The effect of different design features in e-learning environments on students' achievement and cognitive load levels

The purpose of this thesis study is to determine the effect of factors stemming from the format and the content in e- learning environments on students' achievement level and to examine whether significant relationship exists between student achievement and student cognitive load.Quasi-experimental control group design was utilized as research design. The dependent variables of the study were student achievement scores received from cognitive load measurement tasks and cognitive load level; the independent variable was three e-learning courses designed based on different content design principles. The content offered to students in the control group in three different prepared media is the earlier course content used before. The content offered to students in the first experimental group is the course content prepared by following Mayer's nine principles to reduce cognitive load in multimedia learning environments. The content offered to students in the second experimental group consists of the course content prepared by following Mayer's principles and principles based on research studies aiming to reduce cognitive load stemming from formal and content of the course.The research was applied to 271 graduating students enrolled in Gazi University Distance Education Vocational School Computer Programming Department for the academic year 2010-2011 in the spring semester. E-learning scenarios consisted by designing the course System Analysis and Design in three different ways were used as the course content in three different sections of the department.In research, ANOVA and ANCOVA test was applied for the purpose of analyzing whether there is a significant difference between students' achievement scores and cognitive load scores in groups. Furthermore, the relationship between students' cognitive load levels and achievements was analyzed with Pearson Correlation Test.As a result of analyses, a negative significant relationship between student achievement and student cognitive load was found. o significant differences were found between control and experimental groups for the level of success and the dependent variables of the level of cognitive load..In the direction of results, new studies taking cognitive load and multimedia design principles into account need to arise especially in e-learning environments.Further, within the scope of thesis study, features about the content containing; color, sound, motion, page and screen layout, formal features composing of sort and font usage in texts and the length of sentences, repetition of information, the sequence of giving information, end of subject and chapter questions and subject classification were examined.These highlighted features are proposed to be used with new experimental studies and to be tested their effectiveness to bring a new approach about designing training materials not only in e-learning environments but also in all educational environments containing multimedia design.