Topic outline

  • UniSA Standards of Media Literacy for Education

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    • The standards set out in this section are the expectations for staff for creating media resources for education.  Staff should be able to critically evaluate their own media with a student lens, and identify where media resources are of a high quality and where improvements need to be made, across each of the categories below. 


      Cognitive Load Theory, first introduced by John Sweller in 1988, states that our working memory, that which we use to process information and move it into long-term memory, has a limited capacity.  As such, instructional methods should avoid overloading working memory with activities that don’t contribute directly to learning.  The UniSA Standards of Media Literacy for Education outlines the actions that UniSA staff should be able to identify and avoid when creating and reviewing media.  This includes media available on third-party services, such as YouTube.


    • Audio Quality

      Before uploading or linking any multimedia on a learnonline site, the audio quality should be checked for clarity and to ensure that sensory issues are avoided.  Staff should also adhere to the following Multimedia Principles of Learning (Mayer, 2009):

        1. Coherence Principle: People learn better when extraneous words, pictures and sounds are excluded rather than included.
      10.   Personalisation Principle: People learn better from multimedia lessons when words are in conversational style rather than formal style.
       11. Voice Principle: People learn better when the narration in multimedia lessons is spoken in a friendly human voice rather than a machine voice.


      Standard 1 (Audio Quality): Staff should be able to objectively review their multimedia resource and answer the following:

      • Would a student be able to clearly understand what is being said without straining or having to rewind due to poor audio quality? 
      • Is the audio free from harsh/sharp background/foreground noises that may cause students discomfort and/or fatigue (especially those with sensory issues) or otherwise make it difficult to understand what’s being said?
      • Is the audio free from loud plosives that may cause students discomfort (especially those with sensory issues) or otherwise make it difficult to understand what’s being said?
      • Is the recording volume loud enough that students won’t have to set their devices to a very high volume to be able to hear it properly? 


    • Video Quality

      Video quality is equally important as audio quality, and the Setting Up Your Recording Space topic outlines how to create the ideal set up for recording videos.  This supports the following Multimedia Principle of Learning:

      9. Multimedia Principle: People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.


      Once you have completed the Setting Up Your Recording Space topic and have set up your own space, record a short video and watch back to ensure the visuals are of a high quality.


      Standard 2 (Video Quality): Staff should be able to objectively review their multimedia resource and answer the following:

      • Is your screen recording at a high enough resolution that students can clearly read/see on-screen text and images? If it is not, please contact the TIU Multimedia Team for help.
      • Is your screen recording at a high enough framerate (fps of at least 15, ideally 25) so that mouse movements and slide animations etc. display smoothly?
      • If you are planning to be on camera:
        • Is your webcam framed so that your head and shoulders are visible? Are you roughly centred in the frame? Are your eyes framed at roughly 2/3 from the bottom of the frame? See this example. 
        • Is your webcam height set roughly at your eye-level (i.e., no very low/high angle shots)?
        • Is your face adequately lit so that students can see you clearly?

    • Presentation Slides

      The Slides for Engaging Learners topic in this module provides an in-depth guide on how to create engaging slides for your learners; based on the Multimedia Principles of Learning: 

      2. Signalling Principle: People learn better when cues that highlight the organisation of the essential material are added.

      3. Redundancy Principle: People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration and on-screen text.

      4. Spatial Contiguity Principle: People learn better when corresponding words and picture are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen.

      5. Temporal Contiguity Principle: People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively.

      8.   Modality Principle: People learn better from graphics and narrations than from animation and on-screen text.


      This may require a significant re-think of your presentation slides, and we highly recommend you complete the Slides for Engaging Learners topic to help with this.


      Standard 3 (Presentation Slides): Staff should be able to objectively review their multimedia resource and answer the following:

      • Is it clear where students should be looking in the slide as you speak to different text/images (i.e., making use of signalling)?
      • Are headers/subtitles being used effectively to help students organise the information in the slides?
      • Have graphics/images been included where appropriate?


    • Information Processing

      Humans learn actively by selecting, organising, processing and integrating information to make sense of it, and the amount of information that can be processed at one time is limited.  George Armitage Miller (1956) first put forth the idea of information processing theory.  Miller found that our short-term memory can only hold 5-9 pieces of information (seven plus or minus two), and coined the concept “chunking” (which you may have heard of, sometimes referred to as segmenting).  A chunk is any meaningful unit of information.  Chunks will be different based on your discipline and course.  Information Processing Theory goes hand-in-hand with Cognitive Load Theory, and how the brain process information from short-term to long-term memory.

      The Multimedia Principles of Learning outline the concept of chunking/segmenting:

      6. Segmenting Principle: People learn better from a multimedia lesson when it is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit.

      7. Pre-training principle: People learn better from a multimedia lesson when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts.


      Concepts and definitions should therefore be made available to students prior to your multimedia resource.  This could be through text on the learnonline site, readings, or through learning activities.


      Standard 4 (Information Processing): Staff should be able to objectively review their multimedia resource and answer the following:

      • Are the videos split by topic and of a reasonable length?
      • Have key terms in the video been introduced prior to students watching the video?


      Before committing to a full set of recordings, you should record one resource and review to check the quality.  You may also like to share the recording with a colleague for their feedback, or ask the TIU Multimedia Team.


    • The Standards

      Download a summary of the standards, and keep this on your desktop or print a copy to keep near your recording space to follow when reviewing your multimedia resource.


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