How to design courses to address cognitive impairment
Cognitive impairment can take many forms. These affect how people think, process and remember information. However, this does not mean that they are not capable. That means understanding and keeping information can be a little more complicated. Consider conditions such as dyslexia, ADHD, and memory impairment. Each has its own challenges, but they all share one thing. When we talk about the accessibility of e-learning, we tend to think only about visual and hearing impairments, which is important, but cognitive impairments require equal attention.
E-learning can be challenging for people with cognitive impairments. This is because many online courses are self-paced and lacking a clear structure, which makes it seem that learners with cognitive impairment have been lost. Next, there are very interactive lessons that can cause cognitive overload. The good thing is that this can be changed with proper adjustments to the educational design. Below we explore how to design a course so that everyone can learn freely, regardless of their cognitive needs.
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What challenges could a learner with cognitive impairment face?
The difficulty of information processing
Presenting a wealth of information at once to learners with cognitive impairment can be overwhelming. This is called “cognitive load,” and if it is too high, even the most motivated learners can feel exhausted and confused. The more complex and dense the content, the more time they don’t have time to actually digest it, they try to understand it.
Memory and retention issues
For people with cognitive impairments, it may be common to lose focus or forget what they have learned. So they may find e-learning is pointless. No matter how engaging and well-structured the content of the course is, they forget what they have learned, then go back to refresh their memories. Without some tools and resources to help you remember past material, learners lose confidence as they need to continue relearn things.
Attention and focus
Focusing on complex or long content is challenging for people with cognitive limitations. There are many distractions, especially in e-learning. Their loss of focus ranges from long texts and complex explanations to lack of general tasks and course structures, resulting in them trying to understand what they should do and at what pace they do. For learners with cognitive impairment, this can be too much, and they become lose interest quickly.
Problem-solving and critical thinking
Cognitive impairment means processing, analyzing and understanding things is not always smooth. This makes you unable to follow complex instructions, find it difficult to remember important points, apply what you’ve learned, and prioritize tasks. Therefore, they do not resolve the problem or make decisions.
Unclear instructions
Unclear instructions are disaster recipes when offering lessons to people with cognitive disabilities. This lack of clarity can hurt confidence, as learners spend more time trying to understand the given instructions than they actually learn the material. But what does unclear instructions mean? We are talking about technical terms, complicated phrases, general explanations, and even lack of examples.
Tips for creating lessons that address memory and retention in eLearning
Use a simplified language
If you want people with cognitive disabilities to remember what you are teaching, give mistakes in complicated phrases and terminology. We’re not oversimplifying things, we’re going into detail about making sure the content is clear. Start by using daily language and avoiding industry-specific terms. The same applies to the sentence. It’s shortened because it’s easy to process. Overall, it’s easy to remember simple words and three-word sentences when studying, and holds what you’ve learned from lessons, assignments, or tasks.
Chunk information
Divide content into small sections allows learners to process it little by little without getting information overload. Each chunk is small information, enough to earn points, but not enough to cause your brain to lose focus. For example, instead of one long lesson with dense text, we provide a short module with summary such as microlearning. After one section, we provide a brief summary so that the knowledge stays with the learner. The chunks allow learners to pause, come back and remember where they actually left off.
Supports memory and retention
Repeating and reinforcing e-learning is key to remembering everything you just learned. For those struggling with memory, repeated and regular reviews can help them maintain their knowledge. First, let’s talk about repeating intervals. This involves reviewing content at intervals over time rather than delivering everything at once. For example, every few days, it provides learners with a quiz on important concepts. Interactive quizzes give learners the opportunity to engage and review content. Next, think about the recall prompt and concept review. These can be pop-ups regularly throughout the course, reminding learners of concepts and terms.
Provide clear instructions
Learners with cognitive impairment may struggle when unclear instructions are presented. As mentioned above, you want to use a simplified language. Next, at the start of every lesson, map your expectations, including what they learn and what the goals of each course are. Similarly, when providing tasks and assignments, it leaves no room for misunderstanding. If you use examples and know what they should always do, that’s the best. After all, you can easily remember the content when you connect to a specific example.
Provides adaptive learning options
Adaptive Learning adjusts the difficulty and pace of content based on each learner’s progress, ensuring that it is not left behind. Let’s talk about the quiz. Even if someone fails, adaptive learning analyses performance, recognizes that more practice may be required, and provides additional resources tailored just for them. When it comes to progressing through modules, adaptive learning analyzes the pace and adjusts it to allow learners to spend more time in the subject line or move faster past what they have already learned.
Add guided practice
Memory and retention are some of the biggest challenges for learners with cognitive impairment, so we need to talk about guided practices and scaffolding learning. How do they work? Instead of providing learners with a wealth of information, it provides resources that can help them navigate concepts. These are tips, examples, and step-by-step guides that guide learners through complex content. This way, they feel confident and make it easier to remember things. For example, create a guided module that allows learners to practice basic concepts before diving into advanced sections.
Conclusion
Accessible e-learning strategies do not only support learners with cognitive impairments. They enhance the overall learning experience for everyone. When education designers simplify language, chunk information and provide clear instructions, they create a more engaging environment that benefits all students. These approaches reduce cognitive load and make it easier for everyone to absorb and retain information. Therefore, as an education designer and educator, you need to prioritize the memory and retention capabilities of your course. By adopting the comprehensive strategies mentioned above, you can create a more meaningful learning experience that will allow all students to achieve their goals despite their limitations.
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