How multimedia can and should change our teaching has been addressed by the UK-based Joint Information Systems Committee who provide advice about information and communications technology to support teaching, learning, research, and administration. The Committee has produced an information-dense 60-page document titled Effective Practice with e-Learning [1] that will be referred to here as the Beetham report. In the foreword, Peter Findlay sets the agenda by pointing out that e-learning is a learning activity, not a series of learning objects, and that e-learning is effective when unique advantages are exploited. For many people (myself included), it is the case that face-to-face teaching continues to work well in conjunction with e-learning support. Accordingly, it was gratifying to read in the Beetham report that e-learning can transform the way we teach to improve the learning experience, raise standards, and widen participation in lifelong learning, but it cannot replace teachers and lecturers. The potential of technology to revolutionize learning is associated with six key benefits. 1) Connectivity: access to information is available on a global scale. 2) Flexibility: learning can take place any time, any place. 3) Interactivity: assessment of learning can be immediate and autonomous. 4) Collaboration: use of discussion tools can support collaborative learning beyond the classroom. 5) Extended opportunities: e-content can reinforce and extend classroom-based learning. 6) Motivation: multimedia resources can make learning fun. Given these advantages, the Beetham report sets out to establish the most pedagogically sound ways of embedding e-learning into practice. In the section Designing for Learning, there is a table titled Defining Approaches to Learning that invites us to plan not only what we want to teach but the way we want students to learn. The most common model for scientific teaching is defined as associative and has a focus on competencies. However, we might also choose to follow constructive and situative models that encourage experimentation, discovery, collaborative activities, and reflection. If we start with choosing a model of learning, our approach may be different and superior to the traditional model of defining objectives that state precisely what knowledge is to be learned at the end of a course. Beyond the attempt to link theory to practice in the Beetham report, there are views and experiences of practitioners in different teaching contexts to provide insight into how the e-learning advantages have been realized. These case studies are in the section titled The e-Learning Advantage, and unfortunately, there are no life science examples. For biochemists and other scientists, it is often unrewarding to read much of the general literature on multimedia because humanities-based practitioners often fail to realize that different subject matter requires different approaches. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the great advances in e-learning theory and multimedia design. The Beetham report is a good introduction to rigorous approaches to creating e-learning materials. A good place to start is at the Conclusion on page 49 that includes a summary diagram titled A Model of Effective Practice with e-Learning.