Multimedia Learning

Citation

Mayer, R. E. (2020). Multimedia Learning (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Chapter Summary

The third edition has twenty chapters in five parts. The publisher describes it as an evidence-based account of multimedia instruction: it reviews 15 principles of instructional design drawn from more than 200 experimental studies, grounded in a cognitive theory of how people learn from words and graphics (which Mayer calls the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning), and it adds evidence from studies around the world to earlier editions. After the opening background chapters, every chapter is named for a single design principle, which gives the book a regular, reference-like structure.

Part I, Chapters 1–4: The Promise of Multimedia Learning; The Science of Learning: Determining How Multimedia Works; The Science of Instruction: Determining What Works in Multimedia Learning; The Science of Assessment: Determining What Is Learned

The first part introduces multimedia learning and the three scientific questions that frame the rest of the book: how learning works, what instruction works, and how to determine what has been learned. These chapters supply the theory and the research methods against which the later experimental findings are read.

Chapter 5: Multimedia Principle

The first design principle follows immediately and stands alone at the end of Part I, as the basic case for combining words and pictures that the other principles then refine.

Part II, Chapters 6–10: Principles for Reducing Extraneous Processing in Multimedia Learning

Five chapters, the Coherence, Signaling, Redundancy, Spatial Contiguity and Temporal Contiguity principles, are grouped under the aim of reducing extraneous processing, that is, mental effort that does not serve the learning goal.

Part III, Chapters 11–13: Principles for Managing Essential Processing in Multimedia Learning

The Segmenting, Pre-training and Modality principles concern managing the processing that the material itself demands.

Part IV, Chapters 14–19: Principles for Fostering Generative Processing in Multimedia Learning

The Personalization, Voice, Image, Embodiment, Immersion and Generative Activity principles address how to encourage learners to make sense of the material.

Part V, Chapter 20: Principles of Multimedia Design

The concluding chapter draws the principles together.

Key Concepts

Part I: Foundations

• Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning: Mayer's account of how people learn from words and graphics, which the experimental principles are meant to test.
• Science of learning, instruction and assessment: the three lenses of Chapters 2–4 on how multimedia works, what works, and what is learned.

Parts II–IV: Three kinds of processing

• Extraneous processing: mental effort that does not contribute to the learning goal; Part II presents five principles for reducing it.
• Essential processing: processing demanded by the material itself; Part III presents three principles for managing it.
• Generative processing: the learner's effort to make sense of the material; Part IV presents six principles for fostering it.
• Design principles: fifteen named, experimentally supported guidelines, from the Multimedia principle in Chapter 5 to the Generative Activity principle in Chapter 19.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A consistent organizing scheme. The three-way division into extraneous, essential and generative processing gives the fifteen principles a rationale rather than leaving them as a checklist, and the part titles state which kind of processing each group addresses.
• Evidence base stated up front. The publisher cites more than 200 experimental studies behind the principles, and the book is presented as a systematic summary of that research, supplemented by studies from around the world.
• Regular structure. With one principle per chapter, a reader looking for a particular guideline, for example segmenting or modality, can go directly to its chapter.
• Broad stated audience. The publisher describes it as suitable for graduate and undergraduate courses in psychology, education, computer science, communication, instructional design and game design.

Limitations

• Experimental-psychology perspective. The book is organized around a cognitive theory and experimental evidence. Readers interested in the social, political or institutional questions surrounding educational technology will need other course texts for those.
• Principle-by-principle format. Because nearly every chapter is built around one principle, the reader must supply the work of combining them when designing real materials; only the final chapter is devoted to bringing them together.
• Depth for practitioners. Readers who want ready-made design checklists for e-learning will find a research review rather than a how-to manual; a practitioner-oriented companion exists for that purpose.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the educational technology course, Mayer's book is the research foundation for designing instruction with words and pictures. Clark and Mayer's e-Learning and the Science of Instruction draws on the same research but is a practitioner-oriented guide with evidence-based guidelines for graphics, text, audio, examples and practice, so it is the better starting point for designers, and Multimedia Learning is the better next step for anyone who wants the theory and experiments behind those guidelines.

The other course mates approach technology from different angles. Selwyn's Education and Technology is a short critical introduction to the social, political and commercial questions around digital technology. Hughes and Roblyer's Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching is a textbook for teacher-preparation courses, and Bates's Teaching in a Digital Age is an open textbook on designing teaching when technology is part of every learning environment. Sawyer's Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences is a research handbook across the wider field. Mayer is the narrowest and most experimental of these, and it pairs well with Selwyn as a counterweight.

How to Use This Book

The book suits graduate students and researchers in educational technology and the learning sciences, and instructional designers who want the evidence behind design guidelines. An introductory course in instructional design or educational technology and some familiarity with experimental research are the sensible preparation.

A practical plan:

• Core: Part I (Chapters 1–4) for the theory and the way evidence is gathered, then Chapter 5 and the principles that relate to the material you design.
• By need: read Part II when materials feel cluttered or overloaded, Part III when content is complex, and Part IV when the aim is deeper engagement.
• Closing: Chapter 20 as a synthesis before applying the principles together.

Alongside the reading, redesign one short lesson or slide sequence and note which principle you apply and why, then compare your reasoning with the chapter. This turns the principles from a list into a working method.