Texas Tech University

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Keep It Simple: Using Multimedia in eLearning

By Marian Gossett, Instructional Designer

From the earliest days of using language to teach, whether it was the spoken word in ancient days, hand written passages on scrolls of parchment, leaflets from an early printing press, or today's cutting edge technology, educators have striven to share their knowledge. As educators, we want to ensure that our students are engaged in learning to the best of their ability.

How do we use today's technology without overwhelming our students' ability to learn? As eLearning educators developing online courses, it is important to be aware of some principles that influence our students' ability to learn while taking an online course.

During the past two decades Richard E. Mayer, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California Santa Barbara, and his colleagues have conducted over 100 experimental tests leading to 12 research-based principles for how to design on-line learning environments and computer-based games. 

The article, "Using Multimedia for e-Learning," published in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, reviews those 12 principles. One of the 12 principles is the multimedia principle, which indicates that students learn more comprehensively from content containing both words and graphics. "The multimedia principle is the founding design principle in this entire line of research. It provides a scientific basis for long-standing calls to incorporate graphics with instructional text dating back to the publication in 1658 of the first educational book to use illustrations and printed text, entitled Orbis Pictus, originally printed in 1658 (Comenius, 1887)" (Mayer, 405).

By incorporating these multimedia principles into your online course, students can maximize their learning potential.

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References:

Mayer, R.E. "Using Multimedia for e‐Learning." The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Wiley-Blackwell, 13 June 2017, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jcal.12197, accessed 10/17/2018.