Meeting with the E-Learning Development Team w/e 28/08/08
Today I had a very useful meeting with the E-Learning Development Team at the University of Derby. I met with Pete Radcliff, Adam Bailey and Glenn Mcgarry to get their thoughts and opinions on the materials we had produced so far for POCKET. The following points were raised: Transferring the materials to a VLE
- We briefly discussed how the materials could be transferred to a VLE like Blackboard and the option of using RELOAD was suggested.
Material content
- A list of technical requirements could be included in the Introduction section of each unit (eg. This unit contains audio, Flash files…) Maybe include a list of websites where any necessary software/plugins can be downloaded
- The glossary tool that is included in the OU XML Schema could be used more to explain complex terms and definitions, particularly in the law units.
- It was suggested that another academic who is a specialist in the field should look over the materials. This will be done through the final review forms.
- There should be a consistent use of acronyms on every page (this applies to the law units)
Multimedia
- More explanation should be provided for the ‘high’ and ‘low resolution’ options for the video media.
- Contact Lyn Pearson at the Interactive Media Unit or guidance on accessibility (eg. high contrast versions)
- Create different silhouettes (different genders, ethnicities) for the ‘quantitative and qualitative data’ animation
- Photograph interaction: state the number of hotspots, maybe differentiate the different hotspots more clearly, make the arrows more prominent, increase readability of the text.
- Activities could include more detail in the instruction and to let learners know the kind of activity (ie. research, interaction, animation, film). This could be a series of headings.
- Activities should be a way of encouraging learners to think about the subject.
- All activities should give learners a positive experience. (ie. Having ‘wrong answer’ feedback might not be encouraging
- Is there a way of creating more space between activities when they are displayed one after another?
- The ‘most valuable customer’ interactive quiz should contain more information to help learners complete the quiz (ie. Contained in the preceding text or on a splash page at the start of the quiz). Other ideas included having hint boxes, showing all of the customers on the same page so that they can be compared, having a range to ‘rate’ the customer instead of just three levels (high, median and low) and having a summary to sum up all the information for reflection.
- It was felt that the law units could benefit from more real-life examples to aid understanding of the material.
- For example, to explain bilateral and multilateral economic regulation.
- Hard and soft law drag and drop activity: draggers could be moved to the middle to make the interaction work better
- Multiple choice questions: it would be helpful if the learners had to commit themselves to an answer to stop them revealing the answer straight away (the EDO team might be able to provide some code for this). It would be helpful if the answers provided more reflection for learners - for example if it explained why the other answers were not correct. The answers are not always provided in the preceding text, so this should be noted in the question (ie. ‘This hasn’t been directly covered in the preceding section, but see if you can work out the answer anyway’)
- The multiple choice questions could be designed in Flash, an example of this can be seen in the OpenLearn unit: Exploring the English Language
- The interactive map showing the countries who signed the Bretton Woods agreement should have mored instructions. It would be helpful if there was an option to show all the countries who signed as well as showing them individually - regions could even be selected instead of individual countries. This would also shorten the long list of countries which are currently named individually on separate lines. The learners could be asked to select which countries they thought signed the agreement and then the answer could be revealed. Instead of using a modern map, use a map from the 1940s.
- Look at animations from the BBC news for inspiration