Efficiency in e-Learning: Proven Instructional Methods for Faster, Better, Online Learning

Minimize extraneous load: Avoid redundant expressions of content

There are a number of cognitive load principles that, when applied, reduce extraneous cognitive load. Here we review one of these: redundancy. Redundancy refers to learning inefficiencies that result when we provide learners with too much information.

Rapid e-Learning tools make the development of multimedia quick and easy. Not only can you provide simple text and graphics in your course, but you can also easily create and embed audio and video clips directly into your online content. As you begin to integrate these forms of rich instructional media, do you think it would be better to provide learners with the audio narration only, a text script, or both?

Consider the sample Web-based lesson you reviewed at the beginning of this article. You may have noted at the time that the lesson included audio narration. You may have also noted that a written transcript of the audio narration was included in the bottom right hand corner of the course interface. This redundant audio and written text is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 The use of text and audio of that text is a redundant expression of content. From Efficiency in Learning (2005)

In our forthcoming book titled Efficiency in Learning, Ruth Clark, Frank Nguyen, and John Sweller summarize research studies that indicate e-Learning courses with redundant audio and text will overload cognitive resources and depress learning. For example, a series of studies by Mayer, Heiser, and Lonn, and by Moreno and Mayer (see References) found

that learners who received a multimedia lesson with animation and audio narration alone performed on average 79% better than learners who received a lesson containing animations, audio, and redundant text. In short, when you are delivering audio narration in an e-Learning course, it is better to suppress any redundant written text. If the available technology or learners’ language expertise prevent you from delivering audio in your e-Learning course, it is better to provide text only.

The redundancy principle stresses that less is usually more. For example, while it’s usually better to describe a visual with audio alone as discussed above, sometimes any words — whether text or audio — added to a visual are redundant. This is either because the visual is inherently self-explanatory such as the example in Figure 6 OR because the audience is already familiar with the visual and thus the visual is self-explanatory to that audience.

Figure 6 Airline safety card with self-explanatory visuals. From Efficiency in Learning (2005)

For example Kalyuga and colleagues (see References) over a series of three sessions trained technical apprentices how to interpret the circuit diagrams of a motor. Initial learning was best from lessons that included diagrams described by text than from lessons with diagrams alone. However, by the third session, this pattern reversed and the lessons with diagrams alone led to better learning than the diagram and text versions. As learners gained expertise with the diagram, the textual descriptions became redundant and depressed learning efficiency.

Maximize germane load: Help learners exploit examples through self-explanations

Recall that germane cognitive load is mental work that leads to learning. We know that examples are one of the best ways to promote learning. However, in many cases learners skip examples or only give them a cursory review. Research has shown that students who study and process examples deeply learn more than students who either ignore examples or process them in a shallow way. One sign of deep processing of examples is when learners explain the examples to themselves. Chi and others (see References) found high-achieving students generated more self-explanations while studying science examples than did lower-achieving students. On average, the high-achieving students created 15.5 self-explanations for each example while lower achieving students only generated 2.75. What can you do to ensure that your learners process your examples effectively?

Figure 7 shows how the addition of a multiple choice question to an example can encourage learners to process the example deeply. In order to answer this question, the learner needs to review the example and to identify the principles behind the steps. As a result of this deep processing, learners will build an accurate mental model from the example. However self-explanations require mental processing in working memory. Since this processing results in better learning, prompted self-explanations are one of a number of instructional methods you can use to impose germane cognitive load.

Figure 7 An inserted question prompts learner self-explanation of examples. From Efficiency in Learning (2005)

Conclusion

Today’s e-Learning authoring tools provide developers with many exciting ways to combine instructional methods and media to create compelling training content. Done well, your e-Learning courses can be well-oiled, efficient learning environments that enable your learners to learn faster, better or both. Done poorly, they could become minefields of information that look more to your learners like letters and numbers flying across The Matrix than pages of an e-Learning course.

To avoid overloading your students, apply research-based principles that manage intrinsic, minimize extraneous, and maximize germane cognitive load in your e-Learning courses. The three principles discussed in this article are among a number of cognitive load guidelines proven to improve the quality of your instructional materials.

References

Chi, M.T.H., Bassok, M., Lewis, M.W., Reimann, P., Glaser, R. (1989). Self-explanations: How students study and use examples in learning to solve problems. Cognitive Science, 13, 145-182.

Clark , R.C., Nguyen, F., and Sweller, J. (2005). Efficiency in Learning. San Francisco : CA: Pfeiffer. (Available in December, 2005)

Kalyuga, S., Chandler , P. and Sweller, J. (1998). Levels of expertise and instructional design. Human Factors, 40(1), 1-17.

Mayer, R.E., Heiser, J., and Lonn, S. (2001). Cognitive constraints on multimedia learning: When presenting more material results in less understanding. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 187-198.

Moreno , R., and Mayer, R.E. (2002). Verbal redundancy in multimedia learning: When reading helps listening. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 156-163.

Miller, G.A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81-97.

Pollock, E., Chandler , P. and Sweller, J. (2002). Assimilating complex information. Learning and Instruction, 12, 61-86.

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