This study examines student preferences and behavior when navigating online multimedia modules dedicated to teaching cultural aspects associated with an L2, and the contribution of the online multimedia format of the modules to raising interest in these cultural topics. It focuses on student options regarding reading texts on the modules' main pages and/or in versions with glossary annotations, and it analyzes student preferences regarding the articulation of audio/video and writing assignments. Students enrolled in five sections of first-year Portuguese classes completed five modules as well as surveys expressing their preferences with regards to the navigation features. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of their replies showed that students prefer not to navigate away from main web pages of modules to read exclusively annotated versions of texts on separate web pages, and that students read both the texts on the main web pages and on the annotated versions when texts are more demanding. Students rely less on an annotated version when a video advance organizer is provided. The study also showed that when prompted to perform writing activities about audio or video, the majority of students take notes while listening to the audio or watching the video and prefer to ease cognitive load by replaying the audio/video files. Finally, student answers demonstrated that the multimedia format of the modules contributed to stimulating interest in the cultural topics studied. (Contains 6 tables and 13 figures.)