Interested in following evidence-based guidelines to create better e-learning? Or, maybe you’re looking for ways to defend your point of view when you and your client or Subject Matter Expert (SME) don’t see eye-to-eye.
Either way, the guidelines in the book E-Learning and the Science of Instruction, coauthored by Richard Mayer and Ruth Clark, are just what you need. Mayer and Clark not only outline a set of commonsense ground rules for designing effective online training, they also lay out the research that went into developing them.
If Mayer’s and Clark’s tome, coming in at 400+ pages, seems daunting to you, we get it. That’s why we’ve summarized a few of their key messages and rounded them up for you:
- Redundancy Principle: Should You Duplicate Narrated Text On Screen?
- Multimedia Principle: Adding Graphics to Words Improves Learning
- Personalization Principle: Speaking to Instead of at Your Learners
- Contiguity Principle: Keep Graphics & Related Text Together
- Coherence Principle: Less Material for Better Learning
While there’s lots more in-depth information and some additional guidelines in their book, the above articles are a good place to start.
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