Some training video / animation / simulation I watched earlier tonight reminded me of Mayer's Cognitive Multimedia Learning Principles that I had learned in summer 2009. Specifically, the Modality Principle.
The training video I watched has both audio and visual elements. It has a narrator reading the on-screen texts that convey some learning information. For sure the narrator speaks English and the on-screen texts are written in English as well. The whole thing of this, based on Modality Principle, seems contradictory to what the principle entails.
Yet I found it useful to me, an English as a second language learner. If it is merely on-screen texts and narration of some kind of general ideas, I would have been feeling frustrated and confusing, as the audio and visual inputs are somewhat different, and surely I guess I'll need more attention to decode and comprehend both inputs.
I think the principles are simply guidelines and could be applied to general situations. However, as learning contexts and learners vary, the degree of the utilization of the principles may differ, some may even need to undergo transformations of various levels.
I guess we also talked about this concern and some exceptions in that class. It's more than inspiring and rewarding when I truly feel some reflections occur and connect to what I had learned before.
Here I would like to draw some bold conclusion for the Modality Principle. If the instructional designer is asked to take into account the majority's comprehension level, to have both on-screen texts and have them read completely by the narrator probably is the safest way to cover the majority's needs. No wonder to identify who your target learners are is one of the most important things for instructional designers when they start their ADDIE process.
