Image of elearning. Image by Mudassar Iqbal from Pixabay

I just finished a webinar on "Design Principles for Multimedia eLearning" with FlexLabs, one of my favorite sources of information and training. Emmett Cullinane was a great presenter! We learned the 12 principles for effective visual and audio learning design based on scientific evidence for how learning really works. One aha for me was that you have to design information to follow one or two pathways: audio and visual. A common mistake is to overload the visual pathway. For example, if the presentation is cluttered with visual info, or if we space out the visual information in a way the eye can't see the connection between two related pieces of information, it overtaxes our ability to process and assimilate new knowledge. Whereas if you discuss a topic using the audio of your voice and a picture or video that really illustrates what you are saying, people absorb that information much more easily. People also find it easier to learn when the writing is in a conversational style. Formal style is not the best when it comes to learning.