“DO STILL IMAGES AND VIDEOS IN POWERPOINT® INCREASE LEARNING?”

STILL IMAGES
Much has been written in the basic PowerPoint® references about the power of visuals in PowerPoint®. Pictures, graphs, charts, diagrams, and a variety of graphic designs can stimulate emotional reactions and increase attention and retention of content more than words alone (Markel, 2009; Mayer, 2009, in press; Lane & Wright, 2011). The stronger the images, the more powerful the slides, the more effective your presentation will be.

VIDEOS
Beyond these visuals and infographics are the uses of video clips embedded in PowerPoint® slides (Berk, 2009a) and streaming videos in the presentation (Eddy & Bracken, 2008; Miller, 2009). Since there are few guidelines for videos in the most popular PowerPoint® sources on the topic, this section addresses the value and impact of videos.

Cognitive and learning theories. Several theories of learning have examined the dual coding of verbal communication, including visual, auditory, or articulatory codes, and nonverbal communication, which may include shapes, sounds, kinesthetic actions, and emotions. The theories have been linked to multimedia and the research has tested a variety of applications.

Multimedia typically refers to the presentation of material in two forms: auditory/verbal and visual/pictorial (Mayer, 2009, in press). Strategies have included PowerPoint® (Gellevij, Ven Der Meij, De Jong, & Pieters, 2002; Mayer & Johnson, 2008) and games (Moreno & Mayer, 2004, 2005) in a variety of content areas.

Mayer’s (2009) cognitive theory of learning is activated through five steps: “(a) selecting relevant words for processing in verbal working memory, (b) selecting relevant images for processing in visual working memory, (c) organizing selected words into a verbal mental model, (d) organizing selected images into a visual mental model, and (e) integrating verbal and visual representations as well as prior knowledge” (p. 54). His theory represents an amalgam of Sweller’s (1999) cognitive load theory (Chandler & Sweller, 1991; Kirschner, Kester, & Corbalan, 2011), Baddeley’s (1999) working memory model, and Paivio’s (1986) dual-coding theory (Clark & Paivio, 1991).

WHAT’S NEXT? What does Mayer’s research indicate about the impact of videos on learning? The final conclusions will be presented.

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