Cognitive Considerations

Cognitive Considerations

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Organize your course so that students navigate through the instructional content and assessments with ease. Modules are a great place to start.

Variety, Chunking, Scaffolding, & Prioritizing

A variety of types of content should be used, text, images, videos, links to outside resources. This helps break up the cognitive load of the content and chunk it into more consumable portions for students. Also, some content is just better communicated through different means.

Content should be scaffolded. Begin with more generalized information and build on it to guide students to understanding and working with more complex concepts. Avoid being a content hoarder. There’s a lot that can be said about any given subject and a lot of great resources on any topic but too much content can work against learning. Include information and resources that get at the heart of what you’re trying to communicate to students. Focus on the intended learning.