Learning Goal #3:

Demonstrates skills with various media and other tools typically used in the development and deployment of learning and/or performance improvement technologies.

-- Uses a broad range of media and other tools effectively and appropriately to create interactive learning environments and/or compose, develop, and revise materials to promote efficiency in human performance or learning.

-- References

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Media I have used

Most of the tools and media I have used in my Masters program are tools and media that I have used before such as Dreamweaver for webpages and Photoshop for graphics. Seeing that I use these two pieces of software extensively, I wanted to push my knowledge of them and use them in ways I have not before. For example, I wanted this portfolio to be more than just a web site. I wanted to try a new technique that I have never used before this program. I have seen this tab and submenu style on other pages and wanted to learn how to do it myself.

JavaScript

I have added JavaScript to page before, but never to the extent that I wanted to use it on my portfolio pages. In most cases, I have copied JavaScript code from a sample website and pasted into my webpage. Note at the bottom of this page, the text “Last Updated” is followed by the date and time that I last saved the page. This is a JavaScript code that uses the date and time that the html page was saved and inserts that after “Last Updated:” text. That’s very easy to add to a page. I wanted to go one step further with JavaScript and have it create the navigation for me and I wanted it to be consistent throughout all the web pages. I found the code for these pages from Dynamic Drive at http://www.dynamicdrive.com. While this code is copyrighted, as long as I leave the disclaimer in the HEAD of the webpage, I am free to use it and customize it how I want. JavaScript may not directly help student learning, but it can create a cleaner, less cluttered web page so that the important information can be easily retrieved and not lost among excessive text.

Cascading Style Sheets

Not only does the code on my Portfolio website contain JavaScript, but it included Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) which I have used in the past, but not extensively. Cascading Style Sheets allow me to create one file that will control the color, text and other attributes throughout all of the web page I create by linking to the CSS file. If I choose to change the size of the font, I just change the size on the CSS file and it will automatically be changed throughout all the pages. Combining these two techniques, I was able to design my portfolio page further than any page I had before. While most of the code was copied and pasted, I still had to make changes to customize it and I had to know which file to change and where on the file to make the changes. Sometimes it was a matter of trial and error when picking font size or link color. More than once I had to return to the Dynamic Drive website to correct my errors. Designing this Portfolio site alone has taught me a lot more about JavaScript and CSS pages. Like JavaScript, CSS does not directly help learning, but it gives uniformity to a web site that is less distracting and easier on the eye. If users are frustrated with a page, they are more likely to go elsewhere for the information or just not absorb it as easily.

Captivate

For IT 596 – Studio I, I had to pick a tool or software and learn about it. I selected Adobe’s Captivate, an e-learning authoring software to create tutorials, training and demonstration. I have used Captivate in the past to create Blackboard demonstration tutorials. These consisted of screen captures of the step by step process of a section of Blackboard. What I wanted to concentrate on was the training portion of Captivate. With the training tutorials, the user actively clicks on buttons and links to continue the tutorial rather than passively watch a movie. I learned in IT 500 and IT 580 that learners, especially adult learners, learn more effectively by doing rather than watching, I believe that this type of tutorial would be more beneficial to the faculty of SIUE than the previously video only recordings. However, the training type tutorial proved much more challenging in production than the traditional demonstration tutorial. See the tutorial.

Captivate does much of the work for you by adding “hint boxes” that guides the user to the action that needs to be taken. However, the hint boxes and the live “clickable” area do not always appear in the exact place you want them. Addition work is needed to clean up the movie. I also ran into a bug in the program that caused one of the actions to be corrupted therefore caused the preview and publish function of the software to malfunction. After re-recording the action twice, I researched the problem on Adobe’s troubleshooting page and discovered that a corrupt slide was causing the problem. Rather than re-recording the entire tutorial again, I deleted the corrupt slide and re-recorded just that one action.

Unlike previous Blackboard tutorials I have created, I decided to add voice instruction to this project. IT 500 and IT 580 has also taught me that learners will retain more if the instruction contains voice as well as images. So combining voice, image and action should be the most beneficial to learning. The most difficult part of adding voice to the tutorials was getting Captivate to recognize my computer’s microphone. Fortunately, the software allows one to record directly onto the Captivate slides or import pre-recorded audio. I decided to go with the importing pre-recorded audio because recording the audio on Audacity allowed me to edit pauses and mistakes out of my audio. It was a couple of extra steps on my part, but I believed that the audio is cleaner and more professional sounding.

For IT 597 – Studio 2, I again used Captivate but I included the assessment feature that I have never used before. Since I followed Morrison’s model, I needed to add a Summative assessment as a self-assessment for the learner. These self-assessment questions were single facts that the learner should have learned in the tutorial, and facts that I thought important enough to review. For example, in the tutorial about uploading an image to the Gallery database, one fact that might not be automatically known is that there is no image on the folder until an image is uploaded to the folder. This fact might be overlooked in the tutorials so I added it as a question as the Quick Quiz question. The assessment feature in Captivate allows for students to select an answer and have feedback with the correct or incorrect response. This technique is important in self-assessment when no direct feedback from an instructor.

Liquid Planner

In IT 580, we used the project management online software called Liquid Planner (http://www.liquidplanner.com) to assist us during project management group projects. We used the software for three projects simulations with each member of the group responsible for a specific role and tasks associated with that role. Liquid Planner was used to coordinate our “scheduled” project due dates. While all three projects did not have adequate instructions or guidance, the software was interesting to use. It allowed each team member (project manager, instructional designer, and media production), an opportunity to see, at any given time, who was responsible for that portion of the project and whether the project was on-time. The software allowed the users to tweak the timeline when the unexpected occurred. Within each project, an unexpected twist was added such as one of the team members was “sick” for the week. The project manager was responsible for making adjustments to the project timeline. While the projects did not turn out as expected, having access to this type of software was very useful for the simulations. It showed us real world project management. I regret not spending more time learning the details of the software but our projects were moving very fast and we did not have enough time to really learn the parts and pieces to the software.

Learning Management System

My first experience with a learning management system was in 2001 with WebCT and continued in 2005 with the adoption of Blackboard. As the LMS has evolved over the twelve years that I have used it, the tools have become easier to use and has also created the opportunity for course materials and assessments to be delivered to the student more effectively and efficiently. Initially faculty used WebCT to post the course’s syllabi and notes. Now with the advancement of tools, faculty use Blackboard to administer tests, communicate synchronously with Bb Collaborate, and receive, markup and grade papers solely online with Turnitin. While this has made course management easier, the LMS does nothing to improve the teaching quality or guarantee the learning process has taken place. Robert Kozma states that “in good design, a medium’s capabilities enable methods and the methods that are used take advantage of these capabilities” (Kozma, 1994). I believe that only good course design, good use of the tools and good pedagogy can provide a quality learning experience.

In Blackboard 9.1, the newest version of Blackboard, social media tools have improved the ability for faculty to enhance the student’s learning by providing a central location for communication and collaboration. Blogs are an effective tool for students to create summaries of chapters and articles. The blog tool allows others students to view work and comment. Other tools, such as discussion board can be used for the same purpose, but the Blogs are designed to display and view in an easier interface. The Journal tool is an effective tool for reflections. The journal is viewable by only the faculty and student so writings are private. Email or private discussion boards can also be used as a reflection tool, but the Journal keeps all the postings together, unlike email, and has a less set up than a private discussion board. The Wiki tool is that replaces the student home pages. Wikis afford the students the opportunity to collaborate on a document as a class or within a group. Having a space for students to collaborate on a project was a tool missing in previous versions of Blackboard. All three tools promote thinking, planning and learning.

In IT 540, I used Blackboard (via CourseSites) to create an Online Teaching course for faculty preparing to teach online. A course management system like Blackboard provides the faculty/designer ample tools for creating a dynamic, collaborative environment for their students. Blackboard is password protected so only student enrolled in the course can access the materials. I chose to use CourseSites rather than SIUE’s Blackboard because with CourseSites, I have administrative privileges to create the course shell and add users as necessary. Other than those two options, the features and tools are the same between SIUE’s Blackboard and CourseSites. It was important for me to use Blackboard for this project because I plan on using it as a springboard for my IT 598 final project hosted on SIUE’s Blackboard. Any content used in CourseSites is easily exported and imported into SIUE’s Blackboard.

In IT 598, I will be using SIUE’s Blackboard to create a self-paced course for Online Teaching. I choose to use Blackboard because the participants will be SIUE faculty and Blackboard is the system they know and/or need to know how to use to teach their online courses. One of the objectives in the course is to learn about online teaching and online learning. To experience a course as an online teacher/learner, it is critical to use the same tools that they will be teaching with and expecting their students to use.

References:

Adobe Captivate: http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate.html

Blackboard: http://www.blackboard.com

Blackboard: at SIUE http://www.siue.edu/its/bb/bb9/newfeatures.shtml

CourseSites: https://www.coursesites.com/

Dynamic Drive: http://www.dynamicdrive.com

Liquid Planner: http://www.liquidplanner.com

Kozma, R. 1994. Will media influence learning? Reframing the debate. Educational Technology Research and Development, 24(2), 7-19.

Million, Laura. Assignment in IT 596, (2011), http://www.siue.edu/its/bb/multimedia/Tii_create_assignment2.swf

Million, Laura. Assignment in IT 597, (2012), http://www.siue.edu/its/bb/multimedia/gallery_upload1image.swf