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Too much information is never good and even counterproductive. Nevertheless, this is one of the biggest pitfalls that trainers make when they create e-learning.
We've all experienced feeling overwhelmed. A huge to-do list is waiting for us, a colleague asks us to “pick this up too”, and our inbox explodes. Not a nice feeling. When you feel overwhelmed, you feel like you've lost control.
Perhaps you have also taken a course, subject, or course where you had this overwhelming feeling. There was an awful lot of material to delve into and you had the feeling that you would never have enough time to get the most out of it. And be honest: how easy and tempting is it to throw in the towel?
When you develop an e-learning, you naturally want to prevent your students from feeling so overwhelmed that they go through your online training with an uncomfortable or tense feeling, or even kick the bucket.
In this blog, we discuss why we feel overwhelmed and provide you with a number of tools to help you prevent your student from experiencing this in your e-learning.
According to the Cognitive Load Theory Students can only effectively absorb and retain information if this information is provided in such a way that it does not “overload” their mental capacity.
In other words, our short-term memory, or working memory, can only hold a certain amount of information at a time (rather than an infinite amount of data).
The more information provided at once, the greater the chance that the students will not learn 100% effectively and the information who they learn, are unable to use them effectively later in their daily life or work practice.
In our long-term memory, where we store information from our working memory and where we later get that information from, information is organised in diagrams, which can be seen as filing cabinets.
If we take the capacity of working memory into account when developing e-learning and do not exceed it, it is more likely that the information from the working memory will actually be stored in long-term memory.
We are often tempted to repeat important information. Of course, it's important to emphasise important information, but you don't have to repeat it endlessly.
For all information that you add to your online training, check whether this information is of added value. If not, omit the information.
You can always develop further training, or add this information as an “extra”, giving the student the choice whether or not to take in the information.
Also be careful with illustrations: if these do not illustrate the teaching material, but are only intended for decoration, for example: remove them.
From reading endless texts to watching endlessly long movies: this can also cause a sense of overwhelm.
The end is just not in sight. Therefore, alternate. Alternate text and video with audio clips, for example: this prevents your students from having to process too many visual stimuli, for example, but also being able to listen and relax their eyes and the visual part of their brain in between, but still taking in information.
Short videos and short texts are much more effective than longer texts and videos. Microlearning consists of small, manageable pieces of information that are aimed at achieving a certain learning goal.
Often, these pieces of information are cast in an attractive media format such as a podcast, gifs, videos, quizzes, etc.
As a result, the information is easily and quickly accessible from various devices such as a laptop, tablet and phone and can be learned in the blink of an eye and in just a few minutes.
Prevent students from feeling overwhelmed by “the technology”.
For example, make sure that important information such as “FAQs” or a support button is always in the same place within the learning environment. It is also important that the lessons have a recurring format, that students recognise and what they can count on.
It also helps to mention the reading or watching time at the top of each video or piece of text, so that the student knows exactly where they stand.
Pluvo has also been developed to provide a clear structure for your student. The clear structure and layout have been developed for user-friendliness and support.
Do you also want to develop an e-learning course yourself, but do you want to avoid overwhelming your student? We are happy to think along with you about how you can best develop your e-learning. Create a free account to discover Pluvo!
