Designers of interactive learning environments face the issue of managing the learner's cognitive load, reducing irrelevant sources while optimizing useful sources of load. I propose a conceptual framework aimed at organizing the contributions of the papers presented in this special issue. The framework identifies three main dimensions, namely…

The focus of this special issue is on the cognitive load underlying processes of interactive knowledge construction in a wide range of instructional multimedia platforms. Multimedia comprehension involves the parallel processing of auditory-verbal and visual-pictorial channels within working memory. By means of integrating multimodal information,…

This study examined the effectiveness of a computer-based environment employing three example-based instructional procedures (example-problem, problem-example, and fading) to teach series and parallel electrical circuit analysis to learners classified by two levels of prior knowledge (low and high). Although no differences between the…