3️⃣Floor 3 - Simplify to Engage: Reducing Cognitive Load
Going up!
Students may not be engaging in the learning experience because of how much wading through extraneous information they have to do to find the information that they need to engage. Cognitive load is the total amount of mental effort required to complete a task or learn new information. It's important for teaching because overloading students' minds can hinder their ability to absorb and understand new material. On this floor of the elevator, explore the strategies for reducing cognitive load for our students, so that they can absorb the new material that we're teaching them.
Simplify Text
Think about all the places that you use text to communicate with your students: announcements, Canvas pages, assignment instructions, lecture slides, etc. Much of the text is just distracting from what you actually want students to get from the slide. Use these principles:
- Less is more
- Replace text with relevant images
- Use a simple, clean, consistent template
- Remember that white space allows for breathing room
- Use bold for emphasis, and that's it.
Ways to Simplify Text in Your Course
- Remove redundant text from course materials
- Remove unnecessary links from your course navigation menu
- Use clear and concise language that avoids jargon and overly complex sentences
- Add subheadings to help learners scan the text
Resources to dig into:
- TBD
Chunking
Breaking down text into smaller, manageable sections, or "chunks," significantly enhances readability and comprehension. This approach helps readers process information more efficiently, reduces cognitive load and makes it easier to retain the key points. By presenting information in chunks, we're creating more organized and visually appealing layout, which can keep readers engaged and allow them to scan for important details.
Benefits of chunking your text:
- Improved comprehension
- Enhanced focus
- Better organization
- Increased engagement
- Easier skimming
- Reduced cognitive load
Ways to chunk your content
- Use headings to format sections headings of your content.
- Use modules to organize your content into weeks at a time.
Resources to dig into
Curate
Oftentimes there is such an abundance of information on a topic, that we can overwhelm our students by providing it all to them instead of curating the content for them. By carefully selecting the content that we think would be most relevant for our students we're helping our students' chances of staying engaged.
Ways to Curate Your Content
- Select the best, omit the rest
- Organize content into manageable chunks (see previous tab)
- Each piece of content (file, link, etc.) that you share with students, should have a brief introduction that explains why the resource is relevant to the broader topic.
- Instead of adding links to modules directly, add your links to a page where that brief explanation can be given.
- Use descriptive hyperlinks rather than raw URLs. This will give learners a clear idea of what to expect before they click.
Resources to dig into
- Please explore the Cult of Pedagogy (blog post) Links to an external site. to find these and to explore more curation strategies for you to put into practice.
Reduce Busywork
We should be assigning our students work for a reason. The activities we ask of our students should help the student achieve the learning objectives that we're aiming for. Busywork is work that is not aligned to student learning outcomes and doesn't help our students learn the material. Since busywork can overwhelm students with unnecessary details, it makes it harder for them to focus on what's really important. Here are a few ways to reduce busywork, making coursework more effective, and more enjoyable for students.
Ways to Reduce Busywork
- Review your assignments to ensure that they align directly with the course objectives. If an activity doesn't contribute to these goals, consider removing it.
- Be transparent with students. Tell them why you are having them do the activity you've assigned.
- Replace traditional busywork with active learning, problem-solving, and hands-on projects. These methods encourage deeper engagement and meaningful learning.
- Use grading rubrics that make expectations clear
Resources to dig into
- The Transparent Assignment Template Links to an external site. can improve transparency with assignments creating a clear connection to the purpose of the assignment.
- In this Cult of Pedagogy "Frickin' Packets" Links to an external site.blog post, the author distinguishes between busysheets and powersheets.
- ACUE Skeletal Outline Example Links to an external site.