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
Note: (Audio) – I had to download and install SoundFlower 1.6.6 to allow me to record ‘pass-through’ audio from my iMac’s sound card to Adobe Captivate 9.
==========
Note: (Audio): – Soundflower no longer works. Try LoopBack instead. Free version degrades after 20 minutes.
==========
https://rogueamoeba.com/loopback/
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!
Drag and Drop
===========
Very difficult overall. It has a lot of complexity attached to it. Very buggy.
Learn how to do it via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTtL74chAnU&spfreload=10
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.
Free Audio
=========
I discovered free audio clips on 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.
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.
Under the following 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
N.B. Check out Public Domain versus Copyright versus Creative Commons.
What is copyright?
—————————–
Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000.
70 years after the death of the author.
Original, Literary, Dramatic, Musical, Artistic.
Skill, Labour and Judgement are the components of what constitute the copyright of a work.
Is this legitimate?
—————————
YES
Fair dealing
Use of the performer’s official channel
Quoting from a work
It would be better if I acknowledged the author/copyright
NO
If I embed the video
If I embed the channel
LINKING
Is not an infringement of copyright
Unless the linker knew or ought to have known they were linking to material that infringes copyright
Fair Dealing / Educational Use
Single copy extracts OK for
What are OERs?
————————-
Teaching, learning resources in the public domain
Open Courseware(Big OERs)
——————————————-
Khan Academy
YouTube
OpenLearn
FutureLearn
SlideShare
MOOCs
Coursera
NDLR
Creative Commons (Pauline Rooney)
===============================
A non-profit organisation in California.
6 different licences.
Fills the gap between public domain and copyright.
Sites with Creative Commons
———————————————
YouTube
Search.creativecommons.org
Google Advanced Search
European
Flickr
Slideshare
Useful Links
——————–
Irish Copyright Licencing Agency
JISC Legal
Presentation by Eoin O’Dell (2015)
Copyright Law for eLearning Authors
The following is a reflection on the week immediately after the class that took place on Tuesday 22nd November 2016 using Gibbs Reflective Cycle.
Wednesday 23rd November 2016 – PDST TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION ICT CONFERENCE
Description
PDST/PDST Technology in Education, in conjunction with the ICT committee of NAPD, hosted a conference for school leaders providing an opportunity for all attendees to consider a number of whole school issues in advance of annual funding being released by the Department of Education and Skills (DES) as per the Department of Education and Skills Digital Strategy for Schools (2015 – 2020). I attended this full day conference in The Convention Centre Dublin.
Summary of reflections of today’s conference:
(1) ePortfolios for TY students
(2) Microsoft OneNote (Microsoft Classroom) for ePortfolio.
(3) A constructivist pedagogical orientation is encouraged according to Seán Gallagher, Deputy Director, PDST.
(4) €210 million for all primary and secondary schools over five years.
(5) Probably €15,000 per year for my school.
(6) A WiFi infrastructure in my school is likely to cost in the region of €25,000.
Feelings
I hadn’t been in The Convention Centre Dublin before. It’s an extremely impressive large light-filled modern building overlooking the River Liffey on Dublin’s north quays.
Evaluation
This was a very good conference. I learned about a Transition Year pilot project (which is due to go mainstream in 2017) where students use ePortfolios for storage, workspace and showcase instead of hard copy folders of their work for the year. I discovered that one of the schools that presented at the conference (Colaiste Muire, Ennis) use OneNote Online for their ePortfolios. This is an Office 365 tool and Colaiste Muire is an Office 365 School. My own school is an Office 365 School so it makes sense that my school evaluates OneNote Online as a tool for creating ePortfolios.
Analysis
The conference began with the following two keynotes. The first keynote by Jim Devine (who is based in Joint Research Centre (JRC), Seville) looked at an EU digital learning project (DigComp 2.0). The second keynote from Seán Gallagher looked at the situation nationally and in particular the funding in relation to the current five year National Strategy (2015 – 2020). He mentioned that the PDST try to champion a constructivist pedagogical orientation and favour ongoing assessment. There are ‘good practice’ videos on the PDST website. He also looked at the Scoilnet website (created and managed by PDST Technology in Education) and in particular the following digital material on this website:
– Irish Times Archive
– Maps
– Science hooks
– Licenced Digital Content (encyclopaedias, etc)
– Census At School
– Arts in Education
Conclusions
It was interesting to see that ePortfolios are now being encouraged in second level schools as well as being something that is an integral part of my MSc in Applied eLearning degree course.
Personal Action Plans
Inform the Transition Year Co-ordinator in my school about the ePortfolio pilot project.
Encourage my colleagues to register for the excellent Scoilnet website.
Friday 25th November 2016 – FEEDBACK & RESULT (LEARNING THEORIES PAPER)
Description
I received my result and feedback by email from Claire McAvinia today on my Learning Theories paper. I received 4 passes out of 4 in the areas covered by the marking rubric for the paper. The main areas which could have been improved were my ‘Conclusion’ section and by providing more examples linked to my professional practice. I did a section at the end called Implications for Instructional Design without referring to this section earlier in the paper. There were a very small number of slightly incorrect APA citations / references. The overall feedback was very favourable towards my paper.
Feelings
I was pleased but not surprised that I had passed all sections (as per the rubrick) of Module 1 (Learning Theories). I had spent a lot of time reading for and writing this paper with twenty nine references in total.
Evaluation
I didn’t have a ‘Conclusion’ section and this is something that I must include next time I write a paper. I could have provided more examples linked to my professional practice but I had reached my word count quota (of 2200) words.
Analysis
I began work on the paper quite early and I devoted about five weekends to it. I think that the key to writing a good paper is to do enough background reading to feel comfortable with the topic, create a structure for the paper, write a full draft of the paper and finally distill the paper to its final version through a series of edits.
Conclusion
I’m happy that I passed and I think that I was already aware of my paper’s minor shortcomings (other than APA) prior to receiving feedback.
Personal Action Plans
None.
Sunday 27th November 2016 – ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 3 AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 4
Description
I wrote two annotated bibliographies this weekend:
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.
Downes, S. (2005). E-learning 2.0. eLearn Magazine, 2005(10), 1.
While reading Stephen Downes hugely influential 2005 paper E-Learning 2.0, I came across the first reference below which in turn refers to the second reference below
The E-Learning Framework (2004 – 2012 – archived and defunct)
http://www.elframework.org/framework/index.html
Cetus LLP
http://cetis.org.uk
Also check out IMS Global Learning consortium
http://www.imsglobal.org
Monday 28th November 2016 – HOMEWORK FOR TOMORROW’S CLASS
Description
I prepared for next Tuesday’s class (Week 6) on Instructional Design and eAuthoring by doing a comparative analysis of Articulate Storyline 2 versus Adobe Captivate 9. I divided this up between SECTION A – SUMMARY and SECTION B – MORE DETAIL but I have provide just the summary here:
_________________________
SECTION A – SUMMARY
_________________________
(1) Comparison between Adobe Captivate 9 and Articulate Storyline 2 (link):
http://ecoach.com/articles/storyline2-vs-captivate9/
Overall
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Storyline verus Captivate (Storyline % first versus Captivate % second)
LEARNING CURVE (75% versus 60%)
MOBILE LEARNING (20% versus 90%)
COMMUNITY (90% versus 50%)
PRICE (60% versus 75%)
PUBLISHING OPTIONS (90% versus 95%)
_____________________________________________
OVERALL (67% versus 87%)
_____________________________________________
(2) Adobe Captivate 9 Pricing (including VAT)
€1,351.87 Full Licence Price
€552.27 Upgrade Price
€429.27 Student & Teacher Edition
€442.48 Subscription (€36.89 per month)
Although Articulate Storyline 2 and Adobe Captivate 9 are similar products, Captivate comes out with a higher review score. I was pleased that I had reviewed these products in the past and that I appear (objectively) to have been correct in choosing to purchase Captivate. This was a major decision with both products costing approximately €1,300 although I managed to purchase an academic version of Captivate for approximately €400.
Evaluation
Adobe Captivate scores much higher than Articulate Storyline for its mobile learning features (90% versus 20%). This is probably because Captivate allows for app development and responsive design whereas Storyline does not. However, Articulate Storyline scores much higher than Adobe Captivate for its community of practice (90% versus 50%).
Analysis
Overall, Captivate scores 20% higher than Articulate (87% versus 67%).
Conclusion
Adobe Captivate is a better product overall than Articulate Storyline. Also, see the following link:
The following is a reflection on the Tuesday morning class that took place on 22nd November 2016 from 10:00 to 13:00 using Gibbs Reflective Cycle.
Description
According to the hard copy Module Handbook 2016/17, today’s class was to address the following topics (and to include the guest lecturer(s) from the Digital Media Centre):
eLearning Development
Rapid development
Using selected software for development
This was very much a below par lecture / presentation today. The guest speaker(s) (to speak about Adobe Premier and Adobe AfterEffects) didn’t show up. Damian Gordon introduced a hastily put together (what he called) ‘Plan B’ which consisted of (a) eLearning and Ethics (b) Top 200 Learning Tools. The Top 200 Learning Tools was meant to be a topic on next week’s class.
In reality, the topics for today’s class were:
eLearning and Ethics
Top 200 Learning Tools
Damian Gordon delivered both of these topics. Pauline Rooney was there throughout but didn’t speak other than to inform the class that we could follow the course on Twitter #580.
Feelings
I felt very disappointed during today’s class. This was the third week in five weeks that a guest lecturer had failed to appear. This was the first time that Damian actually acknowledged that a guest lecturer was due to appear but wasn’t going to appear. I had spent a couple of hours the previous night downloading the Adobe Premier and Adobe AfterEffects materials from Webcourses for today’s classs. I now feel that there is no point in me downloading and becoming familiar with materials from Webcourses in advance of classes. Sometimes, the materials appear the day before class and sometimes they don’t appear until the day of class. This is inconsistent and does not encourage or allow students to develop a consistent approach to engaging with the class materials on Webcourses.
Evaluation
The first part of the class was devoted to ethical and legal issues. This more interesting aspects were 2012: The year Irish newspapers tried to destroy the web (Irish newspapers tried to charge organisations for linking to newspaper stories on social media) and a damages award of €75,000 to a man following a defamatory Facebook posting.
Top 200 Tools for Learning 2016 is Jane Hart’s independent resource site about learning trends, technologies and tools. The website is called Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies and has been in existence since 2007. I hadn’t seen this website before so I think that it is useful to be aware of its existence and to refer to it from time to time. Damian got the class to read up on about 5 tools each so that the class itself could review roughly the top 50 Learning Tools. I think that this was a good way of getting the class to learn about some of the tools and it also added variety to the class presentation today. The top 20 Learning Tools for 2016 are:
I was familiar with 19 of the 20 tools. The only tool that I am not familiar with is Number 12 (Yammer).
Analysis
I think that it is important to know that it is legal to link to online Irish newspaper articles in an eLearning artefact and that there are no charges for doing. This is in spite of attempts by National Newspapers of Ireland/Newspaper Licencing Ireland to charge for such links in 2012.
Conclusions
It’s a good thing that I did download all of the Adobe Premier and Adobe AfterEffects materials from Webcourses because the 7 folders and 24 files that were there on Monday 21st November 2016 have now disappeared (at time of writing 25/12/16) and contain the ‘Plan B’ files and folders (Accessibility folder, eLearning and Ethics PowerPoint, etc.)
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:
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
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 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
Virtual Meeting of The Compostivists using my iMac and Webcourses (Blackboard)
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.
The following is a reflection on the Tuesday morning class that took place on 15th November 2016 from 10:00 to 13:00 using Gibbs Reflective Cycle.
Description
According to the hard copy Module Handbook 2016/17, today’s class was to address the following topics: (There were no guest lecturers scheduled for today):
Introduction to models of instructional design
What’s the use of a VLE?
Designing for diverse platforms (Mobile) (video + S3QR)
The first two topics were covered but the third (Designing for diverse platforms (Mobile)) was not dealt with. There is a PowerPoint file on mLearning attributed to Damian Gordon and Claire McDonnell on Webcourses as well as a research paper from 2012 (in PDF form) entitled Mobile Learning: Not Just Another Delivery Method and a MP4 video which is a video recording of Damian Gordon going through the mLearning PowerPoint slideshow.
The first topic (Models of Instructional Design) was dealt with by Damian Gordon and the second topic (VLEs) was delivered by Pauline Rooney.
Models of Instructional Design was really a flipped classroom as Damian had emailed the class about five videos of himself teaching this topic. I had looked at all the videos in advance and although I was not really used to being taught this way, I found it an enjoyable and effective way to be taught. I thought that Damian synchronised his narration with the PowerPoint slideshow in the background very effectively. It worked!
The following macro models of instructional design were dealt with during today’s class:
(1) Bloom’s Taxonomy
(2) ADDIE Model
(3) ASSURE Model
(4) ABCD Format
(5) Dick and Carey Model
(6) Tripp and Bichelmeyer Rapid Prototyping
(7) Gilly Salmon’s Five Stage Model of E-Learning
(8) Pam Moule’s eLearning Ladder
(9) Diana Laurillard’s Conversational Framework
(10) Alessi and Trollip Design and Development Model
The following micro models of instructional design were dealt with during today’s class:
(1) Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction
(2) Reigeluth’s Elaboration Theory(3) Component Display Theory
(4) First Principles of Instruction (David Merrill)
(5) ICARE Model (Dick and Carey)
(6) The Science of Instruction (Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer)
(7) Active Learning
(8) Six Thinking Hats Model
(9) Six Hats Instructional Model
The last part of the class was on the subject of VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments) and was delivered by Pauline Rooney. I am interested in VLEs and in deploying MOODLE as the VLE of choice in the school that I work in.
Feelings
I very much enjoyed today’s class as I am interested in both Instructional Design Models and in VLEs.
Evaluation
The most important and popular macro models of instructional design are probably the ADDIE Model followed by the Dick and Carey Model. However, 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.
Analysis
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.
Conclusions
There are a lot of models of instructional design! It is interesting to note that Bloom (for macro) and Gagné (for micro) are still important players in the modern world of digital learning design.
Personal Action Plans
Study the materials on Webcourses during the week as there are a lot of instructional design models and a lot of detail involved.
The following is a reflection on the week immediately after the class that took place on Tuesday 8th November 2016 using Gibbs Reflective Cycle.
Tuesday 8th November 2016 – AUNGIER STREET LIBRARY
Description
Following a meeting of The Compostivists for 20 minutes after today’s class, I spent two hours in Aungier Street Library sourcing the 11 books on the Essential Reading List for Instructional Design. I also discovered the following link to a PDF file describing a workshop called Storyboarding for Instructional Design:
Feelings
I was pleased with myself that I was able to get the library locations for all 11 books. I had no training in how to do this and it had been over 20 years since I last used an academic library! However, probably because I use computers so much, I found this very easy.
Evaluation
I created a ‘database’ of the locations of all 11 books by copying and pasting the relevant information from the Library database to Apple Notes on my iPad. To do this, I had to access the Library database directly from my iPad rather than using a Library PC. Later, I exported these Apple Notes to PDF format from my iMac by using the app TextEdit. I then uploaded the PDF file to my website/ePortfolio so that I could easily access the information from anywhere. Most of the 11 books are in the LTTC section of Bolton Street library.
Analysis
I wasn’t aware up until now that most of the books on the Module 2 Essential Reading List are to be found in Bolton Street Library.
Conclusions
It’s very easy to use the DIT Library information system!
Personal Action Plans
Go to Bolton Street Library and borrow 10 of the 11 books on the Module 2 Essential Reading List. I already have one of the books.
Wednesday 9th November 2016 – BOLTON STREET LIBRARY
Description
Today, I continued my odyssey through the various DIT campuses. I had already been in Aungier Street, Kevin Street and Mountjoy Square so Bolton Street was my fourth DIT conquest! Bolton Street College is 100 years old – you could feel the history. There is a wall hanging, depicting the front of the college, installed in the large entrance hallway at the bottom of the staircase. This was made by workers in the Stewart’s Hospital Centre in Lucan and it was officially ‘opened’ by the college president in 2014.
Feelings
I felt excited about the prospect of reading these books!
Evaluation
I found and borrowed 10 of the 11 books on the Essential Reading List’. This took about one hour. The books are in the LTTC section of Bolton Street library.
Analysis
It seems that I can borrow the books for 30 days and then it is possible to continue to borrow them for another 30 days. It is possible to renew the books remotely using my DIT account information. It seems that I have to first create a Library PIN so it’s time that I created one.
Photos
Some photos of me and the borrowed books!
Thursday 10th November 2016 – ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1
Description
I was anxious to learn more about instructional design since this is at the heart of Module 2 and also because this was one of my motivations for pursuing this Masters degree course. So, I have 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.
Feelings
I always look forward to reading a book when I can do so in a leisurely fashion with no distractions. Even though I have to write an annotated bibliography, I look upon reading this book as a pleasure rather than a chore. This is good!
Evaluation
On page 358 of this book, Carliner writes:
“Consider these classic texts on instructional design:”
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.
Reigeluth, C.M. (2009). Instructional-design theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory. (Vol II) Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
This begs the question “Why are none of these three books on either the ‘Essential Reading List’ or the ‘Supplemental Reading List’ of the Instructional Design and e-Authoring Module?”
Analysis
In this chapter, the author sets out a revised framework of instructional design that has three distinct components. The first component is Design Philosophies and Theories which embraces the science and philosophy of how humans learn. The second component is General Design Methodology that has two parts: identifying the size of the e-learning project as bronze (basic), silver (middle-of-the-road) or platinum (extensive) and then applying the ADDIE process. The final component of the framework is Instructional Considerations which have three categories: general issues (including schedules and budgets), instructional approach (including mastery learning, discovery learning, gaming-simulation) and conventions (including bookmarking in tutorials, a break in a webinar).
Carliner concludes that a framework, which includes economic, technical, political, and philosophical issues as well as instructional issues, will broaden the discussion of design. He advocates a move away from what he calls a “cookbook-like approach” (means) to an outcomes-based approach (end) in relation to design. In my opinion, this is a Machiavellian approach to design. In other words, if the final design is good, it is immaterial how it was achieved.
Conclusions
Since the Dick and Carey book is considered a classic text on instructional design and also because these authors have been referred to on more than one occsion by Damian in class, I would like to read all of the following book at some juncture:
Dick, W., Carey, L. & Carey, J. (2000). The systematic design of instruction (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Saturday 12th November 2016 – MEETING 2 OF THE COMPOSTIVISTS
The view from the Staff Room, DIT Kevin Street.
Description
On Saturday 12th November 2016, our group had its second meeting (F2F) in DIT Kevin Street, Dublin 2.
Feelings
The meeting had a relaxed feel but a very businesslike approach. This was the second meeting so it was important that enough momentum be built at today’s meeting for the project to take off!
Gerard Kilkenny and Michael McKeever in the Staff Room of DIT Kevin Street
Evaluation
Here are the minutes of the second meeting of The Compostivists:
Group Members: Allesio Gemma, Gerard Kilkenny, Michael McKeever, Rachel Maguire
Group Project: Composting
Meeting 2 (Date): Saturday 12th October 2016
Meeting 2 (Location): DIT Kevin Street, Dublin 2
The group convened for a second three hour F2F meeting to further consider and develop the group’s Instructional Design / eAuthoring project. 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)
Note: Allesio and Rachel decided to use Microsoft PowerPoint instead of Articulate Storyline for storyboarding.
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).
The group agreed to distribute work in progress, which will be new versions of the PowerPoint storyboards, Captivate lessons and digital content, via email. Communication will continue to be by email, WhatsApp and possibly by Webcourses to have a group meeting via videoconferencing later in the life cycle of the project.
Analysis
This was a good second meeting for our group. We reviewed Storyboard Mk1 and made decisions on how we will arrive at Storyboard Mk2.
Conclusions
The group decided to wait until the second iteration of the storyboard is completed before having its next meeting which it is hoped will be a virtual meeting via Webcourses.
The following is a reflection on the Tuesday morning class that took place on 8th November 2016 from 10:00 to 13:00 using Gibbs Reflective Cycle.
Description
According to the hard copy Module Handbook 2016/17, today’s class was to address the following topics (and to include the guest lecturer Clare Gormley as well as Library colleagues):
eLearning Toolkit and reflection on experience as a past graduate(Clare Gormley)
Defining learning outcomes, defining activity within a resource
Using the Library for your annotated bibliography (Library colleagues)
Group elevator pitches (5 mins each)
In reality, the topics for today’s class were:
Personas
Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Learning Outcomes?)
The Universal Design Process
Models for Learning Design (ADDIE and the 7Cs)
The most important components of learning
All of the five topics were dealt with by Damian Gordon and none were delivered by Pauline Rooney.
eLearning Toolkit and reflection on experience as a past graduate was not dealt with today. Clare Gormley did not appear today nor was any reference made to her.
Using the Library for your annotated bibliography was not dealt with today. Library colleagues did not appear today nor was any reference made to them.
There were no Group elevator pitches (5 mins each) nor was any reference made to them.
The Personas section of today’s class 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. These users can be illustrated as basic silhouetted figures of (say) a child, a grandmother, a disabled person, etc. The need for personas was initially identified in the mid 1990s in the marketing sector, followed quickly by the software sector. An example of a user profile for a particular persona could be:
Name: Susan Normal
Age: 18 years old
Size: 5’8″
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).
Bloom’s Taxonomy (from Bloom, 1956 to Anderson, 2001)
Note 1: Damian Gordon thinks that the three higher level learning objectives (above) are on the same level.
Note 2: Damian Gordon doesn’t like the terms ‘lower order’ versus ‘higher order’.
The evolution from Bloom’s 1956 model to Lori Anderson’s 2001 model was progressed further in 2009 when Mike Fisher produced a learning tools version of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
The 7Cs is a Learning Design Workshop that evolved in 2012 from an older Open University Learning Design Initiative (OULDI) project for which Professor Grainne Conole was the lead investigator. Since Professor Conole had at this stage moved to the University of Leicester, this institution was given the opportunity to trial and explore the OULDI resources as part of the initiative.
The Most Important Components of Learning section of today’s class looked at some of the findings of John Hattie’s (Australian Researcher) work. Damian said that he is a ‘fan’ of John Hattie and that he has great time for him.
Damian referred to the following John Hattie’s publication:
Hattie found that feedback is the most important aspect of learning. Here are the four most important aspects of learning according to Hattie’s research with the ‘Effect Size’ number after each:
Feedback (1.13)
Students prior cognitive ability (1.04)
Instructional quality (1.00)
Direct Instruction (0.82)
Feelings
I very much enjoyed today’s class even though only one of the four topics that were on the agenda for today – Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Learning Outcomes) – was actually delivered. I felt that all of the areas that were covered were ‘taught’ very well by Damian.
Evaluation
Since today was Week 3, it was important that today’s class dealt with ‘Models of Learning Design’ (ADDIE and the 7 Cs) and ‘Personas’ to feed into the design of my group’s storyboard for our ‘Composting’ project. However, I think that these should have been covered in last week’s class that was meant to gave dealt with ‘Storyboarding and Personas’.
Analysis
I prefer when a topic is covered with more depth and history. The 7Cs of Learning Design is something that evolved over a couple of years into a workshop. ADDIE is a model whereas the 7Cs is a workshop. Moreover, the 7Cs workshop uses specific tools (e.g. Blackboard to collaborate) and nether this fact, nor any of the tools, were mentioned in today’s class. In my opinion, the lectures in a Level 9 course should have more depth. As a Maths teacher, one of the things that really improved my teaching was becoming extremely au fait with the history of mathematics in my early years of teaching.
Conclusions
It looks like there is going to continue to be misalignment between the classes as described in the hard copy Module Handbook 2016/17, the class itself and the Webcourses materials for the classes. This is not trivial. There are four components to the assessment. It makes sense that if today’s class was to deal with using the Library for my annotated bibliography, then I would schedule time this week to go to the Library. (The Library section never happened, Library staff never appeared and no reference to these facts were made by Damian and Pauline). If last week’s class had dealt with personas (instead of this week), then it would have made sense to build on this during ‘homework’ by devoting the week to the storyboard aspect of the ‘Composting’ project.
Personal Action Plans
Source the 11 books on the Essential Reading List for Instructional Design.
Further reading on Instructional Design models (e.g. Dick and Carey).
Begin reading for, and writing, my annotated bibliographies.
It was informative to hear that digital learning is not yet considered to be an established field of research. Professor Conole’ stated that it is her belief that digital learning research is currently positioned between stage 4 (diversification) and stage 5 (established). I was already familiar with the NMC Horizon Report series having attended previous CESI and EdTech conferences. During the keynote, Professor Conole referred to the Innovating Pedagogy 2015 (a UK report) that she reckons is more nuanced than the Horizon Report series.
Analysis
It was good to hear Richard Millwood’s HoTEL Project referred to at the conference. I was already aware of this from Module 1 – Learning Theories. I often find that I pay more attention to a topic when I hear it referred to on a second occasion by a different source.
Conclusions
Having enjoyed this conference, I think that I will register online for more digital events organised by the National Institute for Digital Learning in DCU.
Personal Action Plans
Put the dates for forthcoming events organised by the National Institute for Digital Learning into my diary.
Wednesday 2nd November 2016 – DOCTORAL WORKSHOP
Description
Today, I attended a Doctoral Workshop jointly hosted by the National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL) and the new Institute of Education at Dublin City University (DCU). This workshop was primarily designed for prospective doctoral students who are thinking about embarking on either an EdD or PhD in the general area of Digital Learning. The purpose of the workshop was to:
• answer common questions prospective students have about doctoral study
• identify/discuss potential research topics in the general area of digital learning
• help prospective doctoral students learn how to prepare research proposals.
In the course of the workshop, approximately 30 participants (including me) had an opportunity to discuss how to select the right institution, the right supervisors, the right topic and the most appropriate doctoral study option for their own circumstances. The workshop was opened by Professor Mark Brown who gave an interesting talk on why he pursued a career in educational research. A number of his DCU colleagues from Education / Digital Learning were in attendance including Dr. Deirdre Butler, Dr. Enda Donlon, Dr. Eamonn Costello as well as Visiting Professor Gráinne Conole.
Feelings
Eventually, it came to my turn to describe the topics within digital learning that I may be interested in pursuing a PhD. I was quite nervous as I understood that I would be speaking to a number of respected scholars in the field of digital education. I explained to those gathered at the workshop that I was interested in both research and development in the areas of personalised learning and eAssessment.
Evaluation
Professor Gráinne Conole and Dr. Eamon Costello both suggested that I speak to Professor Vincent Wade (Trinity College, Dublin) as he is an expert in the area of personalised and adaptive learning.
Professor Mark Brown suggested that I have a look at Fish Tree, a US Company specialising in personalised learning software. He also suggested that I might pursue an interdisciplinary PhD (Computer Science and Education) and consider using the Castel research centre in DCU. He also said that I should read what Stephen Downes and George Siemens have to say about personalised learning.
Analysis
We were told that the new DCU Education Department based in a new purpose-built building in the St. Patrick’s College Campus was incorporated on 01/10/16 and consists of 130 Staff and Postgraduate Research Students and 12 Research Centres. This new education department will be headed up by Charlotte Holland with the title Associate Professor, Education, Dublin City University. Her email address is charlotte.holland@dcu.ie.
Conclusions
Professor Mark Brown was at pains to point out that the process of deciding what one’s research question should be is a lengthy one. He repeatedly stated that prospective PhD students should refine their research proposals by having lots of discussions with numerous research staff. It was interesting to hear that a PhD student can choose his/her External Examiner.
Thursday 3rd November 2016 – STORYBOARDING & VIDEO EDITING
Description
Wrote up minutes of Group Meeting 1 held on Saturday 29th October 2016 in the Westbury Hotel, Dublin 2
Downloaded files for Week 1 and Week 2 from Webcourses
Looked at the 10 minute video Visitors and Residents: Credibility (by David White, University of Oxford), from the link https://youtu.be/kO569eknM6U
This video explores perceptions relating to the legitimacy and currency of online information versus traditional sources. This is a required debate as more and more educational courses are moved online, e.g. MOOCs. In (say) 10 years time, will the survival of traditional universities be threatened in the same way as the newspaper industry is today?
Adobe Captivate – experimented with desktop app for authoring
Adobe Captivate Draft – downloaded and install iPad app
Adobe Captivate Draft – experimented with iPad app for storyboarding
Adobe Creative Cloud – downloaded and install iMac app and iPad app
Adobe Creative Cloud – first sign in using my existing Adobe Id
Created Adobe Captivate Draft test storyboard file (.CPDX file) on iPad
Uploaded this test storyboard file to Adobe Creative Cloud
Opened this Draft CPDX file in Adobe Captivate desktop app on iMac
Saved this Draft CPDX file as a CPTX file using Adobe Captivate desktop app on iMac
Reviewed YouTube Downloaders from
http://mac.eltima.com/list-of-best-youtube-downloaders.html
Downloaded and installed Total Video Downloader for Mac
Downloaded a 30 second waste management video from YouTube
Edited it to a 5 second video using iMovie
Simultaneously developed Composting course / lesson in Adobe Captivate and Microsoft Powerpoint
Published the course / lesson to an Adobe Captivate Project in HTML 5 format
Uploaded this Adobe Captivate Project to gerardkilkenny.ie/compost using the FileZilla FTP application for Mac
Tested that it works using the URL http://gerardkilkenny.ie/compost/index.html
It does work!
Friday 4th November 2016 – ePORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT
Description
Today I set about more fully researching ePortfolios and blogs, with WordPress already chosen as my software tool of choice. I began constructing my ‘skeleton’ ePortfolio some weeks ago on my MSc Induction Day on 5th September 2016. I added sections under the headings ‘Hopes’, ‘Fears’ and ‘Expectations’. On ePortfolio Seminar Day on 18th October 2016, I began the process of creating new WordPress ‘pages’ and a ‘menu’ system that I based on the structure of the taught modules on the first year of the MSc in Applied eLearning programme. The page / menu system that I created then looked like this:
Professional Development
Prior Learning
Personal Development Plan
Philosophy Statement
Programme Induction
Hopes
Expectations
Fears
Learning Theories
What is Learning
Constructivism
Behaviourism
Debate
Presentations
Instructional Design & eAuthoring
Introduction to Module
Storyboarding
eLearning Toolkit
Models of Instructional Design
Rapid Development
Top 100 Learning Tools
Elevator Pitches
Group Presentations
Today, I resolved a problem whereby I had a database connection error when trying to access my website. This occurred as a result of me changing the MySQL database password in the Control Panel of https://www.register365.com. This part of the Control Panel uses phpMyAdmin which in turn provides support for a lot of MySQL functionality. I had also changed this password the wp-config.php file on my website. However, I eventually discovered that the password also needs to be updated in a table in the WordPress MySQL database. This means that the password exists in three different locations. If the password is not the same in all three locations, WordPress reports a database connection error. I decided to revert to the original password.
Page Attributes (Parent)
Page Attributes (Order)
Home Page
Blog Posts
Header Image and Tag Line
Page Attributes (Parent and Order)
I changed the attributes on all WordPress ‘pages’ to reflect the menu structure I had early created via WordPress ‘appearance’ yesterday Friday 4th November 2016.
Front Page and Posts Page
WordPress automatically uses the blogroll as the homepage.
To force WordPress to go to your newly created homepage (‘Home’) on typing in the portfolio URL, do the following:
Select Settings > Reading
In the ‘Front page displays’ options presented:
Choose “A static page” for the ‘Front Page displays’
Select “Home” from the list of items (which are the WordPress pages you created) in the ‘Front Page’drop-downlist box.
We now also need to specify where the blog posts will go
Select “Blog” from the list of items (which are the WordPress pages you created) in the ‘Posts Page’drop-down list box.
Click the ‘Save Changes’ button.
After saving changes, when you type in the portfolio URL, the page should go to your new actual homepage.
Header Image and Tag Line
For ‘Header Image’, I had ‘Site Title’ and ‘Tagline as follows:
Site Title: MSc in Applied eLearning
Tagline: DIT Aungier Street
I then added a DIT logo via Appearance>Header.
The image had to be first uploaded to the Media Library.
The following is a reflection on the Tuesday morning class that took place on 1st November 2016 from 10:00 to 13:00 using Gibbs Reflective Cycle.
Description
According to the hard copy Module Handbook 2016/17, today’s class was to address the following topics (and to include the guest lecturers Ciaran O’Leary and Patrick Walsh):
Why teach
Storyboarding and Personas
Learning Analytics
In reality, the topics for today’s class were:
Why teach
Storyboarding
Open Source Tools
Visitors and Residents: Credibility (Dave White, University of Oxford)
The first three topics were dealt with by Damian Gordon and the last topic was delivered by Pauline Rooney.
Personas and Learning Analytics were not dealt with today. Ciaran O’Leary and Patrick Walsh did not appear today nor was any reference made to them.
The Why teach section of today’s class was an exploration of the reasons why we teach and the different teaching methodologies that can be used to teach a group of students. Some reasons to teach are:
To enthuse students, to provide information, to assess students, to change student beliefs, to give the student group a sense of identity.
Some of the methodologies explored today were:
Ask the students to spend 3 minutes writing down the 3 most important ideas followed by 1 minute comparing ideas with the adjacent student. Ask the students to reflect on how they are learning.
The Storyboarding section of today’s class looked at the definition of a storyboard (“a visual organizer, typically a series of illustrations displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a video, web-based training, or interactive media sequence”, the history of the storyboard (developed by Disney Studios in 1930s) and examples of storyboards for movies (Star Wars, Forrest Gump, Gladiator, Psycho, Watchmen and Apocalypse Now).
Some Open Source Tools referred to in today’s class were FocusWriter, MoodleCloud, Brackets, RedNotebook, Pidgin, TagSpaces and TaskBoard. The only app that I had previously heard about was MoodleCloud.
For the last part of today’s class, Pauline Rooney showed a very interesting YouTube video by Dave White (University of Oxford) entitled Visitors and Residents: Credibility.
Feelings
I found today’s class quite disjointed. The Why teach section felt like it was designed for a ‘dumbed-down’ introductory lecture to students about to experience teaching practice for the first time. The Storyboarding section looked at storyboards that had been used for famous movies but failed to present any storyboards that had been used for eLearning artefacts.
Evaluation
I only found one out of the four topics in today’s class to be of any benefit:
– The YouTube video Visitors and Residents: Credibility (Dave White, University of Oxford).
This video will be of no benefit to me in relation to Instructional Design & eAuthoring. However, I found the ideas that it explored in relation to how knowledge is valued and information sources are cited in bricks and mortar universities versus their equivalents in the digital world to be very interesting and highly stimulating.
Analysis
In my opinion, the entire class today should have been devoted to Storyboarding which is an essential pre-requisite to producing an eLearning artefact. Moreover, storyboarding is one of the four items to be evaluated in this module and I am quite sure that it is something that is new to most, if not all, of the students in the class. Why were the text editor open source tools FocusWriter, Brackets and RedNotebook referred to instead of storyboarding tools such as Microsoft PowerPoint (desktop app) and Adobe Captivate Draft (iPad app)? Why was Pidgin which is a Chat app referred to at all? TagSpaces is a digital note organizer. TaskBoard is a task/project management tool. MoodleCloud is the cloud based version of the popular Moodle LMS. None of the aforementioned apps were illustrated, examined or compared – merely listed.
Conclusions
I am going to have to learn about Storyboarding without any ‘institutional help’.
Personal Action Plans
Explore the Open Source Tools referred to in today’s class: FocusWriter, MoodleCloud, Brackets, RedNotebook, Pidgin, TagSpaces and TaskBoard.
Experiment with Adobe Captivate Draft (Storyboarding App for iPad).
