ELearning:BestPractices

Course Setup

Weekly when instructor facilitated over extended time period
Topic when instructor facilitated over short time period
Topic when self directed
Add or remove blocks as necessary and appropriate to the course. The default is a lot of blocks that may not be necessary or appropriate.
Consider location of blocks:
- Necessity blocks are likely best on the left almost as menu type items.
- Supplemental blocks might be best on the right to suggest “in addition”.

Layered Strategy—Organizing content through a variety of activities and resources listed within one or more modules so that makes it easy for the learner to look at the list and explore around for what they need/want.
Sequencing—Organizing content through a book that leads or guides the learner through the material in a preset fashion.

At the beginning of course development setup a file structure in the course to organize content in a way that allows a future designer/instructor to find things easily for updating. Depending on the amount of content, files could be simply grouped by module; or they could be organized by file type (i.e. PDF, power point, etc.); or they could be grouped by module and then further organized by file type. The more the content the more the structure needed.
- Here is an example structure:

Module 1 Content

PDFs

Graphics

Movies/Videos

Audio

PowerPoints

Original Content Documents

NOTE: Be sure to upload original content documents not just PDFs and Movies so that future edits can easily be made.

At the beginning of a module list the learning objectives and the estimated time to complete the module. This helps the learners know what’s in it for them and how much time they will need to schedule or invest.

Try to keep modules or lessons within a module chunked to 30-45 minutes of time investment for the content. This allows the learners to start and complete something which helps with engagement because they see progress. It also helps them to easily come back and pick up where they finished last.

Within that 30-45 minutes try to change modality of information delivery to the learner every 5-10 minutes. For example a 30 minutes module might include: Completing a pretest that takes 5 minutes; Printing a handout that takes about 3-5 minutes to print and pick up from a printer; Watching a 7 minute presentation video; Playing a Flash Type Game that takes about 5 minutes; Reading Content or 3-5 minutes; Completing a Post Test that takes 5 minutes

In a sequentially designed module embed resources and activities within the book. The same rule of thumb about changing modality every 5-10 minutes applies for books as well.

In a module designed using a layering strategy label/name resources and activities in a way that directs the learners what they should do verses just a description of the content. For example:
- “Watch a 5 minutes video on ______________”
- “Take a pretest/Post Test”
- “Print a Handout to Use For Taking Notes with the Movie”

In a book that uses pictures or clip art change the location regularly to stimulate the learners vision, but remember to place graphics in a way that they support the learning or is logical to the learning. Place graphs and tables of information following an explanation of the information and place pictures of people or things in a way to serve as a clue as to what the content is about.

When making Camtasia Movies put in a title slide that has some type of description or title of the movie and then a notation to “click on the arrow” to begin. If placed properly this will show up above and below the arrow in the flash movie.