Coherence and Redundancy Principles

Just your opinion and input, thanks.

Why are the coherence and redundancy principles important in an e-learning environment? Provide examples.
The coherence principle and the redundancy principle are important in an e-learning environment and to be aware of when creating assignments or webpages for learners to view.

The redundancy principle can become overwhelming to many learners when both the audio and the text match. The redundancy principle does stress the importance of audio and text however, audio and text should not be used simultaneously (Clark & Mayer, 2003). If the audio and text is used together, the learner will be 'overloaded' with information and will not be able to focus on the task at hand. When creating a presentation in an e-learning setting, the presenter needs to pick either audio or text in order to not over stimulate the learner.

The coherence principle, like the redundancy principle, needs to be carefully thought about by the teacher for e-learners to best learn the given material. The coherence principle emphasizes the need to only use necessary graphics, visuals, audio and text (Clark & Mayer, 2003). The overuse of graphics, visuals, audio and text can become overwhelming and damaging to the learners success. The coherence principle does stress the idea that 'less is more' when giving information in a classroom setting (Clark & Mayer, 2003). In the e-learning setting, the presenter needs to think through what is the most important graph, visual, audio and text to use in the presentation and how not over stimulate the learner.

The coherence principle and the redundancy principle if not used correctly can become overwhelming to a learner and damage their success.

Reference:
Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2003). E-learning and the science of instruction. Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer: San Francisco, CA

DQ's
#1 How much is too much?
When do you think as an instructor that an adult e-learner has too much info?
How do we know when adult students are overloaded?
Do you think this is a hit and miss technique in that you have to try the class first and make adjustments to how the class responded?
#2 Sometimes I create what I think is a well put together class only to find the student struggling, when do you get to that point that you know the student can do it or not?
When one considers the word extraneous, it is ambiguous and what might be extraneous to the authors might by one thing and what is regarded as extraneous to another no such as demonstrated in Calandra, Barron, and Thompson-Seller's (2008) study where some instructional designers thought that video and audio of up to 20 minutes was not extraneous, while others felt that between 1 minute to 5 minutes was.
Why do you think this is? What would account for the vast differences in opinion as to what extraneous audio means? Please support your response with examples.

Reference:
Caldandra, B., Barron, A. E., & Thompson-Sellers, I. (2008). Audio use in e-learning: What, why, when, and how. International Journal on e-Learning 7(4). Retrieved from Proquest database.