6 - Coherence Principle #1

Brief Definition

Just like a surplus of old, faded books in the library, extraneous sounds, graphics, or words in an e-lesson not only distract a learner, but may reduce the learning. According to Clark and Mayer (2011), the Coherence Principle #1 refers specifically to audio in e-learning that does not directly contribute to the subject being taught. Background music or sounds that don’t relate or add to the content should be forgone.

An Artifact

Unfortunately, Lee RebelTech’s “How to Add Books in Follet Destiny” is in violation of Coherence Principle #1 with background music that distracts from the fast-moving instructional video. The lack of narrative explaining what the user should do is already challenging enough, but adding strong music makes it very difficult to concentrate on the subject matter. I would probably need to watch this one a few times before mastering the content.

References

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.