Design Animation in Segments

Useful findings from a research study
(how often do you hear that :-)

Design solutions for novice or low prior knowledge students in animation:

1. segmented-animation was beneficial
2. allowing students to decide the segmentation in play-pause-animation does not necessarily promote better learning (though the study acknowledges that the design of the play/pause buttons may be altered to influence this finding)
3. pauses between segments allows time for students to develop more accurate mental models
4. static display during the pauses is also beneficial

Effects of segmentation of instructional animation in facilitating learning

World's largest university puts almost all of its materials online

http://reganmian.net/blog/2008/12/05/worlds-largest-university-opens-almost-all-its-materials/

But at the time of posting this the university's site was not responding.
[too popular?]

Mobile devices: SSI

 Supplementary Storage Infrastructure (SSI)

Developing an entire infrastructure for e-learning on all platforms (PC and mobile) may be a daunting challenge.  However, a supplementary storage infrastructure (SSI) could be developed.  The SSI addresses some of the needs for PC and mobile based learning.  In its simplest form the SSI hosts e-learning content and interactions.

The advantages of the SSI are as follows:

• Uses a simple, but robust, standard web server technology
• Optional content management system to simply use for content developers
• Relatively quick to install and implement
• Allows sharing of content across modules
• Access from any web device (e.g. PC or mobile)
• Supports the trend for open content

Knowledge vs. Understanding

Here's an example of the difference between knowledge and understanding:

Google (the search engine) knows more than you do - much more!

However, Google doesn't understand what it knows :-)

Good E-Learning Guidelines [?]

Here are a list of points that may be useful for e-learning:

1. Small chunks of information: When demonstrating a specific concept keep the number of items small (less than 5) and only present information that can be comprehended within one minute.
   
2. Explain the meaning of something that is to be learnt.
   
3. Elaborate the descriptions (with more small chunks of information)
   
4. An emotional stimulus helps to store memories.
   
5. Organise the information:
• order from simple to complex concepts
  
6. Engage students in interactions that require a degree of effort from them.
   
7. Space rehersals over a period of time.
   
8. Suggest the student suspends their study at certain points throughout the material (or after, say, 50 minutes of learning) and goes away to do something unrelated to the learning.
   
9. Provide simulations that deliver information in small chunks.
   
10. Try to motivate the student.
    
11. Encourage the student to reflect on their learning.
    
12. If appropriate to the group, course and task then consider using social networking / social learning.
    
13. Explicitly test the following (perhaps in separate stages):

• memory / knowledge - recall of the information taught
• understanding - applying their understanding to new scenarios

PDF - not good practice (on the web)

Because something is widely adopted it doesn't mean it's good practice.
Some things are adopted because it allows the author to be lazy; or publish existing content quickly.

PDF files...

They have the advantages of: allowing existing documents to be quickly published on the web; preserving the fomat of a document; collating all the pages in one package; and allowing the whole document to be easily printed.

They have big disadvantages for web surfing: just about all of the functionality and advantages of web browsers and surfing the web are bypassed!

Generally, no division of the content with links, no bookmarking of specific sections / pages, and most browser functionality is bypassed.

E-learning experts, or amateurs?

Does it make you laugh when you read about good practice in e-learning and the article itself demonstrates bad practice?

Today I came across such a PDF [horrible format for the web, but that's another story].  In the PDF several of the images would need to be rotated 90 degrees so that they can be viewed properly.  That's easy if you (waste paper) and print it out; but it's much harder to rotate an image when your using a web browser!  Doh!

Free CourseSites from Blackboard

https://www.coursesites.com/webapps/Bb-sites-course-creation-BBLEARN/pages/index.html

Blackboard Analytics

Data warehousing and analysis...

http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Analytics/Overview.aspx

Learning Analytics

Let's look at student interactions to refine our e-learning.


"Learning analytics loosely joins a variety of
data-gathering tools and analytic techniques
to study student engagement, performance,
and progress in practice, with the goal of using
what is learned to revise curricula, teaching, and
assessment in real time. Building on the kinds
of information generated by Google Analytics
and other similar tools, learning analytics aims
to mobilize the power of data-mining tools
in the service of learning, and embracing
the complexity, diversity, and abundance of
information that dynamic learning environments
can generate."

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/HR2011.pdf