Chapter 3:

Applying the
Multimedia
Principle
Adam T. Wasilko

What is this chapter about?

There is growing research on which types of

visual aids promote learning the best
Animated vs. static visuals
Flash animations in e-learning courses

How effective is this?

 Do people learn better from words linked to text

than from words alone?

Rain forests belong to the tropical wet climate group.

The temperature in a rain forest rarely gets higher
than 93 F (34 C) or drops below 68 F (20 C);
average humidity is between 77 and 88%; rainfall is
often more than 100 inches a year.
There is usually a brief season of less rain. In
monsoonal areas, there is a real dry season. Almost all
rain forests lie near the equator.

Or does it matter what type of visual is used?

 Words are quick and easy to use

What is the return on investment by taking the

time, energy, and resources to use images?

Only correct usage of the multimedia principle

can give us this information

The Multimedia Principle

What do we mean by words and graphics?

Words:

Printed text
Spoken text

Graphics

Static illustrations
Dynamic illustrations

Visualize how a more complete message can be

communicated by using both words and relevant

pictures.

Is this sufficient?

 People are more likely to actually learn

something if they engage in active learning

They engage in relevant cognitive processing

such as mentally organizing information and

mentally integrating new information with
things they already know
Multimedia learning encourages this

Rain forests belong to the tropical wet climate group.

The temperature in a rain forest rarely gets higher
than 93 F (34 C) or drops below 68 F (20 C);
average humidity is between 77 and 88%; rainfall is
often more than 100 inches a year.
There is usually a brief season of less rain. In
monsoonal areas, there is a real dry season. Almost all
rain forests lie near the equator.

Did this picture actually enhance learning?

Decorations generally do not help understanding

Filling a space may fill screen space but doesnt really
support the text in question

Select graphics that support learning

There are many functions of graphics

Decorative
Representative
Organizational
Relational
Transformational
Interpretive

Decorative graphics
Serve to decorate a page without enhancing the

message of a lesson

Rain forests belong to the tropical wet climate group.

The temperature in a rain forest rarely gets higher
than 93 F (34 C) or drops below 68 F (20 C);
average humidity is between 77 and 88%; rainfall is
often more than 100 inches a year.
There is usually a brief season of less rain. In
monsoonal areas, there is a real dry season. Almost all
rain forests lie near the equator.

Representational
Portray a single element and illustrate the

appearance of an object
An outline of what happens in a mass spectrometer
Stage 1: Ionization
The atom is ionized by knocking one or more electrons off
to give a positive ion. This is true even for things which you
would normally expect to form negative ions (chlorine, for
example) or never form ions at all (argon, for example).
Mass spectrometers always work with positive ions.
Stage 2: Acceleration
The ions are accelerated so that they all have the same
kinetic energy.
Stage 3: Deflection
The ions are then deflected by a magnetic field according to
their masses. The lighter they are, the more they are
deflected.
Stage 4: Detection
The beam of ions passing through the machine is detected
electrically.

Organizational
Depict the relations among certain elements

Relational
Portray a quantitative relation among two or

more objects

Transformational
Depict changes in an object over time

Interpretive
Make phenomena visible and concrete

What to do
Minimize things only meant to decorate
Increase the use of transformational and

interpretive graphics
Organize material with organizational graphics

when needed

Using Graphics to Promote Learning

Various types of content

Facts

Concepts

Process

Procedure

Principle

Facts

Unique and isolated information such as

application screens, forms, or product data

Concepts
Groups of objects, events, or symbols,

designated by a single name

Process
A description of how something works

Procedure

A series of steps that results in a complete

task

This graphic has been used already but now the focus is how to use
excel, not what information is contained within the spreadsheet.

Principle
Guidelines that result in the completion of a

task, cause and effect relationships

Examples

A video showing two effective sales approaches

An animation that shows genes passing from parents to

offspring

Graphics can organize topics

Not only can graphics organize specific content

types, but things like topic maps can be used to

serve an organizational function

Graphics can show relationships

Can take invisible phenomena and show

they are related

how

Graphics can be lesson interfaces

Courses can use a guided discovery approach

that have a graphical backdrop to present case

studies

Reasons for the multimedia principle

Words allow us to communicate effectively, it

makes sense to use words when we are

teaching or training
People learn more deeply from words and
pictures than from words alone
Research shows that students retain
information better when words are
supplemented with graphics

When does this work best?

This works best when student have little

knowledge of a topic, rather than a high level of

knowledge regarding the topic
More experienced learners create their own
mental images
Be sensitive to your audience

Static vs. dynamic illustrations

Should you convert all of your pictures to flash

animations?
Animation could overload the learner
Showing an animation on screen does not let
the learner mentally put together the same
string of events
In some case it may still benefit the learner

For example, folding paper into shapes or how to

tie a tie

What we still dont know

When is animation more effective than a static

graphic?
How the long term learning is affected
Cost vs. benefits of illustrated technical content
Are simple line drawings just as effective as
elaborate illustrations?

Article #1- Non-depicted text recall

Multimedia presentations typically produce

better memory and understanding than do

single-medium presentations.
Considered the effect of multimedia on memory
for the non multimedia material presented
Specifically, non-depicted text in a large text
compare memory for target text information
that was either depicted in diagrams or not.

 Study consisted of 180 students

Diagrams not found to affect memory of the entire

text
Diagrams did, however, increase recall for the

information that was depicted in them

A general effect was noticed when

diagrams were aimed at overall

understanding of the text

Discussion Question

Remember to look at the context of the image

Article #2-Processes Prompted by

Graphics in Text
Specifically looking at the comprehension

process that accompanies visual learning

Difference between irrelevant connections and

connections to prior knowledge.

A few violations of principles we learned

Questions?
Thank you!