This study aims to investigate the effects of different design tasks on the cognitive load level of instructional designers during the process of designing a learning activity in a 3D multi-user virtual environment (MUVE). The sample consisted of 16 undergraduate students who were experienced in the areas of instructional design, computer programming and graphic design. The designers were assigned to the design teams with 5 or 6 members and conducted a collaborative instructional design project to develop a solution to an ill-structured problem on the OpenSimulator platform for 8 weeks. Following the implementation, the designers were administered the Mental Effort Rating Scale regarding the 11 design tasks in the 3D MUVE. The results showed that the designers were cognitively overloaded while performing the design tasks in this environment. When the cognitive load scores were examined, it was found that the preparation of the learning scenario, uploading user-created 3D models, content creation, modelling of the draft view of the designed environment and 3D model design tasks were found as the most challenging tasks in terms of cognitive effort. On the other hand, it was found that the tasks of making animation, creating non-player characters and designing an interactive menu led to relatively less cognitive load.

这项研究旨在调查在3D多用户虚拟环境（MUVE）中设计学习活动的过程中，不同设计任务对教学设计师的认知负荷水平的影响。该样本包括16位在教学设计，计算机编程和图形设计领域具有丰富经验的本科生。设计师被分配到具有5或6名成员的设计团队中，并进行了一个协作性教学设计项目，以开发针对OpenSimulator平台上结构不良的问题的解决方案，历时8周。实施之后，对设计师进行了有关3D MUVE中11项设计任务的精神工作量表。结果表明，在这种环境下执行设计任务时，设计师在认知上超负荷。在检查认知负荷分数时，发现学习方案的准备，上载用户创建的3D模型，内容创建，设计环境的草稿视图建模和3D模型设计任务是最具挑战性的任务就认知努力而言。另一方面，发现制作动画，创建非玩家角色和设计交互式菜单的任务导致相对较少的认知负担。