Distinguished Lectures in Humanities: Evidence-Based Principles for Designing Effective Multimedia Instruction

Abstract
This presentation examines 12 research-based principles for how to design multimedia learning environments that promote student engagement and meaningful learning.  The presentation shows how the principles for effective multimedia learning are grounded in the science of learning (i.e., how people learn), the science of instruction (i.e., how to help people learn), and the science assessment (i.e., how to determine what people have learned).  The multimedia learning principles apply to a broad variety of venues including online learning, face-to-face learning in classrooms, learning with books, and learning in virtual reality, and cover an array of media formats including paper-based lessons, slideshow presentations, narrated animations, tutoring systems, instructional video, animated pedagogical agents, and computer games and simulations. 

About the speaker
Prof Mayer’s research interests are in applying the science of learning to education, with a focus on how to help people learn in ways so they can transfer what they have learned to new situations. His research is at the intersection of cognition, instruction, and technology, with current projects on multimedia learning, computer-supported learning, computer games for learning, learning in immersive virtual reality, learning with animated pedagogical agents, and instructional video. He is the winner of the E. L. Thorndike Award for career achievement in educational psychology, the Scribner Award for outstanding research in learning and instruction, etc. He was ranked #1 as the most productive educational psychologist in the world by Contemporary Educational Psychology, ranked #1 as the most cited educational psychologist by Google Scholar, and ranked in the upper 0.01% of scientists in the world based on total citations by PLoS Biology. He is the author of more than 600 publications including 40 books.

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