Send a Signal: Point out the Essential Information

The Signaling Principle

In recent Making Minutes Matter posts, we started exploring 12 principles to help us design effective multimedia learning resources. First, we looked at Navigating Cognitive Overload. Next, we explored how to Keep it Simple using one of Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning: the Coherence Principle.

Introducing the Signaling Principle

Now, let’s explore another of the Principles of Multimedia Learning: the Signaling Principle. The idea is to highlight and signal important information in multimedia resources, as shown in the following video explanation. Learners can process information better if cues help them identify and organize the essential information.

Signaling in Action…

Here are a few ways you can use the Signaling Principle.

1. Emphasis: Highlight important text using a different color or bold font to help learners identify and remember critical information.
   

2. Cues: Add arrows or circles to help learners notice the essential elements of the page or presentation.
   

3. Structure: Use headings and subheadings to help learners understand the organization of the page and identify the essential information.

   

   An example of the Signaling Principle (headings, subheadings, and emphasized text). From the JoltEDU micro-course: Simple Strategies to Engage Your Learners in Reading, Writing, and Collaborating by author, Jennifer Herncane.

4. Transitions: Using transitional phrases or animations to signal the organization of the presentation can help learners understand how the different parts of the presentation are connected.

   

   An example of the Signaling Principle (explicit transition statement) from the JoltEDU micro-course: Building Student Resilience Through Positive Connections by author, Dr. Megan Horsh

5. Reiteration: Including information in different forms, such as text and images, to help learners identify and remember important information.

   

   An example of the Signaling Principle (redundancy via text and video footage) from the JoltEDU micro-course: Capping the Highlighter: Go Digital with Web Annotations by author, Hannah Hauser

So, consider how you can use the Signaling Principle to highlight important information in your multimedia content. With a few simple actions, help your learners better process and retain the information presented to them.

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