Design and Evaluation of Mobile Learning from the Perspective of Cognitive Load Management

Introduction

The advancement of mobile learning technologies have provided abundant opportunities for learners around the world to identify, search, retrieve, apply, evaluate, and synthesize information “on the go.” Learning, to a large extent, will be transformed into multiple “anytime and anywhere” events that can be fully controlled by the learners. In other words, temporal as well as spatial constraints will no longer be relevant for the learning processes to occur. Earlier research has embraced this seemingly boundary-less framework for mobile learning.

Recent studies on mobile learning further demonstrated diverse interests by covering topics related to gender difference, game-based learning, user-centered human-computer interface in mobile contexts, design recommendations for small screens, and applying Android apps in formal education settings. While all these examples largely illustrate the diversity of mobile learning in various learning contexts, the majority of mobile learning studies to date rarely address issues related to learners’ cognitive processing that are vulnerable to many extraneous stimuli from both virtual as well as physical environments. Consequently several challenges have emerged that discount the potential impact of mobile learning that could permeates through conventional educational boundaries in our societies.

To address the aforementioned concern, this chapter intends to first identify the strengths and weaknesses inherent with mobile learning grounded in a review of recent scholarly work with a specific grounding in Cognitive Load Theory. Second, the chapter will identify the emerging challenges that could impede a ubiquitous integration of mobile learning across educational levels that are mostly bounded by techno-centric perspectives as opposed to sound pedagogical rationales anchored in cognitive learning processing. Finally the chapter will propose a design framework to address the lack of emphasis on cognitive processing in mobile learning environments.