Learning Management Systems (LMS) serve to accommodate the growing load of student enrollment in higher education programs: as a way to increase instructor and student connectivity, by providing a hub for learning resources, allowing a stream of data and analysis for systems learning, and increasing student engagement. Dependency on LMS for virtual delivery of learning content and use continues to increase (Allen and Seaman, 2016). Likewise, the ubiquity of Internet use, which involves frequent interface with user experience design, holds the power to shape reading habits and student perception when exploring educational content in LMS, especially in terms of readability, usability, and findability (Morville, 2005).
According to recent figures from Pew Research Center (2018), “roughly nine-in-ten” adults are online in America. Furthermore, current waves in the LMS industry push for user experiences that more closely mirror those of consumer and social media software (Edutechnica, 2018). User experience is not learner experience, but learners in a LMS course occupy the internet’s neighborhood. Higher educational students, accustomed to internet user experience and web design must quickly adapt reading habits to a learning management system, designed explicitly built for a higher cognitive load, and sustained intellectual engagement and activity. This project seeks to understand how dominant visual aspects of web design influence how individuals read and navigate in a LMS.
In short, what is the margin of “just right” in between reading for quick reference and avoiding an unnecessary overload of working memory while learning online?
