1 DESIGNING EFFECTIVE MULTI- REPRESENTATIONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS Shaaron Ainsworth ESRC Centre for Research in Development, Instruction & Training Department of Psychology University of Nottingham University Park Nottingham NG7 2RD United Kingdom email: Shaaron.Ainsworth @nottingham.ac.uk March 1999 For learning with multiple external representations (MERs) to be successful, the design of a learning environment must take advantage of the properties of different representations without overwhelming a leaner with their associated costs. This paper presents an analytic framework that consists of a description of the functions of MERS, an analysis of the learning demands of using MERs and consideration of the design decisions that uniquely apply to multi-representational learning environments. These are integrated to propose a set of idealised designs for each function of MERs. This framework was constructed for two purposes. Firstly, it can be used to compare existing learning environments and so allow more accurate generalisations from previous empirical work. Secondly, it is intended to provide the basis for further experimentation in order to develop effective design principles for multi-representational learning.