This textbook examines the scientific underpinnings of multimedia learning and is well-suited to graduate and undergraduate courses in psychology, education, computer science, communication, instructional design, and game design. It lays out a cognitive theory of multimedia instruction and principles for designing effective multimedia messages.

Advances in computer graphic technologies have inspired new efforts to understand the potential of multimedia instruction as a means of promoting human learning. In Multimedia Learning, Third Edition, Richard E. Mayer takes an evidence-based approach to improving education using well-designed multimedia instruction. He reviews 15 principles of multimedia instructional design that are based on more than 200 experimental research studies and grounded in a cognitive theory of how people learn from words and graphics. The result is the latest instalment of what Mayer calls the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, a theory introduced in previous editions of Multimedia Learning and in The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning, Second Edition. This edition provides an up-to-date and systematic summary of research studies on multimedia learning, supplemented with complementary evidence from around the globe. It is well-suited to graduate and undergraduate courses in psychology, education, computer science, communication, instructional design, and game design.