How do you know if your instructional design is too complex?

1 Why complexity matters

Complexity is not inherently bad, but it can have negative consequences for learning if it is not aligned with your learning objectives, your students' prior knowledge, and your instructional strategies. Complexity can affect your students' cognitive load, motivation, and self-regulation, and make it harder for them to process, retain, and transfer the information and skills you want them to learn. Complexity can also make your design process more time-consuming and challenging, and reduce your flexibility and adaptability to changing needs and contexts.

2 How to identify complexity

When designing instruction, there are different types of complexity to consider, such as content complexity, task complexity, and interaction complexity. Content complexity refers to the amount, difficulty, and organization of the information presented to students. Task complexity refers to the level, structure, and feedback of the activities assigned. Interaction complexity involves the frequency, mode, and purpose of communication and collaboration facilitated among students and the instructor. To identify complexity, ask yourself questions such as: how much information is needed to achieve learning objectives? How familiar are students with the topic and vocabulary? How can you sequence and chunk information to make it clear? How can activities be aligned with learning objectives and information? How can you scaffold and differentiate activities to meet diverse needs? How can you provide meaningful feedback? How can you foster interaction and engagement? And how can you vary modes and media of instruction to suit content and context?

3 How to reduce complexity

Once you have identified the sources of complexity in your instructional design, you can apply some principles and strategies to reduce it and enhance your students' learning. For instance, focus on essential information and skills, use clear language, visuals, and formats, organize the information into meaningful units, align activities with learning objectives, scaffold and differentiate activities according to students' prior knowledge, readiness and preferences, foster interaction and engagement among students and yourself, and evaluate and revise based on student feedback. Additionally, eliminate or minimize irrelevant or redundant information, avoid jargon, acronyms or ambiguity, guide students' attention and comprehension with headings, summaries and transitions, clarify expectations with rubrics, examples or models, use formative assessment and feedback to monitor progress and performance, and choose a variety of modes or media to suit content or context.

5 How to test complexity

The final step in your instructional design process is to test your design for complexity and effectiveness. Pilot testing is a good way to start, as you can try out your design with a small group of students or colleagues and gather their feedback on the clarity, coherence, relevance, and difficulty of your design. Additionally, you can use online platforms or software to analyze the usability of your design, such as the readability, accessibility, navigation, and functionality. And finally, you can use quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate the outcomes of your design, such as the students' achievement, satisfaction, engagement, and retention. All these methods will help you measure the effectiveness of your instructional design.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?