Mayer’s Principles for Multimedia Design

Multimedia refers to anything that combines words with images. For example, a video, or a PowerPoint slide deck. Multimedia has been shown in research to benefit learning in comparison to words/text alone, but it takes more time and effort to create well. Professor Richard Mayer has put a lot of time and effort into conducting research into the properties of multimedia that enable learning, and into compiling his and others’ research into a list of Principles that can be treated as best practices when creating educational multimedia.

Below are resources about Mayer’s Principles and about the effective design of multimedia, especially video, for learning. These resources have all been designed to be easily applied to your own work when creating multimedia, whether you are a novice or an expert at multimedia creation.

Mayer’s Principles Checklist [PDF – 303KB ]

Virtual workshop on Making Your Video Effective for Learning

A <1hr recording of a synchronous virtual workshop addressing ways of making educational video effective, centered on but not limited to Mayer’s Principles for Multimedia Design