Mobile Learning Application Interfaces: First Steps to a Cognitive Load Aware System.

Mobile learning is a cognitively demanding application and more frequently the ubiquitous nature of mobile computing means that mobile devices are used in cognitively demanding environments. This paper examines the nature of this use of mobile devices from a Learning, Usability and Cognitive Load Theory perspective. It suggests scenarios where these fields interact and presents an experiment which determined that several sources of cognitive load can be measured simultaneously by the learner. The experiment also looked at the interaction between these cognitive load types and found that a distraction did not affect the performance or cognitive load associated with a learning task but it did affect the perception of the cognitive load associated with using the application interface. This paper concludes by suggesting ways in which mobile learning (and mobile computing) can benefit by developing cognitive load aware systems that could detect and change the difficulty of the learning task based on the cognitive state of the learner.

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