Coordinating Visual and Auditory Cueing in Multimedia Learning

Providing single-modality cueing (either visual cueing or auditory cueing) in multimedia lessons does not consistently improve learning outcomes. In 3 eye-tracking experiments, some students learned an onscreen lesson with an oral explanation of graphics and then took a posttest on the material (no cues group). Across all 3 experiments, students spent more time attending to the relevant portion of the graphic and performed better on posttests if coordinated cues were added to the lesson (coordinated dual cues group), in which key elements were spoken with deeper intonation (auditory cue) at the same time the element turned red in the graphic (visual cue). Presenting coordinated visual and auditory cues also resulted in better posttest performance than presenting only a visual cue (visual-only cues group) or auditory cue alone (auditory-only cues group) in Experiment 1, or presenting visual and auditory cues that were unmatched (mismatched dual cues group) in Experiment 2 or unsynchronized (visual-before-auditory cues group and visual-after-auditory cues group) in Experiment 3. These findings extend and sharpen the signaling principle concerning how best to highlight instructional material in multimedia learning, using coordinated auditory and visual cues. Educational Impact and Implications Statement When students receive an onscreen lesson with an oral explanation of graphics, they may not know where to look on the screen. In 3 experiments, students spent more time attending to the relevant portion of the graphic and performed better on posttests if coordinated cues were added in which key elements were spoken with deeper intonation (auditory cue) at the same time the element turned red in the graphic (visual cue). Presenting coordinated visual and auditory cues also resulted in better performance than presenting only a visual cue or auditory cue alone or presenting the two cues in unmatched or unsynchronized ways. Students benefit from coordinated visual and auditory cues when learning from an online lecture with narrated graphics.