Section 1 of the UCL Digital Education Baseline focuses on Moodle Structure and Navigation, highlighting the importance of clear course layout, consistent structure, and well-organised content.  While these recommendations may initially appear to focus on visual tidiness, their value becomes clearer when we consider how students read, navigate, and make sense of text on screen.

Research from the Nielsen Norman Group (Moran, 2020), based on decades of usability testing, shows that people scan and skim web content rather than read every word. Similar patterns appear in higher education, where Naomi Baron (2017) observes that students multitask and read selectively on screen, while Y.–C. Jian’s (2022) eye-tracking research shows that students rarely re-read, moving quickly through text rather than reading line by line.

These behaviours mean that course design cannot assume careful, linear reading. Instead, it must guide students’ attention to what matters most for learning.

In Moodle, students typically encounter two types of onscreen reading:

1. Navigating through the course structure: headings, sections, activities.
2. Longer-form content: journal articles, instructional text, task descriptions, feedback.

In the first case, scanning is a natural and helpful behaviour as it can help students orient themselves and find information quickly. In the second case, when deeper comprehension is needed, scanning becomes problematic and can create the “illusion of learning”. As Baron (2017) notes, students often feel they are learning effectively on screen while actually engaging with the text more superficially.

This blog explores how intentional design can turn the challenges of onscreen reading into opportunities that help students stay focused, avoid distraction, and engage more deeply with what they read.

Let’s explore each of the four recommendations in Section 1 of the UCL Digital Education Baseline, with examples of how they can be applied in practice.

1.1 Use a consistent template with headings and grouped resources and activities.

A template provides the high-level organisation of the course, setting out where key elements like the overview, weekly content, and assessments are located. When each section of a Moodle course follows a predictable layout, students don’t have to re-learn how to navigate each time. This reduces unnecessary mental effort caused by how information is structured and presented (known as extraneous cognitive load in cognitive load theory), which draws working-memory resources away from the material to be learned. As a result, students can focus on the task rather than searching for it. (Chen, Kalyuga, & Sweller, 2016).

A recurring heading such as “Seminar preparation”, provides a consistent cue, helping students locate information quickly and set expectations. Similarly, grouping related items (for example, a reading, its video, and a discussion forum) helps students see how resources and tasks connect, supporting a clearer sense of purpose. People rarely read sequentially online; they scan the screen looking for information that meets their purpose. The Nielsen Norman Group (Moran, 2020) describe this as goal-driven reading: users move quickly through digital content, trying to find what matters most. For students, the goal might be as simple as “How will I be assessed?” or “What do I need to read this week?”. When this information is buried in long pages or hidden behind several clicks, poor design choices can turn the advantage of scanning into searching, increasing extraneous cognitive load.

Templates, headings, and logical grouping do more than organise content. When thoughtfully applied as learning design cues, they take advantage of how students naturally read on screen, focusing attention and reducing cognitive strain.

1.2 Organise content with descriptive and short titles and overviews to convey purpose and relevance.

Descriptive titles and short overviews are powerful learning design cues because they support how students scan for relevance and decide where to focus their attention. As Nielsen’s research shows (Moran, 2020), the depth of attention readers give online depends on several factors, and a sense of relevance plays a key role in whether they slow down and engage. That’s exactly why purposeful titles and concise overviews matter: they signal relevance immediately, helping direct attention and encouraging students to shift from scanning to meaningful engagement.

Compare these two examples:

Example 1: Slides: Week 3  – Read the slides and complete the exercise

Example 2: Week 3 Slides: Tort Law – Negligence and Liability

• Review the slides to consolidate your understanding of duty of care, breach, causation, and damage.
• For each of the three cases in the slides, identify the facts that relate to each element. Use the template provided and bring your notes to the seminar.

Example 1 gives students no sense of what the slides actually cover or how the exercise connects to the week’s learning. The instructional text gives no context and fails to signal relevance. By contrast, Example 2 makes scanning effortless: the purposeful title and short overview act as cues that guide attention and reduce the mental effort needed to work out what students are expected to do – a simple but powerful form of cognitive support.

Using a standard naming convention across all activities and resources helps students recognise patterns and orient themselves more quickly. Imagine a Moodle page where one resource is called “Week 2 Quiz,” another is “Answer the questions,” and a third is just “Understanding this week’s readings.” All three might be quizzes, but how is the student supposed to know that at a glance?

As Moort (2025) notes, online readers must interpret multiple layers of text, links, and multimodal information to locate what is relevant and meaningful. When the structure or signals that guide this process are unclear, cognitive load increases because readers must work harder to orient themselves and interpret how information connects.

To support learning, titles and overviews must do more than label content; they must make its purpose clear, so students instantly understand why it matters.

1.3 Help students track their progress independently by enabling completion tracking.

One challenge of online learning is the absence of natural progress cues such as physical page counts or classroom reminders (Baron, 2017; Nichols, 2016). Without these markers, it becomes harder for students to plan their study time or judge how much remains.

Completion tracking in Moodle turns progress into visible information rather than something students must remember or reconstruct, freeing them to focus on planning and learning.

As Sweller (2005) notes, instructional design can act as an external organiser that reduces the need for learners to hold or reconstruct structure in working memory. Instead of thinking, “Did I do that reading?” or “Have I completed the Week 3 quiz?”, students can see their progress immediately, freeing up mental capacity to focus on the learning itself.

Over time, these visual cues can support the development of self-regulated learning, especially when students use them to reflect on their progress, plan next steps, and manage their workload (Zimmerman, 2002).

1.4 Avoid overloading the course homepage or including excessive text-based content.

When a course is crowded with dense text, too many options, or visual clutter, students must spend extra mental energy just figuring out where to begin. This can lead to two different challenges:

1.When too much information is presented at once, students may struggle to absorb it.

Cognitive Load Theory reminds us that working memory can hold only a small amount of information at a time when dealing with new material; therefore, reducing extraneous load is a key strategy to support understanding.

Chunking can help with managing information load. However, chunking isn’t about splitting long text or formatting alone; it’s about organising information around key concepts or stages in the learning process.

When students are told simply “Read this article”, they must decide for themselves what the key ideas are, why it matters, and how it connects to the week’s learning. That ambiguity increases extraneous cognitive load before learning has even begun. A short scaffold, such as a two-sentence overview or guiding questions, directs attention and  and helps students process the material more efficiently.

Turning a continuous wall of text into “chunks” controls the pace of reading, counterbalances scanning, and reduces unnecessary processing, creating better conditions for students to connect ideas (Sweller, 1988).

2.On-screen environments naturally invite multitasking, and divided attention can disrupt the sustained focus needed for comprehension.

Building on Sweller’s (2005) work showing how digital and multimedia formats can increase cognitive load, Nichols (2016) highlights how scrolling, navigation, hyperlinks, and other distractions can trigger multitasking, making it harder for students to process and retain information.

Keeping essential links close to the relevant idea where their purpose is immediately clear and moving optional ones to the end of the section, helps maintain attention and reduce the mental effort spent navigating rather than learning (Sweller, 2005).

Final thoughts
When courses are cluttered, inconsistent, or hard to navigate, even high-quality materials lose their impact. Providing structure isn’t about tidiness, it’s about recognising that the digital medium shapes how students read, search, and make sense of information. When we design with that in mind (accounting for scanning, filtering, and the limits of attention and working memory) we can use structure, clarity, and cues to create conditions that support focus and understanding.

Reference:

1. Baron, N. S. (2017). Reading in a digital age. Phi Delta Kappan, 99(2), 15-20. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0031721717734184 (Original work published 2017), (Accessed: 29 October 2025).
2. Chen, O., Kalyuga, S. and Sweller, J. (2016) ‘When Instructional Guidance is Needed’, Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 33(2), pp. 149–162. Available at: doi: 10.1017/edp.2016.16. (Accessed: 10 October 2025).
3. Jian, YC. Reading in print versus digital media uses different cognitive strategies: evidence from eye movements during science-text reading. Read Writ 35, 1549–1568 (2022). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-021-10246-2  (Accessed: 20/10/2025).
4. Moran, K. (2020) How people read online: New and old findings. Nielsen Norman Group. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-people-read-online/ (Accessed: 20/10/2025).
5. Nichols, M. (2016) “Reading and Studying on the Screen: An Overview of Literature Towards Good Learning Design Practice”, Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, 20(1), pp. 33–43. Available at: doi: https://jofdl.nz/index.php/JOFDL/article/view/263. (Accessed: 29 October 2025).
6. Sweller, J. (2005) ‘Implications of Cognitive Load Theory for Multimedia Learning’, in R. Mayer (ed.) The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology), pp. 19–30. Available at: Cognitive Load During Problem Solving: Effects on Learning – Sweller – 1988 – Cognitive Science – Wiley Online Library (Accessed: 29 October 2025).
7. van Moort, M.L., de Bruïne, A. and van den Broek, P. (2025) ‘Reading comprehension in an online world: Challenges, opportunities, and implications for education’, Teaching and Learning in Action. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.70006 (Accessed: 29 October 2025).
8. Zimmerman, B. J. (2002) ‘Becoming a Self-Regulated Learner: An Overview’, Theory Into Practice, 41(2), pp. 64–70. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4102_2 (Accessed: 20/10/2025).

Podcast series: Behind the scenes of curriculum design

Listen to the episode: Humanising online learning through podcasting

“Presence” is one of the most powerful yet overlooked elements of online teaching. In many digital courses, significant attention is given to content, structure, and assessments, while less attention is paid to how students experience the teacher’s human presence.

In this episode, I talk with Caitlin Mullin, former producer of UCL’s flagship climate podcast Generation One. We explore how podcasting can support presence in online learning and what transforms a simple audio file into a podcast, highlighting the intentional choices that help audio feel personal, engaging, and meaningful for learners.

As you’ll hear in our conversation, podcasting is a simple, flexible way for educators to reach students and create a more human learning experience. This episode is an invitation to academic staff developing online courses to experiment; even small, imperfect beginnings can add value to students’ sense of connection.

This is my first attempt at podcasting and far from perfect, but that’s exactly the point: creating something small, learning from it, and improving with the help of expert advice.

How I made this episode

• I used MS Teams to record the conversation, both of us used a UCL standard headset with microphone.
• I converted the MP4 file into an MP3 using a free software called CloudConvert
• I edited the file using a free software called Audacity

Want to try podcasting?

• If you want to get started with podcasting, there is a session available in February as part of the DigiEd digital skills development . Alternatively, you can book a one to one session with Rebecca Wilson.
• You can also browse UCL Linkedin Learning for courses on Audacity and Podcasting.
• If you want to book the free podcasting studio, please contact the Educational Media team at video@ucl.ac.uk

Thank you to Caitlin Mullin, Rebecca Wilson, Matt Aucott and Ahmad Athar for their feedback and encouragement.

 

The landscape of Higher Education has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, with online learning becoming an increasingly popular choice among adults. Recent publications including What do higher education students want from online learning? (2023) or Shaping the Future of Online Learning (2024) have highlighted the need for improvements in several key areas to enhance the quality and effectiveness of online education.

While academics bring essential expertise and deep knowledge of their content areas, transitioning to online learning environments can be challenging. This is where Learning Designers can help, offering specialised skills to optimise students’ online learning experience.

A common misconception about Learning Designers

Learning Designers are sometimes seen as tech-savvy professionals who manage the technical aspects of course delivery, such as uploading materials to platforms, video editing, or even coding. This perspective is understandable given the prominent role that digital technology plays in online learning; however, this perception can prevent academics from fully use the Learning Designers’ expertise.

Learning Designers are educational specialists with expertise in adult learning in online environments. Their primary focus is planning, designing, and strategically using educational technology to support teaching and learning.

Understanding the role of Learning Designers

Given their expertise, Learning Designers recognise that different modes of delivering education require distinct approaches.

While the foundational principles of learning are consistent across face-to-face and online contexts, directly replicating in-person methods online doesn’t work. For example, traditional classrooms benefit from face-to-face interactions, spontaneous discussions, and non-verbal cues. In the absence of these elements, online environments rely on technology to mediate interactions. This shift requires tailored strategies to engage students, maintain motivation, and ensure accessibility and success for all learners, regardless of background or ability.

Learning Designers can play a pivotal role in this process as they are skilled at tailoring the learning experience to meet the needs, challenges and motivations of adult learners and can combine pedagogy and technology to effectively support desired learning outcomes.

Technology meets pedagogy

Learning Designers typically work across different academic subjects but are not subject matter experts. Instead, they partner with academics to translate their expertise into engaging online courses.

Platforms like Moodle, for example, exemplify the potential of technology to support a learner-centred approach, allowing instructional strategies that combine passive and active learning. A passive learning activity might involve students watching a pre-recorded lecture or reading an article, where they absorb information independently. This can be complemented by an active learning component, such as summarising the content of the article, or participating in a discussion forum where students are encouraged to contribute their thoughts and engage in peer-to-peer dialogue.

However, academic presence remains a critical component of online courses. Tutors provide essential guidance, offer timely and constructive feedback, and support students in navigating the course material.

This integrated approach is linked to improved educational outcomes and a more engaging learning experience.

Designing for synchronous and asynchronous learning

Flexibility is crucial when designing online courses, particularly for adult learners who often require adaptable learning schedules or may join from different time zones.

Learning Designers focus on creating a seamless blend of synchronous and asynchronous components to maintain learner engagement while providing flexibility. They achieve this by assessing (in collaboration with academics) which activities are best suited for asynchronous delivery or synchronous interaction.

Moreover, Learning Designers can assist and address common challenges typically affecting synchronous sessions—such as students feeling unprepared or overwhelmed—by designing robust asynchronous activities that build the necessary knowledge and skills beforehand and by ensuring that activities build on each other and clearly align to the intended outcomes.

This careful blending of synchronous and asynchronous elements, coupled with well-designed support mechanisms like clear instructions, timely feedback, and additional resources, ensures that learners are equipped to actively participate and succeed in both activities.

Learning design is a collaborative endeavour

At UCL, we know that a great online course requires a carefully crafted experience that considers every aspect of the learner’s journey. That’s why Learning Designers work together with a team of experts.

We partner with academics to translate their expertise into engaging content and ensure learning outcomes are met. We work closely with Learning Technologists to select and implement digital tools, providing a seamless technical experience for staff and students. We liaise with multimedia developers and graphic designers when the course requires the production of assets such as video, animations, or interactive simulations.

This multi-faceted approach ensures that online courses are relevant, pedagogically sound, technically robust, accessible, and aesthetically appealing.

Ready to enhance your online course? Contact us to discover how our Learning Designers can help you create an engaging and effective learning experience.