Thursday, 29 November 2007
Accessibility of e-learning materials - why bother (Moodle)?
Why should educational developers and learning technologists make efforts to ensure their e-learning materials are accessible?There is of course the legal side of things in the UK: The Disability Discrimination Act, Part IV 2001(SENDA) requires responsible bodies to anticipate the requirements of disabled people or students and make appropriate adjustments. This applies to all the interactions a student makes with a school, college or University, and includes every element of course delivery.
More importantly, it is about equality of opportunity. One of the reasons I am so passionate about e-learning and online learning is that it is accessible to those who for various reasons cannot access learning in person - thos who cannot get to a face-to-face class by reason of disability, lack of transport, work commitments, young children, etc. etc.
While physical accessibility for those with visual, hearing or motor problems is obviously important, as well as provision for those with dyslexia, clear and unambiguous language should be used to support those whose first language is not the one you are teaching in.
I strongly believe also in ensuring intellectual accessibility - avoiding unecessary jargon, vocabulary and style that excludes some learners. Each subject discipline has a level which it expects its students to reach but one should not make language etc. unnecessarily difficult to understand. There are benefits to all students in clear and unambiguous instructions, and a functional and well-designed navigation and layout.
Moodle, for example, offers the following accessibility features:When creating pages within any VLE, sensible rules to follow are those for ensuring accessibility of any web page.
- Conforms to XHTML 1.0 standards
- Uses stylesheets to control layout.
- Optional stylesheet selector can be implemented.
- Auto-detection - for use on mobile phones, TV sets, consoles and handheld devices.
- If content is web-based using HTML mark-up, then learning content can be used with Screen Readers.
- Works on multiple operating systems and browsers.
- Use simple presentation and design
- Provide meaningful text to hypertext links and a text alternative to images (Moodle forces this)
- Create HTML web pages rather than using proprietary document formats (e.g. Word documents)
- Avoid defining text appearance using tags and font colours
- Remove any unecessary menus, blocks and columns on the page
- Avoid large blocks of italicised text, as these can be hard to read for most users
- Use simple table formatting and avoid creating tables within tables
- Within the course, where possible, open links in the same window
- Include an option for students to compile and print materials
Labels: accessibility, e-learning, VLE
posted by Helen Whitehead 8:27 AM
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
Archiving and caching online sources
One of the problems with citing online sources is that often Web archiving is still in its infancy. In the area of the arts which I have done a lot of work in, creative sites often disappear because of the shortsighted and underfunded nature of projects - putting a website up for as little as a year and then it disappears. The same is true of school sites, blogs, and most annoying of all for academics, articles papers put online in various ways by researchers and writers. That dreaded 404 comes up just when you've referred 150 students to it...
The following services help to solve this problem, and may also be useful if the worst happens and your own website disappears as a result of server failure, backup error or some other problem.This also means, however, that you can never be sure that you have deleted content on the web. But that's a subject for another blog entry...
- WebCite: an archiving system for web references (cited webpages and websites): they generate a reference which contains - in addition to the original live URL - a link to an archived copy of the material, exactly as the citing author saw it when accessing the cited material.
- Furl: From LookSmart, this service acts as an archiving tool as well as a bookmarking service. It creates caches of bookmarked pages, and enables users to organise 'favorites' or bookmarks by using tags. See also MyWeb by Yahoo!.
- The Internet Archive: or the Wayback machine - this wonderful Web archive caches pages automatically and keeps a regular archive of most of the Web.
- Google cache: if a page has disappeared quite recently, then searching for it in Google will provide, as well as the original (now dead) link, a "cached" version.
Labels: cache, caching, online referencing, references, web archive
posted by Helen Whitehead 8:39 AM
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Discovery: topicality of e-learning materials
I love it when materials in a course turn out to be relevant and topical. In my Season of Inspiration writing course at the moment we are this week writing about caves and other underground spaces.
We already have great inspiration from some fabulous photographs from Nottingham's Papplewick Pumping Station Victorian underground reservoir on the day it opened to the public, and Aborigine cave art from my co-tutor's Australian property.
Today, the BBC reports on the discovery of what is thought to be the Lupercal, a mythical Roman cave, the long-lost underground grotto where ancient Romans believed a female wolf suckled the city's twin founders.
And here is the e-tivity which we have offered to our writing participants this week...
E-tivity 7.6: Discovery
Purpose: To write about the thrill of discovery.Task: Something marvellous is found in a cave or subterranean space, it could be rock art, engravings, smuggled treasure, prehistoric artefacts, a mummified animal or person. Describe your discovery and its significance to the local population. What will the discovery mean to those who found it? Will this important discovery end happily or will it end in conflict? Write a poem or story about this marvellous discovery.
Respond: Give a reasoned critique to at least two of the stories posted.
Labels: cave, discovery, e-learning, e-tivities, elearning, etivities, learning design, online writing courses, underground, writing
posted by Helen Whitehead 7:48 AM
Monday, 19 November 2007
Risk analysis of e-learning projects
I have recently been doing risk assessments of some e-learning projects we have in train. There are some risks that seem to cross all types of projects in a variety of contexts.
When assessing risks of e-learning projects I consider:
* Likelihood (high, medium, low)
* Potential impact (high, medium, low)
* Speed of onset (fast, slow)
Some of the main risks I have found to be important include:
Unclear roles of individuals and partners in the project
Likelihood: low Impact: high Onset: slow
To avoid/mitigate:Lack of buy-in from some stakeholders
- Be very clear about roles of individuals and partners at the beginning and at every meeting.
- Hold regular meetings where progress and actions are checked.
- Be clear about institution’s organisational structures and the key organisational issues
- Basic stakeholder analysis – brainstorm all stakeholders: internal and external. Make time for stakeholders with high impact and high interest and continually monitor stakeholder relationships.
- Get in writing, with agreement from all, what the expectations are of each partner in clear and simple terms.
- Have a single dedicated project manager
Likelihood: high Impact: high Onset: slow
To avoid/mitigate:Failure to meet project objectives
- As early as possible engage and maintain a high level of commitment and engagement needed at senior and operational levels.
- Get recognition of the strategic importance of the project relating to key strategies
- Get early adopters, champions and enthusiasts involved.
- Make realistic and applicable templates for others to follow.
Likelihood: medium Impact: high Onset: slow
To avoid/mitigate:Staff resourcing, changes and sustainability
- Have clear aims and objectives.
- Have a clear project plan and timescale
- Set milestones - and meet them
- Know “best solution” and “acceptable” outcome
Likelihood: high Impact: high Onset: fast
To avoid/mitigate:IT and policy issues
- This one is particularly relevant to HE and FE. Consider motivation and clarity.
- Involve personnel at risk at the start. Know where to turn if the worst happens.
- Clearly assign resource time from all partners. Agree that schedules will slip if this is not stuck to.
- Keep track of other e-learning opportunities and funding
- Prioritise user-centred design - practical and relevant to the people involved
- Make sure there is sufficient time for testing and evaluation
Likelihood: medium Impact: high Onset: fast
To avoid/mitigate:
- Include decision makers early on
- Do a technical audit with the IT department at the start and find out exactly what is available and possible
- It may be necessary to adapt the project if the infrastructure is not going to support it in the timescale of the project.
Labels: e-learning projects, project management, risk analysis
posted by Helen Whitehead 7:51 AM
Sunday, 18 November 2007
My new HTC TyTN II
I've been {playing with} learning to use my new PDA/wonderphone: the HTC TyTN II (winner of several Best PDA and Smartphone awards). It has two cameras (both video cameras), voice recorder, music, Windows mobile with various programmes including Word, Bluetooth and wifi capability, synchs with my Outlook on the laptop (though haven't tried that yet) and with my online tasks-to-do application, and has a 4Gb hard disk the size of a fingernail. It has a proper keyboard which makes it much easier to text and make notes.
Plus it even makes phone calls.
Interestingly, there's a really quite good series of Flash elearning tutorials on the Web to teach me how to use it.
All I need now is a good price for an unlimited data contract...Labels: HTC TyTN II, mobile learning, mobile phones, PDA, smartphone
posted by Helen Whitehead 4:58 PM
Friday, 16 November 2007
Do you use Salmon's 5-stage model or E-tivities framework?
Do you use e-learning or learning technologies such as discussion forums etc. in teaching?
Have you used or adapted Salmon's 5-stage model or e-tivities framework in your teaching? Or have you used it at any time in the past few years?Gilly Salmon's 5-stage model and e-tivities framework have been used successfully to support learning in a variety of contexts, courses, disciplines, types and levels of education from schools to Masters to continuing professional development.
References
I am doing some research to find out how they have been applied in learning and teaching across the world in the last ten years. We know that teachers have used them in a variety of different ways, adapting and developing the models to suit their own purposes. As part of the background to a new book, we would like to find out about the models in practice. The general results of this research will be made available to all practitioners.
If you have any good examples of using the 5-stage model or e-tivities,
please would you take my survey?
http://www2.le.ac.uk/.../smeltsurvey
E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online
Gilly Salmon, (2004) Routledge Falmer
ISBN: 0415335442
lifelong learning, m-learning, mobile learning, online courses, online learning, online tutoring, technology, universities, wiki-tivities, wikitivities
E-tivities: The Key to Active Online Learning
Gilly Salmon, (2002) Routledge Falmer,
ISBN: 0749431105Labels: collaborative working, e-facilitation, e-learning, e-learning tools, e-moderating, education, elearning, learning and teaching, learning design, learning technologies
posted by Helen Whitehead 12:48 PM
Monday, 12 November 2007
Links for week commencing 12th November
Real-world e-learning software
I asked some practitioners what e-learning tools the staff in their institutions actually found useful. Here are some of their answers:
Course Genie
This is a product from Wimba (who have a site of good products) which allows staff to generate web pages from Word documents. It runs from within Microsoft Word as an add-on, so it's possible for many of the formatting features of Word to be used. Various resources can be linked to the central web file created automatically by Word so learners can read materials, view presentations, search the internet or take quizzes as part of one learning "package".
MonkeyJam
Freeware animation software: designed to let you capture images from a webcam, camcorder, or scanner and assemble them as separate frames of an animation. It's also possible to import other images and sound files. Will export as an .avi file.
Content Generator.net
Flash-based e-Learning quizzes, games and applications (more use with school-level than FE or HE)Free basic level of multiple-choice generator, with licenses for more complex games (e.g., football shootouts) from £25-300 depending on individual or institutional licence.
- Content generator
- Multiple Choice quiz generator
- Match-up quiz generator
- Penalty Shootout generator
- Walk the Plank generator
- Interactive diagram generator
Toufee
Flash moviemaker. Non technical users can quickly create impressive multimedia items in Flash, including movies, banners, presentations, slideshows, and e-cards. Free Trial for 30 days then $5 per month.Labels: e-learning tools, elearning tools, games, learning games, links, websites
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:27 AM
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
Decisions on the mobiles and PDAs
OK, so it's taken me a while to make the decision! My colleague has purchased a Nokia 95 (as recommended in this blog by James Clay).
I am about to play with this one, and if I like it I'll buy it!
HTC TyTN
So I will soon be better-connected than ever...Labels: mobile learning, mobile phones, PDA
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:51 AM
Monday, 5 November 2007
Links for week commencing 5th November
The Bazaar - Home
http://www.bazaar.org/
The Bazaar - portal for Open Source for Learning in Europe
The Bazaar is a community portal for people who want to use, exchange and share Open Source Software and resources to support learning.
Distance Learning through Telematics
http://www2.plymouth.ac.uk/distancelearning
The University of Plymouth's e-learning website, containing regularly updated pages of research, projects, events, personnel and news on e-learning, web 2.0 and distance education. Also holds course content including handouts, workshop materials and PowerPoint presentations for free download.
World map of social networks
http://valleywag.com/networks-273201.php
A map of the world, showing the dominant social networks by country, according to Alexa. Very different in different countries. Facebook has sway in the UK, but hi5 is the most international network…
Coming Of Age: An Introduction To The NEW Worldwide Web
by Terry Freedman et al.
http://fullmeasure.co.uk/Coming_of_age_v1-2.pdf
Ebook (2006)Labels: e-learning, ebook, elearning, links, social networking
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:37 AM
