Jennifer Maddrell

Instructional-Design-Live#21 2010-06-11 Revisiting Cognitive Overload

Robert Squires - Sat, 2010-06-12 03:41

stroop test

 

Arlene Walker-Andrews, Associate Provost and Psychology Professor at the University of Montana, discusses how cognitive capacitiesand the ability to attend to information need not be considered as limited. In other words, cognitive overload need not exist. This suggests interesting implications for the design of instruction that is both scaffolded and learner-centered. Some great analogies and resources.

Stroop Test

Having recently discussed the need to avoid cognitive overload in online courses, we take a step back to consider whether or not cognitive overload is actually an issue. As Arlene Walker-Andrews, Associate Provost and Psychology Professor at the University of Montana, points out: “I do not believe that attention and cognitive capacities are limited. In my view, attention shouldn’t be considered a finite resource, rather it should be characterized as “attending,” which suggests flexible, skilled action. Recent theories about attention suggest that although not all stimuli are analyzed, nonattended stimuli are not all filtered out and their impact on learning and memory will vary depending on relevance and/or personal experience.” Great stuff!

Join Arlene and the ID team this week to listen to what this means for individualizing the learning experience and tailoring instructional strategies to the cognitive abilities of learners.

 

 

Avaliable on the Web

Arlene's Notes for the Discussion

 

Chat Transcipt: Jun 11, 2010 10:05:22 AM - IDL 21: COGNITIVE OVERLOAD 'REVISITED'
 
 

Taxonomy upgrade extras:

Instructional-Design-Live#20 2010-06-04 The LMS and Learning

Robert Squires - Thu, 2010-06-10 07:51

I hate Blackboard

Join the ID live team this week as we discuss the practical implications of using a centralized Learning Management System to manage the online learning experienece. The position of Jon Mott and David Wiley is discussed: http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/IR&CISOPTR=7...

Mott and Wiley Quote

Taxonomy upgrade extras:

Edtechtalk 84

dave - Sun, 2010-06-06 12:00

In a special 5th Anniversary episode of EdTechTalk, Dave and Jeff reminisce about the first webcast on the EdTechTalk channel back on June 5, 2005, as well as events that have shaped the community ever since. John, Doug, Jennifer, and the folks in the chat room add their favorite ETT stories and milestones.

 

EdTechTalk #84

June 5, 2010

In a special 5th Anniversary episode of EdTechTalk, Dave and Jeff reminisce about the first webcast on the EdTechTalk channel back on June 5, 2005, as well as events that have shaped the community ever since. John, Doug, Jennifer, and the folks in the chat room add their favorite ETT stories and milestones.

Taxonomy upgrade extras:

Instructional-Design-Live#19 2010-05-21 Authentic Assessment

Robert Squires - Sat, 2010-05-22 06:56

what is authentic assessmentThis week, Mary Engstrom, senior instructional designer at the University of Montana, discusses a framework for implementing authentic tasks and assessments in online courses. The discussion turns to a number of practical suggestions for implementing tasks that provide learners with opportunities to develop skills applicable in real life as well as the ability to monitor their own learning. And ultimately, escape from the experience of high-stakes multiple choics exams→

Authentic assessment is within the reach of most online instructors. It's just a matter of starting small and considering some basic principles in designing effective learning experiences, notes Mary Engstrom, senior instructional designer at the University of Montana. Mary discusses a framework for developing authentic tasks and identifies a number of examples.

Taxonomy upgrade extras:

Instructional-Design-Live#18 2010-05-14 Avoiding Overload in Online Courses

Robert Squires - Sat, 2010-05-15 08:02

The capacity of working memory is limited, Miller (1956) would say to 7 items +/- 2 and the ability to process between 2-4 tasks simultaneously. Long-tern memroy is essentially unlimited. If we follow cognitive load theory, the task is to devise learning so that it falls into an area where it can be processed into the long term memory in the form of schemata. The discussion this week focusses on the findings of cognitive load theory in terms of designing effective materials and online courses for students. Questions abound, so we may revisit this at a later date.

Cognitive Load

As part of a series that focusses on practical strategies for designing effective online courses, the IDL team focus on how to avoid cognitive overload this week.

Cognitive Load

 

We discussed a numberof practical suggestions from experience and the research and indulged a little in information overload. Lots of good discussion and resources!

Taxonomy upgrade extras:

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Jennifer Maddrell