HTML Templates to Reduce Cognitive Load

Are you using the HTML Template Version 3.0? This [Archived Content] HTML Template article in Brightspace Community outlines how you can create responsive, accessible and interactive pages with them.

They are a game-changer in my books. You can take a disjointed-looking course and unify the look and feel of it in a few short clicks. The templates offer a structure that can help facilitate reducing the learner’s cognitive load so they can better absorb the content.

Mayer and Moreno (2003) highlight 9 strategies to reduce cognitive load:

1.     Off-loading or moving information from visual to auditory channels instead.

2/3. Segmenting and Pre-training or breaking content into smaller chunks and providing pre-training about components of the larger topic.

4/5. Weeding and Signaling or removing non-essential content and giving cues for what is more important.

6. Aligning words and pictures.

7. Eliminating redundancy.

 8/9. Synchronizing and individualizing or presenting information at the same time rather than one piece after the other and making sure the learners have high-spatial ability to hold more in their working memory.

If we just focus on the module level, consider how we can implement our best practices for reducing cognitive load on template pages.

1.     On All Pages

·       We can align words and pictures so scanning a whole page is not necessary (Strategy 6).

·       By dividing content into page ‘chunks’ we segment for the learner and organize the content into manageable bites (Strategy 2).

2.     Introduction Page

·       Signaling from the start of the module, we can give cues to what will be the most important part of the module by highlighting learning outcomes and key ideas (Strategy 5).

·       Pre-training can happen here as well, as learners can be introduced to key terms that they will encounter in the rest of the module (Strategy 3).

3.     Video Lecture Page

·       By including video, you have the chance to off-load some content from the visual channel to the auditory channel, improving the amount of information the learner’s memory can hold (Strategy 1).

·       By having a separate page for preparing the learner to absorb the video content and then interact with the video content in some way (reflecting, highlighting key points, answering questions etc) you are segmenting once again in a manageable chunk (Strategy 2).

·       You can supply pre-training for key content of the video to enable the learner to better absorb it as well (Strategy 3).

4.     Conclusion Page

·       The key focus of the conclusion page is to signal key content that the learner should have mastered in the module (Strategy 5).

5.     Elements Page

This fun page gives you ordered number lists, checklists, but also interactive elements like accordion panels and tabs:

·       The ability to segment information with tab and accordion panels avoids the ‘information dump’ we have all seen on long pages by chunking information up for the learner (Strategy 2).

I'll toss the ball in your court now. Feel free to share an answer to one of these with us:

1.     How else do you reduce cognitive load in your course designs?

2.     Which is your favourite of the template pages? How has it been a game-changer for you?

3.     Do you have a creative use for one of the elements (accordion, tab etc) of the Elements page to share?

Reference:

Mayer, R. E. and Moreno, R. (2003) Nine ways to reduce cognitive load in multimedia learning. Educational Psychologist, 38 (1), 43-52.