Evidence-based e-learning practices

One of the most common questions I hear from the designers I have worked with is: "What's the best way for me to use audio and visuals in my e-learning course?" This is the same question that has wracked the brains of academics and scientists, and there are several lines of research that provide answers.

Use relevant visuals

Dr. Richard Mayer has conducted research on the best ways to use media for learning for over thirty years at the University of California Santa Barbara. He has found that learning using words with a relevant graphic can lead to an average 89% increase in learning compared to using words alone (Clark & Mayer, 2007). Of course, any old graphic simply won't do. As pointed out by Clark (2004), graphics that are "decorative" in nature or provide enhanced elements beyond just the basic content itself tend to distract learners from the real content that they need to master. Instead, graphics should contribute to the learning by illustrating relationships between concepts, demonstrating a process, or in the case of software procedures, visually representing the actual screens a computer user will work with on the job.

Describe visuals with audio only

Once you have developed a relevant graphic to illustrate your content, the most obvious and tempting thing to do is to provide some written text to explain the graphic and provide more detail to the learner. However, Mayer has found that using visuals with audio narration by itself provides significantly better learning as compared to a visual with text or a visual with text and audio narration (Clark & Mayer, 2007). To learn more about these studies, refer to Dr. Ruth Clark's white paper on Leveraging multimedia for learning (PDF, 2.6MB).

Adjust your approach to the audience

Of course, these rules need to be bent on occasion. In particular, you should consider your audience's level of knowledge and the environmental factors that will affect your training implementation.

The evidence-based practices mentioned above are largely based on research with novices. These are individuals with little to no knowledge about a content domain and may struggle to simply learn the material. However, Kalyuga, Ayers, Chandler, and Sweller (2003) have found that the effectiveness of certain instructional design techniques depends on the level of learner expertise. In certain cases, approaches that increase learning for novices can negatively impact learning for experts. If you find yourself in a situation where you are delivering content via e-learning to very advanced learners, consider simplifying the complexity of the media in your course by reducing or eliminating audio and providing written text for these experts to skim and navigate through at their discretion.

In addition to research on learner expertise, you need to weigh more practical considerations when applying the guidelines. If your learners do not have computers with audio capabilities, your best alternative is to provide visuals with text. This is also true in the case of learners who do not have strong mastery of the language used in the e-learning course. If network bandwidth is a major issue, you should reconsider the quality and quantity of audio, animated visuals, full motion video, or other size-intensive media elements.

Making sense of the research

To help you to make the best decision on which instructional media elements to include in your e-learning course, you can use the instructional media decision matrix (see Figure 1). This diagram steps you through the various environmental questions you should consider and helps you come up with the best combination of visuals, text, and audio to maximize the effectiveness of your learning content while balancing practical considerations.

Figure 1. The instructional media decision matrix offers suggestions regarding the types of multimedia elements to provide.

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