Narration, images and cognitive load

Here is a helpful lesson explaining why it's better for learning to use audio narration to describe an image rather than audio narration of onscreen text. Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer's recently published book E-learning and the Science of Instruction outlines how, in multiple tests, learners retained more information when a visual was explained using audio narration versus text. This is a useful fact to keep in mind when knowledge retention is an important part of your digital instruction. Listen to the different examples explaining how a cell phone tower works and see which one helps you to remember the information the most. Thanks to Articulate's Tom Kuhlman for providing this example.