Upload, Download, Overload! An Empirical Study of Organization and Design Factors Contributing to Overload in Online Learning

Students often complain of overload in online learning environments. This session considers factors such as students’ past online experience, the organization and relevance of online information, and level of task difficulty, all of which can contribute to students’ reports of overload. Participants were tested in various experimental conditions that manipulated the organization and relevance on online material that students had to learn. Findings suggest that busy online environments negatively impact experienced Web-savvy students and that hypertext environments negatively impact all students. Literature that helps explain these surprising findings and considers variables that impact online learning is examined.