Designing learner control in instructional software: a lens of 'time spent on tasks' to determine the mental effort

This study aims to determine the relationships between mental effort and the use of learner controls while working with instructional software. Various versions of instructional software including control components were developed to examine this relationship. Twenty-four secondary school students participated in the study and studied with instructional software including different controls in the content pages. All content pages consisted of the content area, image area, and control panel components. Five different page templates including different positions of these components were placed on the pages. Quantitative data were gathered from the cognitive load scale and the time spent on tasks was used for measuring the mental effort spent on the tasks in the software. The results indicated that students who used more controls spent more mental effort. Along with the study findings, the factors affecting the perceptions of cognitive load regarding the time spent on the controls were discussed. Implications were suggested for designers within the cognitive effects of learner control.