Abstract
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s experimental research played a major role in audio-visual research and development (Reiser, 1987, 2002). Experiments were published on the effects of slide-tape presentations, educational television, programmed learning, teaching machines, and audio-tutorial instruction. During the 1970s and 1980s, the experimental focus shifted from audio-visual research to instructional technology research on whole programs, such as PLATO, CAL, microworlds and Internet Hunts. It seems that today we have returned to the experimental investigations of audio-visual communication. Over the years, experimental evidence of audio-visual communication has become the basis of current models and theories, including: Baddaley’s (1992) model of working memory, Paivio’s (1986) dual coding theory, Penney’s (1989)separate streams hypothesis, Chandler and Sweller’s (1991) split-attention theory, Mayer and Moreno’s (1998) dual processing theory of working memory, Mayer’s (1997) theory of multimedia learning, and Mann’s Structured Sound Function (SSF) Model (Mann, 1992, 1995a, 1997a), and others. This chapter will discuss these models as a platform for conducting experimental research of online teaching and learning.