Multimedia learning

Definitions & Key takeaways

Multimedia learning is an educational approach that uses multimedia tools such as audio, video, animation, and text to create interactive learning experiences for students. It allows students to explore complex topics from different angles, giving them a deeper understanding of the subject. It also allows them to interact with the material, engaging their senses in the process. Examples of multimedia learning tools include online tutorials, virtual field trips, simulations, and interactive games.

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We’ve all been there. You’re sitting in lecture with a professor who’s reading PowerPoint slides densely packed with text, and you’re scrambling to take everything in.
You leave wondering if you’ll remember anything. Maybe you even thought about how the information could have been presented better.
Well, it turns out that there’s a whole body of research on multimedia learning, and it applies not only to slideshow presentations but to any media format, including books, audio, and video presentations.
Most people process information based on what they hear and see. So, if you’re attending a lecture where a professor’s talking directly about what’s on screen, that information goes into your sensory memory, where it remains for half a second or less.
It stays for such short period of time because there’s such a massive amount of sensory information around you that it’s only possible to focus your attention on a fraction of it.
For example, you probably know that the fan in your fridge or freezer is on, but you usually don’t notice it when you’re cooking.
Now, if you focus on specific sensory information, it enters your working memory, where it sticks around for a little longer—about thirty seconds.
Working memory ignores useless background noise, like filler words, or things you already know, taking in only the most relevant details.
Comparing these details with things you’ve already learned solidifies that newfound knowledge, organizing and storing it so it’s easier to recall.
So, the next time someone asks you what you’re thinking about, they’re asking you what’s in your working memory at that moment.
Your long-term memory is where information is stored after you’ve processed it, and it remains there until it deteriorates slowly over time.
With this model of learning in mind, you can use a variety of strategies to optimize how you learn using instructional media.
We’re going to focus on a typical lecture presentation, but the ideas can be applied to various media formats. To make this concrete, let’s start out by fixing this PowerPoint slide.
OK, our first big task is to get rid of all that extra information and organize the material in a logical way. To start, let’s remove anything that doesn’t directly relate to the main point.
That means getting rid of unnecessary text and images. Okay, the text is about gas exchange in the lungs, so let's find an image that shows a good close up of that.
Ah, that's better. Now, let's trim down the words so that they're just outlining the individual steps.
Let's also double check that we have parallelism, meaning that all of the phrases are written in the same way. That makes it easier to understand each step of oxygen’s journey into the blood, which in turn gives us a better sense of the overall process.
When there are multiple colors on a screen, it can be distracting. It’s best to make the words in a single color, and only change the color for specific things you want to emphasize.
Occasionally, you may need to use arrows or boxes, but that can also be distracting, so it’s okay to use them sparingly or to simply bold or highlight key words.
This may seem picky, but good communication leads to good learning. In this example, we can actually get rid of all the text and just show it visually.
You can also see we’ve visually enhanced the presenter’s narration without just repeating what they’re saying. Ideally, you want to minimize the amount of on-screen text by narrating the information, leaving just visual images, along with a few key words and ideas on screen.
We’ve also arranged the on-screen text so that it appears within or next to the appropriate image. This tells the learner how these words relate to the image.
It’s also helpful to make sure that the visual information is presented alongside the audio information so that a person can see an image at the same time you start explaining what it represents.
If you’re handy with a pencil, you can even make your own images! Remember, you don’t have to be an artist to have good images in your slides.
There are lots of great images licensed under public domain or Creative Commons licenses. Don’t forget that some videos are also licensed under Creative Commons, and you can use images from those videos in your presentations.
OK, so our next big task is to avoid overloading students with too much information too quickly. This is especially challenging with complicated topics.
A good way to start is by dividing up complicated material into short, bite-sized concepts. It’s helpful to allow learners to focus on part of a concept before revealing the larger picture.
With slideshows, one way to simplify a complicated process is to spread it over several slides and use headings to help orient the student.
Let’s break this slide down. Let’s take this slide on glomerular filtration and divide it up, focusing one slide on each part of the Bowman’s capsule.
Doing things this way, you’re focusing on foundational concepts before launching into more complicated ones—in other words, starting with the small stuff, and working up to the bigger picture.
For example, you can define new terms upfront before using them in the context of a more complicated discussion. In this case, we can zoom in on the squamous epithelium first, and then zoom out to show where you’ll find that layer of cells within Bowman’s capsule.
You can also use multimedia; for example, showing a short video, or having learners work with a physical model to prime their minds for a more complicated topic.
In addition to content, it’s important to think about presentation style to boost engagement and motivation. When you’re talking to an audience, be friendly and conversational rather than formal and stiff.
Written language tends to be more formal than speech. You don’t usually write a paper using the same phrases and sentence structure you use when speaking, so don’t speak the way you write.
For example, you can use first- and second-person language like “I”, “me”, “you”, “we”, and “our”. You can also make sentences shorter and more to-the-point, as well as using words or phrases used regularly in speech, such as the words “like” or “so” at the beginning of a sentence.
Body language helps, too. Rather than standing stiffly with your eyes glued to your presentation, it’s helpful to make eye contact with your audience, show various facial expressions like smiling or laughing, and use hand gestures to emphasize key points.
Drawing illustrations in front of learners while you’re talking is a great way to foster engagement, too, as it’s more visually stimulating than just showing pre-drawn images.
Oh, and a final tip: if you’re making a video to post online, don’t have a computer speak for you. The human voice can be very engaging, so try to sound like yourself and let your personality come through, rather than sounding like a robot.
All right, as a quick recap: most learners have two primary senses, auditory and visual, that play a dominant role in how we take in new information.
To optimize multimedia learning, you can remove extraneous information, break complex ideas down into smaller chunks, and speak in a casual and friendly way.