The Immersion Principle in Multimedia Learning

The immersion principle in multimedia learning is that immersive virtual environments promote better learning when they incorporate multimedia design principles. In short, immersive media do not necessarily improve learning but effective instructional methods within immersive virtual environments do improve learning. The goal of effective instructional design in immersive virtual environments is to promote processes of selecting, organizing, and integrating information. Psychological presence – the subjective experience of “being there” – is an affective affordance of learning in immersive learning environments that can motivate learners to engage in deeper learning. The chapter also describes boundary conditions of immersive virtual environments, including the potential for instructional design to cause extraneous cognitive load and impose high metacognitive demands on learners. Multimedia learning principles developed based on research with less immersive media may generalize to learning in immersive environments.