"Reading content on the Internet has changed the way people process information, and nowhere is this change more obvious than in fields where design must adapt to new technology such as in eLearning. eLearning course creators need to refine their content to suit learners’ behavior and accessibility to training. This is where chunking comes into play."
Via Beth Dichter
If you design a course, face2face or online, it is important to keep up with information on how people learn, and today we know that chunking information is critical. This post begins by describing what a chunk is and why they are important in learning. It them moves on to the five tips (quoted below):
1. Set a chunking limit
2. Chunk with coherance
3. Use the right formatting
4. Keep chunks short
5. Use the inverted pyramid method for for prioritization
Each of these is described in detail and many addional resources are included in the post. You will also find a SlideShare on the Basics of Content Chunking. If this concept is new to you it will provide additional information. However be aware that the number of items that can be held in short term memory varies, and the rule they use is not accurate for all people. A recent course I took on Coursera, Learning How To Learn, suggested that the number of items most people can keep in short term memory is four.
what's your chunking limit?