia lesson when the speaker’s image is added to the screen. This suggests that while a brief “talking head” introduction can build rapport, continuous speaker images may not enhance learning and could be less effective than other relevant visuals.

Question 2

What is Multimedia Learning Theory according to Richard Mayer?

Answer 2

Multimedia Learning Theory explains how people process information from multiple sources like audio, visuals, and text, especially when learning from screens or technology.

Question 3

What are the two primary channels through which humans process sensory information?

Answer 3

The auditory channel (sounds and speech) and the visual channel (colors, shapes, and movement).

Question 4

Why is attention important when learning from multimedia?

Answer 4

Only the information we give attention to will be processed by the sensory memory and make its way to working memory.

Question 5

What are the three categories of processing demands in multimedia learning?

Answer 5

Extraneous processing (unnecessary information), 2. Essential processing (processing essential material), 3. Generative processing (making sense of material).

Question 6

What is cognitive overload in multimedia learning?

Answer 6

Cognitive overload occurs when the processing demands of a learning task exceed the learner’s cognitive capacity, making it hard to process the information effectively.