Cognitively KIND Course Design

Learning success begins with easy navigation. Students should be able to locate important course information and know how and where to start. If it's difficult to locate information, confusing, or easy to get lost, students feel frustrated, anxious and worst of all ... STRESSED!

We can appreciate the cognitive benefits of productive struggle, but struggling to navigate a virtual course is not productive. It's counterproductive and leads to a cognitive hijack (Hammond, 2015). When the brain becomes stressed, it triggers that fight or flight reaction, which chemically prevents the brain from being able to learn.

Effective asynchronous instruction begins with a Cognitively Kind Design that considers the needs of the end user - the student. When observing a course, keep the following in identifying cognitively kind design practices.