Week 2

Research- Based Principles for Designing Multimedia Instruction

In this paper we will discuss the importance of understanding how learners of a language learn and how by applying multimedia instructional design principles as teachers we can improve each teaching session when providing students with a well-designed class material that fits and suits the students ‘learning needs.

First we will examine the Core Assumptions  of Multimedia instructional designBased on the science of learning, we will examine principles that are based on how people learn from words and graphics and how can they use it when communicating.

Paivio´s Category: Dual Channel Assumption: Processing of visual and verbal materials into information and data. It is processed by 2 separate channels.

Baddeley´s Category: Limited Capacity Assumption; People can process only a limited amount of material in a channel at any one time

Wittrock´s and Mayer´s category: Active Processing Assumption: Meaningful learning takes place when learners are exposed to relevant material and content and have practice opportunities to organize the material and information into a coherent structure, and relate and integrate with other relevant prior knowledge.

Often we discuss the reasons why the information and data received through the different channels is not stored effectively. Once the information it is received through our senses, the information needs to be stored so that it can be accessed and used and adapted according to the use or context. There are different ways in which the brain and the cognitive process stores information.

Types of Memory Storage:

Sensory Memory: Holds incoming visual and verbal material and data.

Working Memory: allows for mentally manipulating a small amount of incoming visual and verbal material, while accessing already stored information, making connections and relations that are relevant for the activity or purpose simultaneously.

Long-Term Memory: Is the learner´s permanent storehouse of knowledge.

Cognitive Processing: 

Selecting: Transfers some of the incoming images and sounds to working memory for additional processing.

Organizing: Which organizes the images into a pictorial model and the words into a verbal model in working memory.

Integrating; which connects the models with each other and with relevant knowledge activated from long-term memory.

Multimedia messages enter the cognitive system through the senses or receptors. The verbal channel processes spoken words and sounds while the visual channel processes graphics and printed words.

Equally important there are types of processing the information that has already been stored. During Multimedia instruction there are 3 processes that occur.

Extraneous Processing: Drains limited cognitive processing capacity without contributing to learning. Usually it is information that it is not contextualized within a given a context that is relevant for the target population. It is not related to instructional caused by poor instructional design. Students still need a lot of supervision and assessment during this process, the learner does not have a clear knowledge of concepts and structures and therefore it is unsure of what he knows.

Extraneous Processing difficulties processes in which it is required to use not only one piece of information but to join or put together ideas in a  coherentan organized way so that it is understandable. When having few information understood or just fractions of pieces of vocabulary that are isolated in our thinking and processing of data, we tend to repeat or reuse or recycle the same information without any variations which leads toredundancy.

When learning vocabulary we learn it in different codes, been these ones spoken words, written text and visual text. Sometimes the codes are not related one to the other and so 'spatial and temporal contiguity 'has to be developed by increasing exposure and practice opportunities. To work on this principle integrated skills exercises help develop mechanisms that allow users of a language to relate information received through different channels.

Usually users of alanguage need an extra multimedia help and resource which is the signaling principle, in which the presented information can be carefully introduced or practiced with the purpose of calling the learner´s attention by using different fonts, outlines, headings, highlighting such as underlining, pointers or key words to help categorize data like the use of ordinal numbers.

Furthermore the data included should be carefully selected so that unknown or unclear information can be excluded to avoid distractions.

Essential Processing: Selects relevant information and organizes it.After exposure the learner is able to recognize data and relate it to a specific context, then it is able to make selection of information that recognizes as relevant or appropriate and organizes it with similar information categorized into numerous sub-files.

Generative Processing: make sense of the material by reorganizing data into a new coherent structure and integrating it with relevant prior knowledge. Finally it is able to use the knowledge in different contexts, making variations and adaptations as needed or required by the situations or users of the language.