Content Chunking Guidelines

The purpose of this segment is to provide some guidelines for chunking material in an on-line environment to make it easy to learn, retain, and use.

Design for Re-Usability and Ease of Maintenance

Design the material in a modular fashion that will allow for re-usability of content and ease of maintenance.

To maximize re-usability, make sure that each chunk communicates a single concept or function (this is the design principle of high cohesion).

To minimize maintenance, make sure that the interconnections between chunks are simple so that modifications to one chunk do not require modifications to another chunk (this is the design principle of low coupling).

Try to localize references that are likely to change (e.g., addresses on the Internet World Wide Web), rather than scattering such references throughout the content.

Respect the Guidelines for Size and Complexity

Make sure that the level of complexity of each chunk is appropriate for viewing in an on-line environment. Ideally a single chunk (text or graphic) should fit on one screen. Where this is not possible, at least 30 percent of the graphic or text should fit on a single screen - minimize the amount of material that is visible only by using the horizontal and vertical scroll bars.

Organize Each Chunk

Use a clear and descriptive title for each chunk to support easy scanning and searching.

Organize the flow of ideas within each chunk to make it easier for the reader to retain the material. For example, some alternate structures for the body of the material include:

· chronological order (e.g., the 10 steps to preparing a presentation in chronological order),

· function (e.g., the five parts of an effective presentation),

· problem/solution (e.g., the most common problems that speakers face and how to deal with them),

· objective (e.g., different approaches for different occasions or purposes).

Use a presentation format that allows the reader to scan and search a document quickly. See also:

Document Blocking