digital lifeboat

Just limbering up the fingers during the break.

We have moved to the new version of web ct (vista?)  for the last semester. Looks interesting and some attempts to create a more social learning environment are in evidence, but yet to be trialed. There is an indication of who is on line and logged into web ct, and also the chance to hail other course members for a quick chat. This would eliminate the need to run MSN concurrently as I have been accustomed to do.

Been a hectic couple of weeks due to a family bereavement, only just got the orders off for the new text books. Busy at work too as end of year frantic ordering and balancing of the books goes on apace.

Just noticing that automatic saves are taking place in here (Edublogs) that seems to be a new function. Working well without interruption to function and indicated by a timer.

I have uploaded a first draft of my CBT documentation to the drop box. It took a long time as the file is 11 Mb. It was good to have tested this in advance, will have to allow for this and finish editing in good time on wed to allow for upload. I have tried as much as possible to compress the many graphics in the piece but as ever importing pictures into work produces bloated files, and the report needs to be editable for marking purposes.

Crit with Ray completed his report below.

I anticipate proofreading and uploading one more copy of the doucmentation. Final work on the CBT on Wednedsday.

 Crit Report for Carol Timney (cam60766)Carol identified an idea to use CAL to assist first time voters with the process of voting. After much deliberation and development of the instructional specification she realised that it would be difficult to assess the progress of learners using a computer only. She then identified a more relevant need from her personal professional environment and decided to develop a training package on how to use the VLE (Moodle) interface at her school – which is clearly instructional as required. This option had a better structured body of knowledge and it is possible to test most of the intended outcomes by using a computer. From the choice of topic it is evident that she realises the value and opportunities for e-learning objects and applications within educational institutions and the opportunity to train learners at different levels of experience.She correctly differentiated between learning objectives and learning outcomes but could have been more specific with the actions words to identify a wider range of user activity other than just ‘to understand’. Carol demonstrated better understanding of the design process and the associated requirements the second time around, which to me is a clear indication of progression and personal development, widening her theoretical knowledge and gaining a better understanding of the Design Method for a Multimedia CAL application.The theoretical aspects of the design process is well researched and from the blog discussions it is clear that she is familiar with the terminology and technical aspects that involves the implementation and use of VLE’s. It is important to her who the learners are, what their requirements might be and how to make the transition as easy as possible.The design documentation bears evidence of knowledge and first hand experience of the wider issues of virtual learning environments such as design considerations and multimedia interaction.  Teaching strategies were fairly well matched with the different learning objectives but I felt that an indication of the intended method of instruction would have been useful.  Details of how each learning objective will be taught greatly facilitate the building of a structure chart. The initial structure chart was a bit small and did not make provision for each individual slide but was updater and corrected as she developed the initial idea.  It might be worth while to revisit the instructional video to confirm the use of lines and arrows to show navigational paths. The final structure chart shows one idea per page and clearly maps each individual slide of the CAL and she achieved the aim of applied a deeper approach rather than a wide. It might be advisable to include the ‘Planning Content’ which serves as a check list to see which design tasks needs to be completed and use this to manage the time more effectively.Although she did not mange to complete the software application to the level anticipated, she demonstrated her ability to create a small application use the Flask software. With more practice and application higher level of interaction and multimedia applications will be possible.The appearance of the interface was deliberately chosen to mirror the Moodle interface for users to easily link the one to the other. The simplicity of the interface makes an already daunting task easier and more user-friendly. The Navigation instructions are clear but I would suggest they be made slightly larger for users with sight impediment.Navigational movement within the application is smooth (forward and backwards) but sometimes slightly confusing. I could not ‘visualise’ the structure of the application from using the navigation button only – a site menu or breadcrumbs might solve the probe. Flash lends itself to the creation of animated material which is quite powerful when used in CAL. This makes it easier for certain users to visualise what they are learning. The overall presentation could be made more appealing if at least one contrasting colour is used either as a background for instance where the link buttons are located or the screen section. During our final discussion we agreed that the following can be improved: ·   Addition of sound clips ·   A video clip to show the integration of the interface.·   Include a help and support link·   More use of Flash to master layers and scenesIn my opinion Carol has demonstrated that she is able to apply the design process effectively to construct and evaluate an interactive, multimedia computer-based training (CBT) applications based on sound theoretical and instructional design principles. She is familiar with the use a range of VLE’s and realises the problems experienced by inexperienced users and focus her design idea around these problematic areas.Mark Allocated:

I have been reading ahead to the next unit so that I can plan what reading to focus on and what it’s all about.

 I will have to write a strategy report for a major e-learning development. This has to include staffing, technical support, hardware, software, training, student support. etc

I have been mulling over what to do this on as thinking of the right topics is always tricky. There was a suggestion of making this relevant to our third year projects, but I am still in something of a quandry about what to do for that. I have had one idea which may be work pursuing.

We need to develop videoconferencing within school. This has been on the back burner due to lack of time. This topic would have all the elements required and has the benefit of being within my remit and not dependant on anyone else. Another benefit is that it is not confidential  as some other issues would be, and that results will be acted on so its a win win for school and myself.

I think this would have enough content without being overwhelming or struggling to find sufficient material. As I look at the headings I think it would fit the bill.

 I have posted second draft of my CBT to Barbel today. I am halting writing flash to complete crits and get my submission paperwork up to date. This has been a very pressured week at work due to staff training and with an unfortunately timed exhibition to attend on Saturday I am up against the deadline alrealy.

It has been useful to reflect today over the process and on the whole I am pleased that I managed to get anything achieved at all. Many practical and conceptual barriers had to be overcome to get this far.

There were many aspects of the flash programming which I found difficult. I was unable to work successfully in layers without creating an element on screen right across the timeline. All my CBT is therefore in one layer. I was unable to make any of the many methods of controlling an animation work. I tried different methods of embedding a player and buttons controlling the movie into the page without success. In the end I had to resort to embedding them looping without any controls. Many of the elements were achieved after many days of repeating instructions from a variety of instructional sources, and betray a basic lack of understanding of the flash software.

I managed to create some animations which showed to me the potential in using flash for short embedded elements in other web pages. I can see this being a useful tool for my work in creating re usable learning objects which are SCORM compliant, and will run in our Moodle environment. Most of the CBT I completed is based on simple action script commands of a go to and stop action.

For this sort of CBT the instructional design methodology works very successfully, however it does not come naturally to me and I could not see myself working within this field ongoing. I found this exercise difficult at every level including the programming, but I managed to achieve something which resembled my plans, and which demonstrates some of the learning outcomes intended.

Moodle training went well today. It was a challenge working out where to pitch the session. All were beginners with no previous knowledge of Moodle but some were teachers, some administrators, some teaching support and the entire Senior leadership team.

So tried to keep it simple and hands on with a 20 min overview intro. I covered what is a VLE why did we need one, and what the features of Moodle were which supported teaching and learning. We went on to some hands on workshops. Began by replicate a limerick writing exercise that was used last year on this MSc (thanks Terry hope you don’t mind!) This got everyone logged in and contributing to a wiki working together. All seemed to enjoy this exercise and by the end of the day a good deal of enthusiasm at all levels.

Some interesting discussions arose around intellectual property rights and copyright. I have great to do list arising, mainly in the area of software needed for converting office documents to pdf and also to provide hot potatoes software for all.

So tiring but encouraging start to what will be a frantically busy couple of weeks.

I was please with some elements of the pp I created,this diagram draws together some thoughts on the social constructivist theory behind Moodle.