In this blog, I would like to sharing about my study experiences connect to the multimedia learning principles.The focus of multimedia learning principles is how you design your multimedia content to help others learn more effectively. More multimedia content, such as pictures and videos, sometimes does not necessarily lead to a more interesting learning experience and better learning outcomes.
Last semester I took a psychology course, the teacher really liked to show us some videos related to the topic during the class, but the class materials he posted on the BS often left only some questions without relevant explanatory text, he seemed to prefer to teach through pictures and videos, the class time was very happy because we had a lot of time for group discussions and listening to other The class time was very happy because we had a lot of time for group discussion and listening to other students’ sharing, and when it came to the exam, the average score of the whole class did not meet the teacher’s expectation. Because there was so little text on the most important concepts and explanations, people were missing key information when reviewing. Sometimes when we looked at the pictures in the class, we couldn’t remember the knowledge it reflected during the class, but only the extracurricular knowledge shared by some students.
The cognitive theory of multimedia learning：
Dual coding theory：People’s brains have separate visual and auditory processing channels, so teaching a combination of the two will give us more opportunities to remember information.
Limited capacity.：Our brain’s capacity to pick and organise inputs is limited, and it may easily get overwhelmed and overloaded if there are too many stimuli at once.
Active processing：we don’t learn by passively absorbing knowledge. Learning is an active process that involves your brain to do a lot of effort, such as filtering, choosing, organising, and integrating information based on existing knowledge.
Based on these concepts , Mayer has come up with a series of principles of multimedia learning, and summarized to 3 main points: reduce extraneous processing, managing essential processing, and fostering generative processing. According to his principle, we can adjust the content of our material and improve learners’ experiences.