- What is the Coherence Principle and its most important constraints/criteria?
The Coherence Principle is the recommendation to keep your lessons uncluttered. To accomplish this you should avoid adding any additional fluff to your lesson. If the material does not support the instructional goal, it is fluff and should be left out. Examples of coherence principle include:
Avoid e-Lessons with Extraneous Audio - Research is still being conducted on the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of having background music during a presentation. The common feeling is that background music can overload the cognitive channel during heavy learning times such as introduction to new materials, presentation isn’t user controlled.
Avoid E-lessons with Extraneous Graphics - Graphics that are used as simply decorations can be distracting and disruptive to the learners process of interpreting the materials being presented.
Avoid E-Lessons with Extraneous Words - Keep narration short and concise, implementing the modality principle. Concise narrations will help keep the learners engaged and less frustrated on lengthy audio segments.
- Describe and/or include one example of successful and one example of unsuccessful attempts to apply the Coherence Principle in actual instruction and training you have experienced, especially as it might be implemented in PowerPoint-based instruction and training. Have you ever seen this principle violated or abused? Identify the violations, including citations as needed from your textbook.
I have a successful attempt of applying the Coherence Principle in a PLTW training that I was involved in. PLTW is heavy mathematics STEM curriculum that can be tricky to understand if not taught correctly. PLTW does a really nice job breaking down the mathematical problems into step by step instructions through the use of powerpoints. They keep their slides short and concise showing the mathematical steps to solve an equation. Their isn’t extraneous words, graphics, or audio in the presentations. They’ve successfully avoided adding unnecessary fluff to the course content. Image below is a slide over simple machines that uses colors as headings and related graphics as examples of the simple machines. The slide is concise and keeps the learners arousal, while not overloading the working memory.
I have also witnessed unsuccessful attempts of the Coherence Principle. Taking an accounting class with flipped classroom aspects had fully failed at the coherence principle. During a presentation viewed online over using Microsoft Excel the instructor added basic music to the entire presentation. I found it hard to concentrate on the meat of the content and became easily distracted by the melody of the music.
- Discuss the relationship of the Coherence Principle to other Multimedia Learning Principles examined thus far in your readings.
The Coherence Principle goes hand in hand with the Multimedia Principle, Contiguity Principle, and the Modality Principle. Coherence and Multimedia principles both have you avoid using extraneous graphics. Multimedia explains that a graphic that is there just a decoration has no educational benefit and can be distracting to the learner. Coherence principle says that extraneous graphics can interfere with learning by causing distraction, disruption, and seduction (Mayer, 161). Graphics can pull learners’ attention away from the relevant material, can cause a gap in between relevant materials, and can lead the arousal of inappropriate existing knowledge.
- Discuss the relationship of the Coherence Principle to fundamental theories of psychology as described by Clark & Mayer in your textbook.
Arousal theory assumes that the learners will become emotionally engaged and, therefore, have greater interest and focus in the main learning material (Clark & Mayer, 2008, p. 156). Many colleagues share the challenge of keeping the attention of their learners. To do this, they attempt to grab attention through the inclusion of images meant to excite the learner. This would seem to make sense, that the learners attention is up front because of the included images. However, the Cognitive Theory contradicts this. Basically the cognitive theory states that learners have so much working memory to process information. The inclusion of images that do not coherently relate to the instructional goal can overload that working memory. Overloading your working memory will lead to decreased learning, rather than increased.
- What do you personally like or dislike about this principle? Present a coherent, informed opinion and explain why you hold this opinion. Are there any limitations or qualifications of the principle (caveats) which the authors did not consider and, if so, what are they?
