What must eLearning development companies do for preventing cognitive overload?

Elearning is now everywhere and there is no escaping it. But eLearning development companies must know how to develop such material because you might want to include everything, but this may make the course taxing for learners.??

The learners can’t learn too much in a smaller time frame. Human brains have a capacity and if more information is given to them all together, to comprehend, they can’t process it all. They also can’t carry out many tasks at the same time as reading and hearing things at the same time.

These are the reasons due to which cognitive overload is caused:?

• ?Too many elements on the screen: Therefore, it’s crucial for your elearning material to leave an impact that the human factor is taken into account. Hence, the learners must first see the visuals and then the subtitles and the audio must appear on the screen or vice versa. In fact, where everything is happening simultaneously on the screen such as text and graphic animation along with audio playing in the background the learner loses his concentration.

This is called the split attention effect because the learner does not know to what to concentrate on. Hence there must be a time gap between the information presented to the learner.??

• ????Use of obfuscating terms in the course:??

Also, sometimes the students/learners experience the expertise-reversal effect, which happens when teachers don’t test the students for any previous knowledge. So, in this case, a student is taught something advanced because the teacher thinks he already knows the basics.In an ILT session which happens in person, the students can clarify any unknown topics from teachers by raising hands and asking questions.

But in an asynchronous elearning session, a pre-lecture assessment must be included to ascertain what the students know because any new knowledge without introduction becomes confounding for the learners. Therefore, in such sessions, the learners must be explained unknown terms in a topic through an introductory lecture or hyperlinks and popups in the elearning module.?

For example, including hyperlinks in the course is also important because learners need to know how to get information. For example, if they don’t know a term in the topic, they will have to Google it. But if instead of that if that term includes a hyperlink, the learners can immediately know the meaning.

The elearning development companies can also ensure that the learners have pop-ups instead of hyperlinks informing them the meaning of unknown terms. In fact, instead of including a hyperlink to a document, it’s better to link the term with a short video which is easier to watch. If a learner has to deviate from an elearning course just because he does not know a certain term, he will spend all his time searching for it, and as a result will slow down his learning.

But documents are preferable by those who understand things by reading them. Although some courses do require use of formal language like a medical course, but the other courses must have easy to understand common use language.??

• ??Using complicated, mind-numbing games:?

The eLearning development companies must also refrain from using partially solved games in the courses because they confuse the learners. These games are those games in which the results can’t be predicted from all the positions, like chess.

It is better to use simpler games such as drag and drop in an elearning design.??

When elearning development companies don’t consider cognitive overload in a design, it can cause anxiety for the learners. This can be because students find it tough to use computers and/or may not understand the language of a course. In fact, due to such reasons, students avoid online learning.??

There is a grave symptom of cognitive overload, which teachers should notice. For example, the students might not be able to score well on assessments because they can’t recall what they have learned. There is too much information presented to them, and they can’t remember it.??

There are 3 kinds of cognitive overload which the elearning development companies should take care of: ?

1. Intrinsic Overload:First is the intrinsic load which refers to how complicated or advanced a topic is. For example, for a lot of people, physics is tough to understand no matter how it is taught. Hence, studying this subject exposes a brain to a certain amount of cognitive stress. ?
2. Extraneous overload: It refers to the way information is given to a learner for processing. For example, if the information is presented through infographics or videos, the processing becomes easier for a learner rather than when it’s presented in the form of text only. The elearning development companies can ensure that they use infographics or diagrams in the course wherever possible.
3. ?Germane overload: This is the way the brain organizes the information in the form of mental schemas. Everybody’s brain has a different way to grasp information and store it in the form of a structure. He/she uses this structure while recalling information to solve issues.

Companies have to understand that nobody mastered the rocket science in a day or any other concept for that matter. You can’t ensure that employees learn a new software in a day in a 2 hours long session.

Although this is practical because the employees might not get time easily but they can only learn when they are taught n the form of shorter lessons at intervals of 1-2 weeks. Hence elearning development companies must use the concept of cognitive overload while designing content.