Comprehensive Individualized Curriculum and Instructional Design

Shaping the Looks and Sounds of CAPs The CTML is grounded in cognitive load theory (Chandler & Sweller, 1991), which states that all humans are subject to cognitive overload when capacity in working memory is overwhelmed by environmental stimuli. This theory also builds upon Paivio’s (1986) dual processing principle (people learn using visual and auditory inputs), and Baddeley’s (1986) model of working memory (people remember about three seconds worth of auditory and visuospatial information, respectively, without taking explicit cognitive action to remember it). Multimedia instruction is a known perpetrator of overwhelming viewers with fast-paced, visually rich, instructionally redundant features that make no explicit effort to structure content so that viewers have time for processing (Clark, 2009; 1983; Mayer, 2009). The CTML and accompanying instructional design principles help instructors do a better job of creating instruction that is a match for how people learn (Mayer, 2009). Figure 2 contains a rubric used by Kennedy, Aronin, Newton, O’Neal, and Thomas (2014) to score CAPs’ adherence to Mayer’s instructional design principles. This rubric is simple, but it can help an instructor carefully study each of Mayer’s principles and consider how it influences the looks and sounds of instruction throughout a CAP. Before attempting to create a CAP, we recommend careful study of Mayer’s principles and use of the rubric to evaluate multimedia currently being used to teach students. 121