Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

Instructional Designer & Consultant

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E-Learning Challenge #29: Summary and Resource Screens

This week’s challenge was to develop a summary or resource screen. I didn’t particularly have a ton of time this week, so my submission was less of a summary or resource screen and more of an exit slide. I’m planning on another submission, but until then, you’ll have to settle for a little bit of cheekiness. I have since been followed on twitter by some Grumpy Cat impostors.

The Concept

I wanted to develop ‘exit instructions’ in a format that would ensure my audience would not be confused about how to exit the course. There’s nothing worse than leaving your audience hanging or confused!

The Method

Once I determined my approach, I tried to think of some good exit strategies. My mind often goes to kitties, because whose wouldn’t? And I immediately jumped to Grumpy Cat (or Tardar Sauce as she’s so lovingly known). I consulted The Google to find some Grumpy Cat vector images, and stumbled upon this lovely graphic. It was perfect! That artist really knows how to capture the essence of a cat with dwarfism and an overbite! I then took to Articulate Storyline, created a new slide, matched the background to the vector’s background, added the image, included a very slow fly in from the bottom, and once the timeline ended, the layer including the button was set to appear, directing the user to Leave. Meow. Tada!

The Result

Grumpy_Cat

To view the complete interaction, click here.

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Terminology Tuesday: SCORM

Another Tuesday, another acronym! Today we’re going to be talking about SCORM!

SCORM stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model and more or less dictates how e-learning content must be programmed in order to work with other e-learning software, such as Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS’) or Learning Management Systems (LMS’). The SCORM website provides a nice explanation of how SCORM let’s code and software play well with one another, so to speak.

As the name alludes to, SCORM creates ‘sharable’ content, which is essential when it comes to saving a business’ hard earned profits. Why? Well – before the days of SCORM, organizations may have contracted out training requirements to many different providers who all used their LMS of choice – creating a high volume of duplication, and likely less consistency. Now that SCORM exists, organizations can re-use training programs more easily than in the past.

Why is SCORM a sought after client requirement? Well. When clients dictate they want SCORM conformant or compliant e-learning product, they’re doing this to ensure that the developed e-learning product will function within any LMS they wish to launch the product within. Adhering to the SCORM standard will greatly help ensure your e-learning products are well-equipped for interoperability.

Right now, Tin Can API is foraging ahead to become the next generation of SCORM (let’s face it; SCORM is an old-timer; don’t get me wrong – a tried and true old-timer, but everyone needs to evolve), and will become the new standard within coming years – more on Tin Can API in another post.

Still curious about SCORM? There’s a lot to it, and I’ve definitely only skimmed the top of  explaining it, but Learningpool provides a great infographic that should explain anything I’ve left out!

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E-Learning Challenge #28: Top 10 Things Learners Need to Know About Storyline

This week’s challenge was related to the top 10 things learners need to know about Articulate Storyline, and I really had a lot of fun re-watching the tutorials I included. The E-Learning Heroes community is one of the greatest resources I’ve found as an Instructional Designer. It’s current, and all of the community members are extremely helpful and proactive – not only in addressing concerns of their peers, but they’re passionate about what they do and love to share their knowledge!

The Concept

In considering this challenge, I wanted to compile screencasts posted by various E-Learning Heroes that I have found particularly interesting and/or helpful. I scoured the forums and my personal messages to find a group of 10 tutorials I think everyone using Articulate Storyline should at least watch.

The Method

I developed a simple interface using circular buttons, filled with an image of the individual providing the tutorial. When selected, a layer is triggered to appear, providing a brief explanation of the tutorial and a screen capture; the full tutorial is linked to and will open in a new window. An exit button is available on each layer so the user can return to the main ‘menu’.

The Result

Tutorials

To view the complete interaction, click here.

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Terminology Tuesday: ADDIE

Within the realm of Instructional Design, the term ADDIE is often tossed around; Love it or hate it, it looks like ADDIE will be around for awhile, so you might as well brush up on your terminology! Some folks may wonder what ADDIE stands for, and for those folks – here you go!

ADDIE is an acronym used to encompass an Instructional Design model of: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. Love it or hate it, if you work within the teaching and learning industry, you will become quite friendly with these terms as most Instructional Design models tend to be some variation of the ADDIE model. Below I will further breakdown each ‘step’ in the ADDIE model:

Analysis – Analysis is the highest level of course development. In it’s recommended format, this phase seeks to compile all information relevant to the project and 1) determine which delivery method will best display the content in a meaningful manner, (2) whether more information is required and from whom, and (3) high-level project goals.

Design – Within the design phase, the Instructional Designer will take information compiled in the Analysis phase and will outline (typically in design documentation) how the learner will learn the content. This often includes the specification of learning objectives, determination of instructional strategies, task analysis. At this point, some clients may also wish to have assessment items specified, instructional tasks further broken down into a task analysis, or high-level media descriptions.

Development – This phase involves the Instructional Designer taking the information outlined in the Design phase and putting it into practice. What do I mean by that? Well. This is where all of the content creation will occur and may include storyboards, media development and implementation, assessment item development and implementation, authoring, and/or rapid prototyping, just to name a few. Few Instructional Designer (in larger organizations at least) get down and dirty within the Analysis and Design phases, but all Instructional Designers gain experience within the Development phase. This is my favourite phase!

Implementation – Once the content has been developed, the Instructional Designer will implement the course. This may mean exporting it to a SCORM package for installation on a client’s Learning Management System (LMS) of preference or delivering the course as a complete package. This is where all of the testing occurs, as it is important to ensure that the developed product functions in the manner necessary to achieve the client’s project requirements.

Evaluation – Finally, the evaluation phase seeks to determine whether the developed product achieves the project goals specified in the Analysis and Design phases. Does the product facilitate learning in the manner for which it was intended? Can the learners achieve the outlined learning goals? Once evaluation has been completed, Instructional Designers may be required to further revise the product, as specified by the client.

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3 Ways of Enhancing Critical Dialogue in Online Courses

This week I stumbled upon a position paper titled Digital Critical Dialogue: A Process for Implementing Transformative Discussion Practices within Online Courses in Higher Education, by Jason T. Hilton, and coming across this article happened at a good time. Right now I am working to develop a model course structure as an introduction to teaching online, and the article prompted me to really consider my suggestions for enhancing discussion practices. Albeit, they may not be as transformative as Paulo Freire intended – I would just like if faculty members leveraged the technology available to create critical dialogue within their online courses. Additionally, B-School has taught me a thing or two about critical dialogue, and I think I can marry these two resources to develop a fairly comprehensive suggestion list for enhancing critical dialogue in online courses, specifically within higher education.

  1. USE YOUR FORUMS! – And by this, I do not mean just using your forums. Use them responsibly! You should build discussion posting requirements into your course outline. For example, adding a 5-10% participation mark that is awarded based on 1 unique post (usually to a question posed by the instructor) and 2+ responses to peer posts. Quality can be rated based on criticality of the dialogue – “Great post!” is not a quality response to a peer post – I’m sorry. Right now I am seeing many green professors grading based on participation, but while the forum is present in their course, they’re grading students based on attendance in VOIP sessions, and in online courses, it’s not always possible for students to attend all VOIP sessions – there’s usually a reason students are taking online courses.
  2. Assign group work – Most students aren’t a huge fan of group work; I certainly wasn’t – I preferred to go it alone and not have to rely on others for part of my grade. However, group work, when structured properly (more on this in a moment), can create critical dialogue by inciting a collaborative approach to learning. What do I mean by ‘structured properly’? Well – Create group environments (e.g. forums specific to only group members) where individuals can discuss aspects of the assignment amongst themselves. Within the assignment specifications, dictate that students must respond (usually at a minimum of 500 words) to each group member’s submission and indicate that there will be peer evaluations – doing this may enhance honesty and integrity, allowing students to understand that not only will their cooperation within the group be graded by the instructor, but also by their group members.
  3. Use Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) – Most institutions have some form of VOIP (e.g. Collaborate or Adobe Connect); you should leverage these technologies for two main reason – 1) to provide students with a variation of traditional face-to-face learning, which is critical for students who prefer this type of learning, but are hindered in their ability to commit to a physical classroom, and 2) to enhance critical discussion by allowing students to critique one another or ask questions within a more traditional style lecture. I have found these sessions to be incredibly effective when used as a forum for oral presentations. As a student who hated giving oral presentations, VOIP sessions allowed me to hone my speaking prowess, while reducing my associated anxiety.

Other ways of enhancing critical dialogue may be through the implementation of Learning Management System (LMS) database functionality (e.g. students may upload material, view peer uploaded material, and comment on peer uploaded material), allowing students to use blogs or curate wikis, and assigning annotated bibliographies (less of a focus on collaborating with peers, and more of a focus on critically considering the literature).

In any event, you don’t want to create page-turner courses, especially in higher education – you want to show of the passion of your discipline and perhaps make students passionate and engaged with their studies. While many instructors may be resistant (or afraid) to changing their teaching methods, it is essential to understand the technologies available for leveraging your online courses and engaging your students, especially with students coming from a digital age. If you’re afraid of technology, as your resident Instructional Designer or Ask Me – I would love to help!

Follow these tips, and I’ll be a very happy gal!

 

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E-Learning Challenge #27: Visual Storytelling with Photo Collages

The goal of this week’s challenge was to create a visual story using photo collages as a means of moving away from the urge to display slides and slides of bullets within your e-learning modules.

The Concept

A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon this article by the CVU, outlining the state of online university education in Canada, and it really struck a chord with me. As someone who is extremely passionate about Instructional Design and increasing accessibility, it seemed baffling that we could be lagging so far behind other countries. However, after since working for a university, I have a bit more context into the why of how things are – you can’t really force professors to put their courses online, you can only provide them with gentle encouragement. In any event, I thought it was important to disseminate the information in this report, so I did it once in a paper for graduate school, and I did it again within this challenge.

The Method

I thought an infographic-style of approach would best display the statistics I wanted to illustrate, so I downloaded and cropped the infographic elements in Adobe Illustrator, imported them into Storyline and organized them appropriately.

Then, I added a layer for every element, and applied hotspots on the base layer so that when the user hovered over each element, the appropriate statistics would display. When the user moves their mouse away from the element, the base layer returns to its original state.

While not a traditional infographic and not the most attractively organized (Hey! I’m not a graphic designer!), I was happy with the end result.

The Result

Infographic_Large

To view the complete interaction, click here.

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