EDTECH 522: Final Project - Designing an Online Course

10/20/15 Note about course access:

This course was originally hosted using the Boise State University Moodle Sandbox. The live, functional version of the course is no longer available. In an attempt to preserve as much of the course as possible for demonstration in this portfolio, this page includes documentation on the design process, including screenshots of the course. I have also included a standalone .exe file of the tutorial and assessment I created using Adobe Captivate.

Standalone EXE file of Tutorial and Assessment

Adobe Photoshop for Educators: Course Design and Project Overview

Project Timeline

• 3 Weeks

Key elements

• Fully functional course (1 unit) designed for Moodle
• Original media (welcome video, course logos) created with Adobe Creative Suite, Camtasia
• Tutorial and Assessments (with SCORM 1.2 reporting to Moodle) made with Adobe Captivate
• Backwards-design approach to lesson planning incorporating best practices in andragogy and online course design

Page Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Project Introduction

2. Guidelines

3. Planning Stages

     I. Draft (Google Doc)

Design and Process

1. Moodle

     I. Moodle as an LMS

     II. Lesson Design Process
     III. Course Layout

          a. First Steps

          b. Layout Design

2. Captivate

     I. Using Captivate to teach and assess
3. Moodle and Captivate Integration

Synthesis/Final Assessment
1. Final Assessment
2. Synthesis

Introduction

1. Project Introduction

For this module I created an online unit in Moodle called Adobe Photoshop for Educators. This beginner's guide to image creating acted as a synthesis of andragogical best practices in online education, as well as digital media and online assessment creation.

The most ambitious project of our course, this project took a total of three weeks for planning, design, testing, and LMS integration. 

2. Guidelines

Every well-designed instructional unit has clear guidelines. The guideline for this module were concise and easy to follow.

Objectives:

1. Read about online course design. 

-Teaching Online: A Practical Guide (3rd Edition), Ko, S. and Rossen, S. New York: Routledge (2010). ISBN: 978-0-415-99726-3

-Tools for Successful Online Teaching, Dawley, L. IGI Publishing (2007). ISBN: 978-1-59140-956-4

2. Choose a lesson topic and learning goals related to adult online education or adult online training.

3. Describe specific end results (objectives) that would demonstrate achievement of those goals.

4. Design an original online lesson (unit).

5. Use the administrative components of Moodle to create an online lesson.

6. Format the appearance of the lesson Web page(s) to reflect CARP principles of graphic design.

7. Design an online assessment that supports learning objectives.

3. Planning Stages

During the initial planning stages of the course and unit, I needed to be clear about an approach. I first began with why an educator might need to create an image for an online course so that I could effectively integrate this knowledge into every aspect of its design. I chose to focus on principals of multimodality for communicating ideas using multiple layers of "representation" (i.e. stacked images, combining text with images, font choice).

Then, using a backwards-design model I moved to what students would need to produce as a final product that would demonstrate understanding of, 1) Photoshop mechanics, and 2) Effective use of multiple sources to create meaning. In this case, they would create a new image in Photoshop using specific guidelines, an interactive tutorial (Captivate), and a rubric.

I then thought about the particular skills the student would need to have, how they could achieve these skills, the manner in which I could effectively teach these skills, and measure understanding via assessment.

Here is an outline used in the initial planning stages of the course:

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Design and Process

 The design of this project can be divided into two categories:

1. Course creation and configuration in Moodle
2. Tutorial and Assessment in Adobe Captivate 6

1. Moodle

I.Moodle as an LMS

As for open-source Learning Management System (LMS) options, Moodle is stellar. The ability to customize and "opt-in" (not out) of a whole host of features made getting an operational course up on Moodle takes less than a day for most - less without a learning curve. (For more on how "opt-in/out" options of an LMS impact teaching, see Lane's article Insidious pedagogy: How course management systems impact teaching).  Anyone making a move over to Moodle from other LMSs such as Blackboard or Desire2Learn will feel right at home. For most issues, the Moddle Wiki is pretty active and goes deep into the software architecture for advanced users.

II. Lesson Design Process

The process for creating my course began with what the learner would need to be able to do at the end of the lessons - create an original image. However, knowing what the learner will need to do and what I'll need to assess is only part of the approach. Equally important is how they will learn, how they will stay motivated throughout the lessons, and how to encourage retention of the material for later use.

As a starting point, I used  Julie Dirksen's Design for How People Learn (2012) to guide the process. As she states in her section on Identifying and Bridging Gaps, there are a number of guidelines a learner should follow when designing learning material: 

 "Knowledge

• What information does the learner need to be successful?
• When along the route will they need it?
• What formats would best support that?

Skills

• What will the learners need to practice to develop the needed proficiencies?
• Where are their opportunities to practice?

Motivation

• What is the learner's attitude towards the change?
• Are they going to be resistant to changing course?

Communication

• Are the goals being clearly communicated?" (Dirksen, 2012, p. 20)

That being the case, I developed a user-centered, constructivist approach to the lesson. In order for the learner to actively build on new knowledge and what they already know, I envisioned an interactive tutorial and assessment that required the learner to perform the actions required for making an image. My thought was if they could pass the web-based assessment, then they should be able to create an image without real-time guidance. The final assessment (create an image with the specified dimensions) would measure their ability to do this.  

I certainly didn't want to create a textbook chapter; the possibilities unlocked by an online course for learning a computer-based skill should be tapped. Captivate allows for this by simulating a guided software experience (see Captivate section below) and various ways to engage the learner before proceeding through the tutorial.  

Leading up to the tutorial, however, I realized students would need to have a basic understanding of the principals of multimodality to answer the why am I learning this? question (see the tenets of Andragogy - "Adults are relevancy oriented"). Furthermore, learners would need an opportunity to communicate with others that are in the course to promote shared purpose and establish rapport (again, the tenets, - "Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences" and "Adult learners like to be respected"). There are so many reasons why interpersonal communication promotes retention in online courses (see the case of  University of Illinois at Springfield at Educause for more info) and I wanted my course to provide a forum in which students may interact.

Next, I designed the criteria for the final assessment image the learner would create on their own:

• Create a new image with specified dimensions
• Add new/multiple layers to image
• Add external image file to a new layer
• Add text to image; edit text-Save image as .jpg with specified quality settings

The learner would be set-up to complete this task because they had successfully completed the tutorial with accompanying assessments that require the learner to perform the exact same steps required for creating the final image. In other words, if they can't pass the tutorial, they won't be able to finish the final assignment. Noting that, I made sure that the the tutorial was seamless and that the learner wouldn't fail due to a design error on my end. 

Finally, the idea for the lesson structure is to move from a more structured approach to designing the image (via Captivate) to a less structured approach  (on their own in Photoshop). This gives the learner the autonomy to create within the parameters set by the rubric (again, the tenets - "Adults are goal oriented" and "Adults are internally-motivated and self-directed"). Their final product will be wholly their own.

III. Course Layout 

After sketching out a rough plan for the course (see Planning Stages), I requested a new course in the EDTECH Moodle Sandbox, a playground of sorts for trying out course in Moodle before migrating to a live version of the LMS. 

Main Course Home

a. First Steps

Once the course was made available to me, I began deleting unnecessary blocks and adding new blocks for instructor contact info and the like. Once the landing home page for the course was set, I moved into module design. I decided with only one Course Introduction module and one assignment module, the best approach would be to present both stacked on top of each other in the order in which I want students to use them. Therefore, I presented the Course Introduction module first, followed by Module 1: Image Basics. 

I then proceeded to create media for the introduction, such as a welcome video and course logo, that would help create a professional, welcoming atmosphere. I used Camtasia for the welcome video and Photoshop for the course logo.

b. Layout Design

Next, I uploaded a course syllabus to a new Moodle page linked to the Course Introduction, as well as a Classmate Introductions discussion forum for their first informal assignment. As we learned in EDTECH 522, a chance to interact with peers from the very beginning should encourage a sense of belonging and develop habits of interaction that should an instructor should attempt to keep sustained throughout the course (see also II. Lesson Design Process). 

The welcome section, syllabus, and course home page all guide the student to the next step: the instructions for Module 1. After reviewing the instructions, students should have a clear idea of what to do next: read an article on multimodality to better understand why they are learning to do this, and then complete the Captivate tutorial and assessment to hit upon the how. 

Which takes us to the next section...

2. Captivate

I. Using Captivate to teach and assess

To create the assessments and tutorial, I used Adobe Captivate 6. (If you're unfamiliar with the program, I recommend seeking out more information). 

Here is a quick summary of how I used Captivate: 

• Communicate the why, how, and what of the lesson
• Broke learning objectives down into measurable chunks
• Varied assessment methods that grew in complexity during tutorial
• Final assessment requires user to perform actions in a "simulated" Photoshop (as close as I can get to assessing students over their shoulder.)

I'll glance over the first bullet - the why, how and what - because I think that was covered in the previous section on Lesson Design Process. In general, I used Captivate to deliver messages to the learner at planned intervals using specific, embedded media to communicate an idea to the learner. Taken as a whole, the media and text serve to orient the learner to the task at hand, specify goals, and describe the plan of approach. This way the user has an engaging way of finding out where they are headed during the tutorial and why.

One thing I will mention here is the use of a storyboard to inform the direction of the project. I chose to outline the general direction the tutorial would need to take so I could see the scope of the project. Rather than dive right in and potentially put too much time into getting a button "just right" on one single slide, I instead thought about what the essentials were for the big picture and tried to stay focused on the learning goal, not just the aesthetic design.

Image 1

A good example of the way learning material was broken into small chunks is partially demonstrated in Image 1. Here you can see the general layout within Captivate: slides on the far left, a timeline on the bottom for staggering the appearance of activities on the screen, a middle window workspace of the current slide, and modification options for selected objects on the right sidebar.

Using these tools, I started with where the user was headed - a software simulation assessment. After writing the script, I used captivate the record the movements I want the user to perform within Photoshop. All of the movements are then sent into Captivate, broken into separate slides for each "event" (like clicking a mouse or using a dropdown menu). From there I can add text callouts, visual callouts, add audio, images, and more to further instruct the learner how to navigate through and perform during the assessment. (See Image 1.a for an example of how the output looks in Captivate)

Image 1.a

From here I worked backwards. I knew the learner would need to view the process in action before attempting the assessment, so I created a few demonstration videos in the tutorial no longer than 1-2 minutes each. After each video, the user needs to answer a few questions to check comprehension before moving forward; they may always rewatch the video if they fail the assessment.

Finally, I created introductory/orientation material. The first few "slides" in the tutorial are devoted to tapping into prior knowledge (they read about multimodality prior to the tutorial; I draw on that knowledge) and reiterate why they will find this new skill useful. I keep it short but engaging - an attempt to motivate the learner to want to continue with the tutorial.

3. Moodle and Captivate Integration

The third step is integrating the final Captivate project into the Moodle LMS. This is rather procedural, so I've used a series of screenshots to tell the story.

To begin, once the Captivate project is complete (is it ever?? #iterative_process), I needed to go into the SCORM reporting settings and make a few modifications to Moodle would recognize the package. This was simple: change the Identifier setting to imsmanifest under Quiz Settings so Moodle would recognize it. For a full guide on integration, visit the Moodle Wiki. 

As far as the type of output file - HTML5 vs Flash - I went with Flash. Would I have preferred HTML5? Absolutely. (Want to know why? Visit my post here). That debate aside, a .zip file containing a Flash version of my project is now ready to go. The next step is uploading the package to Moodle.

Image 2: Uploading the SCORM package

On the course page in Moodle, I simply clicked "Add an activity or resource," selected "SCORM Package," and clicked "Add" (Image 2). 

Image 3

Then I found the package on my desktop and clicked open, allowing some time for the file to upload to the server (Image 3).

Image 4

Once uploaded I have some options (Image 4). I can add a description, modify display settings, set the gradebook value, how many times it may repeated, and otherwise customize how Moodle is going to use and interact with this package. Once finished, I click Save and the activity is added to the Module. 

Image 5

The Captivate project, once accessed in Moodle, opens in the browser within the Moodle platform (Image 5). The learner does not have to navigate out of Moodle to use the project. There are options to go full screen, but once the learner exits, they are back to the Moodle course site. This should minimize confusion when navigating.

Image 6

Each time the activity is completed, their grade is reported to the gradebook (Image 6). The assessment data is reported on the screen. The instructor has access to the grade via the gradebook. Although the grade collection process is automated, it is important for any instructor to solicit feedback from students about the tutorial so they can enhance it - see the iterative approach to instructional design.

Synthesis/Final Assessment

1. Final Assessment

To demonstrate their ability and newly acquired knowledge, learners will then create an image with specified dimensions, layers, and other criteria. Each step required for completing this task was covered in the tutorial and assessments. Any student that is successful in the Captivate tutorial and has access to the tutorial to "refresh their memory" should have no procedural issue with completing the assessment (software/hardware issues aside). A rubric was provided in the introduction to the Module.

The final image should be uploaded to the dropbox that is linked on the Module in Moodle. This is the last link and the last step for the course. Were the course live, the instructor would have a few days to review the submissions and generate a grade based on the rubric made available to students.

2. Synthesis

To summarize my own experience, I've found integrating Captivate projects into Moodle relatively simple and satisfying. The importance of having a plan, in the form of learning goals and a storyboard, can't be over-stressed. Respect your learners - don't rely on the bells and whistles of a sophisticated program to engage your audience. Choose relevant tasks that lead to an assessment of skill. Use solid design principals and adult learning theory to inform your decisions. Most importantly, make it clear what they will learn, how they will learn it, and why they are learning it. Further flourish should come only when time and budget allow for it.

Resources

Dirksen, J. (2012). Design for how people learn. (1 ed., p. 20). Berkley, CA: New Riders.