Multimedia learning environments present combinations of text, illustrations, narration, and animation and are typically computer-based. This chapter provides a brief review of the self-explanation principle, and introduces a framework for categorizing the number of ways in which self-explanation has been operationalized. While open-ended and menu-based approaches mark the two extremes, there are a number of ways of prompting students to self-explain that fall in the middle: focused, scaffolded, and resource-based prompts. Examples of each within the context of multimedia learning are presented. It presents a number of studies whose results support the hypothesis that self-explanation prompts that provide more focus or direction are particularly beneficial for multimedia learning environments, because they foster integration across multiple sources of information and help students to develop a single, coherent representation. The chapter also discusses implications for cognitive theory and instructional design and ideas for future work.