Instructional design/Reducing cognitive load in multimedia instruction/Find and Fix Answers

Below are four issues identified. Feel free to edit this page and add any you noticed that don't appear below. Also include anything you feel would enhance this presentation even if it does not fall into any of the overload categories we discussed.

Issue 1:

Weird Background Music. The background music on this video is loud, distracting, and odd. The music and the spoken words seem to compete for the listener's attention. The music leads to incidental and extraneous processing. (Essential processing + incidental processing (caused by extraneous material) > cognitive capacity--one or both channels overloaded by essential and incidental processing (attributable to extraneous material))

Solution:

Utilize the principal of Coherence and eliminate the music.

Issue 2:

Too many visuals -- boxes, words, pictures, etc. (Essential processing + incidental processing (caused by extraneous material) > cognitive capacity One or both channels overloaded by essential and incidental processing (attributable to extraneous material)

Solution: Again use Coherence and weed out the pictures from the presentation. Learner’s will be able to create their own mental model of an eye, ear, sounds, words and images.

Issue 3: There seems to be too much going on at once – hard to track. Essential processing (in both channels) > cognitive capacity-- Both channels are overloaded by essential processing demands.

Solution: Use the principals of Segmentation and/or Pretraining Cut up the instruction over several slides and then bring the whole theory together at the end. Pretain on key terms used in the presentation.

Issue 4: Strange use of signaling – magnification creates a confusing presentation. The magnification makes holding a representation difficult because all the parts of the system blend in together. Essential processing + representational holding > cognitive capacity -- One or both channels overloaded by essential processing and representational holding. Solution: Use the Principal of Temporal and Spatial Contiguity and Coherence (improve signaling). Synchronize by presenting the model parts simultaneously rather than successively. Weed out the pictures and utilize different signaling than magnification such as arrows or circles, our highlight as each section is explained. Once the explanation is finished for a particular section, remove the signal from that section and, move the signal to the next section.

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