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E-learning is nothing without graphics. Because just text on the screen is boring, and if you only use sound or voice-overs, you might as well make a podcast. After all, an e-learning module only becomes beautiful when it has more to offer than text. Images accompanying a text are remembered better than reading text alone. Besides, a well-known saying goes that "a picture says more than a thousand words. But how do you select good images? How do you know that your image actually supports the learning?
Therefore, first consider why you want to use an image and what the image should represent. After all, an image is a means and not an end in itself. You can use images to organize topics, to present content or to clarify relationships or to represent an environment. Also consider what the content of the image should represent. Is it facts, concepts, processes, procedures or a principle you want to explain? You use an image in e-learning really purposefully: to organize knowledge or show relationships between topics. To explain something or show how something changes.
If it is just a decorative image, then you can just pick something nice that relates to the subject. However, if an image has one of the other functions, then you have to be more careful which image you choose or what kind of image you create. After all, students cannot ask questions about an image, so the image must be unambiguous and cannot be explained in different ways. So choose carefully whether you need a picture, graph, infographic, a symbol or diagram.
Two well-known scientists in the field, Clark and Mayer , have defined design principles for e-learning. Two principles are important for the use of graphics: the multimedia principle and the proximity principle.
MultimediaThe multimedia principle says that you should use both words and images to better convey the content. Text and images reinforce each other. So no superfluous images, but images that contribute to the learning content. Good images support the explanation and help to understand, process and remember the material.
Proximity principleThe proximity principle says that you put text close to the image and if you use audio, you synchronize it with the image. Everyone has experienced it: a graphic whose legend is on the next page so you have to keep looking for what something means. So make sure the explanatory text or explanation is close to the graphic so the learner can see it at a glance.
The hardest part is resisting the temptation to haphazardly add images that don't say much. The e-learning module may look pretty, but whether the learner actually learns from them is questionable. Good images take time and effort, but they do lead to better e-learning. So invest time in finding and creating good images. It is the beginning of creating beautiful and good e-learning.
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