Multimedia Instructional Design Principles: Moving from Theoretical Rationale to Practical Applications

Since the introduction of cognitive theory of multimedia learning more than a decade back much empirical evidence has substantiated the theoretical rationale of multimedia instructional design principles. Medical educators use multimedia mostly for delivering lectures in the form of power-point presentations. Abundant literature is available giving instructions on the appropriate use of font type and size etc. to be used in power-point slides, but the literature applying multimedia instructional design principles for preparing effective presentations leading to active and meaningful learning is scanty. This paper deals with theoretical aspects of multimedia instructional design principles and the ways of effectively incorporating these principles for designing meaningful power-point presentations.