How can you reduce cognitive load when using multimedia in the classroom?

Extraneous load is a common issue in slides and visual presentations, so it's important to prioritize simplifying slides and ensuring that every element serves a clear and meaningful purpose. When creating slides, try implementing common design principles such as visual hierarchy, visual consistency, and low text density.

Reducing cognitive load when using multimedia in the classroom is crucial for effective learning. To achieve this we need to consider these actionable steps grounded in cognitive load theory: Simplify Content: Apply Mayer's Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning by presenting information in a concise and coherent manner. Avoid overloading students with excessive visuals, text, or animations. Chunk Information: Break down content into smaller, digestible chunks. This aligns with Miller's theory of chunking, making it easier for students to process and remember information. The key thing here is simplicity is beautiful!

To reduce the cognitive load of using multimedia in the classroom you must consider how the brain processes new information. The multimedia should be focused with a clear purpose. Use video with captions and visuals for the ideas and concepts that everyone needs to hear multiple times. Time is 6-8 minutes where the students are interacting with the content. For example, stop and jot at 2 minutes any thoughts, words, phrases that come to mind. Any connections. Making it social can assist in differentiating and processing time. When implementing a blended learning model this is the first step. Taking the “I do” portion of a gradual release lesson and providing it via interactive multimedia.

Can the background music after the first few seconds of your explainer video. Yes, people might initially find it more "whizzy", but the content of your video will be more memorable without it. What do you want people to recall: that video had great music, or, that video was about...

There are many ways to do that. And everything starts by knowing your audience and students: First, choose multimedia that is relevant and appropriate for the learning task. Use it sparingly. Only when it can add value to the learning experience. Break down multimedia presentations into smaller, more manageable chunks. Use it to support active learning. To engage students in active learning activities. Specially when using multimedia in a different language, use captions and transcripts for audio and video content. Always highlight key points. Provide multiple perspectives. So it can help students to develop a more well-rounded understanding of the material. Finally, evaluate the effectiveness of your multimedia use

The signaling principle says if you can INDICATE WHAT'S MOST IMPORTANT you make the important things MORE MEMORABLE. (See what I did there?) A great example of this is a well-designed textbook. As opposed to a novel, where all the text in a chapter is one size and format, a good textbook is full of call-outs, highlights, icons, emphasized text, subtitles, and other methods that bring attention to important material. Bottom line: if the learner can spend less mental energy on figuring out what's most important, they can spend more mental energy learning it.

This definition is incorrect. It's not about using "a single format." It's about avoiding redundant information input through different channels of cognition. Mayer's redundancy principle actually states that humans learn best when narrated information is accompanied by graphics, not by graphics plus written text of your narration. This means you shouldn't display a paragraph of text and read that paragraph to the students. Listening to narration, while trying to read the same text, causes overload. I think of this principle as guiding us to REINFORCEMENT rather than redundancy. Images should reinforce the narration. Adding a word or two (i.e. bullet points) can help reinforce too. Just don't duplicate your narration as written text.

The redundancy principle underestimates diverse learning styles. Learners process information uniquely – visual learners thrive on diagrams, auditory learners on lectures, and textual learners on reading. Offering multiple content formats caters to these varied preferences, enhancing inclusivity in education. Contrary to causing cognitive overload, this approach provides options for learners to choose what suits them best. Additionally, different formats can reinforce learning; a concept unclear in text might become comprehensible when presented visually. This multi-modal approach is not redundant but rather a means to ensure accessibility and effectiveness in learning, respecting and accommodating the unique ways people are wired to learn.

Think of this one as reducing abstraction. If you place text near related images, the cognitive load of connecting the text with the images is reduced. If the text is further from the images, the learner has to work harder to connect them and working memory load increases. An example of this is a map memorization assignment. Think about which of these would be more easily memorized: Option 1: label the map locations with letters (just A, B, etc), and connect the letters and their place names in a column on the right (A: New York, B: New Jersey, etc.) Option 2: put the places names next to their locations on the map. There's a reason maps are drawn like option 2. Lower abstraction = better learning.

Another way of thinking about this is start with a blank scene, or a scene with an initial state, and then progressively build to the end picture. I often do this for processes, where the end picture is an infographic that people can download, keep and share.

The temporal contiguity principle says we should synchronize spoken words with their visual illustrations. (This is a little more specific than the definition provided here – it's about synchronizing words and their corresponding images, not just any "related multimedia elements".) When you build a slide presentation, use animations rather than showing a whole slide at once. Don't show a block of bullet points and then talk through each one; reveal bullets as you speak to them. Don't show a complex illustration and explain it a piece at a time; reveal each piece as you explain it. This takes more work but ends up creating a far more memorable presentation.

The Modality Principle is especially beneficial for learners with learning difficulties. It uses auditory narration rather than visual text, aligning with cognitive theories that separate auditory and visual processing. For those with visual processing challenges, combining text and graphics can be overwhelming. By shifting verbal content to audio, their visual channel focuses just on graphical information, reducing overload. This dual engagement of auditory and visual channels aids in better understanding and retention. Auditory explanations coupled with visual elements make learning more accessible and effective for learners with difficulties, enhancing their overall educational experience.

I love that accessibility is mentioned in this definition. This is one of the principles that just doesn't account for accessibility needs. For a fully abled learner, yes: spoken rather than written explanation is likely to result in better retention. Therefore, following the modality principle, we'd show diagrams and speak their explanations. For someone who has difficulty processing spoken words, or has hearing issues, or just prefers to read rather than listen, providing only spoken words would be limiting. In a presentation, speaking an explanation and following that with time to read the text silently on another slide could help. Closed captioning can help. Alt text can help. Find ways to support more than fully abled learners.

Before you even start to bring multimedia or Immersive experiences into the classroom the key consider is purpose. If the media does not move the student forward in their understanding than it is nothing more than window dressing. The brain is designed to learn experientially and immersive media holds so much potential to create magic and contextualised story telling opportunities. Choose it wisely to accelerate the learning experience in the classroom and engage with it to enable students to develop creative capabilities in their learning pathway.

To reduce cognitive load while using multimedia in the classroom: 1.Simplify content. 2.Use visuals judiciously. 3.Limit text. 4.Provide clear narration. 5.Incorporate interactive elements. 6.Maintain design consistency. 7.Organize information effectively. Implementing these strategies optimizes the learning experience, ensuring students can process multimedia content efficiently and deepen their understanding.

The principles in this article come from the great work of Richard E Mayer. If you design multimedia, e-learning, or work in learning then I strongly recommend you read his book, Multimedia Learning. However, I caution that very few of the experiments these principles are founded on have been tested either with adults, or in real-world work scenarios. Use them as guidance, but sometime your learners will benefit from you breaking the rules.

Two thoughts about Mayer's 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning: combine them, and grain-of-salt them. First, these principles are far more powerful when combined. Remove extraneous text (coherence + redundancy), place text close to related images (spatial contiguity + signaling), illustrate with images rather than just words (multimedia), etc. The more you combine these principles, the better the learning. Second, Mayer's principles were published in 2002. Since then we've come a long way in our understanding of accessibility needs. Some of Mayer's principles should be modified in that light (e.g. closed captioning works against redundancy, but is necessary for people who can't hear or process spoken words as successfully as written).