1. Improving courses and resources by applying Cognitive Load Theory
The CAFÉ Toolkit:
Improving courses and resources by applying Cognitive Load Theory
Dr Raina Mason

6. Cognitive Load Theory UNSW in mid to late 1980’s
John Sweller (and others)
Cognition and education
Early work in maths and physics
Schools, vocational/industrial training

7. Modal model of memory (reproduced/
modified from Cooper 1998, with permission)
Capacity: unrelated elements
4 interrelated elements
Duration: a few seconds
Schema – help us to manipulate larger payloads of information in working memory.

8. Managing cognitive load
Reduce non-necessary (extraneous) load
Promote learning load (germane load)
Avoid overload
CL = function of
Content complexity / element interactivity
presentation of content
Student’s prior expertise

9. Segmentation effect
Modality effect
Split attention effect
Redundancy effect
Worked examples effect
Faded worked examples
Goal-free effect
Sub-goal effect
Self-explanations
Mental rehearsal
Priming
Expertise reversal effect
… and more

10. “Theories of cognition such as Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller 1999) have been used to develop successful principles of instructional design in other complex domains (for example, see Van Merrienboer et al., 2006). Cognitive Load Theory has previously demonstrated the negative impact that can accrue from split attention (Tarmizi and Sweller, 1988) and redundant information (Mayer et al., 2001). Such studies have typically required students to attend to the ‘complete’ set of information presented. In the context of learning programming there are elements of information that are presented on screen – within the environment – that are irrelevant to the task(s) at hand. Even though such elements may reside outside of the task activities undertaken by students, this paper argues that these may effectively become a source of split attention or redundancy through tacit distraction and thus impede learning.”

11. Air conditioning

12. Air conditioning
Condensing Coil: refrigerant cooled by air flowing across the condenser coils and condensed into a liquid.
Expansion Valve: refrigerant undergoes an abrupt reduction in pressure which further lowers its temperature
Evaporator Coil: warm air blows over the coil to produce cold air
Compressor: pressure and temperature of refrigerant is increased

13. Reduces pressure which further lowers its temperature
cooled by air flowing across the condenser coils and condensed into a liquid
warm air blows over this to produce cold air
pressure and temperature of refrigerant is increased

14. Case studies Database Systems (2nd year unit)
Failure rate of exam: 42% before redevelopment; 8% afterwards
Student satisfaction (from 5): > 4.58
Mason, R., Seton, C. & Cooper, G (2016) Applying Cognitive Load Theory to the redesign of a conventional Database Systems course, Computer Science Education, 26(1), p68-87, Routledge.

15. Case studies First year programming course Small changes
Participation rate improvement: eg: first assessment 70% -> 93%
Mean performance on every assessment task improved (between 6 – 8%)
Failure rate for unit reduced by 19% of cohort
Paper currently under review
Many other units

16. John Sweller 2016
“[Cognitive Load Theory] was largely ignored in Australia—where it continues to be ignored.”
Sweller, J. (2016). Story of a Research Program. In S. Tobias, J. D. Fletcher, & D. C. Berliner (Series eds.), Acquired Wisdom Series. Education Review, 23.

17. The CAFÉ Toolkit

18. Programming redevelopment

19. Programming redevelopment

20. Join the Conversation
#QUES2016 on Twitter
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