ICT-based assessment of cognitive load in chemistry learning

Abstract

The article is devoted to studying and preventing an excessive increase in the cognitive load of university students studying chemistry using various electronic resources. The experiment involved 49 third-year students of the Faculty of Chemistry who studied organic chemistry. A homemade software was developed to measure the level of cognitive load using the secondary problem method. Cognitive load levels were studied depending on the types of used electronic resources. The studied resource types are texts of different levels of complexity, audio and visual materials in different combinations. The load values were measured for each respondent, expressed in relative quantitative units and averaged over the whole student group. In parallel, the preferred learning styles among the respondents were identified according to the Index of Learning Style of Felder-Soloman. A correlation was established between the preferred learning styles of students and the cognitive load they feel when working with electronic resources. The factors that affect an optimal set of educational resources were identified for student groups with various learning profiles. The results of factor analysis allowed the authors to assess the contribution of different learning styles in the formation of cognitive load in the use of different electronic resources. The techniques described in this article allow one to control cognitive load, predict and prevent its excessive increase.