Reflection on Design Process for Composting Project
Tuesday 25th October 2016 (The Inauguration of the Compostivists)
During class today, Damian Gordon assigned the 11 students to 3 different groups. My group consisting of Allessio Gemma, Michael McKeever, Rachel Maguire any myself (Gerard Kilkenny) began life in Computer Room 2069. We discussed what subject areas we might base our project on and it wasn’t long before we adopted a suggestion from Michael McKeever that we use composting as the theme for our project. Damian asked us to give names to our groups so I suggested that we call ourselves The Compostivists (a play on the word Constructivist borrowed from the field of learning theories). We scheduled our first meeting for three days later in the Westbury Hotel, Dublin 2. Somehow, I already had a feeling that our group will work well together. Later that evening, I set up a group on WhatsApp for The Compostivists to instant message and invited Allesio, Michael and Rachel to join the group (which they did).
Saturday 29h October 2016 (Meeting 1 of the Compostivists – The Westbury Hotel)
I volunteered to carry out the development work for the eLearning resource (using Adobe Captivate 9) and Allesio signalled an interest in taking the lead on creating a storyboard for the resource.
The following areas of composting will be considered in developing the group’s Instructional Design/eAuthoring project:
- Why compost
- What to compost
- How to compost
- Where to compost (school, house, apartment, etc)
- Science of composting
- Economics of composting
- Best practice composting
- Duration of composting
- Composting versus ‘Black Bin’
- How composting influences retail purchasing choices for the consumer
The group decided to assign the following roles to group members and to organise the group’s work as follows:
Subject Matter Expert (SME): Michael McKeever
Storyboarder: Allesio Gemma
Storyboarder: Rachel Maguire
Authoring Tools Specialist: Gerard Kilkenny
Communication methods will include email, Whats App, face to face meetings. Michael McKeever will ask Dolores McManus to set up a virtual class for the group in DIT’s Blackboad LMS so that the group can use file sharing, chat, etc.
References:
http://elearninguncovered.com/2013/07/e-learning-production-roles/
http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/starting-an-elearning-department/
https://elearningindustry.com/elearning-dream-team-key-players
Thursday 3rd November 2016 (Storyboarding and Video Editing)
Storyboarding with Adobe Captivate Draft on iPad
It was time to get my hands dirty with some new technologies. I discovered today that while Adobe Captivate 9 desktop version (for both Mac and Windows) is designed for authoring, there is an iPad app called Adobe Captivate Draft specifically designed for storyboarding. While I had paid the educational price of €429.27 (full price is €1,351.87) for the Adobe Captivate 9 desktop app, the Adobe Captivate Draft iPad app for storyboarding is free). Incidentally, the educational price of €429.27 allowed me to install Captivate on both my iMac and my Windows 10 laptop. I prefer to use the larger screen (21.5 inch) and more powerful iMac (16GB RAM) to my Windows 10 laptop (8 GB RAM) for authoring.
I discovered that the conduit for passing the storyboarding content developed on my iPad for later authoring on my iMac is Adobe Creative cloud. I already use iCloud (Apple), OneDrive (Microsoft) and Dropbox. I appeared to have no choice so I downloaded and installed the iMac app and iPad app (for Adobe Creative Cloud) onto the appropriate devices. I discovered that I could sign in using my existing Adobe Id that I had when I created an Adobe account for Adobe Reader services a long time ago. So, I set about experimenting with Captivate Draft for storyboarding on my iPad and found that it is relatively easy to use. Later, I created Adobe Captivate Draft test storyboard file (.CPDX file) on my iPad and uploaded this file to Adobe Creative Cloud. I then managed to open this storyboard CPDX file in Adobe Captivate desktop app on my iMac and then saved its as a CPTX file for authoring using the full blown Adobe Captivate desktop app on my iMac.
Video Editing with Total Video Downloader for Mac
I reviewed YouTube Downloaders from:
http://mac.eltima.com/list-of-best-youtube-downloaders.html
Later, I downloaded and installed Total Video Downloader for Mac. I downloaded a 30 second waste management video from YouTube and edited it to a 5 second video using iMovie. I had used neither of these applications before so I felt quite pleased with myself.
I simultaneously developed part of a composting lesson in Adobe Captivate and Microsoft Powerpoint. I used PowerPoint as well as Captivate for two reasons. First, I wanted to carry out a a comparitative analysis (for myself) of the development process for both of these products. Second, I wanted to find a way of being able to easily pass on my authoring work to the rest of the group who didn’t have Adobe Captivate. (Later, I abandoned this dual development as I became more familiar with Captivate and discovered that I simply didn’t have time to try to replicate my Captivate work in PowerPoint).
I published the Adobe Captivate Project file in HTML 5 format. This means that the single project file is converted into multiple files which, when uploaded to a website, can be opened and viewed in a browser. Specifically, I uploaded this Adobe Captivate Project to gerardkilkenny.ie/compost using the FileZilla FTP application for Mac. I tested that it worked using the URL http://gerardkilkenny.ie/compost/ and it worked!
Tuesday 8th November 2016 – Class (Personas and Learning Outcomes)
The Personas section of today’s class (Lesson 3 of 8) was about the creation of fictional characters to guide your design. Rather than designing your artefact for every possible user, the idea of personas is that you design for small number of fictional users. An example of a user profile for a particular persona could be:
Name: Susan Normal
Age: 18 years old
Size: 5’8″
Ultimately, my group the Compostivists decided to use a persona in developing the storyboard. It was decided that the persona would be a Transition Year student (approximately 15 years old) who would be influenced enough by the composting lesson to persuade his/her parents to begin composting at home.
The Learning Outcomes section of today’s class was an examination of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives that I had previously seen in Module 1 (Learning Theories). Even though Bloom’s taxonomy is at its most useful when applied to course design (at a macro level), it was still important for my group when designing the lesson objectives of why, what, how and where (at a micro level) on what was to become the Menu Page.
It was important that today’s class began looking at instructional design models – in particular the ADDIE model and the 7Cs of Learning Design. This encouraged me to some reading later in the week on instructional design.
Wednesday 9th November 2016 (Bolton Street Library – LTTC Section)
I found and borrowed 10 of the 11 books on the Essential Reading List. This took about one hour but I had found all of the library references for these books yesterday in Aungier Street Library. I brought a rucksack with me to carry the books home!
Thursday 10th November 2016 – Annotated Bibliography 1 (Instructional Design)
I was anxious to learn more about instructional design so I decided that my first annotated bibliography will deal with this subject. I read the following chapter from Carliner’s 2008 book which is on the ‘Essential Reading List’:
Carliner, S. (2008) A Holistic Framework of Instructional Design for eLearning. In S. Carliner & P. Shank (Eds.) The e-Learning Handbook: Past Promises, Present Challenges (pp.307-358). San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
Later, I wrote an annotated bibliography of this chapter. I enjoyed the chapter and found it interesting. I began to understand that the subject of instructional design can be quite academic and complex having its historical roots in the second world war.
Saturday 12th November 2016 – (Meeting 2 of the Compostivists – DIT Kevin Street)
The following summarises progress to date:
- Storyboard Mk1 Microsoft PowerPoint file (developed by Allesio and Rachel)
- Authoring Mk1 Adobe Captivate and Microsoft PowerPoint files (developed by Gerry)
- Webcourses LMS Module (organised by Mick)
The group reviewed Storyboard Mk1 mainly by referencing the ‘Site Plan’ (flow chart) contained in the Powerpoint Mk1 file. The group discussed, and ultimately agreed on, the merits of including the following revisions to Storyboard Mk2:
- having an engaging launch to the Captivate lesson, in order to grab the students’ interest and pull them in. This is called a lesson ‘hook’. This could be a short video or animation
- having a short section, early in the Captivate lesson, on separating the different types of waste for grey bin, green bin, brown bin
- the location and types of assessment (called ‘quizes’ in Captivate) within the Captivate lesson (assessment at the start for adaptive learning and assessment post-tutorial for summative assessment)
- customising the background and ‘Actors’ (a feature of Captivate) used in the Captivate lesson for the two types of user: child and adult
- implementing adaptive learning by using the ‘branching’ feature of Captivate
- having links from an ‘About the Group’ section to each group member’s ePortfolios.
The group made the following decisions:
- To create a Storyboard Mk 2 file to include the items outlined above (Allesio and Rachel).
- To investigate how to use the Captivate features ‘Actors’, ‘Branching’ and ‘Assessment’ (Gerry).
- To provide expert knowledge on composting for the Captivate lesson (Mick)
- To source appropriate digital content for the Captivate lesson (Allesio, Rachel, Gerry, Mick).
Tuesday 15th November 2016 – Class (Instructional Design Models)
The Instructional Design Models section of today’s class looked at the a plethora of different models. However, the most important and popular macro models of instructional design are probably the ADDIE Model followed by the Dick and Carey Model. As Damian pointed out, most of the models tend to be some variation of the ADDIE Model. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives is still important in relation to instructional design at the macro level.
The most important and popular micro model of instructional design is probably Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction. My group decided that it was important to use Gagné’s Events as we were designing a lesson (and not a course) on composting.
For me, the delineation between macro models (for course design) and micro models (for lesson design) of instructional design was probably the most important outcome of today’s class.
Saturday 19th November 2016 – Annotated Bibliography 2 (Adobe Captivate)
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. I read the following research paper from 2014:
Duvall, M. (2014). Adobe Captivate as a Tool to Create eLearning Scenarios. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2014 (pp. 514-517). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Monday 21st November 2016 – (Meeting 3 of the Compostivists – Blackboard)
Dolores McManus set up a group for The Compostivists on Webcourses with Michael McKeever as tutor. The remote meeting was due to take plave at 8 pm and by 8.10 pm, we had all of the technology working as a group and individually. This was my first time using videoconderencing software. We discovered that the two most useful way to use the software was to have only one person speaking (at all times) and to use the text chat feature for the other particiants to join in the conversation. Additionally, the shared whiteboard was very useful so that all participants could see and write on the same screen. We found that seeing video images of the participants to be of no benefit and we switched this feature off at an early juncture.
The group looked at the second iteration of the Storyboard file (created in Microsoft PowerPoint) and other than minor proposed changes, the group was happy that this would be the basis for producing the eLearning artefact. I captured nine screenshots of this meeting.
Saturday 26th November 2016 – Annotated Bibliography 3 (Applying the Contiguity Principle)
I was aware that I would be using audio narration in the eLearning artefact that I was to develop as part of my group’s composting project. With this in mind, I decided that I would read the following chapter from the Clark and Mayer book:
Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011) Applying the Contiguity Principle. In Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E., E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
The second contiguity principle is the principle that spoken words should be synchronised with corresponding graphics. The instructional designer is advised that when spoken words describe actions in the graphics (including animation and video) in an eLearning course, corresponding spoken words and graphics should be presented at the same time. The authors borrow from the world of cognitive learning theory to explain why the narration should not be separated from the graphics. If the learner listens to a narration followed by an animation, he needs to retain the relevant words in working memory so as to match up the appropriate words with the corresponding segment of the animation.
Sunday 27th November 2016 – Annotated Bibliography 4 (E-learning 2.0)
I was aware that Stephen Downes 2005 paper E-Learning 2.0 is considered to be a classic in the field of eLearning. Since I would be publishing an eLearning artefact on composting for the web, I thought that it was important that I should read this paper. Additionally, I hoped that I would develop a sense of the history of eLearning in the context of the web.
Tuesday 29th November 2016 – Annotated Bibliography 5 (Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age)
I understood that Connectivism is the most modern learning theory and that it was the only learning theory to be developed since the mainstram adoption of the computer in society. I was also aware that like Downes paper in the same year (2005), Siemens (a fellow Canadian) paper is also considered a classic.
Saturday/Sunday 3rd/4th December 2016 – Authoring using Adobe Captivate 9
Project Times
===========
Organise Images – 12:30 – 13:30 (1 hour)
Drag and Drop – 14:30 – 22:30 (8 hours)
3 Narration Slides – 22:30 – 06:30 (8 hours)
Introduction
===========
Adobe Captivate 9 has a steep learning curve. I had spent about a day some months ago trying to come to terms with, and learn, Adobe Captivate. Other than that period of time, I was a complete novice to this application. This weekend, I spent 17 hours trying to create the eLearning artefact from the Storyboard Mk2 (Microsoft PowerPoint file). Incidentally, I spent the first hour organising (renaming, filing, etc) images of waste items and bins that Michael McKeever had photographed and emailed to me this morning.
Drag and Drop
============
Trying to implement the drag and drop slides alone took 8 hours of my time. Trying to implement drag and drop with multiple objects to drag and multiple objects to drop is not possible to properly implent in Captivate. In the end, I had to implement it by dragging one object to multiple objects (for drops) per slide. It is very difficult overall, has a lot of complexity attached to it and the softare appears to be cumbersome and contains an amount of bugs.
If you put multiple waste items on the one slide, Adobe Captivate only informs the user that he is correct if all the dropped items are fully correct. If you get even one item incorrect (say out of 5 items, i.e. you are 80% correct) from multiple waste items, Adobe Captivate informs the user that he is incorrect.
So, I put placed one waste item only per slide so that the user could get feedback as to whether he was correct or incorrect for that item.
I didn’t want the user to have to click on the Submit button to get feedback. After some research, I discovered a way of dispensing with the need to use this button via the following link:
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1280136
Basically, you tick the checkbox Auto Submit Correct Answers.
I learned how to implement drag and drop via the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTtL74chAnU&spfreload=10
Narration
========
I spent another 8 hours creating 3 slides with narration. In the end I was very happy with the way the narration slides turned out. The audio is created by speaking directly at your computer (in my case an iMac) and is crystal clear. It is one of the features of Captivate that I think is excellent and quote easy to use once I figured out how timing worked for the different objects on the Captivate screen (which is called a stage in Captivate). I used cartoon type figures (called actors in Captivate) as the narrators.
Lessons to be learned!
===================
Renaming images can mess up drag and drop.
Careful and tedious naming of text captions is really important.
Timing within slides is everything!
Links
=====
Adobe Feature Request
http://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html
Blog by Captivate Expert
http://blog.lilybiri.com/drag-and-drop-in-2016-with-captivate-9
Very good (and long) Captivate thread in Adobe forum
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/853505
Saturday/Sunday 10th/11th December 2016 – Authoring using Adobe Captivate 9
Project Times
===========
Branching – 13:00 – 16:00 (3 hours) (Saturday)
Menu page – 16:30 – 17:30 (1 hour) (Saturday)
Assessment – 18:00 – 20:00 (2 hours) (Saturday)
Audio/Music – 12:00 – 15:00 (3 hours) (Sunday)
Other slides – 15:30 – 23:30 (8 hours) (Sunday)
Adobe Captivate 9 runs as an automatic slideshow, continuously from start to end, by default. This is equivalent to ‘kiosk mode’ in Microsoft PowerPoint. I had to disable this mode and remove the default navigation ‘timeline’ at the bottom of the screen. I found a checkbox to do this in Captivate ‘Preferences’ and then replaced it by creating and adding Captivate (Windows style) command buttons for ‘Next, ‘Previous’ and ‘Menu’. I also created buttons on the ‘Menu Page’ that allows the user to go directly to the screens defined by the learning outcomes ‘Why’, ‘What’, ‘How’ and ‘Where’.
Free Audio
=========
I discovered free audio clips at the following website:
http://www.orangefreesounds.com
I downloaded free audio clips (in MP3 format) for correct and wrong answers for the drag and drop assessment at the beginning of the artefact.
The following text is in a Read.txt file that accompanies each MP3 audio file:
Hello from Orange Free Sounds,
Stock audio – Free sound effects, loops and music.
There are no hidden costs or need to sign-up.
Licence: The sound effect is permitted for non-commercial use under license ìAttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
http://www.orangefreesounds.com/
This licence (which was covered in Week 6 by Pauline Rooney) is of the following type: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
According to the appropriate section of the Creative Commons website at the following link:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
….. you are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
The Big Bang Theory Theme Song
============================
http://www.televisiontunes.com/Big_Bang_Theory_-_Full_(The).html
Monday 13th December 2016 – Authoring using Adobe Captivate
Project Times
============
Remaining slides – 20:30 – 23:00 (3 hours)
Test and fix- 23:30 – 01:30 (2 hours)
Publish to website – 02:00 – 03:00 (1 hour)
I was anxious to get the eLearning artefact fully working for the class presentation tomorrow Tuesday 14th December 2016. I also felt a responsibility towards by fellow group members who had places their trust in me to develop this eLearning artefact.
References
Carliner, S. (2008) A Holistic Framework of Instructional Design for eLearning. In S. Carliner & P. Shank (Eds.) The e-Learning Handbook: Past Promises, Present Challenges (pp.307-358). San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011) Applying the Contiguity Principle. In Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E., E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
Dick, W., Carey, L. & Carey, J. (2000). The systematic design of instruction (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Smith, P.L. & Ragan, T.J. (2004). Instructional design (3rd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Downes, S. (2005). E-learning 2.0. eLearn Magazine, 2005(10), 1.
Duvall, M. (2014). Adobe Captivate as a Tool to Create eLearning Scenarios. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2014 (pp. 514-517). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Reigeluth, C.M. (2009). Instructional-design theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory. (Vol II) Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1), 3-9.