In our week 4 post we are asked to consider what technologies might be most appropriate for our final projects. My short answer: I have no idea.
Ok, well, that’s not quite true, I do have a LOT of ideas. But in my case, I’m not so much picking from a list of possible technologies as I am trying to figure out how to design a learning experience that would be accessible online, anytime. What I have been sketching out over the last few weeks is more than just a video, more than just a screencast. What I am looking for is a multimedia format that will combine audio & video, text, database simulations or walkthroughs, and quizzes. I am not sure, based on the various technologies that I have used over the years, that there is ONE tool that will do that. What I suspect is that if we move forward with building stand-alone modules then we will need to do just that – build something that has these components. That’s definitely outside of my skill set (I am not a programmer). One possibility is that something could be done within our LMS, but as we are currently transitioning to a new system, there are still a lot of unknowns there.
In addition, and with regards to the NMC trends for libraries and higher ed, anything we build has to be mobile-ready. That’s another challenge that I will need help solving. While I am usually fairly skeptical of tech predictions, I think we can already see that mobile devices are prevalent in our library spaces. 42% of US adults own a tablet, and 58% own a smartphone. That number is even higher for the college-age cohort, 83% of whom own smartphones. Increasingly we are seeing people’s internet access funneled through mobile devices, and that means that any instructional content we create online has to be functional and smooth on a mobile device. And to add complexity, I think it’s very important that whatever we build has to be accessible as well. Video without captions, for example, leaves a lot of people out in the dust.
There are a lot of emerging educational technologies out there that I think have the potential to be used to teach research skills in a library setting. Ones that I am starting to explore include games and simulations, intelligent tutors, and adaptive learning. But without knowing more specifically about how these systems work, I can’t really say how they would meet the specific learning objectives for my imagined module. More research is needed!
I had a very similar dilemma last year, looking for a learning tool that encompassed several types of media, quizzes, simulations, etc. I also had the added challenge of wanting a tool that was responsive, so that individual users each got a personal experience based on their specific responses. Basically, I wanted “one tool to rule them all.” :)
I ended going with Articulate Storyline for a variety of reasons:
– it’s built on a powerpoint platform so the learning curve to simply enter content is less steep than other similiar programs
– it has a robust gallery of quizzes and assessments
– and most importanty to me, you can create triggers which allow a truely personalized experience based on user responses. It’s a great deal of work to set these up, but once you’ve got one complete, you can copy it into other parts of the module or into other modules.
It’s horribly expensive, but so far it does what I need in the short time I’ve had it.
dorrie
Dorrie thank you so much for the suggestion! That does actually sound like it does a lot of what I want, and maybe without needing to be a programmer. I will definitely check it out.
Dorrie’s recommendation is a good one. Storyline certainly does provide a lot of the features you’re looking for. It is an involved tool, meaning there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to make your instruction flow perfectly, BUT it’s a heckuva lot quicker than having to program something from the ground up.