instructional design

Accessibility-related resources/updates

On 05/31/2011, in accessibility / UDL, emerging technologies, instructional design, by Daniel Christian

New U.S. Dept. of Ed. Guidance on Accessibility and Emerging Technologies — from Educause

Also see (with my thanks to Capella University here):

The Federal Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (June, 2001). Web-based intranet and internet information and applications (1194.22) Retrieved at http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/1194.22.htm.

The Federal Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (n.d.). Electronic and information technology standards: An overview. Retrieved from http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/summary.htm.

United States Department of Justice (2009). Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended. Retrieved from http://www.ada.gov/pubs/adastatute08.htm.

United States Government (1998). Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Retrieved from http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?fuseAction=1998Amend.

WebAIM Section 508 Checklist. Retrieved at http://webaim.org/standards/508/checklist.

…and http://www.automaticsync.com/

Tagged with: accessibility • emerging technologies • instructional design

Strategies for optimal SME engagement [Hawkinson]

On 05/26/2011, in instructional design, by Daniel Christian

Strategies for optimal SME engagement — from Integrated Learning Services by Dean Hawkinson

Also see:

SMEs: Barriers and ways to respond — Darryl Sink

Tagged with: instructional design

Instructional design: The times they are a’changing [Bates]

On 05/23/2011, in change, instructional design, by Daniel Christian

Instructional design: The times they are a’changing — by Tony Bates

Tagged with: change • instructional design

[Concept] The new “textbook”: A multi-layered approach — from Daniel S. Christian
I’ve been thinking recently about new approaches to relaying — and engaging with — content in a “textbook”.

For a physical textbook

When opening up a physical textbook to a particular page, QR-like codes would be printed on the physical pages of the textbook. With the advent of augmented reality, such a mechanism would open up some new possibilities to interact with content for that page. For example, some overall characteristics about this new, layered approach:

Augmented reality could reveal multiple layers of information:
- From the author/subject matter expert as well as the publisher’s instructional design team
  - Main points highlighted
  - Pointers that may help with metacognition, such as potential mnemonics that might be helpful in moving something into long-term memory
  - Studying strategies
- A layer that the professor or teacher could edit
  - Main points highlighted
  - Pointers that may help with metacognition, such as potential mnemonics that might be helpful in moving something into long-term memory
  - Studying strategies
- A layer for the students to comment on/annotate that page
- A layer for other students’ comments

For an electronic-based textbook

The interface would allow for such layers to be visible or not — much like Google’s Body Browser application
For example, in this graphic, comments from the SME and/or ID are highlighted on top of the normal text:

Advantages of this concept/model:

Ties physical into virtual world
We could economically update information (i.e. opens up streams of content)
Integrates social learning
Allows SMEs, IDs, faculty members to further comment/add to content as new information becomes available
Instructors could highlight the key points they want to stress
Many of the layers could offer items that might help with students’ meta-cognitive processes (i.e. to help them learn the content and move the content into long-term memory)
One could envision the textbook being converted into something more akin to an app in an online-based store — with notifications of updates that could be constantly pushed out

Addendum (5/26):

Mobile Augmented Reality: Creating 21st Century Classroom Resources — from k12mobilelearning.com by Johnny Kisso

Tagged with: 1:1 • 21st century • adjunct faculty • augmented reality • Daniel S. Christian • digital learning • digital textbooks • educational technology • emerging technologies • faculty • innovation • instructional design • learning ecosystem • learning theories • metacognition • new publishing models • professors • publishing • QR codes -- tagging • social learning • student-related • tablets • teachers • teaching & learning • textbooks • Using teams • vision

Practical strategies for online faculty orientation [Bart]

On 05/09/2011, in career development, instructional design, professional development, teaching online, by Daniel Christian

Practical strategies for online faculty orientation — from Faculty Focus by Mary Bart

Excerpt:

At Penn State World Campus, new instructors have a three-part training program that includes online pedagogy, a tour of the Learning Management System (LMS), and an orientation on the nuts and bolts of teaching in an online classroom. The goal is to streamline the teaching and learning process, and minimize the learning curves for new instructors.

In the online seminar How to Orient New Instructors to an Online Course FAST!, Jennifer Berghage, an instructional designer at Penn State World Campus, discussed her approach to orienting new instructors. It all begins with a comprehensive instructor tip sheet, which lives within the course site hidden from students but is always just a click away from instructors.

Tagged with: career development • instructional design • professional development • teaching online

From classroom to online, think “transform” not “transfer” [Bozarth]

On 05/06/2011, in engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, instructional design, interactivity, online learning, participation, by Daniel Christian

1. Analyze the current state of the classroom program.
2. Update and cut-and-chunk material.
3. Identify ways of adding interactivity and capturing the richness of the “live” event.

Tagged with: course redesign • engagement • face-to-face • instructional design • interactivity • online learning • participation

A hugely powerful vision: A potent addition to our learning ecosystems of the future

On 04/09/2011, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, change, colleges, convergence, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-readers, education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, immersion, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, lifelong learning, marketplaces, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multi-touch, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pace of change, Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, podcasting, professional development, reinvent, RSS, simulations, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, social media, society, storytelling, strategy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, surviving, tablets, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, television, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

Daniel Christian:
A Vision of Our Future Learning Ecosystems

In the near future, as the computer, the television, the telephone (and more) continues to converge, we will most likely enjoy even more powerful capabilities to conveniently create and share our content as well as participate in a global learning ecosystem — whether that be from within our homes and/or from within our schools, colleges, universities and businesses throughout the world.

We will be teachers and students at the same time — even within the same hour — with online-based learning exchanges taking place all over the virtual and physical world. Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) — in the form of online-based tutors, instructors, teachers, and professors — will be available on demand. Even more powerful/accurate/helpful learning engines will be involved behind the scenes in delivering up personalized, customized learning — available 24x7x365. Cloud-based learner profiles may enter the equation as well.

The chances for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship that are coming will be mind-blowing! What employers will be looking for — and where they can look for it — may change as well.

What we know today as the “television” will most likely play a significant role in this learning ecosystem of the future. But it won’t be like the TV we’ve come to know. It will be much more interactive and will be aware of who is using it — and what that person is interested in learning about. Technologies/applications like Apple’s AirPlay will become more standard, allowing a person to move from device to device without missing a beat. Transmedia storytellers will thrive in this environment!

Much of the professionally done content will be created by teams of specialists, including the publishers of educational content, and the in-house teams of specialists within colleges, universities, and corporations around the globe. Perhaps consortiums of colleges/universities will each contribute some of the content — more readily accepting previous coursework that was delivered via their consortium’s membership.

An additional thought regarding higher education and K-12 and their Smart Classrooms/Spaces:
For input devices…
The “chalkboards” of the future may be transparent, or they may be on top of a drawing board-sized table or they may be tablet-based. But whatever form they take and whatever is displayed upon them, the ability to annotate will be there; with the resulting graphics saved and instantly distributed. (Eventually, we may get to voice-controlled Smart Classrooms, but we have a ways to go in that area…)

Below are some of the graphics that capture a bit of what I’m seeing in my mind…and in our futures.

Alternatively available as a PowerPoint Presentation (audio forthcoming in a future version)

— from Daniel S. Christian | April 2011

Excerpt from “Course design and development ideas that work” [Faculty Focus]

On 04/08/2011, in instructional design, learning theories, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

Interesting excerpts/viewpoints re: the term “scaffolding” from one of the articles at:
Course Design and Development Ideas That Work — from Faculty Focus

Sometimes good metaphors further understanding. Such figures of speech can help us see familiar aspects in something new or see something familiar in a new light. The scaffolding metaphor doesn’t do either. It functions more like a crock of oatmeal (to use a metaphor) covering and congealing what instructors do. Not finding any help there, let’s try considering scaffolding as an object. How does it function?

…

Are there any good metaphors out there to help us describe, discuss, and conduct research on these issues? More likely they are to be found in other learning situations. To start, here are two: the training wheels we put on bicycles to enable youngsters to learn balance and the Tball pedestal that allows six-year-olds to play baseball. Each device works by restricting and focusing the teacher’s role while expanding the learner’s opportunities. Both offer new and more fruitful ways of looking at learning designs and teaching practices. Both allow us to escape the scaffolding that now prevents further construction of understanding.

— Larry D. Spence, Penn State University.

Tagged with: instructional design • learning theories • teaching & learning

Faculty “buy-in”– to what?

On 04/07/2011, in adult learning, education technology, emerging technologies, future of higher education, higher education, instructional design, learning theories, pedagogy, research, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

Faculty “buy-in”– to what? — from CampusTechnology.com by Trent Batson

Excerpts:

We can continue incrementally to find our generalized theory as a national and international enterprise if we are willing to wait decades and waste enormous energy and time on failed experiments. Or, we can make efforts to bring together the learning theorists and researchers with those who understand the capabilities of the technology.

At conferences of learning theorists and researchers, we hear about useful new ideas, research results, hopeful new ways of framing what we have gleaned from a century of careful thought and work about how humans learn. But, we don’t find that these learning theorists understand the dynamics of the new technologies sufficiently to recommend a path toward implementation of the theories.

At conferences of technologists, we hear of successful work in innumerable contexts across the country. But the technologists are not aware of learning theory in most cases, or they do know about learning theory but are not active in a learning theory research field. The innumerable technology implementation contexts, then, remain just anecdotal as they are not tied to a developing new theoretical construct.

…

The challenge is to build a cultural theory that guides academia to re-imagine itself in every tiny bit of being. Who is taking up this challenge? Where is our theory? Where are our theorists?

I hope our community will move away from the simplistic notion that somehow information technology can be “bolted on and not built in” to quote a colleague from last November’s ePortfolios Australia Conference in Melbourne.

Academic transformation is under way. Don’t put the technology first; put understanding of the technology implications first–the unifying learning theory. Second, start the changes on campus that will provide the road system for academics to use in our new landscape.

From DSC:
Having just completed a course re: learning theories, I greatly appreciated Trent’s article here. In that class, I was constantly looking for the applications of the learning theories. While learning to give up on the idea of a silver bullet, I was still in search of answers to questions like:

What does all this mean?
What’s the bottom line for such and such a learning theory?
How does this learning theory impact someone’s teaching and learning strategies (pedagogy and/or andragogy)?

Graphically speaking, I came up with these thoughts:
(Depending upon how you are viewing them, you may need to right click on these graphics and save them down to your desktop; them up them up in a new window/application)

And my thanks to Capella University for the underlying graphics/information here:

Tagged with: adult learners/learning • andragogy • educational technology • emerging technologies • future of higher education • higher education • instructional design • learning theories • pedagogy • research • teaching & learning

Visual storytelling: Interview with Nancy Duarte

On 04/07/2011, in instructional design, memory, presentations, story, storytelling, by Daniel Christian

Visual storytelling: Interview with Nancy Duarte — from theelearningcoach.com

Excerpt:

Coach:
Why should learning experience designers care about stories? How does it relate to learning?

Nancy:
Stories are the oldest communication form and are proven to be easily recalled and repeated. If training material can be recalled and repeated, it’s most likely understood. Stories are a great container for memorable information. Relaying instructional content through metaphor and story helps the audience connect emotionally to the content being communicated. Instructional designers are on a steady quest to keep their audiences engaged and motivated, and storytelling is an effective strategy.

Tagged with: instructional design • memory • presentations • story • storytelling • visual design

A question of balance [Sheperd]

On 04/05/2011, in blended learning, face-to-face, formal learning, hybrid learning, informal learning, instructional design, online learning, by Daniel Christian

A question of balance — by Clive Sheperd
Excerpt:

The issue, as ever, is getting the balance right between taking advantage of new developments as they come available, while continuing to exploit the potential of long-standing approaches.

Tagged with: blended learning • face-to-face • formal learning • hybrid learning • informal learning • instructional design • online learning

From DSC:
The first article/item I want to comment on is:

A Potential Market for Courseware Developers — from Brandon-Hall.com by Richard Nantel

First of all, thanks Richard for tackling this subject and for putting a posting out there regarding it. For years, I’ve wondered what the best way(s) is(are) to pursue the creation of professionally-done, interactive, personalized/customized, multimedia-based, engaging content. It is expensive to create well-done materials and/or the learning engines behind these materials. Also, as at the faith-based college where I work, some colleges would want a very specific kind of content or take a different slant on presenting the content. So the content would have to be modified — which would have an associated cost to it.

Some options that I’ve thought of:

Outsource the content creation to a team of specialists — at educationally-focused publishing companies out there

Outsource the content creation to a team of specialists — at other solution providers focused on education

Develop the content in-house with a team of specialists

Don’t create content at all, but rather steer people to the streams of content that are already flowing out there. Some content may be changing so fast that it may not be worth the expense to create it.

Have students create the content — that’s what school becomes. Learning enough to create/teach the content to others. (This would require a great deal of cross-disciplinary collaboration and cooperation amongst faculty members.)

As a relevant aside, I have held that if an organization could raise the capital and the teams to develop this type of engaging, professionally-done content — and scale the solution — they could become the Forthcoming Walmart of Education. The attractive piece of this for families/students out there would be that this type of education will come at a 50%+ discount.

The second article/item that caused some additional reflection here was the article at The Chronicle of Higher Education by Marc Parry entitled, “Think You’ll Make Big Bucks in Online Ed? Not So Fast, Experts Say”

What if the United States could reallocate even the cost of 1-2 high-end planes in the United States Air Force? Our nation could create stunning, engaging content that could reach millions of people on any given subject — as online learning has the potential to be highly scalable (though I realize that much of this depends upon how much involvement an organization wants to integrate into the delivery/teaching of this content in terms of their instructors’/professors’ time).

Anyway, Marc highlights some important points — that creating content, marketing that content, etc. can be expensive.

But I have it that if you don’t get into this online learning game, you won’t be relevant in the years to come. People want convenience and students’ expectations will continue to rise — wanting to learn on their own pace, per their own schedule, from any place and on any device; finally, they will want to have more opportunities to participate/collaborate/control their own learning experiences. (And this doesn’t even touch upon whether it will become even more difficult to get through “the gate” — that is, getting the student’s attention in order to make it into their short-term memory, in hopes of then moving the lesson/information into long-term memory.)

Tagged with: 1:1 • 21st century • 24x7x365 • cost of getting an education • customized learning • Daniel S. Christian • education reform • entrepreneurship • future of higher education • game-changing environment • higher education • ideas • instructional design • leadership • online learning • personalized learning • staying relevant • strategy • surviving • vision • Walmart of Education

The OER discussion/debate over at Tony Bates’ blog

On 03/21/2011, in instructional design, open courseware and systems, quality, by Daniel Christian

Recent postings/topic started with OERs: the good, the bad and the ugly — see comments therein
Rory McGreal’s lengthy critique of Tony’s post: A defence of the OER movement: Any Which Way You Can
A reflection on the OER debate: Every Which Way but Loose — again see comments therein

Tagged with: instructional design • open • quality

What’s the best way for learners, employees, organizations, & publishers to deal with constantly-moving streams of content?

On 03/18/2011, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, adult learning, career development, change, collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital textbooks, distance education, informal learning, instructional design, learning ecosystem, learning theories, lifelong learning, microlearning, online learning, online media, pace of change, Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), professional development, publishing, RSS, social learning / networks, social media, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, textbooks, training / L&D, ubiquitous learning, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
After looking at some items concerning Connectivism*, I’ve been reflecting upon the following questions:

What’s the best way for us to dip our feet into the constantly moving streams of content?
(No matter the topic or discipline, the streams continue to flow.)
What’s the optimal setup for K-12 based “courses”?
What’s the optimal setup for “courses” within higher education?
How should L&D departments deal with this phenomenon?
How do publishers and textbook authors want to address this situation?

Thinking of Gonzalez (2004; as cited in Siemens (2005)) description of the challenges of rapidly diminishing knowledge life:

“One of the most persuasive factors is the shrinking half-life of knowledge. The “half-life of knowledge” is the time span from when knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete. Half of what is known today was not known 10 years ago. The amount of knowledge in the world has doubled in the past 10 years and is doubling every 18 months according to the American Society of Training and Documentation (ASTD). To combat the shrinking half-life of knowledge, organizations have been forced to develop new methods of deploying instruction.”

Stephen Downes addresses this and points to a possible solution to this phenomenon in his presentation from 3/15/11 entitled “Educational Projection: Supporting Distributed Learning Online.”

Excerpt/slides:

I need to put more thought into this, but wanted to throw this question out there…more later…

* From DSC: Some of the items I looked at regarding Connectivism — some directly related, others indirectly-related — were:

Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm.

Downes, S. (2005). An introduction to connective knowledge. Retrieved from http://www. downes. ca/post/33034. Downes noted that this was published in Hug, Theo (ed. ) (2007): Media, knowledge & education – exploring new spaces, relations and dynamics in digital media ecologies. Proceedings of the International Conference held on June 25-26, 2007. November 27, 2007.

Kop, R. & Hill, A. (2008). Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of the past? International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, v9 n3 p1-13 Oct 2008.

Tracey, R. (2009). Instructivism, constructivism or connectivism? Training & Development in Australia, December, 2009. p08-09, 2p. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. ISSN 0310-4664.

Kerr, B. (2007). A challenge to connectivism. Retrieved at http://learningevolves. wikispaces. com/kerr.

Sims, R. (2008). Rethinking (e)learning: A manifesto for connected generations. Distance Education Vol. 29, No. 2, August 2008, 153–164. ISSN 0158-7919 print/ISSN 1475-0198 online. DOI: 10. 1080/01587910802154954

Lisa Dawley. (2009). Social network knowledge construction: emerging virtual world pedagogy. On the Horizon, 17(2), 109-121. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1880656431).

Hargadon, S. (2011). Ugh. Classic politics now extends to social networking in education. Retrieved from http://www. stevehargadon. com/2011/03/ugh-classic-politics-now-extends-to. html.

Cross, J. (2001). Crowd-inspired innovation. Retrieved from http://www.internettime.com/2011/03/crowd-inspired-innovation.

Rogers-Estable, M.. (2009). Web 2.0 and distance education: Tools and techniques. Distance Learning, 6(4), 55-60. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2017059921).

Marrotte-Newman, S.. (2009). Why virtual schools exist and understanding their culture. Distance Learning, 6(4), 31-35. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2017059881).

Hilton, J., Graham, C., Rich, P., & Wiley, D. (2010). Using online technologies to extend a classroom to learners at a distance. Distance Education, 31(1), 77-92. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2074810921).

Attwell, G. (2010). Personal learning environments and Vygotsky. Retrieved from http://www.pontydysgu.org/2010/04/personal-learning-environments-and-vygotsky.

Tagged with: 1:1 • 21st century • 24x7x365 • active learning • adult learners/learning • change • collaboration • Connectivism • content • Content aggregration • corporate training / universities • dangers of the status quo • Daniel S. Christian • digital textbooks • distance ed • informal learning • information overload • instructional design • learning and study strategies • learning ecosystem • learning theories • Lifelong learning • mash-ups • online learning • online media • pace of change • personal learning networks (PLNs) • professional development • RSS • social learning • social media • staying relevant • strategy • student-related • surviving • teaching & learning • textbooks • training • ubiquitous learning • web-based collaboration • workplace

Game levels and scaffolding–they’re related [Karl Kapp]

On 03/14/2011, in educational games / serious games, instructional design, learning theories, motivation, play, by Daniel Christian

Game levels and scaffolding–they’re related — from Kaplan EduNeering by Karl Kapp

Tagged with: educational gaming • games • instructional design • learning theories • motivation • play

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