• When too much extraneous material or poor design overwhelms cognitive capacity, leaving little room for meaningful learning.
  Example:

  • • A history eLearning module tries to be “fun” by adding too many side quests, badges, and virtual pets, distracting from the timeline content. 

• Information that is not essential to the instructional goal. 

Example:

• Background music with lyrics plays during a lesson, competing with the narration.

• Mental effort spent trying to make sense of non-essential or confusing elements. 

Example:

• An infographic about recycling shows too many icons, colors, and side facts, making it hard to focus on the main process.