Monday, March 9, 2009
Design-Planning the online course
Being totally new to online course creation, I found the chapter, ’Planning the Online Course’ very useful. The chapter discusses how some simple design tools can be used to explain concepts. I took a course in ‘Aligning Training Goals with Organizational Strategy’ over the weekend, at the end of which, all the participants presented their training proposals. One of the issues that came up during the class was that some of us had put a lot of text on the power point slides to explain tedious details. Reading this particular chapter introduced simple tools like concept mapping, story boarding and flow charts that can be extremely helpful in situations which involve painful details. It not only helps in accelerated learning but also focuses learning on key concepts while excluding redundant explanations. The only issue with using these designs is that a lot of information has to be understood in a correct manner before structuring it as figures and diagrams. Sometimes, these visual models appear more complex than the concept itself and should therefore be reviewed by peers before implementation, to ensure that the designs effectively interpret the concept.
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Samar, I think you are right on with the challenges of structuring complex information in simple visuals. Have you seen any good examples you can point to as models for us?
ReplyDeleteJeffrey
Interesting. I get totally allergic when I sit and look at a presentation with 50 slides, full of designs, pictures, graphics, texts, bullet points, appearing/disappearing words...I think simple, short and straight to the point are necessary. And you are right in mentioning the use of simple tools (flow chart, concept mapping, etc.). The teacher can then go into further details, but does not need to have everything written down on the slides.
ReplyDeleteJeffrey, I can point out a tool that is very simple to use and can help us structure a lot of complex information that is either related or unrelated. The ‘Smart Art’ option in PowerPoint is a great way to start. It gives you options of describing information in a meaningful way. It makes information analysis very simple and non-linear.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Anne. Just because we have a lot of tools to enhance visuals do not mean that we clutter our presentations with all the tricks we know! Everything has to be well planned and designed, only to achieve the objectives of learning.