Instructional Design Effects by Megan Byers

(Example) Goal-Free Effect

mbyersinstructstem — 2023-06-05 15:06:24 UTC

The goal-free effect takes place when learners are given open-ended problems and asked to find as many solutions for the problem as they can think of. Whereas a means-to-an-end type of analysis requires a significant amount of working memory capacity, when no goal state is provided, learners as able to derive solutions as they consider different aspects of the problem.

This goal-free analysis promotes knowledge construction and germane cognitive load.

One example of how this could be used in the classroom would be giving geometry students a triangle with certain side and angle measurements and asking them to solve for the remainder of the measurements as opposed to a specific one.

Guidance Fading Effect

2023-12-12 16:15:04 UTC

I understand this effect to involve more hands-on guidance in the beginning of the course or instructional period then gradually giving the students less guidance as they gain more knowledge.

At first, when the students are learning the topic and intrinsic load is high, the teacher can reduce extrinsic load by giving more guidance on the material and activities. As the students become more familiar and comfortable with the topic, then their intrinsic load naturally decreases. To promote germane load, the teacher can then give less guidance so that the students can become more autonomous with their newfound knowledge.

For example, when teaching about experimental design to a group of high school students, I first walked them through examples of each step of experimental design. Then once they were familiar with each step and knew the types of examples I provided, I had them come up with examples themselves. Finally, they had to explain how they applied the experimental design process in their own experimental report.

Isolated elements effect

2023-12-19 15:43:35 UTC

Isolated elements involves teaching parts separately and then explaining the connection between them to present the full concept. By presenting single elements one at a time and then connecting them, instead of presenting them all at once, this reduces the effort needed to be undertaken by working memory. Isolating elements manages intrinsic load by segmenting a complicated subject and also minimizes extrinsic load by presenting information in a more digestible manner. I used this effect in a lesson I gave to high school students about a particular enzyme I study. First, I showed them what effect the enzyme had on other proteins of interest. Then, I explained how the enzyme functioned. I was able to bridge the concepts of "this enzyme controls these downstream proteins through this mechanism" by separating the concept into the elements "this enzyme controls these proteins" and "here is how the enzyme functions".

Collective Working Memory Effect

2024-01-10 22:27:35 UTC

Collective working memory represents the overall knowledge of learners working in a group. With this, working memory ability is spread across multiple group members which should decrease cognitive load for any one individual.

I would relate this to intrinsic cognitive load because using collective working memory would manage intrinsic cognitive load. Ideally, we would want to manage this type of cognitive load.

An example: In a group assignment that requires dissecting and presenting an empirical research article, collective working memory can be used to manage the intrinsic complexity of the article by spreading the work load and accessing shared knowledge among group members. Ideally, fi one group member is unsure, another may be able to step in and/or they could work together to figure out the next step and/or further distill the information.

Transient Information

2024-01-22 17:51:44 UTC

Transient Information is having material that is retained or displayed for a limited amount of time. To me, this is like working memory in cognitive architecture or the idea that there is a limited amount of material which can be temporarily stored in your working memory for active use. It is most closely related to extrinsic cognitive load and the goal of transient information is to minimize extrinsic cognitive load. This can be used in the classroom to explain complex topics by breaking it down into smaller, less complex parts. For example, if I was teaching a lecture about cell cycle, rather than presenting the whole cycle as one large diagram, I could break cell cycle down into each phase. This could even be further broken down to what the phase is/what it includes, things that positively regulate that phase, and things that negatively regulate that phase.

Modality Effect

2024-01-23 19:56:26 UTC

Modality refers to combining different routes to present new information (ie. visual, auditory, hands on). The goal of this is to increase working memory based on the idea that you can have different subdivided processing capacities (ie. you have verbal/auditory working memory, visual working memory, hands on working memory instead of just an overall working memory). This ultimately manages cognitive load by creating redundancy in learning materials in different ways, as not everyone learns the same way. An example of this in a teaching setting could be using a slide deck (visual) with images/depictions at the same time as you lecture on the topic (auditory). For example, instead of just trying to verbally explain the process of how antibodies bind to pathogens to neutralize them (and leaving it up to the student to form an idea of what that looks like), you could include a picture showing a labeled diagram of the process of antibody opsonization and cellular phagocytosis.

Self Explanation

2024-02-05 00:48:27 UTC

Self Explanation provides learners with the opportunity to summarize an idea or something they have worked through in class in their own words. This ability to go beyond rote memorization and repetition signals a higher level of comprehension. This exercise itself is an example of self-explanation and is most closely related to promoting germane cognitive load. In the classroom, students may be asked to summarize a concept from the preclass materials, or information that was presented at the beginning of class.

Completion Problem Effect

2024-02-08 22:30:01 UTC

The Completion Problem Effect extends off of the Worked Example Effect but instead leaves blank spaces for students to solve parts of the problem themselves. This is most related to Germane load because students are asked to apply problem solving skills and participate in active learning. We want to promote this type of cognitive load. This can be used on coding assignments in which parts of the code are provided for the student and other parts are left blank for them to fill in.

Split-Attention Effect

2024-02-21 17:42:43 UTC

The split-attention effect is when learners must split their attention between two sources of materials and integrate both to understand the information. This effect demonstrates that the working memory load of instructional materials is important to keep in mind while designing materials.The extrinsic load caused by the split-attention effect should be minimized. For example, a learner might be given text and a diagram to answer a question. To minimize the split-attention effect, both the information from the text and diagram could be integrated so there is only one source.

Image Source:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334968784_Instructional_Visualizations_Cognitive_Load_Theory_and_Visuospatial_Processing/figures?lo=1