Extraneous
processing is a concept that describes extra, redundant information in a
multimedia presentation. When the cognitive processing center of the
brain has to focus on too many words, too many graphics or sound or any
other stimulation, cognitive memory is “wasted” and often leads to
misunderstanding of material. According to Clark and Mayer, evident
suggest that the ability to transfer material to new concepts increases
monumentally with the omission of extra processing information (2011).
This is particularly important for JIT Training methods because often
the material being presented is time sensitive and the lesson has been
derived from an immediate need for instruction. The Department of
Education in Texas designs competency requirements for this reason,
aligning specifc target goals based on similar identifying factors.
There
are several principles that can be applied to help reduce the instances
where extraneous processing occurs. The text defines several
principles that help to enhance the creation and productivity of online
instructional design. The principles that help eliminate the instance of
extraneous processing are as follows:
1)
The Redundancy Principle: This principle claims that it is important to
repeat information to acquire new information. The human brain
internalizes information that has been seen, heard or evaluated multiple
times (Clark & Mayer, 2011). However, it is important to ensure
that principles are addressed repetitively, but in exclusion from other
principles. As long as the information is relevant to the task at hand,
it can be properly channeled and acquired through the human mind.
2)
The Coherence Principle states the obvious fact that instructional
designers should only include information that is directly relevant to
the learning objective ( Clark & Mayer, 2011). For example, if I
were to design a training manual for the methods of scheduling a new
patient appointment, including information on how to schedule a follow
up appointment would be irrelevant. Only including information directly
related to the objective will increase retention and overall learning.
3)
The Contiguity Principle claims that words and graphics should be
closely aligned on the same page, or close to each other (Clark &
Mayer, 2011). If a heading is on one page, and the photo on another,
extraneous processing takes place attempting to link these items
together. To avoid that processing, simply aligning media and words
together will help increase coherence and understanding, leaving little
room for distraction or confusion.
Overall,
the current course has been cohesive and easy to follow. However, the
Instructor guidance page is filled with a lot of information. In
previous courses, the information would have been broken down with
several articles to read, supplemented by screencast information from
the instructor on what was expected. The amount of words and visuals
including video combined make it difficult to navigate through all of
the material. In order to conceptualize and understand the material
presented I simply break it down based on assignments, to avoid
extraneous processing and misunderstanding.
References
Clark, R. C. & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-Learning and the science of instruction (3rd ed). San Francisco. Pfeiffer
