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Teachers are constantly creating new types of media for instructing students. Teachers continually

create media that is visually pleasing but falls short in maximum effectiveness. In e-learning there is a

principle called the Coherence Principle which help guide the creation of effective media.

The Coherence Principle states that when creating media one should take a simplistic approach by

cutting out excess images, audio, and words (Clark & Mayer, 2008). Multiple studies support that it is

essential to not overwhelm an individuals senses by using unnecessary media. Clark and Mayer stressthat any audio that is added to enhance the presentation is more detrimental to the learning. When

teachers add additional audio stimuli to make their presentation more appealing to students it actually

overloads their working memory capacity. The authors further their argument by exploring evidence that

visuals and excessive words have a similar effect.

An unsuccessful attempt Ive experienced at using the Coherence Principle was when I was making a

media presentation on probability. I created great graphics to help link visuals that are familiar with an

unfamiliar topic. However, because of my knowledge of the Coherence Principle I used the graphics

sparingly and afterwards the students didnt do as well as I was hoping with their understanding of

probability. In response, I showed my students some of the graphics afterwards and these visuals helped

make a personal connection for the students. After this experience Ive learned that although this principle

states to limit graphics, as a teacher I need to recognize that graphics can also be extremely helpful to

scaffold the learning for my students.

A time when I experienced this principle working successfully was when I revised a co-workers

presentation. This co-worker thought that adding as much stimuli as possible would catch the students

attention and keep them engaged. However, the presentation ended up having approximately 15 graphics,

multiple paragraphs of writing and sound effects for each slide. This caused me, as the teacher, to be

clueless on the message of the lesson. In response to this, I slimmed it down the information to bullet

points with a few key graphics and eliminated all sound effects. My students responded well to my newly

edited presentation.

Clark and Mayer address several other principles throughout their book that are relevant when

examining the Coherence Principle. The Contiguity Principle and the Coherence Principle both refer tothe idea of limiting typed words in a presentation and relying heavily on spoken words. The reason for

this method is to limit the amount of information going in at once so that the efficiency of the learning

can be maximized, similar to the Coherence Principle. The Contiguity and Modality Principles are ways

of teaching in a simplistic manner to enhance overall effectiveness of the learning. The Coherence

Principle is doing the same.

Cognitive theory of multimedia learning asserts that one can only learn so much at a time. If music and

information are offered at the same time, precious capacity is distracted by listening to the music and

therefore cant focus on the data at hand. Therefore this theory supports the Coherence Principle by

offering evidence that the simplistic approach is best for learning.

Additionally Mayer (1999) discusses the notion of humans possessing two separate processing

systems: one visual and one verbal. The author also discusses the limitations of these two processing

systems and can be overloaded quickly. For example, if music is playing in the background and the

speaker is talking, the verbal processing system will be overwhelmed to the point where less information

is absorbed and learned.

The Split-Attention Principle, as researched by Moreno and Mayer (2000), states that when creating

multimedia, if the creator places lots of visuals with text, students will have to see both the visuals and the

text. They then will have to process both through the visual working memory. In contrast, if the

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presentation has only one graphic while the teacher is talking both the auditory and visual working

memory will only have one thing to process. This frees up brain power. This principle relates to the

Coherence Principle by stating that a more minimal approach is preferable.

In every multimedia presentation there is a place for graphics to help form meaningful connections. If

an instructor worries too much about limiting graphics they may unintentionally eliminate some that

would effectively enhance students learning. However, I like the theory because I feel it is essential tokeep multimedia presentations simple and straight to the point. I think it would benefit my staff to learn

about this principle and apply it to their classrooms.

References

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2008).E-learning and the science of instruction, 2ndedition. Pfeiffer: San

Francisco, CA.

Mayer, R. E. (1999). Multimedia aids to problem-solving transfer.International Journal of Educational

Research, 31, 611-623.

Moreno, R., & Mayer, R. E. (2000). A learner-centered approach to multimedia explanations: Deriving

instructional design principles from cognitive theory.Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of

Computer-Enhanced Learning, 2. Retrieved from http://imej.wfu.edu/articles/2000/2/05/index.asp.