Syllabus

Course Number: MM3312                                                                                      
Course Title: Computer-based Training

Class Meetings: 11 weeks. Tuesday, April 6, 2010 - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Room 309.                                                                                        
Session/Year: Spring 2010                                                      
Instructor Name: Sharon Kaitner, M.Ed.
Email Address: skaitner{at}aii.edu                                         
Phone/Website: http://casabasa.com
Instructor Availability Outside of Class: Immediately before and after each class, and via email.

Course Description: This course provides an exploration of authoring techniques for interactive training and education. Students gain experience in the process of design, development, and evaluation of effective computer-based training systems.

Download Word version of syllabus here

Upon successful completion of this course, the student should be able to:

• Understand and identify a variety of methods of computer-based training (CBT).
• Analyze audience and instructional needs for effective CBT design.
• Apply the basic principles of instructional design to the organization of content.
• Develop a concept for an instructional project.
• Support instructional needs effectively with multimedia elements including sound, video, and animation.
• Design and produce an interactive instructional project.

Course Prerequisite: MM3302 Intermediate Authoring

Suggested Texts: e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning by Ruth Colvin Clark (Pfeiffer). October 2002. ISBN: 0787960519   

Top of page

List of lectures and labs

Weeks: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

 

Week 1: Tuesday, April 5, 2010

Complete the student survey. Review of the school’s emergency evacuation procedures. Review of course and requirements. Contact is skaitner{at}aii.edu or sharon{at}casabasa.com.

Lecture:

What is the difference between Education and Training? e-Learning: Promise and Pitfalls.

• Introduction (Course objectives, requirements)
• e-Learning Development Process
  • Performance analysis
  • Job & task analysis or content analysis
  • Design
  • Development
  • Testing & Implementation
• How People Learn

Lab: In-class assignment: Become childlike. Let's take a look at some popular games for 2-4 year olds. Here they are being taught various socialization and memorization skills. Which ones are successful? What are the common threads?

• http://www.boohbah.com/zone.html
• Musical counting game
• http://www.nickjr.com/games/blues-clues-ghost-hunt.jhtml
• http://www.sproutonline.com/currentsite/good-night-show/games/?game=fruit

Week 2: Tuesday, April 13, 2010

• Lecture: CBT Design Considerations: interactivity and engaging the user

  • How e-lessons affect human learning
  • Applying e-learning principles. Dual mode principle, plus research to learning disorders.
    • Multimedia principle - using words and relevant graphics rather than words alone.
    • Contiguity principle - place corresponding words and graphics near each other.
    • Modality principle - present words as audio narration rather than onscreen text.
    • Redundancy principle - presenting words in both text and audio narration can hurt learning (avoid overloading the visual channel of working memory.) Exceptions are when there is limited language ability or if other visuals onscreen are limited.
    • Coherence principle - adding interesting material can hurt learning.
    • Personalization principle - use conversational style and virtual coaches.
  • Determine appropriate technology and installation issues.

  Lab: Apply the principles discussed in class today to last week's linear project. Refine acccording to feedback. Add demonstration of these items:

  • basic navigation, frameworks and master icons, interactions
  • One of the ways to teach a process or activity is by scaffolding. Scaffolding is the process of a mentor/instructor demonstrating a process or technique, then the student repeating the steps, back and forth with decreasing instructor feedback, as the student masters the process.
  • Remember: 2-3 year olds like and need pattern and repetition. Everything is new. Whatever you put on the screen should be deliberate.

 

Week 3: Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Lecture: Determining Instructional Needs and Strategies

• Instructional Design Components
• Planning the Design
• Troubleshooting

  • Level	Event
    I	Gaining Attention (reception)
    II	Informing learnings of the objective (expectancy)
    III	Stimulating recall of prior knowledge (retrieval)
    IV	Presenting stimulus (selective perception)
    V	Providing learning guidance (semantic encoding)
    VI	Eliciting performance (responding)
    VII	Providing feedback (reinforcement)
    VIII	Assessing performance (retrieval)
    IX	Enhancing retention and transfer (generalization)

• Gagne's The Nine Events of Instruction (from Penn State U.)
• Examine distance learning lessons learned and failure factors.
• Analyzing costs and benefits, advantages & disadvantages.
• The importance of practice, practice, practice

Lab:

• Interactions in Captivate or another tutorial program. Demonstration and practice matching interactions to instructional exercise. How could we incorporate a scavenger hunt?
• Discussion on applying the personalization principle.

 

Week 4: Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Lecture: Sometimes learning is presented as a game, like the Reader Rabitt series currently in use in primary grades. What kind of learning game would appeal to you?

• http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Learning_Styles.html
• http://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory/ requires email, based on Gardner
• About.com's quiz. Based on Gardner, but a "quickie". Results not statistically valid but interesting information nonetheless.
• One more: http://www.ldpride.net/learning-style-test.html

Lab:

• Testing and tracking your results. Efficacy. What makes a pre- post- test valid?
• Tracking and Reporting on User Performance: decision icons, pretests and posttests.
• Discussion of CBT considerations. Do a search on multiple intelligences and Howard Gardner, and read this article on Multiple Intelligences. Discussion on various ways we can use multimedia to enhance learning, as well as achieve the goals of Gardner to reach all learning styles.
• Discussion on how to add "checks for understanding"

Week 5: Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Field trip to Web 2.0 Conference

I will go to the school to make sure you all received the message and are attending or working. First sessions begin at 9 a.m. (I'll probably see the web typography, but there are many.) Sessions run throughout the day (there's several on cloud computing, apps, social media, etc.)

Lecture: Be sure you have pre-registered: http://www.web2expo.com for the Expo Hall Only pass ($100). Enter the code "fb101" or "expopass" and you will get that free, plus be emailed a code. Bring the code to the Expo at Moscone Center and enter at one of the computers you see (follow the signs.) Attend keynotes, sessions, the expo - what's available to can be found here: http://www.web2expo.com/webexsf2010/public/content/free. But of prime importance is networking and absorbing the experience.

Lab: Document the experience in your blog or web site. Include pictures (with you in at least one). Make me glad you went to this field trip. If you have me in both classes, I expect two posts and two sets of documentation.

 

Week 6: Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Lecture: Creating a web app from scratch: http://css-tricks.com/examples/WebAppFromScratch/

• Humans are rationalizing, not rational, beings. Designing WBT for positive performance improvement: Motivation. Or motivation styles.

  • Locus of control: Attribution style test
  • Visual Hierarchy and Designing for learning
  • Cognitive
  • Affective
  • Conative
  • 5 Steps to more creativity using Brain Science
  • Apps technology for children
  Discussion of final project ideas
• A demonstration of a successful final project: http://www.scarletmuse.us/monkeybusiness/
• Initial Considerations: A Review
• CBT scenario assistance. Continue with CBT Considerations. Bloom's Taxonomy
• Test yourself: http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

Review of sites that teach something:

• http://www.atomiclearning.com/
• http://becominghuman.org/
• http://about.com/
• http://www.gcflearnfree.org/
• http://www.librarysupportstaff.com/ed4you.html
• http://www.lantronix.com/learning/networking.html
• http://www.accesselearning.net/
• http://www.videoprofessor.com/
• http://forests-forever.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi
• http://education.jlab.org/
• http://www.funbrain.com/match/index.html
• Is Twitter doomed?
• http://meatrix.com/

Now consider this: http://www.whfoods.com/. It's a non-profit that teaches about good food. It gives to the community, yet can generate revenue via donations. Can you picture yourself doing something comparable?

Lab:

• Branching scenarios.
• Creating quizzes. What should you test and when.
• Discussion on instructional strategies, and mnemonic devices
• Writing a project proposal
• Presentations of your project to date.
• Captivate demonstration: Uploading your photos by Myrna Maas.
• How to Storyboard. Create a storyboard for a lesson that uses a motivation technique to "hook" the reader.
• Strategies to Succeed in E-Learning.

Week 7: Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Lecture:

• Design Document discussed. Weather permitting, we will probably do a field trip to the Main Library and do some research. Then use rest of today as lab time.

  Lab: lab

 

Week 8: Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Lecture: Project Management and Related Issues. Design documentation list (all that should be included) for final project. Study guide is discussed. For 5 points, create a visual guide of your online project (this can be included into your design documentation as well).

Lab: Presentation of project to date to each other. Create study guide to fit target audience. Discussion. Lab time to work on final project. Final Project rubric (how your project is graded). For a midterm grade, create an online tutorial teaching an aspect of design for either a group of teacher or for 13 year olds. Due next week.

 

Week 9: Tuesday, June 10, 2010

 

Lecture: Course Review. Evaluating courseware. How do you test your product? http://sfgate.com/

Lab: Final project lab time and assistance. Sample runthrough of your final project for classroom discussion.

Final Exam study material:

Besides reviewing earlier lectures, here's some notes that may help you next week. ;-)

Principles for including media elements in computer based projects:

• Words and graphics are more effective than just words alone (Multimedia Principle)
• Place text next to the graphic for greatest impact (Contiguity Principle)
• Learning is most effective when words are presented as audio narration rather than onscreen text (Modality Principle)
• Sometimes presenting both text and audio narration can hurt learning. (Redundacy Principle)
• Sometimes adding interesting material can hurt learning. Avoid extraneous material that does not directly add to the project. (Coherence Principle)
• Use conversational words (rather than formal) and when applicable, virtual coaches. (Personalization Principle)

Principles for creating online practice exercises:

• The interactions you create (navigation, sliders, buttons, etc.) should mirror what you are teaching. For instance, if you want to teach how to react in a certain environment, create a simulation. If it is something that requires rote memory, create mnemonic devices for the audience to learn and repeat.
• If what you are teaching has a task that is critical or crucial to the process, give more time to practice within the project.
• Apply the principles above ;-)
• Help your learners help themselves. Try to include reflective questions during online lessons.
• Besides online lessons and problems, include worked examples - show them your thought processes and how you got from one point to the other, as is relevant.
• If possible, include collaborative exercises. Interactions with others will keep them online and help them assimilate the information.

Multimedia Key Steps for Instructional Design:

1. Perform a needs analysis. Identify what is the problem and need, analyze the target audience, and perform a cost/benefit analysis.
2. Determine the instructional strategy. Presentation, real life simulation, demonstration, repetitive practice. Modules? And how many? Ultimate goal (what you want them to learn)
3. Take a good look at your content. Put like material with like (chunking). Make sure all content serves a purpose to your learners' needs.
4. Make your objectives measurable. Quizzes and tests should measure whether or not your main objective is being achieved (both software and learning.)
5. An information flow chart helps A LOT!
6. Determine the gui look and feel but don't build yet (this is after you do all the structural, foundation work first.)
7. Create a software/interaction flow chart
8. Rough sketch each screen. Create storyboard.
9. Program the work, testing functions as you create. Add multimedia and graphics production work. Integrate the interface.

 

Week 10: Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Lecture:

• Final project requirements reviewed.

Lab:

• Design documentation due.
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/01/how-to-respond-effectively-to-design-criticism/

 

Week 11: Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Lecture: Course closure and evaluation. Discussion of usability testing as applies to individual projects.

Lab: Presentation of final project design documents and evaluations (rubric) and critiques (evaluation).

 

Assignments

Week 1 - Tuesday, April 6, 2010

• Homework:
  • Create a tutorial to teach something very basic to a 3 year old.
  • Research how best to teach the benefits of using multimedia in learning applications. Bring the result of your research to class next week (one citation written with a hyperlink to the source). Be prepared to discuss the relevancy of your research. This will be included (probably) with your documentation.
  • Email me your url.

Week 2 - Tuesday, April 13, 2010

• Homework:

  • Take the presentation created in class and add a framework: include an opening page that introduces the exercise and its goal(s), provides a help section, and gives an acknowledgement of success page. Goal is for your target audience to perform at least 3 interactions with your activity. Bring to class next week. Be prepared to discuss challenges and solutions.

    • Another way to interact: http://dontclick.it/. Do you agree with its principles?

Week 3 - Tuesday, April 20, 2010

• Homework:
  • Continue with your midterm project, teaching young children a skill. Due week 5.
  • Who would be your target audience? Read http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-learn.htm on the processes of learning, then do some research on what interests 10 year olds and how they view the world. Be prepared to discuss how the change in age and assignment (concept vs. skill) may or may not change how you present the lesson asynchronously. To be discussed in class next week.
  • Write a synopsis of your research (above) with a one-paragraph discussion and a citation of the research in MLA format. This is one paragraph of what and how you intend to teach for the midterm. Post on your web site. Due next week.

Week 4 - Tuesday, April 27, 2010

• Homework:
  Continue work on children's game that teaches (midterm). Try to include the 8 pathways to learning. Due next week. Your midterm project should include a beginning, middle and end (credits or congratulations page.) It needs to teach something interactively, and actively engages different learning styles. Please be sure that you check for understanding in at least 2 places within the module. Don't forget the help and/or quit button. And pay attention to heuristics.

  • Read E-learning now: article from MSN April 2008.

Week 5 - Tuesday, May 4, 2010

• Homework:
  • Create a project description on your website of your final project. You should be able to clearly describe the complete project. List assets, flowchart of pages, and target audience. Pretend you're going to pitch this idea to vc for funding.
  • Post to your site the experience (as outlined above) of the Web 2.0 Conference.
  • Continue with work on your final project.

Week 6 - Tuesday, May 11, 2010

• Homework:
  • Research your final project online and develop a case study to present to class. Include your target audience, main form of instructional strategies, and a sample "similar" site, if possible. Post on your website and email me when I can read it. This is part of your final project's design documentation. Remember you should always validate your reasons for creating a project (that there is a need) and that you are taking into account who you're designing for, and how you can best achieve your goals via multimedia and your skills learned in this program. Cite any supporting research using MLA style.

Week 7 - Tuesday, May 18, 2010

• Homework:
  • Test your materials using appropriate testing methods. Post the results to your design documentation on your site. DUE NEXT WEEK.

week 8 - Tuesday, May 25, 2010

• Homework: create an online tutorial teaching an aspect of design for either a group of teacher or for 13 year olds. Due next week.
  • Continue work on final project design and physical materials (any adjunctive material to your web site, such as a study guide. Here's a site that develops study guides: http://www.studygs.net/. Yours could include the rules of the game, technical specifications, helpful tips, credits, etc.
    • Read the guides for using web sites (Webtruth) - it contains a lot of valuable information. Example: study guide

Week 9 - Tuesday, June 1, 2010

• Homework: Complete your design documentation to include not only your research on target audience, instructional activities, testing and design considerations, but any "extra" material that you may want to include within your project: FAQ, technical requirements, research (very important), instructions for use, copyright, hardware/software needs, instructions to parents, etc.

Week 10 - Tuesday, June 8, 2010

• Homework:
  • Continue work on final project. Due next week is the complete package: cd cover or advertisement, supporting materials (study guide) and the actual final project with pre- and post- questionnaires.

Week 11 - Tuesday, June 15, 2010

• Homework: None

Criteria by which you and your projects are graded for this course. Please see me if you have any questions.

Attendance and Class Participation Policy - Attendance and class participation are 25% of the final grade for the course. Students will be expected to attend class as well as act as active participants in class lectures. This is worth 10% of your overall grade. 5% is awarded for perfect attendance, recognizing that you cannot learn if you do not attend, and how difficult it is to do. This is a sign of excellence.

Assignments and homework are graded by points for a total of 45% of your grade. Usually the homework is a demonstrated skill, like emailing me your url. With this assignment, you are telling me that you can use the email, know what a url is and how to accurately send a link. Usually, I have more than one goal with an assignment, and each assignment builds on the previous.

Working from the chapters of the book is also a demonstration of skill. It shows whether or not you understand what you are doing. It can also demonstrate paths, how your web pages are saved, and organization, the ability to display your work in a thorough, logical manner. This means that each chapter of the book (chapters 1-6) should be linked separately and displayed in a way that it is easy for the end user (me) to find.

After the midterm, you will probably want to build a separate web page titled Homework, and link individual assignments given after week 5. You also have the option of demonstrating the homework skill on your final project. When you email me that you have posted that week's homework, you can tell me where it can be found.

Midterm and Final tests and presentations

Final Exam study material:

Besides reviewing earlier lectures, here's some notes that may help you next week. ;-)

Principles for including media elements in computer based projects:

• Words and graphics are more effective than just words alone (Multimedia Principle)
• Place text next to the graphic for greatest impact (Contiguity Principle)
• Learning is most effective when words are presented as audio narration rather than onscreen text (Modality Principle)
• Sometimes presenting both text and audio narration can hurt learning. (Redundacy Principle)
• Sometimes adding interesting material can hurt learning. Avoid extraneous material that does not directly add to the project. (Coherence Principle)
• Use conversational words (rather than formal) and when applicable, virtual coaches. (Personalization Principle)

Principles for creating online practice exercises:

• The interactions you create (navigation, sliders, buttons, etc.) should mirror what you are teaching. For instance, if you want to teach how to react in a certain environment, create a simulation. If it is something that requires rote memory, create mnemonic devices for the audience to learn and repeat.
• If what you are teaching has a task that is critical or crucial to the process, give more time to practice within the project.
• Apply the principles above ;-)
• Help your learners help themselves. Try to include reflective questions during online lessons.
• Besides online lessons and problems, include worked examples - show them your thought processes and how you got from one point to the other, as is relevant.
• If possible, include collaborative exercises. Interactions with others will keep them online and help them assimilate the information.

Multimedia Key Steps for Instructional Design:

1. Perform a needs analysis. Identify what is the problem and need, analyze the target audience, and perform a cost/benefit analysis.
2. Determine the instructional strategy. Presentation, real life simulation, demonstration, repetitive practice. Modules? And how many? Ultimate goal (what you want them to learn)
3. Take a good look at your content. Put like material with like (chunking). Make sure all content serves a purpose to your learners' needs.
4. Make your objectives measurable. Quizzes and tests should measure whether or not your main objective is being achieved (both software and learning.)
5. An information flow chart helps A LOT!
6. Determine the gui look and feel but don't build yet (this is after you do all the structural, foundation work first.)
7. Create a software/interaction flow chart
8. Rough sketch each screen. Create storyboard.
9. Program the work, testing functions as you create. Add multimedia and graphics production work. Integrate the interface.

Logging into your personal grade

Please remember that the software I use only talles total points of a possible 100. You will not see the grade of "F" change until you are way into the quarter, somewhere around week 8 or 9.

Class Standings

Click on this individual score link to access scoring information on your completed projects.  Enter your name and id (password) exactly as you provided in the student survey.

I upgrade my grades every Sunday, usually no later than 2 p.m. I may update points for work received after this time, but before 7 p.m. only.

If there are any questions at all, please feel free to email me. I usually respond the same day and sometimes immediately, or at least within the hour.

If you have any problems, email me.

 

 

List of recommended readings

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

• Monday, April 12, 2010
• Monday, April 19, 2010

  • Helpful Links:

    • How to upload your site using Dreamweaver
    • Uploading to the Internet, student tutorial by Lauren Merka
    • About CSS: http://www.w3schools.com/css/
    • CSS: http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_intro.asp
    • CSS Codes cheat sheet
    • Cascading Style Sheets: The future of web design
    • Drawing Using HTML, http://www.cssplay.co.uk
    • http://blog.themeforest.net/tutorials/vertical-centering-with-css/
    • http://htmldog.com/guides/cssbeginner/applyingcss/
    • Font conference.
• Monday, April 26, 2010
  • • http://inspiredology.com/21-grid-based-websites/
• Monday, May 3, 2010
• Monday, May 10, 2010

  • Helpful Links:

    • What makes good web design? The psychology of the web user.
    • Page size design: what is optimal?
      • What is the best size (WIKI answers)
      • Browser stats
    • Interesting typographic web designs
    • Smashing Magazine
    • mastering-css-styling-design-elements/
    • The perfect 3-col layout
    • 45 step by step web designs with Photoshop
    • Simplicity in Good Web Design (thanks, Franky!)
• Monday, May 17, 2010
• Monday, May 24, 2010

  • Links of Interest:

    • What Copyright Means for your Website: http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/03/11/what-it-means-to-copyright-a-website/ submitted by Nick Dyzkeul, former AI student and currently Web Developer for Gallo Winery
    • Free FTP: http://www.smartftp.com/
    • An Ebay-like site for artists: http://www.etsy.com/
    • http://www.cssdrive.com/
    • dynamicdrive.com
    • LightWindow demo
• Tuesday, June 1, 2010

• Helpful links:

  • Adding graphics to e-learning: http://www.clarktraining.com/content/articles
  • Discussion of the future of e-learning: what the government wants to happen: http://www.ed.gov/.
  • Autorun file: what is it? and how do you create? CD autorun basics

week 10 - Monday, June 7, 2010

• Coding rapper
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/01/how-to-respond-effectively-to-design-criticism/

week 11 - Monday, June 14, 2010

Calendar Spring 2010

Syllabus
Calendar
Assignments
Course Notes
Links
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