Mayer’s multimedia learning principles have taught me how to make increasingly effective and engaging online learning materials for diverse learning needs.  The principles, and aligning theories, provide a set of guidelines to decrease students cognitive load and increase their motivation to learn. Below, I offer a previously created media object from earlier in the term -a screencast tutorial on Google Jamboard – and re-evaluate the video as I integrate new components that adhere to multimedia theory, to assist in learners knowledge integration and retention.

My original screencast tutorial:

Edit – *There are 4 main stages to the water cycle*

What went right with my first tutorial?

My original tutorial:

  • aligns with dual coding theory – it requires simultaneous use of both visual and audio-processing channels, which increases retention for my viewers
  • aligns with Mayer’s segmenting principle – viewers are able to control the pace of the tutorial – they can pause and rewind as required, which will assist in managing their intrinsic load and integrating new information into their working memory

My updated screencast tutorial:

What did I change, and why?

With the help of YouTube studio, I was able to make the following additions:

  • Video description:
    • Adding descriptions to my tutorial follows the pre-training and signaling principle by providing an overview and highlighting the key information and its organization. With the added description, learners won’t have to use cognitive resources to find essential material or to discern what’s most important about the video. Not only did I add a brief overview of what the video was about, but I also added timestamps to inform what was being taught at certain points throughout the video. I also included a call for viewer comments to clarify misunderstandings or questions they may have and a link to my WordPress blog on screencasting for further information.
  • Captioning:
    • This was my first experience with adding captioning to a video and was impressed with the auto captioning feature on YouTube, although I did have to go back in manually to clean up minor errors. This process sure made me realize that I say ‘so’ a lot in my tutorial! I am glad I now have experience with adding captioning to my media objects and will continue to utilize this feature to ensure an accessible experience for all of my viewers/students.

What I chose NOT to upgrade and why:

    • Embed headers, key words, etc. :
      • The redundancy principle states that humans learn best with narration and graphics, not narration, graphics AND text. For this reason, I chose not to embed headers and key words to not distract or overwhelm the viewer.
    • Add music:
      • I considered adding music but that would have been extraneous and distracting – which does not align with the coherence principle.
    • The video narration:
      • I made many errors in the form of “umm’s” and “so’s” so I considered re-voicing my entire tutorial but I decided that I like the personalization and  conversational language from the original.

Mayer’s Principles retrieved from: https://ctl.wiley.com/principles-of-multimedia-learning/