This study examined the effectiveness of educational animations for teaching neurobiology topics both in the classroom and online via social media. In the classroom experiment, students who viewed animations during lectures performed better on exam questions related to the material compared to students who did not view animations. In the online experiment, social media users who viewed animations scored higher on post-tests about the neurobiology topics than those who read text passages, though many users did not complete the full study. The results provide evidence that multimedia animations can improve learning of complex scientific topics both in traditional and online educational settings.