Abdul Wahab

The principles of Multimedia that Mayer (2001) proposed. The cognitive theory of multimedia learning was popularized by the work of Richard E. Mayer and other cognitive researchers who argue that multimedia supports the way that the human brain learns. Mayer (2005a) state that people learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone, which is referred to as the multimedia principle. According to Mayer (2005b) Multimedia researchers generally define multimedia as the combination of text and pictures; and suggest that multimedia learning occurs when we build mental representations from these words and pictures. The words can be spoken or written, and the pictures can be any form of graphical imagery including illustrations, photos, animation, or video. Multimedia instructional design attempts to use cognitive research to combine words and pictures in ways that maximize learning effectiveness. MULTIMEDIA PRINCIPLE “People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone”. The multimedia principle state that transfer occurs animation/picture and narration/words by words alone. When words and images are presented so that students have the opportunity to build verbal and visual cognitive representations and integrate. Clark, (2002 Para. 6 ) state that By graphics we refer to a variety of illustrations including still graphics such as line drawings, charts, and photographs and motion graphics such as animation and video. For example the observer learns much more than people who study theoretically because the more people observe gain much more knowledge rather than making it theoretically or by reading. SEGMENTING PRINCIPAL “People learn better when a multimedia lesson is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit”. This principle is designed to maintain the flow of information to students. Clark and Mayer recommend finding the key elements or concepts within the lesson and teaching one at a time. This makes the lesson more easily and manageable for learners. Using this method, even a complex lesson can be taught and absorbed the information that students follow a logical progression through the lesson. Example In the photo above, there are four sections to striking a hammer on nail. In this image if we describe it in parts it will be easy to understand for learner. 1. In part 1 it shows how hand carrying the hammer over your shoulder. 2. In part 2 movements show how to bring the hammer down, and its shows how keeping your elbow in. 3. In part 3 movements show the motion with moving elbow in continue this motion. 4. In part 4 strike the hammer at the head of the nail. MODALITY PRINCIPLE “People learn better from animation and narration than from animation and onscreen text”. When pictures and words are both a presented visual (ie, such as animation and text), visual/graphic channel can become overloaded but the auditory/verbal channel is not used. When words are presented auditorily, they can be treated in the auditory/verbal channel, thus learning the visual/graphic channel to produce the picture. For significant learning Clark and Mayer recommend using audio rather than written words. Example Watching a movie with subtitles make a person to divert his attention from the scene because the person more focuses on subtitle. Hence, watching a movie without subtitle makes a person much more focused on movie. PRE-TRAINING PRINCIPLE “People learn more deeply from a multimedia message when they receive pre-training in the names and characteristics of key components”. The profile of the game is designed as students sitting at a computer screen showing a portion of the surface of a planet. They can draw a line and the computer will show a profile line, which indicates the extent above and below the sea level the surface is at each point of the line. The student can understand if the section contains a mountain, a valley, a ridge, a hollow, an island, and so on. For example the figures below shows the two images of microscope, figure A shows the images without labeling and the figure B is with labeling. Therefore students learn from figure B which focuses on labeling hence learning level much higher than figure A, because the labeled figure will help more in presenting the microscope and its functions. (A) (B) SPATIAL CONTIGUITY PRINCIPLE “People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are placed near each other rather than far from each other on the page or screen”. When words and corresponding images are close to each other on the page or screen, learner don’t have to resource to search the page or screen and able to use memory at same time. When words and corresponding images are far from each other on the page or screen, learner needs to use resources to search page and screen and students are less able to keep both in working memory simultaneously. Here is the example for spatial contiguity principle For example, the numbered image and its elaboration on the same page give better understanding to the users rather than the elaboration is on another page or program will make understanding much more difficult hence there will be less understanding. TEMPORAL CONTIGUITY PRINCIPLE “People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented at the same time rather than in succession”. When giving a multimedia explanation, present corresponding words and pictures contiguously rather than separately. Students better understand an explanation when corresponding words and pictures are presented at the same time than when they are separated in time. For instance, the student learns more in observing things in general, by observing a person is practical. Presenting thing with observations and narrations makes is much more understandable. Therefore, the people who are who learn with just an animation and picture have less understanding then the people who learn by observation. Hence the students or new workers who need training in an organization they learn it by observation and narration. COHERENCE PRINCIPLE “People learn better when extraneous material is excluded rather than included”. For example the video, animation, pictures, narration, and sounds which has a lot of irrelevant images makes the actual message blur hence it make a lot of disturbance in conveying the message, which will confuse learners to some extent and has negative effect on learning. REDUNDANCY PRINCIPLE “People learn better from graphics/animation and narration than from graphics/animation, narration, and onscreen text”. The best transfer occurs when animation and narration are not combined with the printed text. When pictures and words are both a present visually, it can overload the capacity of the memory of visual work. It is better to avoid text and narration together if the story just read the same text appears on screen. On the mobile device, there is often not enough space to have long texts without scrolling. Based on both the redundancy principle and the modality principle, it is preferable to have text narrated only, which helps us when designing for the mobile device. The drawback is that it may not be convenient or possible to download large audio files to a mobile device. In some situations, redundant text could be necessary. For example watching a movie with subtitles make a person to divert his attention from the scene because the person more focuses on subtitle. Hence, watching a movie without subtitle makes a person much more focused on movie. SIGNALING PRINCIPLE “People learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential material are added”. The signaling principle indicates that better transfer occurs when narrations are signaled. Signaling reduces the cognitive load on the auditory working memory, providing signs to the student on how to organize the material. Signaling helps students in the process of organizing sounds, which can cause a significant further learning. Example of Mercedes commercial is appropriate for it, in which only the automobile interior and exterior been described because that commercial signaling the comfort ability, durability and mechanism of automobile. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES PRINCIPLE The foregoing principles are more important for low knowledge than high-knowledge learners, and for high-spatial rather than low-spatial learners. Multimedia effects, contiguity effects, and split-attention effects depend on individual differences in the learner. According to Mayer & Gallini,; Mayer, Steinhoff, Bower & Mars,; (1991, 1995) students who lack prior knowledge tended to show stronger multimedia effects and contiguity effects than students who possessed high levels of prior knowledge. According to a cognitive theory of multimedia learning, students with high prior knowledge may be able to generate their own mental images while listening to an animation or reading a verbal text so having a contiguous visual presentation is not needed. For example in a production house there is lot of expertise such as motion graphics and editing in production house, editor has a job to compiling the scene of videos on the other hand motion graphic person only deals in graphics and animation. The differences come around that editor has his own knowledge in editing perspective whereas animation and motion graphics designer has his knowledge in respective field. So video editor has high knowledge in editing and low knowledge in animations, similarly animator has higher knowledge in animation and motion graphics and low knowledge in video editing. PERSONALIZATION PRINCIPLE “People learn better from a multimedia presentation when the words are in conversational style rather than in formal style”. The personalization principle states that better transfer occurs when the narration takes place in a conversational style (first or second person) rather than a formal style (third person). According to Clark and Mayer (2011, 9.184), instruction should not only present information but also prime the appropriate cognitive processing in the learner. For example in a footballer can learn better in a field rather than learn strategies on a board. Voice Principle “People learn better when the words in a multimedia message are spoken by a friendly human voice rather than a machine voice”. For instant people make presentation on robotic voice, it is difficult to learn for learner sometime. It is better to select a familiar voice for presentation. If we are making a page for kid to show them how is the voice of animal and how it looks like we use animal voice to teach kids. Image Principle “People do not necessarily learn more deeply from a multimedia presentation when the speaker’s image is on the screen rather than not on the screen”. Image Principal focuses on the message deliver through the image rather than the multimedia presentation. For example, if there is presentation body digestive system and presenter just present verbally, for learner it’s difficult to understand the process. But if he put some images and animations that is easy to understand for learners about whole process. REFERENCES Bobis, J., Sweller, J. & Cooper, J. (1993). Cognitive load effects in a primary-school geometry task. Learning and Instruction, 3, 1-21. Buggey, T. (2007, Summer). A Picture Is Worth .... Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 9(3), 151-158. Retrieved December 14, 2007, from Academic Search Premier database. Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning (3rd Edition) San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. Lusk, D. L., Evans, A. D., Jeffrey, T. R., Palmer, K. R., Wikstrom, C. S., & Doolittle, P. E. (2009). Multimedia learning and individual differences: Mediating the effects of working memory capacity with segmentation. British Journal Of Educational Technology, 40(4), 636651. doi:10.1111/j-.x Mayer, R. E., Bove, W., Bryman, A., Mars, R. & Tapangco, L. (1996). When less is more: Meaningful learning from visual and verbal summaries of science textbook lessons. Mayer, R. E. (1996). Learning strategies for making sense out of expository text: The SOI model forguiding three cognitive processes in knowledge construction. 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