Educational psychologist Richard Mayer developed 12 principles for multimedia learning. These were developed with the goal of creating an engaging flipped classroom for students. Following these principles will maximize learning outcomes for students.
1. Multimedia
People learn better when there is a combination of words and visuals, rather than words alone.
Example: Slides with images and a voiceover reading the content.
2. Coherence
Learning is more effective when extraneous information and content is excluded, rather than included. Less is often more. Only include visuals that are most relevant.
Example: Try a simple visual.
3. Signalling
People learn better when there are cues that emphasize information that is more important. Use color, contrast, and cues to highlight what is being spoken about.
Example: Try highlighting bullet points as you go through them.
4. Redundancy
People learn better using on-screen graphics with voiceover. Graphics, voiceover, and on-screen text can be overwhelming for learners.
Try a simple slide with just visuals instead of a text-heavy slide
5. Spatial Contiguity
Learning is more effective when corresponding images and text are placed close together, rather than far apart. This establishes clear relationships between the material.
Example: Place text next to corresponding images.
6. Temporal Contiguity
People learn better when visual elements are on the screen at the same time as they are spoken about, rather than successively.
Example: Having the voiceover at the same time the animation is playing, rather than before or after the animation.
7. Segmenting
People learn better when the information is presented in user-paced segments, rather than in one continuous unit. This means breaking down longer lectures into shorter segments.
Example: Divide lessons into shorter segments.
8. Pre-Training
Learning is more effective when people know the main concepts and definitions ahead of time. This means starting with an overview of key lesson concepts, and supplying any necessary definitions before beginning.
Example: Use an introduction module to cover background information.
9. Modality
People learn better when there is voiceover with images or animation, instead of on-screen text with images or animation.
Example: If there is a voiceover narration, try having just the animation on screen:
10. Voice
People learn better when they hear information presented by a friendly human voice, rather than by a machine voice.
11. Personalization
Learning is more effective when teachers use a friendly, conversational style, rather than a formal style. If you're recording a video, you do not need to be more formal than usual. Having a natural, friendly tone is most effective. If there is text on screen for students to read, keep it in a simple style.
12. Image
People do not necessarily seem to learn better when the speaker is on-screen, rather than off-screen. Include the speaker when there is no text on-screen, or when you need to build trust with learners. Try having only the animation or images on screen instead of sentences of text.
Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia learning (2nd ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.