e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning

7.2. Psychological Reasons to Avoid Extraneous Audio in e-Learning

For some learners, e-learning can seem boring, and you might be concerned with reports that claim high dropout rates in e-learning (Svetcov, 2000). Therefore, developers may feel compelled to spice up their materials to arouse the learner's interest. Similarly, consumers may feel that a "jazzier" product is especially important for the new generation of learners raised on high-intensity multimedia such as MTV and video games. This is the premise underlying arousal theory, the idea that entertaining and interesting embedded effects cause learners to become more emotionally aroused and therefore they work harder to learn the material. In short, the premise is that emotion (for ...