Cognitive load and Prezi

"Cognitive load theory has been designed to provide guidelines intended to assist in the presentation of information in a manner that encourages learner activities that optimize intellectual performance" (Sweller 1998).

Customer facing staff often do not have the ability to listen to a podcast in a retail branch and studies have shown that pictures can often represent and transfer information to the user in a clearer format (Sweller 1998). When designing training for customer facing staff, the instructional designer needs to the environment of the training taking place. It would not look professional to have staff with headphones on when a customer walks into the retail branch. 

With this in mind, I created a presentation using a tool called Prezi which you can sign up for free with. I found this allowed for creativity and from my point of view more engaging to a learner.  I did find some difficulty initially when learning to use Prezi however did eventually find usage easier after a few tries. I have seen some challenging and engaging Prezi's and would recommend you give this tool a try. Next time I use prezi I would probably consider using Popplet (mind mapping tool online) first so I can make planning easier. 

I believe if there was a way for an organisation to use Prezi officially in the workplace (with policies and procedures in mind) it would be more popular. 

Check out Prezi here.

Sweller, J., Van Merriënboer, J., & Paas, F. (1998). "Cognitive architecture and instructional design". Educational Psychology Review 10 (3): 251–296.doi:10.1023/A:1022193728205