First blog

Mayer and Moreno (2003) define multimedia learning as ‘learning from words and pictures’, and also go further to define multimedia instruction as ‘presenting words and pictures that are intended to foster learning’ ( Mayer & Moreno, 2003, para. 1). The text concentrates on issues raised when there is too much multimedia and learning based material situated in one location- better known as cognitive load.

Mayer and Moreno (2003) focus on nine ways to reduce cognitive load. The nine ways are as listed:

1. Offloading- offloading needs to occur when a multimedia site has too much important information occurring on the same page. A way to reduce this is the use of narrated animation. To do this we need to get rid of any unnecessary information or data which may make the learning content look more attractive although distracts the learning process.
2. Segmenting- this occurs when both channels are overloaded with important information. The solution to this problem is o put the important information into different subdivisions, where learners can chose to either see images or documents of their choice.
3. Weeding and Signaling- Weeding is essentially only keeping the need to know information and getting rid of any information that is not necessary but there for show, reducing the information that is not essential to the learner
4. Aligning- This is a simple task where the producer of the multimedia would basically put the relevant information beside the corresponding image.
5. Synchronizing and Individualizing: the resolution as Mayer and Moreno (2003) puts it is ‘synchronize the presentation of corresponding visual and auditory material’. (Mayer and Moreno, 2003, p. 8).
6. Pretraining: This is quiet a practical element as it requires the developer or producer to teach those who are going to be using it on how to use the training system.
7. Signaling: when it is not possible to remove the unwanted information the facilitator can create cues on how to select and organize material
8. Individualization- this is basically finding out whether individuals can keep representations in their memory. High spatial learners can learn better with simulations and hold images better than low spatial learners.
9. Eliminating redundancy: this is when narration is supported for multimedia presentations as oppose to both narration and on screen text.

 Mayer, R.E. & Moreno, R. 2003, Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning in Educational Psychologist, 38 (1), pp43-52.