Multimedia Learning
Principles
The science of combining words, images, and media to create learning that sticks.
What You'll Learn
The Multimedia
Principle
People learn better from words and pictures together than from words alone.
Words + Pictures
= Deeper Learning
When you present both verbal and visual information, learners build two mental representations and form connections between them. This dual coding leads to significantly better understanding and recall than either channel alone.
Reducing
The Noise
Coherence and Redundancy — why less is almost always more.
Placement
& Pacing
Contiguity and Segmenting — where you put things and how you pace them matters.
Place Text Near Its Graphic
When text and its corresponding image are separated — say, a caption at the bottom and a diagram at the top — learners waste mental effort mapping them together. Place labels directly on or beside the visual they describe.
Break Complex Content
Into Learner-Paced Chunks
Don't present a 20-minute unbroken explanation. Break it into segments the learner controls. Pause points, "continue" buttons, and chunked modules let working memory process before loading more.
Why Segmenting Works
Working memory needs time to encode information into long-term storage. Self-paced segments give learners control over that process. Research shows segmented presentations produce 50% better transfer performance than continuous ones.
How to Segment Effectively
Design for
How People Learn
