The effect of courseware prepared according to multimedia principles on academic achievement, cognitive load and student opinions

The general aim of the research is to investigate the effect of teaching the Communication, Research and Collaboration unit of the Information Technologies and Software course of sixth grade students with the teaching software prepared according to Mayer's multimedia principles (2009) on students' academic achievement and cognitive load. Exploratory sequential design method, one of the mixed method models, was used in the study. In the quantitative research method part of the study, a quasi-experimental design was applied. The study group of the research consisted of two sixth grade classes of İbrahim Kozacıoğlu Secondary School in Tarsus district of Mersin province affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the 2021-2022 academic year. There were 31 students in the experimental group and 29 students in the control group. The teaching material in the experimental group was prepared by the researcher by considering multimedia principles. The teaching material in the control group was prepared as a powerpoint presentation by a subject area expert. The data were obtained from academic achievement test, cognitive load scale and semi-structured interview form scale. SPSS 22 software was used to analyse the quantitative data obtained in the study and content analysis was used for qualitative data. At the end of the study, it was determined that the teaching developed according to multimedia principles in the experimental group was more effective on students' academic achievement and cognitive load measurements compared to the teaching with computer presentation in the control group. In the interviews with the students in the experimental group, the students expressed their positive opinions about the developed teaching software. Key words: Cognitive load, multimedia, instructional design