How does your elearning sound?
Adding music is a great way to add just a little extra to your title and end screens in your elearning, and a well placed sound can make your activities just that much more effective! Here are some tips about how best practices when putting music in your content.
1. Keep it short and sweet
Depending on the length of the animation in your title slide, you’ll probably want a piece of music that is about the same duration, which is to say, not too long. You don’t need a whole music video in front of your elearning. Look for logo stings and other short, complete music clips.
In general, it’s also repetitive or distracting to have background music throughout your elearning. Music is best when used as an accent.
2. Match the look and feel of your content
Make sure your music is setting the right mood for your content. If your elearning is about inspiring your learners, you want some music that is energetic and uplifting. If your elearning is more contemplative, you might want something that is calmer and low key. If you have a mismatch of these, you can undermine your content. You don’t want silly music in a serious, corporate course, nor dramatic music in a casual, understated elearning.
What kind of feeling is most characteristic of your content? There’s probably a piece of music for that!
3. Using SFX helps
Have you ever noticed how many different sounds are associated with your computer functions? There’s a startup sound, a shutdown sound, confirmation popups, notifications, errors, the list goes on. Once you’ve associated a particular sound with an action, it becomes much faster to recognize when that action is needed. You can apply this principle to your elearning, letting your learner know when they need to pay extra attention, when they’ve answered a question correctly, or any other activity that your elearning might require your learner to perform more than once.
With these simple points in mind, you can create elearning that stays fresh, interesting and fun with well-placed audio!
