What do you think about background music in courses?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

I am very engrossed, to hear your conviction about the above mentioned topic. If you attend a course, does background music help you, to improve the atmosphere or does it distract you more from learning? It seems to be very popular on other platforms but I haven't seen it here. What are your contemplations?

Many thanks

[csking1981]

Hi ,

Congrats.

Welcome to our community and accept my warmest congratulations!

I don't suggest you to add music to your course!

I was teacher about 17 years and based on my experiences the background music haven't positive effect on teaching!

Why?

Because after class if you remove the music and ask question from students they can't answer very well without music but they can answer very well with music!

So i don't use music in my courses.

Regards

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous,

I suppose it depends on the course.  If you're running a course on meditation, then some traquil background music would be appropriate.

I only watched one art course with background music, smooth jazz, and found it quite distracting.

Personally, I'd recommend background music for your promotional video and possibly some section introduction videos but go without during the bulk of the training.

$0.02,

---Brian

[csking1981]

I'm agree with you.

[LawrenceMMiller]

Running background music throughout a lecture is extremely annoying. 

However, I have title graphics at the beginning of each lectue and have intro music, about six seconds worth, as the title slide fades and I come on I quickly fade out the music. In some courses I do the same at the end of a lecture.

[DeniseFletcher]

Hi @Anonymous I very rarely see / hear background music being done well. It is extremely distracting if you are trying to concentrate. You're right that music is often seen in videos and films but entertainment is very different to education. Also if you see it on other educational platforms it may be because the platforms don't have the same quality standards that Udemy does. 

[OsamaJaber962]

I use it , I found it useful specially during silent times when I am only demonstrating something during a screencast but I keep the volume low in order not to distract the students , learners have different “preferred learning styles “ or according to the multiple intelligence theory some learners are “musical-rhythmic” , I believe we should satisfy those type of learners as well 

one last thing “choose the right royalty free music”  use fade in / out wisely

cheers

[LindsayMarsh]

There is an art to using music in your lessons. I found it useful to add an emotional punch or keep ones attention during longer lessons. I have found users start to complain when music takes up 30 percent or more of a total lesson. So I have kept it under 30 percent of the total run time of the lesson. Also, I switch it up and never repeat any songs, they are always different as they move throughout the course, keeping it engaging and interesting. I always have music in the intro and outro, it really sets the tone and mood for the lesson or project. 

[SatyaAnandaDhar]

Nice recomendation. I follow similar aprouch, but have no real feedback from students 😉

[rjen]

I think it has to be done with caution. During meditational phases okay but most of the time it will be detracting.

However, I would like to occasionally end a lecture with music - after everything is said and done. The main question here is: What about copyrights? Where do you get decent soundtracks that can be used freely for that purpose?

[JanTissler]

I use music only if I want to signal a somehow special lecture. For example: In one longer course I have short overview lectures at the beginning of each part that has subtle background music. And all the lectures that describe something my students should do next/now with what they have learned so far also get the music. But 90% of the lectures don't use any music.

Hot take: If you need music to keep the attention of your students, your lecture probably just is not good enough 😉 

[WynonaKaspa258]

I'm hard of hearing and background music (or any background noise) is a real pain. So if you want to make a course that is aimed at older people or is supposed to be inclusive, then have either spoken word or other sounds in your videos, but never both at the same time.