Chunks of Info.

Chunking Information: "

If we ran a contest for the favorite esoteric word of Instructional Designers, the term “chunking” might win. It’s one of those terms you never hear until you enter the world of online learning or writing for the Internet. Chunking is a great concept that’s worth diving into, so let’s examine the purpose of chunking and how to accomplish it.

Chunking Defined

Chunking refers to the strategy of breaking down information into bite-sized pieces (Oh, that’s the visual!) so the brain can more easily digest new information. The reason the brain needs this assistance is because working memory, which is the equivalent of being mentally online, holds a limited amount of information at one time.

Why We Chunk Content

George A. Miller formulated the chunk concept in 1956, as he presented evidence that working memory is limited in capacity. Although Miller stated that working memory could hold seven (plus or minus two) chunks of information at once, it is now thought that the number is closer to three or four. Also, cognitive researchers now know that the capacity of working memory depends on the type of information, the features of the information and the abilities of the person under experimentation.

The pearl of wisdom here is that if a learner’s working memory is full, the excess information will just drop out—as in disappear. That’s a big challenge for a course designer. It means that if you are explaining something complex and the learner must hold several factors in mind to understand it, you’ll need to chunk information into, well … bite-sized pieces.

Chunking for eLearning

Chunking is particularly important for online learning. Without an instructor to answer questions and to guide the learning process, eLearning content has to be organized in a logical and progressive way through chunking. Chunking doesn’t only work for your typical linear instruction, it also works for learning objects, for non-linear approaches to learning as well as discovery learning, because it groups together conceptually related information. Content that is conceptually related is meaningful, making it easier to understand.

Strategies for Chunking

Now that we can proudly say our working memories are basically sieves, what strategies can eLearning designers implement to overcome this?

Have a Solid Internal Structure. Use a chunking strategy while determining the content hierarchy of a course. As you determine how modules, lessons and topics will be organized into a logical and progressive order, start with large chunks of conceptually related content and use these as your modules. Divide modules into smaller related chunks and these will become your lessons. Continue with this process until content is broken down to the topic level. As you become more familiar with the content, fine tune the internal structure.

Chunk at the Screen Level. When you have a solid internal structure, organize the content so each screen consists of one chunk of related information. Depending on how you design, this could be at the topic level, at the detailed learning objective level or at the concept level. As a guiding rule, avoid introducing multiple topics, learning objectives or concepts at one time.

Also, think in terms of working memory. Will the chunk of content require the learner to hold more than a few things in memory at one time in order to understand it? If so, break it down again. Fortunately, the visuals and text in multimedia courses can lessen the demands on working memory.

Turn Bits into Chunks. If you have lots of unrelated facts, then you have to chunk in the opposite direction. In this case, use any strategy that turns individual bits of information into meaningful chunks. Working memory is just as willing to hold four chunks of information as it is to hold four bits of information. For example, you can remember four letters as well as four words. By finding ways to group together small bits of information into a chunk and you’ll help learners process more at one time.

Related Articles:

Less Is More

10 Relevant Facts About The Brain

[Reference: Link to George Miller's milestone article from 1956: The Magical Number Seven.]

Post from: The eLearning Coach