Myths of Educational Multimedia User Interface Design Larry Najjar

Educational Multimedia Use of text, graphics, sound, photographs, and video to help people learn

Outline Larry presents myth. You decide whether myth generally true or false. Larry describes what research suggests. At end, we summarize scores.

Myth 1 “People generally remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, [and] 50% of what they hear and see...” (Treichler, 1967, p. 15).

Myth 1 False. Although widely used, this quote is completely unsupported.

Myth 2 People prefer multimedia user interfaces.

Myth 2 Generally true.

Myth 3 People learn better from traditional classroom lectures than from computer- based multimedia tutorials.

Myth 3 Generally false. People can learn better and faster with computer-based multimedia tutorials.

Myth 4 The medium used to communicate the information affects learning.

Myth 4 Generally true. Some media better than others for learning specific info. –pictures for spatial info –auditory narration for short info for short time –text for longer verbal info for longer time

Myth 5 Multimedia improves learning better than “monomedia.”

Myth 5 Generally true. Redundant verbal and pictorial multimedia (e.g., text with picture) generally more effective than text alone or picture alone. Redundant verbal multimedia (e.g., text with audio narration) generally not more effective than text alone or audio narration alone

Myth 6 Due to novelty and learner stimulation, learning improves when there are many different media in the educational application.

Myth 6 Generally false. Media improve learning only when used in highly-related, supportive way. –unrelated illustrations do not improve learning; related illustrations do

Myth 7 Interactive user interfaces improve learning.

Myth 7 Generally true. But interactivity must encourage learner to process the info.

Myth 8 Humor helps people to learn.

Myth 8 Generally false. Humor can distract learners.

Myth 9 Providing external rewards improves learning.

Myth 9 Generally false. External motivation does not improve learning, but internal motivation does.

Myth 10 Multimedia helps all learners to learn.

Myth 10 Generally false. Multimedia most effective for naive learners and learners with lower aptitude.

Myth 11 For recognition, text is better than pictures.

Myth 11 Generally false. Picture recognition is much better than text recognition.

Myth 12 The kind of info (e.g., verbal, pictorial) required to complete a test should match the kind of info used to present the original info.

Myth 12 Generally true. Due to transfer-appropriate processing, people do better on verbal tests when they study verbal info.

Conclusion Multimedia can help people to learn -- sometimes.

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