Measuring cognitive load-a solution to ease learning of programming

Learning programming is difficult for many learners. Some researches have found that the main difficulty relates to cognitive load. Cognitive overload happens in programming due to the nature of the subject which is intrinisicly over-bearing on the working memory. It happens due to the complexity of...

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Main Authors: Yousoof, M., Sapiyan, M., Kamaluddin, K.
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Published: 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.um.edu.my/5681/
https://waset.org/journals/waset/v2/v2-41.pdf
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spelling my.um.eprints.56812013-04-16T01:36:20Z http://eprints.um.edu.my/5681/ Measuring cognitive load-a solution to ease learning of programming Yousoof, M. Sapiyan, M. Kamaluddin, K. T Technology (General) Learning programming is difficult for many learners. Some researches have found that the main difficulty relates to cognitive load. Cognitive overload happens in programming due to the nature of the subject which is intrinisicly over-bearing on the working memory. It happens due to the complexity of the subject itself. The problem is made worse by the poor instructional design methodology used in the teaching and learning process. Various efforts have been proposed to reduce the cognitive load, e.g. visualization softwares, part-program method etc. Use of many computer based systems have also been tried to tackle the problem. However, little success has been made to alleviate the problem. More has to be done to overcome this hurdle. This research attempts at understanding how cognitive load can be managed so as to reduce the problem of overloading. We propose a mechanism to measure the cognitive load during pre instruction, post instruction and in instructional stages of learning. This mechanism is used to help the instruction. As the load changes the instruction is made to adapt itself to ensure cognitive viability. This mechanism could be incorporated as a sub domain in the student model of various computer based instructional systems to facilitate the learning of programming. 2007 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed Yousoof, M. and Sapiyan, M. and Kamaluddin, K. (2007) Measuring cognitive load-a solution to ease learning of programming. In: World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology. https://waset.org/journals/waset/v2/v2-41.pdf
institution Universiti Malaya
building UM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaya
content_source UM Research Repository
url_provider http://eprints.um.edu.my/
topic T Technology (General)
spellingShingle T Technology (General)
Yousoof, M.
Sapiyan, M.
Kamaluddin, K.
Measuring cognitive load-a solution to ease learning of programming
description Learning programming is difficult for many learners. Some researches have found that the main difficulty relates to cognitive load. Cognitive overload happens in programming due to the nature of the subject which is intrinisicly over-bearing on the working memory. It happens due to the complexity of the subject itself. The problem is made worse by the poor instructional design methodology used in the teaching and learning process. Various efforts have been proposed to reduce the cognitive load, e.g. visualization softwares, part-program method etc. Use of many computer based systems have also been tried to tackle the problem. However, little success has been made to alleviate the problem. More has to be done to overcome this hurdle. This research attempts at understanding how cognitive load can be managed so as to reduce the problem of overloading. We propose a mechanism to measure the cognitive load during pre instruction, post instruction and in instructional stages of learning. This mechanism is used to help the instruction. As the load changes the instruction is made to adapt itself to ensure cognitive viability. This mechanism could be incorporated as a sub domain in the student model of various computer based instructional systems to facilitate the learning of programming.
format Conference or Workshop Item
author Yousoof, M.
Sapiyan, M.
Kamaluddin, K.
author_facet Yousoof, M.
Sapiyan, M.
Kamaluddin, K.
author_sort Yousoof, M.
title Measuring cognitive load-a solution to ease learning of programming
title_short Measuring cognitive load-a solution to ease learning of programming
title_full Measuring cognitive load-a solution to ease learning of programming
title_fullStr Measuring cognitive load-a solution to ease learning of programming
title_full_unstemmed Measuring cognitive load-a solution to ease learning of programming
title_sort measuring cognitive load-a solution to ease learning of programming
publishDate 2007
url http://eprints.um.edu.my/5681/
https://waset.org/journals/waset/v2/v2-41.pdf
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score 13.211869