A Study On Effect Of Help Format On Learning Performance In Multimedia Instruction Interface

Multimedia instruction interface designed well is very important for improving learners' performance. In multimedia learning environments, learning materials usually have multiple representations. Interaction of multiple representations easily lead to higher cognitive load and lower performance. At this time, suitable help may help learner create referential connections between multiple representations, construct a coherent mental representation and improve learners' achievements. This study intends to provide some ergonomics guidelines for interface design through research on giving suitable help in multimedia instruction .In this study , two experiments were conducted . The first one was a research of form of help in multimedia instruction interface design. The second was a research of presentation format of help in multimedia instruction interface design.The main findings of this study are as follows:1. directive help is effective for recall performance, non-directive help is effective for comprehension performance.2. Learners with different levels of prior knowledge show different reactions when help is given. Learners with a medium level of prior knowledge and with high levels of prior knowledge have more supportive from directive help and non-directive help than learners with low level of prior knowledge.3. When present study material in visual modality , the learning performance trend was: The learners' performance was best , when help in auditory modality presentation, second was visual modality presentation, the last one was visual-auditory presentation.4. Preseatation of help information had different influence on different learning performance.. Different presentation of directive help differ significantly in recall performance ; different presentation of non-directive help differ significantly in comprehension performance.