Week 3 - Multimedia for Learning

I found Mayer’s design principles, the do’s and don’ts for instructional designers, very useful. Clearly helped us to understand how learners learn better when they are able to hold corresponding visual and verbal representations in working memory at the same time.

Mayer’s do's and don’ts for instructional designers
1)Present in words and pictures rather than in words alone
2)Present corresponding words and pictures near each other rather than far from each other on the page or screen
3)Present in conversational style rather than formal style.
4)Exclude extraneous material rather than include.
5)Should not overload visual/pictorial channels. Animated pictures presented with an audio commentary are better understood than accompanied with on screen text.
6)Redundant to present words in both text and audio narration. Better to present an animation with audio commentary rather than an animation, its commentary and the corresponding text.

Reference : Clark, Ruth (2002) : Six principles of effective e-learning : What works and why. The eLearning Developers’ Journal. Septtember 10, 2002.