ENHANCING LEARNING THROUGH MULTIMEDIA CULTURAL HERITAGE APPLICATIONS Managing Cognitive Load

The paper presents possibilities of enhancing the education by using multimedia applications, but with respect to managing Cognitive Load (CL) linked to these applications. The case study used for evaluation is based on multimedia application of digital cultural heritage, specifically the site of White Bastion fortress in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The research question is focusing on the use of Cognitive Load Theory as a cornerstone for benchmarking levels of immersion and edutainment in User eXperience (UX). In our research we would like to establish a straightforward and simple way of measuring UX in multimedia cultural heritage applications aimed for education. Being aware of limitation of such simplified approach, our objective is not to elaborate qualities and drawbacks of such applications but to provide developers with simple measure of their success. Such measurement is instrumental in comparison of different applications or different versions of an application. In addition to general aspects of usability we focus on specific objectives of multimedia cultural heritage applications: immersion and edutainment; important concepts for successful usage of multimedia in education.