The focus of this week’s eSeminar was on application of the Contiguity Principle of Multimedia eLearning Design and Development. We spent more of our time this week examining application of the principle and a bit less on theory. I suspect that trend will continue as we continue the many part series designed to help put together the best eLearning modules.
The Contiguity principle in a nutshell suggests that people learn better when words (either as printed text or spoken words) are presented at the same time as images which support those ideas, definitions or concepts. I’ve included a link to the downloadable version of the slides (this one includes my speaking notes) and have given the usual embedded version below for your convenience.
During the session I used a Captivate movie to demonstrate many of the core concepts. That movie is embedded below so you can tinker and see how it works. You can also download the source code for this demo here.
Finally, I made a quick YouTube Demo (link coming soon) of another example of the Contiguity Principle in action. In this case in the form of automatically generated feedback captions for each answer in a question with multiple answers. It’s I suspect a very little known feature in Captivate that is incredibly useful for teaching as you give responses to quiz questions.
To see this effect, create a Multiple Choice Question, then select any single answer. Check the Property Inspector (not the question properties) and you’ll find something just for you – Advanced Question Properties. There you can set the specific feedback for each individual answer.
Below are the URL’s to the Multimedia session I did last week, along with links to the others in the series, also included are those which are coming in the next couple of months.
Available Now On Demand:
Part 1:Making Effective Adobe Captivate eLearning Modules
LINK: http://bit.ly/aPCSxb
Part 2: Making Effective Adobe Captivate eLearning Modules: Balancing cognitive load in eLearning content with Adobe Captivate 5
LINK: http://bit.ly/boLHVX
Part 3: Making Effective Adobe Captivate eLearning Modules: Applying Personalization to eLearning with Adobe Captivate 5
LINK: http://bit.ly/bkj7dP
Part 4:Making Effective Adobe Captivate eLearning Modules: The Multimedia Principle
LINK: http://bit.ly/aCHm2e
Part 5:Making Effective Adobe Captivate eLearning Modules: The Contiguity Principle
LINK: http://bit.ly/gvbcLP
Upcoming:
December 15 – Making Effective Adobe Captivate eLearning Modules Part 6: Redundancy
http://bit.ly/d9Cei2
Dr. Allen Partridge, Adobe eLearning Evangelist, will present a one hour online eSeminar for users of Adobe Captivate and / or Adobe eLearning Suite. The session focuses on the Multimedia eLearning Design Principle known as Redundancy, which suggests that presenting symbols via both text and aural channels is less effective than presenting via only one. Examples will focus on the use of Audio Editing & Text in Adobe Captivate 5.
January 5 – Making Effective Adobe Captivate eLearning Modules Part 7: Coherence
http://bit.ly/drzYi4
This one hour session hosted by Dr. Allen Partridge, Adobe eLearning Evangelist, will focus on creating effective eLearning content. The session focuses on the Multimedia eLearning Design Principle known as Coherence, which suggests that off topic ancillary material can distract from learning. This theory stands in opposition to arousal theory, providing research based evidence that when stimulating animation or any form of non-relevant information is provided, it can actually decrease the efficacy of the instruction. Examples will focus on the use of Templates, Master Slides & Object Styles in Adobe Captivate 5.
January 12 – Making Effective Adobe Captivate eLearning Modules Part 8: Segmenting
http://bit.ly/dudvJs
Dr. Allen Partridge, Adobe eLearning Evangelist, will present a one hour online eSeminar for users of Adobe Captivate and / or Adobe eLearning Suite. The session focuses on the Multimedia eLearning Design Principle known as the Segmenting Principle, which suggests that authors of eLearning content should break content up into small pieces or chunks in order to help avoid cognitive overload for the learners. Examples will focus on the use of Slide Paradigm, Object Styles & PPT Import in Adobe Captivate 5.
January 19 – Making Effective Adobe Captivate eLearning Modules Part 9: Pre-training
http://bit.ly/dj0uHG
This one hour session hosted by Dr. Allen Partridge, Adobe eLearning Evangelist, will focus on creating effective eLearning content. The session focuses on the Multimedia eLearning Design Principle known as pre-training, which suggests that elearning content authors should first build up basic information about essential elements which are pre-requisites to understanding the larger concepts. Examples will focus on the use of Quizzes, the Quiz Results Analyzer and the Table of Contents in Adobe Captivate 5.
February 2 – Making Effective Adobe Captivate eLearning Modules Part 10: Individual Differences
http://bit.ly/bvrOO6
Dr. Allen Partridge, Adobe eLearning Evangelist, will present a one hour online eSeminar for users of Adobe Captivate and / or Adobe eLearning Suite. The session focuses on the Multimedia eLearning Design Principle known as the Individual Differences Principle, which suggests that design effects are stronger for low-knowledge learners than for high knowledge learners, and for high-spatial learners rather than for low-spatial learners. Examples will focus on the use of Advanced Actions, ADA/508 Compliance, Closed Captions, Localization, Video Closed Caption, Branching and User Variables in Adobe Captivate 5.
Want to do more reading? Here’s a brief list of recommended supplemental reading:
Clark & Mayer (2007.) eLearning: and the Science of Instruction http://amzn.to/chkPuw (Links to Amazon – but this book is pretty widely available.)
A short but clear overview of the history of learning theory.
Mo, Sure – thanks for pointing to the broken links. I’ve updated the archives to ensure that the sessions are online. Here’s the best link to the archived library for this series. https://elearning.adobe.com/2011/11/the-principles-of-elearning-cognitive-theory-of-multimedia-design.html
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