Brain-based Multimedia: Activities

9 Principles to Reduce Cognitive Load

1. Multimedia - Use oral narration and graphics together.
2. Contiguity - Present corresponding words and pictures at the same time.
3. Modality – Present explanations or narration for animation in oral form.
4. Redundancy – Do not add redundant text to an animation with an oral narration.
5. Personalization – Present text in informal conversational style.
6. Coherence – Avoid extraneous text, graphics, audio, and video.
7. Pre-training – Teach the parts before the whole.
8. Signaling – Use cues to signal organization of oral or written narration.
9. Pacing – Allow the learner to have control over the pace of the presentation.

Keeping in mind the 9 principles listed above, consider the following websites (linked in column 1). What did the creators do that works, and what doesn't work?

(Let me know if you have/find other examples of language tutorials!  <johnshoy at umn dot edu>)

Website	Follows which principles?	Violates which principles?
Top Ten Tips Choose 1 or 2 of the tips to evaluate
Spanish Verb Demo
Show and Tell &   Let Me Try 1. Compare these 2 versions of the same tutorial. 2. What about the voice?
Parts of the Computer
La cocina learning new vocabulary
Kingdom of the Lion
Ojalá que llueva café
BBC - Learn Spanish