Good Design + Cognitive Learning Theory

One of my goals in studying elearning instructional design was to get beyond the what we do in elearning to the why we do it...how is good design informed by cognitive and learning theories?

One theory I keep coming back to time and time again while I look at and review elearning courses out in the wild is the Cognitive Theory of Multi-Media Learning developed by Richard Mayer.

Basically this theory says that there are different "channels" where we process different types of media, and that we need to take care when designing elearning to not overload any given channel.

Our ears process audio input, and our eyes process visual input, both printed words and pictures/graphics. While we are learning there are some cognitive processes running in the background: we are selecting what to process, we are organizing the information, and ultimately integrating it with our prior knowledge.

If we for example, offer too much in the way of visuals (maybe printed words + an animated graphic) we can disrupt cognitive processing, or at least slow it down leading to less than optimum learning.

Learning about this theory and beginning to understand its implications has been key to my progress in evaluating good elearning design. Many times I'll come across a course where at first glance I'm taken in by well done graphics, or all the bells and whistles that have been included. But then, stepping back and applying this theory, I can see where a course might not lead to the best learning outcomes.

There is a great breakdown of this theory at: https://www.learning-theories.org/doku.php?id=learning_theories:cognitive_theory_of_multimedia_learning