1. Multimedia Learning
Principles
By Jackie McConaughy

2. *Principles *A multimedia
-Multimedia Multimedia presentation is
-Contiguity a presentation
-Modality that contains
-Redundancy Pretraining Contiguity both words
-Coherence and graphics.
-Personalization
-Segmenting
-Pretraining
Multimedia
Segmenting Learning Modality
Principles
*This project *These 8
will provide principles
descriptions should be
Personalization Redundancy
of the 8 followed
different when
multimedia creating a
Coherence
learning multimedia
principles. presentation.

3. Multimedia Principle
• Include both words and graphics on screen
• Words are either written text (printed on the
screen that an audience reads) or spoken text
(speech that an audience listens to)
• Graphics are static illustrations such as
drawings, charts, graphs, maps, photos, videos
and animations

4. Contiguity Principle
• Coordinate printed words and graphics
• Printed words and graphics should be
placed near each other on the screen
• Coordinate spoken words and graphics
• When spoken words describe an action
that is shown on screen, the spoken
words and graphics should be
presented at the same time

5. Modality Principle
• Use spoken words rather than printed words
when the graphic is the focus of the words
and both are presented at the same time
• Use spoken words instead of printed words
when you are able to
• When printed words and spoken words are
used on the same screen, the audience tends
to experience an overload of information

6. Redundancy Principle
• Avoid using printed text that states the same
points as the spoken text
• When using graphics explained by narration,
avoid redundant printed text presented at the
same time as graphics and narrations
• Audiences will pay attention to the written
words and will not pay close enough attention
to the graphics

7. Coherence Principle
• Keep the presentation uncluttered
• Do not add any material that does not support
the instructional goal
• Avoid extra background audio
• Avoid extra graphics
• Avoid extra words
• Extra audio, graphics and words can be
distracting

8. Personalization Principle
• Use a conversation style of writing
• Use virtual coaches to present the information
on the screen
• Virtual coaches allow for an informal
conversation between the presenter and the
audience Hi Everyone! My
name is Elli the
Elephant and I will
be your guide.

9. Segmenting Principle
• The lesson should be broken into manageable
segments
• Presenting too much information in one
segment may be intimidating for the audience
and cause information overload
• Break the lesson into smaller parts that are
presented one at a time

10. Pretraining Principle
• Provide pretraining on the key concepts of the
lesson
• Identify and explain the important concepts
prior to the lesson so students are not
overwhelmed with information
• Pretraining can help beginners manage the
new information better

11. References
Clark, R. & Mayer, R. E. (2008). e-Learning and
the Science of Instruction. San Francisco:
Pfeiffer.
Google images (Retrieved 5/12/11)
http://www.google.com
Heather’s Animations (Retrieved 5/12/11)
http://www.heathersanimations.com