Tips to Overcome Expertise Reversal Effect for Elearning Course Design

Normally, you would assume that a certain elearning online course design would work well for everyone and that all you have to change is the content. But did you know that a course should be designed differently for novices than for experts? After all, if you think about it, you can’t expect a novice student to learn a new skill or technique as fast and as effectively as an expert. If you reverse the situation by treating advanced students as novices, it may have a detrimental effect on their learning level. This is known as the expertise reversal effect.

The expertise reversal effect is when a person’s level of prior knowledge greatly affects or influences the effectiveness of learning materials and their content. This implies that instructional approaches that are meant for beginners will be ineffective or even detrimental for advanced students. This is based on the theory of cognitive load which states that the limitations of a functional memory emphasize the need to avoid overloading it. However, the thing is that whatever induces cognitive load in an expert is different for a novice.


elearning development

How does it happen? If an advanced learner is fed redundant information given to beginners, it could induce unnecessary cognitive load. This would distract the learner from learning new material effectively.

Here are some elearning online design strategies to overcome or avoid the expertise reversal effect:
• Allow skipping of extra steps and detailed guidance
• Use a design model that encourages independent exploration
• Provide support for informal methods of learning
• Allow students to choose the level they want to enter
• Let the student perform a specific task to determine their strengths and weaknesses

There is no one size fits all in every situation; just like there is no one perfect course or curriculum for everybody. In creating elearning online material, there has to be a set rule for more advance students so they can move and learn at their own pace.