Antony Kontellis UTS Blog

E-Learning Design Assignment 2

Part 1: Design Recommendations Report

Intro

This report will include an outline of the context of the e-Learning course I have selected, a discussion of the learning theory I have chosen (Cognitive) which supports this course, a storyboard that reflects the learning theory within this report, recommendations for integration of technology into the course, and finally a section on how the principles of multimedia are addressed by the design and integration of selected technologies.

The course that this report will cover will be a training course entitled “Time Management & Teams”, which I developed in 2008 in the Program Design subject.

Context for the e-Learning course

 ‘Time Management & Teams’ is a course I developed in 2008, in the Program Design subject. The aim of the course was to develop more structured and efficient skills in time management to enable employees to operate in a more productive and less stressful work environment. The course encompassed the completion of a Myers Briggs Type Indicator test, discussions and group activities surrounding prioritization, planning, tools for teamwork, and a section relating to work-life balance and listening and communication.

For this report, the ‘Time Management & Teams’ course will be appropriated to encompass e-Learning components within a Cognitive learning theory.

Cognitive Learning Theory

Much of the ‘Time Management & Teams’ course surrounds discussion, group work, activities and facilitation, all relating to the goal of improving teamwork and time management. Personal meaningfulness, problem solving and insights are all pivotal to the course, therefore the most fitting learning theory is Cognitive learning, where meaningfulness (relating based on past experiences and personal context) and insight (restructuring and reorganising to understand and achieve) are two of the key facets of the theory. In Cognitive learning theory “knowledge can be organized into large, interconnected bodies, where pieces of knowledge are conceptually linked to other pieces. This network of interconnections can extend and link to other information to broaden the range of cognitive activities, including answering a wide variety of domain-specific questions, drawing analogies, making inferences, and generalizing to new content areas” (Blanton, 1998).

Applying to the context of the ‘Time Management & Teams’ course and new e-Learning components, Cognitive theory would have positive effects in meaningfulness, as the presented e-Learning information would be related to individual meaning making the information relatable to the learner, which would in turn result in greater retention and recall ability. Subsequently reorganising and restructuring to gain insight would result in new knowledge and retention of content for an ultimate positive learning outcome.

Storyboard

A storyboard for the cognitive e-Learning technology to be integrated within this course presents confirmation of resources and structure, a unified document for team members, a wholistic focus of the project, and avoidance of decline in quality and miscommunication. Storyboards carry importance in e-Learning projects whereby “a storyboard transports an e-learning project from design to development—from the designer’s vision to the cold, cruel world of production. It is the key item the designer presents to the client for “sign off.” It is the most important single thing that gets handed off to the development team. A storyboard is to e-learning what a blueprint is to architecture” (Brandon, 2009).

Below is a storyboard excerpt surrounding the ‘Time Management & Teams’ course slides, reflecting the Cognitive learning theory:

(Direct Link: http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/5504/storyboard.jpg)

Recommendations for integration of technologies

Cognitive learning theory emphasises learning of content as a whole and relating it to the learner’s specific personal examples, therefore e-Learning technologies that would be most effectively integrated into the ‘Time Management & Teams’ course would be technologies which allow for reflection, reorganising, and restructuring to gain meaningfulness and insight. Technologies which are collaborative, for example utilisation of a virtual classroom, chat, or video conference, would allow for communication across physical barriers. Online digital questionnaires and quizzes, and the potential digital facilitation of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, could also open up new possibilities in the course. In the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator case, once the learner has completed all questions, their score could automatically be tallied within the framework of the online test, and they could gain context-specific and more detailed results that pertain specifically to their result. This could result in greater clarity and understanding of the purposes.

Similarly, as meaningfulness in cognitive learning “is reflected in the ability to apply what was taught to new situations… we [can] measure learning outcomes by using problem-solving transfer tests” (Mayer & Wittrock, 1996), tests that could be in the forms of interactive virtual situations, or examples within a digital quiz. Podcasts, YouTube scenario videos, or even a Twitter session, could all be integrated into the ‘Time Management & Teams’ course, and if done effectively, could greatly enrich the course.

Example of a YouTube sceneraio video:

Multimedia Principles

The 7 Principles of Multimedia Design must be addresses when integrating technologies into the ‘Time Management & Teams’ course:

1.      Multimedia principle: as students learn better from words and pictures than from words alone, e-Learning components will include images relating to specific context, as well as the text-based aspects. This will enhance the text-based sections.

2.      Spatial Contiguity Principle: as students learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen, the chosen images and text will be spatially close, especially in the examples of teamwork and time management that are relatable when viewed together.

3.      Temporal Contiguity Principle: as students learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively, the images and text will be present at the same time (with text kept as concise and simple as possible), with images on the left and text on the right.

4.      Coherence Principle: as students learn better when extraneous words, pictures, and sounds are excluded rather than included, the content will contain clear, concise and valid information only, omitting any overly-detailed information and semantics.

5.      Modality Principle: as students learn better from animation and narration than from animation and on-screen text, when diagrams or videos are present, they will have audio principles to narrate the content, as opposed to text-based descriptions. This is where the YouTube scenario videos will fit most effectively.

6.      Redundancy Principle: as students learn better from animation and narration than from animation, narration, and on-screen text, when there are videos or images/diagrams, narration will replace any additional text in order to avoid the redundancy principle.

7.      Individual Differences Principle: as design effects are stronger for low-knowledge learners than for high-knowledge learners and for high-spatial learners rather than low-spatial learners, Cognitive learning theory will be most effectively utilised relating to the Individual Differences principle, whereby content will be encouraged to be specifically contextually related to each learner in all e-Learning components, ensuring that low-knowledge learners, high-knowledge learners, high-spatial learners low-spatial learners are all making content, technologies, and multimedia relevant to their own learning capacity.

1,130 words.

References

Blanton, B.B. (1998) ‘The Application of the Cognitive Learning Theory to Instructional Design’, Journal article in International Journal of Instructional Media, Vol. 25, 1998

Brandon, B. (2009) ‘Storyboards Take E-Learning Projects from Designer Vision to Successful Production’, at:

http://www.trainingmag.com/msg/content_display/training/e3i4fc650632bff09acf6574a3dfdff9dec

Last accessed: 23^rd May 2009

Mayer, R.E.,& Wittrock, M.C. (1996) ‘Problem-solving transfer’, in D. Berliner & R. Calfee (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology, (pg. 45–61), New York: Macmillan

Myers, K D and Myers P B ‘MBTI Type Today’, at:

http://www.mbtitoday.org/