Students’ Perception of Cognitive Load in an Accelerated DPT Program with a Blended Curriculum

Administrators and educators in higher education are interested in how academic tutoring services and gender impact perceptions of cognitive load and, therefore, students’ academic success. However, a lack of evidence existed in the literature regarding physical therapy students’ perception of cognitive load in an accelerated Doctor of Physical Therapy program with blended learning. Participants in this quantitative, non-experimental study completed the adapted Cognitive Load Scale to indicate their perception of cognitive load, participation in academic tutoring services, gender, and age. The DPT students perceived high cognitive overload, but a t value of 0.37 and a p value of 0.71 indicated that their perception was not significantly related to gender. Further, a t value of -3.09 and a p value of 0.005 indicated that academic tutoring services played a vital role in minimizing the perception of cognitive overload. However, the p value of 0.11 of the parametric multiple linear regression analysis and the p value of 0.59 of the interaction term indicated no moderating relationship between academic tutoring services and gender. This evidence may assist physical therapy administrators and educators of DPT students in re-structuring blended learning programs and accelerated curricula to reduce student perceptions of cognitive overload.