This post demonstrates the ACET standard that the instructor demonstrates knowledge necessary to create, use, assess and manage theoretical and practical application of educational technologies and processes. AECT Standard 1 (Content Knowledge): Candidates demonstrate the knowledge necessary to create, use, assess, and manage theoretical and practical applications of educational technologies and processes.) 

Indicators:Creating - Candidates demonstrate the ability to create instructional materials and learning environments using a variety of systems approaches. (p. 81.

• Using - Candidates demonstrate the ability to select and use technological resources and processes to support student learning and to enhance
their pedagogy. (p. 141) 

  
• Assessing/Evaluating - Candidates demonstrate the ability to assess and evaluate the effective integration of appropriate technologies and instructional materials.
  
• Managing - Candidates demonstrate the ability to effectively manage people, processes, physical infrastructures, and financial resources to achieve predetermined goals. (p. 178)
  
• Ethics - Candidates demonstrate the contemporary professional ethics of the field as defined and developed by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. (p. 284)
  

I applied the Personalization Principle by using the 1st person where possible and asking questions to engage the learners from their own perspective. I left details out so that the story did not "cross the line" between instructional and personal such that it was distracting to the instructional intent - which was to engage learners in the impact of experiencing a different culture.

I used Camtasia for this project, and although I have used Camtasia for screencasting, I experimented with best way to use it for this project. I found it pretty simple to record my audio first (making sure my script was exactly what I wanted to say for each slide) and then record as I moved through the PowerPoint. 

Have you seen instructions like this in an online course? Seems like it belongs in the syllabus, right?  This opening to an online course about homeland security would do better to focus more on the purpose and urgency of the course.  Adding more information than is relevant can inhibit learning and demotivate students from the beginning! The Coherence Principle’s “single most important recommendation to to keep the lesson uncluttered.” (Clark, Mayer, 2008).

This is not a case of trying to embellish the learning with extraneous material, but maybe the other end of the spectrum, simply up-fronting learners with administrative content that does not contribute to the learning. Either way, the coherence principle says, “don’t do it”.

I probably erred against this principle in my podcast in this course. I really wanted to experiment with adding music, which I did.  In retrospect, the music may have interfered with the audio and the overall message. For example, as we were wrapping up with my guest speaker, I think it would have been more useful to reiterate the resources she offered instead of repeating bars of music.

Many of the faculty I work with struggle with Coherence Principle #3: Avoid e-Lessons with Extraneous Words. I am working on a humanities course that contains fabulous content. The instructors have gathered amazing resources to expose students to challenging concepts. Unfortunately, their narrated PowerPoint’s are full of words that are better explained by narration, and in fact, they are narrated, but verbatim! This demonstrates both a lack of the coherence principle and the visual split-attention principle.

Here is an example of an assignment for an economics course, well written and without extraneous information. The student is provided with a simple tool to complete the assignment. This exemplifies the temporal contiguity principle by providing an immediate link to the tool that student is expected to use.

It is challenging to integrate each of the principles of e learning into a single course, especially when you use outside resources. For example, as I was reading the Mayer article, I found it confusing to follow because many of the figures and tables were not connected to the relevant content (Mayer, 2008, p 615, 618). I am working on a faculty-training course for competency-based education. Our goal with the subject matter experts is to help them apply the chunking principle and see where they can provide information in short segments, combining verbal and visual information. For example, the original course contained a long, scrolling page of information about the topic, “What is competency-based education?” Then, an audio, with visuals was presented. We recommended breaking the “What is…” into smaller segments, with audio and/or visual to reinforce the chunked information.  It was a difficult process without a common understanding of how people process information.

The Clark and Mayer textbook overall psychology is that humans process information through different channels. The research presented supports that better learning occurs when learners can use multiple channels to process and absorb knowledge. Overloading either the verbal or visual channel inhibits learning.  The Coherence Principle, in particular, purports that extraneous information “can interfere with the process of sense-making because learners have a limited cognitive capacity for processing incoming material.” (Clark & Mayer, 2008, p161).  The text lists three ways learning is disrupted: distraction, disruption, seduction - direct attention away, prevent learners from building connections, or provide inappropriate existing knowledge – all interfering with learning.

The overriding question with all of this research and resulting principles, is: how do they apply to the way individuals really learn today? The text readily acknowledges that the research was primarily applied to novice learners and that the recommended “instructional design techniques that are effective for beginners may not be effective for more experienced learners.” (Mayer, 2008, p 173). My experience has been to assess the learner first, then determine what principles, whether multimedia, or other learner theory apply.  Latest theory might suggest that constructivist learning is effective in building mental models and coherence principles can facilitate that, but does that apply when the instruction is a based on an immediate need to learn and apply skills in a work setting? Also, in the last six years, has the pendulum swung toward the millennium, who expects several multimedia through one channel?

I believe the Coherence Principle is relevant for instructors and instructional designers and I consider it my work. It will be developed over the years, will continue to evolve, and instructional design, instruction and delivery along with them. But given the variety of courses, students, and learning environments in which we all work, we have to be aware that the principles of multimedia must be considered in context, always asking the question, will it result in the best learning outcome?


Applying the Coherence Principle aligns with AECT Standard 3 - Learning Environments: Candidates facilitate learning (p. 41) by creating, using, evaluating, and managing effective learning environments. (p. 1)
Indicators:

• Creating - Candidates create instructional design products based on learning principles and research-based best practices. (pp. 8, 243-245, 246)
  
  
• Using - Candidates make professionally sound decisions in selecting appropriate processes and resources to provide optimal conditions for learning (pp. 122, 169) based on principles, theories, and effective practices. (pp. 8-9, 168-169, 246)

References
Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2008). E-learning and the science of instruction, 2nd edition. Pfeiffer: San Francisco, CA.

There are so many e-newsletters, blogs, webcasts AND podcasts out there sometimes I feel overwhelmed and begin unsubscribing. I wanted to create a simple podcast that focuses on one technology from a practical point of view. I named my podcast eLearning Techno Bites. I also will include a content expert interviewee who can speak to the technology and provide useful tips and examples. 

I can think of many topics for next in a series and I am sure there will always be something new not even invented yet!  But for now, my next podcast will be about LTIs - Learning Tool Interoperability - content from education related websites configured in such a way they can easily be integrated into a learning management system. Beyond the next broadcast, I can think of things like video recording options, using social media on your online course, and creating interactivity in your course.

Creating and delivering this podcast demonstrates AECT Standard 1 (Content Knowledge): "Candidates demonstrate the knowledge necessary to create, use, assess, and manage theoretical and practical applications of educational technologies and processes."

I added the links to the resources mentioned in the podcast to demonstrate the modality principle, that sometimes words spoken should be available for future reference.

Here are links to the workshop created by an SLCC faculty about OERs and to the 2015 OER conference presentations (All OER content!):

I translated a face-to-face course that I developed with a co-worker into an online learning module; the course was designed to help faculty with applying best practices in online teaching. In the face-to-face class, we covered other best practices, but 'being present" and "building community" were at the top of the list. Transferring this course to online instruction, and applying multimedia concepts forced me to think even deeper about why I was presenting a scenario, image or example. I learned that thoughtful application of images, graphics and video really does come best after you have identified the learning objectives, assessments and content. 

I think that the ACET standard 3.2 applies to this project:  Candidates make professionally sound decisions in selecting appropriate processes and resources to provide optimal conditions for learning (pp. 122, 169) based on principles, theories, and effective practices. (pp. 8-9, 168-169, 246)

I appreciated that ESLI presented the multimedia principle and expanded on types of illustrations that enhance the content type: fact, concepts, process, procedure, or principle.  Often, in course development, I see images and animations  selected after the text or copy is written and without a lot of thought to the content and how/whether the image or animation will help the learner construct representations that foster connections.  In the past, I have overlooked that the presentation of a principle was followed by a video that was vaguely related, because the video was selected after the text and was “the only thing that could be found.” I now realize it probably inhibited the learning. I will also consider the research on static illustrations vs. animations when deciding whether a costly video is really the right fit for the type of content.

I also find that we struggle with the second research question, “Does the multimedia principle apply equally to all learners?”  There are times when we do not have the luxury of an in-depth learner analysis or, as in the case of open-access courses, there can be a variety of learner levels. We have approached this challenge by providing those who may be less-advanced with text and graphics, but included more in-depth information in text (for example, a link to an article) for an advanced learner.  

The “Five ways to reduce PowerPoint overload" is excellent in that it models a more effective multimedia presentation and ties it to the multimedia principle (and four others).  I am currently deciding on a learning strategy for a course design which includes how the content will be presented in the learning management system screen views, and I plan to use these tips to assess whether we are using headings, narration, and visuals for best learning.

I created this website as part of my M.Ed. program a few years ago. Many of the artifacts from that program are organized here in an application of Reigeluth's elaboration theory - a presentation of my learning philosophies and favorite learning theories and then examples of instructional objects and an instructional design project. 

EDTECH 513 is the first in a certificate program where I hope to refresh and expand my ability to apply technologies and online teaching best practices in my work with the design, development, and teaching of online college courses.

I will update the website with the goal to create an electronic record and portfolio for my own professional growth, and also as a place I can refer others for resources for learning and teaching.