In terms of artefact development it’s important that the rigour of the process undertaken is evidenced somewhere. All of the below have been gone through and need to be explained and discussed in a reflection somewhere.
- Stages of artefact development
- Needs analysis
- Audience definition
- Considerations of accessiblity
- Determination and articulation of learning outcomes
- Selection of instructional design Model
- Consideration of learning theory
- Storyboarding
- Consideration of methods of delivering content (tools, file types, interactivity)
- Research into how others are dealing with similar material – look online for ideas
- When storyboarding complete, and selection of tools broadly determined, then need to script – the selection of tools happened before the scripting as I felt it would be easier to script knowing the capabilities of the particular tool that I would be using to give life to the script.
TOOL CHOICE
I liked using powerpoint as it gave me a huge amount of control over what appeared on screen. Also, from the point of view of scripting, I could add the script to each slide in the speaker notes section and then just read those notes while recording the ppt using screencastomatic. Using ppt in conjunction with screencastomatic worked for me – screencastomatic a very simple tool – no editing possible – but, this restriction can work in your favour aprticularly if you’re creating resources for staff – do not want to be faffing around getting everything perfect – if it works, it works. Also the timing restriction on screencastomatic works – absolutely no point putting up long instructional videos – research shows that people do not hang around more than maybe five minutes.
In the design of the videos at the start I also consciously outlined EXACTLY what is covered in the next five mins – people are busy online – give them the answer fast, let them know what will be covered in that particular segment fast – I don’t want people wasting their time on the site.
CONTENT
In the development of the artefact I have focussed quite extensively on the issues around control of content – how to see what groups you have shared with, how to set expiry dates, how to set a document as no copying-nodownloading. This focus has arisen explicitly from the semi-structured interviews as control of content was regularly mentioned. Separately, in DIT, staff recently have had issues with students sharing their notes on an online site – the students have to share a resource in order to get access to other people’s resources – and not having any resources of their own they have put up their lecturers’ note. Many lecturers are not happy with this.
LEARNING THEORY: Cognitivism
http://thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational-learning/learning/theories/
https://prezi.com/5mhmmv-nynlh/cognitivism-cognitive-load-theory/
Avoid cognitive overload. Keep site simple looking – lots of greys and dark colours with colour splashes for stuff I want to stand out.
Each page should very clearly state what it’s about. Each resource should articulate at the start exactly what is being covered – both so that the comfortable user can just go ahead and follow the guideline instructions and that the novice user will not waste his/her tie rootin for styff. This idea links to cognitivist theory of providing structure.
BUT – I would also like to build in some Aha! constructivist moments, when the user has a realisation about some aspect of Google – this for me is the best method of learning – when an insight is personally realised, the knowledge is retained and the learning has a clear sense of how to put the knowledge to use.
DECISIONS AROUND PPT
- creating a template for the ppt
- creating a logo for A Free VLE for me, to incorporate all the google logos
- embedding a disclaimer on the ppts and screencasts
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