In this week’s blog, I will be examining a TED Talk video through the lens of multimedia learning principles and learning theories. An effective and educational presentation consists of techniques that aim to engage and grab the attention of your audience, rather than bore and overload their brains.

In this TED Talk on How animals and plants are evolving in cities by Menno Schilthuizen, the techniques that made this presentation successful include:

1. Multimedia Learning Principles

  • The Personalization Principle: the speaker talked in a casual and informal voice, like he was having a friendly conversation with the audience. It didn’t sound like the speaker was going on and on which made learning more engaging and manageable.
  • The Modality Principle: the speaker included slides with just 1 image to portray the topic and some slides also included short text. The rest of the information was being narrated.
  • The Coherence Principle: only included simple text and images on each slide that directly related to the main topic being presented. Slides weren’t too detailed or crammed with too many images.

2. Dual Coding Theory

  • Visual words and images are included so the audience can see and follow along
  • When the slide is a picture, spoken words are used to enhance learning
  • When words are presented, the speaker is not directly reading them off the slides

3. Cognitive Theory

  • Each slide only contains 1 idea
  • There is a mix of images, text and spoken words
  • The speaker paused shortly after every idea

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