Instructional Design & eAuthoring Module (Week 4)
The following is a reflection on the week immediately after the class that took place on Tuesday 15th November 2016 using Gibbs Reflective Cycle.
Wednesday 16th November 2016 – THE 12 APPS OF CHRISTMAS
Description
I signed up to the online event The 12 Apps of Christmas run by DIT’s Dr. Frances Boylan. The text below is from the link:
The 12 Apps of Christmas course from the Dublin Institute of Technology is a free, open, short, online Continuing Professional Development (CPD) course, that ran for the last two years over the twelve weekdays from December 1st to December 16th. This is the third iteration of this course.
In 2014, 700 educators worldwide followed the course and were introduced to iMindmap, Socrative, Aurasma, Explain Everything, EasyBib, Thinglink, Instapaper, Animoto, Evernote, CamScanner, Bonfyre, and Voice Recorder HD, all of which are available from both Google Play and the iTunes App store. Each app was evaluated in turn against the SAMR model of technology integration and explored in terms of its potential to enhance, modify, and redefine teaching, learning and/or assessment practices in the higher education context. The course itself adhered to the social constructivist theory of learning, and the content presented each day was influenced heavily by the TPACK framework. The site has been left online as an open resource for all to use and is covered by the Creative Commons Licence CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. It can be accessed at https://the12appsofchristmas.wordpress.com/.
Feelings
I have discovered a small number of useful educational apps in the past year (such as Socrative and Algebra Touch) so I always have a positive disposition towards evaluating new apps.
Evaluation
It is not possible to evaluate this course as I have not yet started it.
Analysis
It’s great to hear that this course is being run by a staff member of DIT’s LTTC.
Conclusions
The course must have been successful for the first two years since it is now in its third iteration.
Personal Action Plans
Put the 1st December as a date in my diary as a reminder of the course start date.
Thursday 17th November 2016 – SLACK
Description
Allesio invited me to join his new group ‘TheCompostivist’ today on a new (to me) app called Slack. This is a chat app but also allows for file storage of up to 5GB (free) and it accommodates video conferencing via built-in Skype. I downloaded Slack 2.3.2 for MacOS and also downloaded the apps for iPhone and iPad.
We chatted about cognitive overload and fatigue in relation to instructional design. I passed on an Amazon.co.uk reference to the latest edition (8th Edition) of the book The Systematic Design of Instruction. Here is the link and bibliographic reference to the 6th edition of that book:
Feelings
I began to worry that our group The Compostivists might now have too many modes of communication (email, WhatsApp and now Slack). Notwithstanding my reservations, I decided to join the group that Allesio had set up for The Compostivists as I am always interested in trying out new technologies.
Evaluation
Quite quickly, I could see that Slack is more powerful than WhatsApp due to the fact that it has multiple channels, file transfer and a desktop app (in addition to mobile apps).
Analysis
It will probably become more difficult to communicate among the group with the addition of Slack. The reason for this is that even if Mick and Rachel join the Slack group, it may now mean that I will have to send messages on both WhatsApp and Slack unless we decide to abandon using WhatsApp.
Conclusions
I don’t have a problem in using multiple means of communication for the short life span of this project.
Personal Action Plans
None
Friday 18th November 2016 – MOODLE
Description
I created an Excel file with the following columns to create a CSV file to import users into MOODLE.
last name first name username MK1 username MK2 username MK3 password email full record
The 8 columns contained the following Excel formulas in order to parse the data for each subsequent column from 3 to 8
Column A Column B Column C Column D
Column E Column F Column G Column H
last name first name username MK1 username MK2
username MK3 password email
full record
String1 String2 =CONCATENATE(LOWER(B2),”.”,LOWER(A2)) =SUBSTITUTE(C2,” “,””) =SUBSTITUTE(D2,”‘”,””) String3 CONCATENATE(E2,”.”,”@domainname.ie”) =CONCATENATE(A2,”,”,B2,”,”,E2,”,”,F2,”,”,G2)
O’Last name Firstname firstname.o’last name firstname.o’lastname firstname.olastname
Pass7orD firstname.olastname@domainname.ie
O’Lastname,Firstname,firstname.olastname,Pass7orD,
firstname.olastname@domainname.ie
Note: The SUBSTITUTE command in Column D removes any spaces in a username (to generate username Mk2) while the SUBSTITUTE command in Column E removes any quote marks (‘) (to generate username Mk3)
I had a MAJOR breakthrough with MOODLE tonight. I created sections for my Junior Certificate Higher Level Maths class and added content to these sections. The content that I added was in the form of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files. I tested all of this and it all worked. I discovered that MOODLE allows the Site Administrator to create sections as calendar weeks, topics or social forums.
I downloaded and installed the iPhone and iPad apps for MOODLE. At first, I couldn’t access the MOODLE site that I had set up at my school’s website. However, this was easily rectified by switching on a checkbox in MOODLE Administration.
Feelings
I was delighted about the progress that I had made with MOODLE.
Evaluation
This has been an important night’s work as I have now learned how to use the course content functionality of MOODLE as well as the mobile apps for it.
Analysis
I quite liked the reponsive design of MOODLE in relation to how the classes and content looked on my iPhone and iPad.
Conclusions
It may be possible to use MOODLE with one or two of my classes this academic year. Time is always the issue – I generally don’t have a problem with surmounting technical barriers or with learning curves.
Personal Action Plans
Put content for my 6th Year Higher Level Maths class up on MOODLE which I have installed on my school’s web space.
Saturday 19th November 2016 – ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2 and CompendiumLD
Description
I was interested in writing an annotated bibliography on Adobe Captivate as this is the development tool that my group The Compostivists has decided to use for its project. So, I have decided that for my second annotated bibliography I will critique a research paper on Adobe Captivate. I read the following research paper from 2014:
I downloaded and installed CompendiumLD (LD = Learning Design) which is an Open University tool. See the links below for more information.
http://compendiumld.open.ac.uk
http://compendiumld.open.ac.uk/documentation/version1.0/QuickRefGuides/stencilsAndNodes/
http://compendiumld.open.ac.uk/documentation/version1.0/tutorials/
Feelings
I was looking forward to reading this paper as I had not read any non-Adobe articles on Adobe Captivate to date.
Evaluation
Having read the paper, I didn’t find it terribly interesting, useful or informative. It dealt Captivate’s as a tool for scenarios and this is not how I plan to use Captivate for the composting project.
Analysis
Matthew Duvall’s paper examines the appropriateness of Adobe Captivate 7.0 for creating eLearning scenarios to enhance online education. Duvall identifies himself as a graduate student with five year’s teaching experience and ten years as a computer programmer. This blend of experience would suggest that he is well qualified to write a research paper which seeks to analyse the virtues of the eLearning development tool Adobe Captivate. This paper addresses two questions: (1) What are the affordances of Adobe Captivate 7.0 for creating scenarios? (2) What are its constraints?
Conclusions
In relation to constraints, Duvall believes the complexity of parts of the application means that a novice Captivate user would need to dedicate a great deal of time simply learning how to use the technology before applying it. The author sees the software reflecting the behaviourist model of learning, which is a very traditional eLearning approach. Finally, Duvall mentions the high cost of Adobe Captivate which makes it very expensive to buy. This is certainly true, with this reviewer establishing that the full license price of Adobe Captivate 9 is €1,351.77.
Personal Action Plans
None.
Monday 21st November 2016 – MEETING 3 OF THE COMPOSTIVISTS
Description
This meeting took place remotely using Webcourses.
Feelings
Evaluation
Analysis
Conclusions
Here’s the email that I sent to the other members of the group after the meeting.
Hi All,
Please find attached 9 screenshots (SS 01 to SS 09) plus a selfie (of me sitting at my Mac!) which constitute the minutes (and evidence of) of tonight’s remote meeting. This meeting took place using the Blackboard Collaborate feature of Webcourses.
I think that the meeting was very successful especially given that it was our first time to use this application. We managed to use video, sound, whiteboard / markers and text chat.
Well done everyone!
Regards,
Gerry.
Personal Action Plans
Send email to the group members,
Screenshots of Virtual Meeting
