Planning Effective Multimedia Instruction

Abstract

Multimedia benefits students learning in many different ways. There are so many things that students can do and learn because of the variety of instructional media that is available for their use. The use of instructional multimedia increases an instructor’s ability to propose and execute teaching strategies that come with a multiplicity of learning styles. Therefore, there are a myriad of reasons why teachers use these resources both as a teaching tool and a teaching resource. Several strategies can be implemented so that teachers have opportunities to become skillful in attaining technological fluency. This chapter reviews the trends and issues of today’s multimedia education, and attempts to provide strategies and guidelines for planning multimedia instruction. The effective use of pedagogical design principles with appropriate multimedia can permit greater individualization, which in turn fosters improved learning, greater learner satisfaction, and higher retention rates.