Mayer's Principles in Multimedia Learning
Mayer's Principles in Multimedia Learning provide guidance for designing multimedia instruction taking into account the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. The principles are aimed at achieving the three primary goals of instructional design: reduce extraneous processing, manage essential processing, and foster generative processing. Additionally, Mayer also proposes principles to use Social and Affective features of Multimedia Learning.
| Goal | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Basic principles | Multimedia Principle | People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone |
| Multiple Representation Principle | Using diverse representations of information that help students learn more effectively | |
| Expertise Reversal Principle | Knowledgeable experts require different instructional materials keeping into account their prior knowledge and skills. This would thus differ from instructional material given to novice learners. | |
| Minimize extraneous processing | Coherence Principle | Eliminate extraneous material |
| Signaling Principle | Highlight essential material | |
| Redundancy Principle | Do not add printed text to spoken text | |
| Spatial Contiguity Principle aka Cueing Principle | Place printed text near corresponding graphic | |
| Temporal Contiguity Principle | Present narration and corresponding graphic simultaneously | |
| Split Attention Principle | Present an integrated format of disparate sources of information | |
| Worked Example Principle | Provide problem formulation and solution to help gain initial cognitive skill acquisition | |
| Manage essential processing | Segmenting Principle | Break presentation into parts |
| Pre-Training Principle | Describe names and characteristics of key elements before the lesson | |
| Modality Principle | Use spoken rather than printed text | |
| Transient Information Principle | Help comprehensive processing of spoken information or animations in learners’ working memory and integration with prior knowledge in long-term memory | |
| Social and Affective Features of Multimedia Learning | Personalization Principle | Put words in conversational style |
| Voice Principle | Use human voice for spoken words | |
| Apprehension Principle | Create effective visual displays | |
| Embodiment Principle | Give onscreen characters human-like gestures | |
| Immersion Principle | Incorporate multimedia design principles in immersive virtual environments | |
| Collaboration Principle | Strike a balance between advantages of learning in collaborative activities and mental effort required in its coordination | |
| Animation Principle | Organize information for incremental processing allowing learners to combine information primitives progressively and hierarchically into a mental model | |
| Emotion Design Principle | Make onscreen elements prime positive emotion | |
| Fostering Generative Processing | Generative Activity Principle | Provide prompts for learning strategies |
| Guided Discovery Principle | Provide hints and feedback as learner solves problems | |
| Mapping Principle | Ask learners to create a graphic organizer or concept map | |
| Principle of Appropriate Knowledge | Provide learners the necessary knowledge to retain new information | |
| Self-Explanation Principle | Ask learners to explain a lesson to themselves | |
| Generative Drawing Principle | Ask learners to make drawings for the lesson | |
| Imagination Principle | Ask learners to imagine drawings for the lesson | |
| Guided Inquiry Principle | Encourage learners to go beyond the information given and draw their own conclusions | |
| Feedback Principle | Provide novice students with explanatory feedback rather than corrective feedback alone | |
| Learner Control Principle | Give learners control over the instruction they receive, including the ability to select and sequence content, decide their pace of progress, and choose different ways of displaying information | |
| Cognitive Load Self-Management Principle | Teach learners the application of Cognitive Load Theory principles to manage themselves better during non-compliant instructions |