Table of Contents

The Pocket Guide to Multimedia Design Thinking (*as It Pertains to Your Job Here)

Jason Carroll Updated by Jason Carroll

Overview

Here are our guiding principles for requesting graphics, illustrations, artistic enhancements, motion graphics, and the like: we can do so when needed to enhance the student learning or help clarify faculty teaching, not for decoration. These guidelines are meant to help IDs in your conversations with faculty about visual enhancements to their courses and to help you think through different considerations about what serves the student best. They will also help other teams in CSG, QA, product, ITG, as you’re thinking about design choices, how to serve learners, and what our overarching principles are.

eCornell’s multimedia guidelines in a nutshell

  • We can add motion graphics, illustrations, art, and photos only when they enhance learning retention and meaning.
  • Images can’t just amplify what’s already been said/written, but must enhance meaning.
  • We don’t illustrate everything being said.
  • We don’t add embellishment (pictures/visuals) for the sake of adding them.
  • Some videos may not need motion graphics at all. (Good! Cornell faculty should be the focus.)
  • Add motion graphics to examples only when they can enhance the learning or make the concept more clear to students. Use discretion.
    •  If examples are engaging on their own, students will conjure their own imagery. Don’t assume that examples should be animated: when you listen to a story without watching the animation, it fires up more parts of your brain to engage vs. just watching it; your brain will fill in the blanks.
    • Remember the more complex the animation, the greater the cognitive load it requires to process/remember.

Background: Mayer’s Principles of Multimedia Design

Mayer’s Principles of Multimedia Design are generally accepted best practices for online learning design. Mayer codified his research as 12 principles. For our purposes, we left out a few that have less relevance for our work at eCornell. To further your exploration, check out more about Mayer’s Principles of Multimedia Design, which are widely published, often discussed, and frequently used as the basis for design decisions and judgment calls.

The Coherence Principle:

“People learn better when extraneous material is excluded rather than included.”

How do we use this at eCornell?

  • We leave out irrelevant information
  • We leave out text on screen when it’s different from what’s being said in video
  • We leave out unnecessary graphics and illustrations
  • We monitor scope creep - be vigorous in limiting images, motion graphics, concepts to what the defined audience needs to retain, not interesting additions
  • We think carefully about what’s critical for the learner and what’s extraneous
  • We limit videos to under 4 minutes 
  • We put Key Points on Read pages
  • We make sure any stories/examples serve objectives (as opposed to being just tangents)
  • We leave out graphics that distract 
  • We leave out visual metaphors that need additional interpretation
  • We advocate for making sure motion graphics and illustrations actually aid learning retention
  • We improve visual quality by redoing faculty handwriting
    • Most handwriting, but especially bad handwriting, makes the learner work harder to comprehend; it hinders learning retention

The Multimedia Principle

“Words and pictures can help people learn better, as opposed to words alone.”

How do we use this at eCornell?

  • Create original illustrations
  • Add graphics to video, whether static or motion graphics
  • Use stock photos sourced from Getty or Shutterstock (Note: the ID can find images, but CSG has the licenses for our accounts to download/incur the costs)
  • Use charts, graphs, scatterplots, etc
  • Create video demos

Notes on the Multimedia Principle, that “People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone”: 

  • This is true particularly in STEM content and technical training.
  • Research shows more than 85% improvement in test performance when learners studied text + graphics as compared to studying text alone
  • The key here: graphics added to text can improve learning. Graphics don't automatically improve learning.
  • Be careful: if we add gratuitous or irrelevant graphics to text, those will actually detract from learning and retention.
    • Studies show that not showing images while telling a story can also help retention because the audience creates their own mental imagery.
      • Any images shown must also be described clearly in words. (In other words, you can’t privilege the sighted learner over the nonsighted learner by only providing the teaching through visual imagery.)
      • In general, any text shown on screen should match what is being said
        • If a quote is shown on screen, make sure the text is exactly the same as what is said verbally, or it introduces confusion and makes learning more difficult.
  • Consider soft skills courses or any that include abstract concepts (examples: leadership; psychological safety; radical candor) that can’t be drawn. Here, any art has to rely on visual metaphors. Those force the learners to simultaneously listen to the video, interpret the visual imagery, and relate the image back to the concept being discussed, and do so fast. We’re asking them to jump through a lot of mental hoops. And if the learner is not fluent in English, that’s an added layer of interpretation. Think carefully about complex visual metaphors and whether they’re helping learning retention.

The Redundancy Principle

“People learn better from graphics and narration than some graphics, narration, AND  printed text.”

How do we use this at eCornell?

  • We think very carefully about using redundant text onscreen.  (Never might be a valid choice.)

Notes: 

Combining graphics + audio + redundant text onscreen can hinder learning. Key here: redundant text. 

  • Experiencing audio, graphics, and redundant written text all simultaneously will force students to pay attention to too many elements at once. 
  • It requires a person to mentally coordinate different formats in real time
  • It can harm learning retention because it overloads the student's working memory.
  • Redundancy can create or reinforce a narrow image of concepts for students
  • Sometimes, redundant imagery can prevent students from understanding a topic to its fullest extent. They develop a narrow understanding.
  • Depending on the situation, redundant imagery can also accidentally reinforce stereotypes 

However, this is a tricky one: depending on the audience, you might choose redundant text. Adding redundant text might be valid when:

  • The audio is difficult to understand (poor quality audio or a speaker who doesn’t enunciate clearly)
  • The target audience is brand-new to the material, not native speakers of the language, or otherwise deemed to be in need of redundant text
  • The pace of the presentation is slow, and there’s plenty of time for the learner to absorb redundant text visually
  • What’s being said is technical and complex, such as a mathematical formula, and it will help the student to see it written.
If things like lists are being used in a video, put the text on the canvas page just below the video so that learners can be reminded and reflect on it before moving on, rather than in the video as a bulleted list onscreen. (which is redundant)

The Spatial Contiguity Principle

Students learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near each other rather than far from each other on the page or screen.

How do we use this at eCornell?

  • We keep words and images together.
  • In terms of a book, the designer would make sure the image falls on the same physical page as its definition. In terms of an online course, the student shouldn’t have to click back and forth to reference an image that continues to be significant. Include the image wherever the student needs it. If you have a model that the student needs to see in module 2, and it was shown previously in module 1, consider whether you need to show it again.

Notes:

  • When text and visuals are both included, but they're placed apart from one another, the learner needs to expend extra cognitive resources to integrate the two. 
  • Keeping words and pictures adjacent allow learners to hold both in working memory and retain the information better.
Non-example: printed furniture assembly instructions with text on one side of the paper and the picture on the other side.

The Segmenting Principle

People learn better when a multimedia message is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit.

  • Students learn better when the material is presented in learner-controlled segments rather than as one long continuous unit. 
  • Students learn better if you break down large segments into smaller, bite-sized segments (aka “chunking”)
  • Students will retain information better if they can pause and move at their own pace 

How do we use this at eCornell?

  • We chunk content into smaller segments
  • We break complex concepts into their key parts (example: one long video discussing four different concepts should be four shorter videos)
  • In asynchronous: we design courses that preserve the student’s ability to pace themselves as much as possible

The Pre-Training Principle

People learn better when they are given upfront the names and characteristics of the main concepts.

How do we use this at eCornell?

  • We break down complex information into its essential parts.
  • We define key concepts, names, behaviors, and terms first so that the student does not experience cognitive overload
    • Example: as a driver, you would intuitively know that you should take the time to identify a new car’s features & functions before trying to drive it in traffic

The Signaling Principle

People learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential material are added.

Notes:  

  • Students retain information better when you provide cues that highlight the organization of the essential material 
  • Give learning cues or learning signals that point out the key concepts 
  • “Setting up the shelves in the brain” - without the shelves, they just have a pile of information.

How do we use this at eCornell?

  • Our Read pages include key points
  • We provide the syllabus ahead of time before they encounter the material where they need it.
  • We name the asset with the key concept the expert is covering/defining.
  • We build collaboration with illustrator ahead of time (graphics and even indenting consistently for organization and retention)
  • We present a clear hierarchy of ideas in Canvas.

How did we do?

eCornell Mini Visual Style Guide

Creative Services (CSG) Handbook

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