Education is constantly evolving with the incorporation of learning technologies; not only are learners adapting to the use of synchronous and asynchronous online learning, but they are also learning to use various learning methods and design content to increase their learning effectiveness. The instructors are constantly seeking ways to increase student engagement, and this is mainly acquired by use of multimedia content where there is a combination of text, graphics, video, animation, and narration. Despite that the instructors want to make the learning environment more learner-friendly, there are also concerned with ensuring that the learning goals and objectives are achieved. With this in mind, the instructors and instructional designer are tasked with understanding the different learners’ cultural backgrounds, educational backgrounds and, expected learning needs. Understanding the different learner (multigenerational learner) backgrounds would research generational differences and multigenerational learner needs.
By understanding the multigenerational learner needs, one can determine which multimedia principle needs to apply when designing multimedia content. The multimedia principles theory was learned during the course and, they are greatly summarized by Mandernach (2009):
Multimedia principle
Relevant, instructional graphics to supplement written text should be incorporated to improve learning through the dual coding of verbal and visual information.
Contiguity principle
Place graphics and text close together so that limited working memory is reserved for learning content rather than coordinating various visual components.
Modality principle
Include audio to explain graphics as audio enhances learning more than text by expanding cognitive resources to simultaneously tap both visual and phonetic memory.
Redundancy principle
Supplement graphics with audio alone rather than audio and redundant text to reduce cognitive overload.
Coherence principle
Avoid using visuals, text, and sounds that are not essential to instruction as unnecessary information impedes learning by interfering with the integration of information.
Personalization principle
Use a conversational tone and/or a personalized learning agent to enhance learning via social conventions to listen and respond meaningfully. (p. 1494)
The multimedia principles theory guides the instructor in identifying the appropriate media for each content and guides the instructor or instructional designer in building content. Each principle may be uniquely used for different learning content. For example, the modality principle may be used in explaining medical terminologies and complex graphics. The application of each principle should be with the view of reducing cognitive load and increasing long-term memory.
Effective application of multimedia principles and learning theories can help create a transmedia learning environment whereby the story (instructional content) can readily flow from the beginning to the end. The instructor could use different media to explain each section of the course content and explain how a previous section interrelates to a proceeding section. For example, a recorded lecture could be used to introduce the course and explain the instructor. The definition of terms could be explained using the congruity principle whereby graphics and text are placed together, and the terms are highlighted and interrelated to context throughout the learning material. A character may be designed to guide the students throughout the course and offer guidance on resources, navigation from the beginning to the end of the course and remind the learner of their learning progress when they access the course. The character would also applaud the learner on successes made in completing assignments.
Figure 1: Transmedia in Education (Pratten, 2016)
Presentations can be turned into stories to enable learners to understand and remember them. Learning games can also be effective transmedia if various features are applied; coaching, self-explanation, pretraining, modality and personalization features (Clark and Mayer, 2016). The learning games at the end of each module in a course to provide a summary of each content. Each learning game can be correlated to each module to tells a story of what the learner has learned in the course content. Effective implementation of the modality principle that calls for presenting words in spoken form and pre-training principle where learners are given pre-game activities will also increase the transmedia efficiency in learning. Overall, learning games can help increase various cognitive skills (Clark and Mayer, 2016); 1) perceptual attention, 2) mental rotation, 3) executive function, 4) spatial visualization and, 5) reasoning.
There is no one size fits all when using multimedia. The most effective way to reach out to all learners is by being first a subject expert in the course content that one will design multimedia tools, secondly understanding the theories of multimedia, understanding the learning platform that different multimedia tools would be incorporated and understanding the ethical policies in use multimedia in learning and teaching. This will enable the instructor or designer to identify appropriate media and use it while still complying with the ethical guidelines provided by a learning institution.
The theory and design of interactive multimedia systems class (LTEC 6210) has been very engaging, and it has given more insight into the importance of the multimedia theory. The course content has given knowledge on the origin of multimedia and how it can be designed and used effectively for effective learning and teaching. The knowledge acquired will be designed in designing multimedia courses for online learning to increase student learning engagement.
References
Clark, R. C. & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-Learning and the science of instruction: proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Pratten, R. (2016). Connected Museums and Connected learning. Retrieved on December 7, 2020 from https://blog.conducttr.com/connected-museums-and-connected-learning
Mandernach, B. J. (2009). Effect of instructor-personalized multimedia in the online classroom. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(3)
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