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28 - The Generative Activity Principle in Multimedia Learning

from Part VII - Principles Based on Generative Activity in Multimedia Learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2021

By
Logan Fiorella and
Richard E. Mayer
Edited by
Richard E. Mayer and
Logan Fiorella
Richard E. Mayer
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Logan Fiorella
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
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Summary

Generative learning involves actively making sense of the learning material by engaging in activities for organizing the material and integrating it with one’s existing knowledge. This chapter explores activities that support generative learning from multimedia lessons: verbalizing, visualizing, and enacting. Verbalizing activities involve generating words to distill key ideas (learning by summarizing) or make inferences to clarify the meaning of the material for oneself (learning by self-explaining) or for others (learning by teaching). Visualizing activities involve generating external visuospatial representations that depict physical structures (learning by drawing) or abstract relationships (learning by mapping), or internal mental images that depict the content of the lesson (learning by imagining). Enacting activities involve generating movements such as hand gestures (learning by gesturing) or object manipulations (learning by manipulating) to map abstract concepts onto meaningful actions.

Keywords

generative learning activitiesverbalizing activitiesvisualizing activitiesenacting activitiesgenerative activity principle

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The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning , pp. 339 - 350
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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