e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning

13.8. Navigational Guidelines for Learner Control

Screen titles, embedded topic headers, topic menus, course maps, links, and movement buttons (forward, backward, and exit) are common navigational elements that influence comprehension. What evidence do we have for the benefits of various navigational elements commonly used in e-learning?

13.8.1. Use Headings and Introductory Statements

Content representations such as headings and introductory sentences improve memory and comprehension in traditional text documents. For example, Lorch, Lorch, Ritchey, McGovern, and Coleman (2001) asked readers to provide summaries of texts that included headings for half of the paragraphs. They found that the summaries included more content from paragraphs with ...