Adding Background Music

Apr 08, 2016

Hello Community -

I've been hearing and reading mixed reviews about adding background music to interactive exercises.

Brief background, I've built an eLearning course and I'm tempted to add background music when an end-user comes to an interactive exercise built with either Quizmaker or Engage. The music I want to add is all instrumental, for example Classical or Jazz. This would play until the completion of the exercise. The end-user has the option to turn down the volume in the player if they choose too.

The exercises itself do have animated figures, backgrounds and branching scenarios to add some color, but the exercise is all text base. I'd like to add another level of engagement without taking away from the lesson, hence the reason I want to use instrumental music.

I'm hoping I can get some thoughts behind this.

Thanks ya'll

5 Replies

Christie Pollick

8 years ago04/08/16 at 8:40 pm (UTC)

Hi, Neil -- Thanks so much for your question! And while I am not sure which articles or discussions you may have come across already, I thought I'd stop in with the following for your review:

How to Loop Audio or Video in Articulate Storyline

Background Music Demo

How can I make a background music play continuously across multiple slides/layers?

Hope that helps! :)

Neil L
Author

8 years ago04/08/16 at 8:47 pm (UTC)

Hi Christie -

Thank you so much for the response and yes it does help.

I wonder though if it is appropriate to add background music to lessons, in this case exercises) or would it be more a distraction for the learner.

Kind Regards,

Christie Pollick

8 years ago04/08/16 at 8:53 pm (UTC)

Funny you should mention that, Neil, because I actually have a blog post to share on that very topic, as well: Should You Add Background Audio to Your E-Learning Courses? :)

Neil L
Author

8 years ago04/08/16 at 8:55 pm (UTC)

Perfect!

Thanks Christie. I am going to read it. :-)

Christie Pollick

8 years ago04/08/16 at 9:00 pm (UTC)

Sounds great, Neil!

And, you may also want to take a poll your fellow community members over here in our design-related Building Better Courses forum to gather opinions on whether they feel that background audio is a benefit or a detriment to learners. Just a thought!

Adding Background Music

5 Replies

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