Effects of prior knowledge on multimedia learning: Does expertise reverse and how to manage it?

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of studies of the effects of learner prior knowledge on multimedia learning and describes new approaches to building learner-adapted multimedia environments based on those findings. On many occasions, multimedia formats that are effective for low-knowledge learners appear to be ineffective, or even deleterious, for high-knowledge learners (the expertise reversal effect). A possible explanation of the effect takes into account a working memory overload during the integration of instructional information with available knowledge base in long-term memory. The major implication is the need to tailor dynamically the design of multimedia environments to changing levels of learner expertise using appropriate online methods of cognitive diagnosis.