Effectiveness of cognitive-load based adaptive instruction in genetics education

Research addressing the issue of instructional control in computer-assisted instruction has revealed mixed results. Prior knowledge level seems to play a mediating role in the student’s ability to effectively use given instructional control. This study examined the effects of three types of instructional control (non-adaptive program control, learner control, adaptive program control) and prior knowledge (high school, 1st year and 2nd year college students) on effectiveness and efficiency of learning in a genetics training program. The results revealed that adaptive program control led to highest training performance but not to superior post-test or far-transfer performance. Furthermore, adaptive program control proved to be more efficient in terms of learning outcomes of the test phase than the other two instructional control types. College students outperformed the high school students on all aspects of the study thereby strengthening the importance of prior knowledge in learning effectiveness and efficiency. Lastly, the interaction effects showed that for each prior knowledge level different levels of support were beneficial to learning.