Substantive Post #1 – Theories of Multimedia Learning
In reviewing the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning the principles of coherence and signaling seem most intuitive. If a slide is cluttered with extraneous materials and the presenter fails to highlight essential material then our working memory will not have the capacity to learn effectively. What surprised me was the Redundancy principle. I assumed people would learn best from graphics, narration, and text being presented at the same time as it will accommodate verbal and non-verbal learning. I did not realize that this creates cognitive overload and people actually learn best with graphics and narration or graphics and text.
Allan Paivo’s Dual Coding Theory proposes our brains process language and verbal information in one area and images in another. This allows us to process both types of information at the same time. This theory resonates best with my learning style as I notice during long presentations or study sessions I have to switch between listening and watching in order to stretch my attention span and retain more information. When I am studying I fluctuate between reading text and watching videos to understand new concepts or to commit information to memory. I’ve been unknowingly managing my intrinsic cognitive load with modality by utilizing visual and audio input.
In designing my project, I plan on employing principles from multiple theories to address Intrinsic load, extraneous load, and germane load. This enables me to present new and complex topics to an audience of university students. I want to make an interesting and engaging project that stimulates both non-verbal and verbal processing, but am cognizant of the fact that a scattered and poorly designed project will not achieve this.
To manage intrinsic load, I will use segmenting to break up a complex topic into chunks. Slowly building upon a topic through the use of overlays and color coordination are design options that facilitate better learning. Rather than presenting the audience with all of the information at once, pretraining can be used to introduce new terminology at the start of a presentation.
To manage extraneous load, I will only include essential text that is relevant to the topic. This keeps the information coherent and signals key information. I will resist the urge to add graphics, narration, and text at the same time as this creates redundancy. Pictures will be next to the text they refer to and labels will be attached to graphs in order to maintain contiguity.
Managing the intrinsic and extraneous load gives the learner more room for germane load. This is the where the brain integrates new information into long term memory. As this is a highly individual process, dependant on the learner’s background and experience, the best way to accommodate germane load is to reduce the extraneous and intrinsic cognitive loads.