MASToday - 10

MASToday
Master Apply Sustain

DID
YOU
KNOW?

10 Musings
on Best eLearning
Practices

By Lori Salamida

1

Showing animation plus text
plus audio narration creates
cognitive overload and content
redundancy. So what pairs better
with animation?

2

Sound effects may seem like fun,
but adding extraneous sounds to
eLearning can actually harm the
learning process.

According to the coherence principle,
According to the modality principle,
when learners pay attention to sounds and
people learn better when grouping an
music, they are less able to pay attention
animation with audio narration rather than to the narration describing the relevant
animation with text.
material. Less is more for most learners,
especially when the material is unfamiliar,
or when the rate of presentation is rapid
Why? Based on cognitive theory
or not under the learner's control. Seems
and research evidence, learners may
obvious right?
experience an overload of their visual/
pictorial channel when they have
Why? Working memory capacity is
to process graphics and text at the
highly limited. Background music and
same time.
sounds can overload and disrupt the
A word of caution, though, the
cognitive system, so narration and
modality principle is less likely
extraneous sounds must compete
to apply in situations where the
for limited cognitive resources in the
learner is familiar with the material,
auditory channel.
or in cases where the narrative is
complex, contains technical terms
or symbols, or is not in the learner's
native language.

10



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of MASToday

Contents
MASToday - 1
MASToday - 2
MASToday - Contents
MASToday - 4
MASToday - 5
MASToday - 6
MASToday - 7
MASToday - 8
MASToday - 9
MASToday - 10
MASToday - 11
MASToday - 12
MASToday - 13
MASToday - 14
MASToday - 15
MASToday - 16
MASToday - 17
MASToday - 18
MASToday - 19
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