CDLA · Module 2 — Learning science for digital media
Cognitive load theory: intrinsic, extraneous, and germane. Design spends working memory on the job, not on chrome.
About 18 min
Practice in the lesson player
Sorting, matching, quizzes, and the module gate stay behind a free account so scored answers are not public. The teaching notes below are the same cited curriculum.
01
John Sweller’s cognitive load theory starts from a constraint, not a style preference: working memory is limited. If a screen spends that budget on decoration, navigation puzzles, or simultaneous novelty, there is less left to build the skill the business asked for.
02
Intrinsic load: The difficulty inherent in this task for this learner — element interactivity. You manage it by sequencing and examples, not by deleting the job.
Extraneous load: Load created by poor design: split attention, redundant text-plus-narration, mystery-meat buttons, unrelated motion.
Germane load: Productive work of building schemas — comparing examples, retrieving, explaining. Protect this; do not confuse it with “more content.”
03
Each card is a production choice. Flip to see how a load-aware designer reads it.
Confetti on every correct click — Usually extraneous. Brief confirmation is enough; celebration that lasts competes with the next decision.
A worked example before the first attempt — Manages intrinsic load for novices. Experts may skip it (expertise reversal).
A diagram on the left, its labels in a scrolling panel on the right — Split attention — extraneous. Put labels on the diagram (spatial contiguity).
A pause to reconstruct the last decision from memory — Germane: retrieval practice. Roediger & Karpicke (2006) — not a forgetting-curve meme.