With the increase in access to technology in different educational settings, it is important to think about how we are leveraging technology and other tools to support the cognitive process of learning. In order to ensure that we are supporting our learners, when we use multimedia it is best to follow a simple rule: less is more.

First, let's review a few key concepts connected to the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia learning. We learn through two channels. One of our channels is our auditory channel. Processing of this kind happens when we take in information through our ears and move on to make connections to with our second channel.

The visual channel. This channel processes through our site. When we take in information through our auditory and visual channels, we begin to make connections that enable long term processing.

When we strain these channels with too much or unnecessary information, we risk cognitive overload of our leaners. Ultimately, this harms the learning process and instructional goals.

Luckily, there are some principles and guidelines we can follow to help ensure that we are using multimedia approaches in a way that only includes essential information for processing. We will talk more about each of these and how they can help us follow the less in more mantra.

According to the Multimedia Principle, people learn better when with words and relevant pictures than from just pictures. Presenting words and pictures together enables the learner to build connections which is more likely to lead to a stronger understanding of the material. It is important that you use visuals that support learning. Typically, there are six ways you could use graphics: decorative, representational, organizational, relational, and transformational.

You will support the learning process the most with graphics that are organizational, relational, and transformational. When we use these types of specific and relevant graphics, learners build deeper connections that support long term processing.

According to the Modality Principle, we should present words as audio narration as opposed to using on-screen text.

When we present words through audio narration, we create less strain for the learner by freeing up cognitive processing in the visual channel. Providing audio narration over graphics allows the learner to focus on the graphic through the visual channel and build connections with the auditory channel.

The Contiguity Principle states that we should align words to corresponding graphics. When using words to connect with graphics be sure to make sure they are integrated by including words with or next to the graphics. If you do not do this, you may create a temporal separation which adds to the cognitive demand of the learner.

Adhering to this, shows the learner that there is a connection and they do not have to waste cognitive processing figuring out where the connection is at. This leads to less waste of cognitive processing for the leaner since they do not have to guess at the connections between the words and graphics.

The Redundancy Principle guides us to explain visuals with words in audio or text but not both. For the most part, you do not want to use redundant text and speech. Adding text and speech is a prime example of including too much. This can create a cognitive overload in the processing channels.

However, there are a few exceptions. Adding redundant on-screen text may be appropriate when there are no graphics, the presentation is slow or self-paced, the narration includes unfamiliar and/or technical words, and if the added text is short.

The Coherence Principle employs us to eliminate material that does not support overall instructional goal.

We may be tempted to add in material to make a presentation more appealing or entertaining, but if the material does not support your instructional goal, the general rule is to leave extraneous words, graphics, and audio out of the presentation.

In fact, adding this unnecessary information could actually harm the learning process. Include less, but more essential information is what will lead you to your ultimate goal here.

The Segmenting Principle encourages us to break learning into smaller pieces.

Sometimes presentations require so much essential processing from learners that cognitive processing will experience an overload To support the learner, the material should be chunked out into manageable segments that allow the learner to process smaller amounts over time.

By providing learners with less information in smaller chunks, we allow them more time to activate deeper processing around the material.

There are a number of ways we can reflect on our instructional practices and materials to ensure that we best support our learners cognitive processing. Remember that less is more.

Trying to figure out how one would adhere to these all at once, can seem overwhelming. However, the goal is to follow as many as we possibly can, knowing that we may not meet all of them every single time.

There are also a couple of additional principles that may be useful when using multimedia for learning.