Incorporating learner experience into the design of multimedia instruction

In Experiment 1, inexperienced trade apprentices were presented with one of four alternative instructional designs: a diagram with visual text, a diag ram with auditory text, a diagram with both visual and auditory text, or th e diagram only An auditory presentation of text proved superior to a visual -only presentation but not when the text was presented in both auditory and visual forms. The diagram-only format was the least intelligible to inexpe rienced learners. When participants became more experienced in the domain a fter two specifically designed training sessions, the advantage of a visual diagram-auditory text format disappeared. In Experiment 2, the diagram-onl y group was compared with the audio-text group after an additional training session. The results were the reverse of those of Experiment I: The diagra m-only group outperformed the audio-text group. Suggestions are made for mu ltimedia instruction that takes learner experience into consideration.