Lionbridge Content Development

Online Learning Content - Find the Right Media Mix

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Today Wendy Farrell helps you to understand your audience so you can choose the right media mix for your online learning content...

Over the past few months I've spoken with a few clients who are trying to figure out the right media mix to use in their online content.  Do I use a photo or an illustration? Animation or video?  Do I need a graphic at all or will a written step list do the trick?  I did a little online research, and I was also lucky enough to have a couple of clients with whom we were able to do some informal research with their audiences.  

In most cases we'd show members of the target audience a couple of different presentations of the same content, and ask which was easier to understand, and faster to use.  So the data is anecdotal, but seems to coincide with more rigorous research findings.  Also, the groups I've been working with have focused mostly on technical content - installing, using, maintaining, and troubleshooting equipment such as mechanical and electronic equipment and consumer electronics. I'd be interested in seeing how these suggestions play out with "softer" types of content such as communication, management, etc.

So what did we find? Essentially there seem to be a few factors to consider when deciding what kind of media to use:

• Target audience level of expertise - Is the person viewing this content a novice, with little or no background with the content (or equipment/device, etc.) or are they an expert? Typically, the more expertise the user/learner has, the more comfortable they are with text. So less experience = more pictures.
• Content purpose - Is the user looking for information (facts or concepts) or are they trying to complete a task? Procedural information is better shown visually, while facts can be shown using text. Concepts could be shown either way, but graphics can usually help with understanding.
• Level of detail required - Does the learner need an overview or do they need detail?  We found that making a video tended to be more effective when giving an overview (for example, showing the front, back, and sides of an engine or printer), but when it came to looking at the really detailed stuff (such as the engine components), illustrations and animations tended to be better received, because we could zoom in and expand the view without losing crispness.

So here's a quick summary of our findings:

Of course, there are other elements that will affect your media decisions, such as:

• Budget - how much do you have to spend? A video might be the best method, but the cost of a video shoot might be too much for the budget.
• Bandwidth - will the audience have enough bandwidth to support animation or video?
• Time/quality - if quality is not an issue, or if you have limited time, it may be faster to shoot a couple of photos or some rough video with a standard digital camera than it would be to create a polished illustration or animation.

I'd really love to add recommendations to this list or to consider other options. Also, do you think this will apply to "softer" content areas? What have you found to be most effective?