Richard:
We are on the same page when it comes to the kinds of competencies that can be taught in an online environment. Moreover, your statements about being a tool and not a toy are well taken.
Richard, all of the instructors with whom I have worked create online graduate courses. I have not noticed any of them or even the Instructional Designers who work with them ever venture into the "entertain" domain.
Satrohan
Graphics should not detract from or be a disctaction the object of the course.
To answer your first question, yes you are correct in your assessment, Satrohan.
Regarding the second, I suppose it depends on both the students and instructors. I am concerned that onlline training may by itself not be enough for some technical fields--hands on material may well be needed, as well as clos personal contact with teachers.
Regarding using media support--if the instructor is current on what is available, and is trained to use it effectively, it may work. But, again, I would not overuse this or the "medium" could get in the way of the "message." It's not a toy, it's a tool, and one should not lose sight of the goal, which is to educate people, not just entertain them.
Richard:
From your response, I surmise that you rcommend judicious use of media---only that which is necessary to support the theme under consideration; no more, no less. Two Questions:
Question 1
Have interpreted your answer correctly?
Question 2
Do you think that as Instructors with indepth knowledge of the content we want our students to assimilate are representative of our learning audience to the point that we are the best judges of the kind and level of media support hey would require?
Satrohan
Great ideas. I would suggest having less, rather than more, graphics. While students are becoming very visually oriented, I can see how images can overwhelm and oversimplify text.
For what it's worth, try this: When you put together a new class, run the graphics through for youself without any text or sound. Is this sufficient? Does it flow well? Is there too much information thrown at people?
Then add, expand verbal discussions to deepend and make sense of what is shown. There are too many soundbites on TV; we don't need seebites too.
LaTisha:
Administering an entry-level survey to determine the level of "technology savy" can be one way of providing remedial materials as well as Quick Reference materials to help them along.
Satrohan
We have to take into consideration that some of the student may not be as technologically savy. The program should be as easy to navigate through as possible.
Kevin:
I do not see any problem with this approach once there is continuity in the PowerPoint and adequate information for students to establish the relationship between the graphics and their intended purpose.
Satrohan
I think that is fine, but I do think that visual graphics help tremendously for students taking Math courses online. My institution uses PowerPoint which provides a form of visual graphics; which is ideal because the student will be able to see the graphics and it does follow the content in the textbook.
Kevin:
Without seeing the PowerPoint presentations and the lectures, it is difficult for me to reasonably conclude whether including the visual graphics in the lectures would be better, at least to maintain continuity. It will then run as the content in a textbook. What do you think?
Satrohan
What works best for me is that the lectures are given to the students along with PowerPoint slide presentations, which gives more detailed visual graphics. This has been very successful with my Math courses. By giving the student's more visual aids, I think this helps them with solving the math problems better.
Denise:
Your interpretation of my position on the Subject is correct. I would like to temper my position with real constraints that can be imposed on a course development project. Time as well as budgetary constraints can impose challenges on th equantity of media we can include in a course; especially budgetary constraints. These are real ife situations I have faced with many of my clients. Under these circumstances, we strive for mutual consent to employ adequate media strategies to support the course content in a somewhat balanced manner. The goal here is not to make the online course an electronic page-turner. Once the course generates some revenue, we move forward to add other media stratgies. On the other hand, if time was the constraint, we do the media enhancements before the course is offered a second time.
All of the comments confirm that most of us feel the "amount" is subjective depending on the course. What I hear Satrohan saying is that if we keep multimedia balanced and relative to the content, the amount is irrelevant.
I agree, but it should be simple enough that should fosters intellectual discussions.
Annejeaqnette:
You have touched on a very important end-user variable-----downloading time. I want to encourage you to as you keep that variable in mind, you avoid it being the primary deciding factor. All media must support the themes to which they refer. Overly simplistic media and animation sequences to accommodate low data transmission rates my not necesarily be of any added value to the content.
Satrohan
Being that I have a background in graphic design, I like graphics but keep the media sequence modest and easy to load for students. When using animation, I find that keeping the loading sequence under 1MB will allow even slow or antiquated computers able to load images.
Lynnette:
Students with low levels of computer literacy may not encounter difficulties with graphic components of a course as they would with complex interactive exercises. Graphics are static; interactive exercises, while they contain graphics may involve a series of inputs from students. providing instructions on how to complete the interactive exercises will be of benefit to students with low computer literacy levels.
Satrohan
I agree with keeping the graphics format simple and concise to the course format. Students just learning how to use their computer and online courses should not feel overwhelmed with understanding complicated design.
The facilitator should keep in mind that that are students with different levels participating in the course.
Lynnette
Fatmata:
Agreed. Graphical illustrations must not be "busy". They must contain only the necessary elements to support the topic they support.
Satrohan
Shon:
Agreed. Since students can quickly spot fillers, and educators will consider fillers as poor presentation strategies, judicious use of graphics, as well as any other form of media is highly recommended.
Satrohan
