1 - Multimedia Principle

Brief Definition

According to Clark and Mayer (2011), the Multimedia Principle is the use of both words and graphics rather than just words. However, in order to be effective, it’s important that the quality, placement, and type of graphic match the instructional purpose. It’s interesting that research has shown that displaying a series of still shots is no less effective in increasing learning than animated graphics.

An Artifact

The screenshot below, found in Photoshopsupport.com’s tutorial, “How to Remove Red Eye,” is an attempt to explain exactly that: a series of steps to correct a photo where the lighting caused a set of eyes to appear solid red. However, there are two issues in this transformational series of graphics that render it less than useful for the novice Photoshop user. First, the placement of the text is confusing. There is nothing that indicates which set of text belongs to which picture. For example, there is an opening paragraph at the top that leads me to believe they are going to refer to the photo directly under the photo. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The text describing the photo is under the photo causing the user to scroll back up to connect the reference in the text to the photo, There is nothing visually connecting each set of text to each photo, so this process continues to be confusing throughout the article. And then, there is the instructional information itself. The first direction is to “Make a channel adjustment mixer layer…” The photo shows the Channel Mixer window, however, this novice user could not see in this tutorial how to open the same window. So, while such step by step instructions are generally very useful in instruction, it is important to cover every step.

References

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.