As designers we need to pay attention to the emotions that our designs elicit from our students. This is not a static course space but a multidimensional workspace that the students interacts with hopefully in a positive manner. Here is an interesting way to view and brainstorm these emotions by the author David Gray which he calls an Empathy Map. This looks like a great way to brainstorm emotional design. Draw a simple diagram with the students head in the center and then think about their emotional experience as they interact with the course content.

Empathy Map

These touchpoints correspond with the way students come in contact with and experience all aspects of their online learning experience. The online learning environment is a physical space that has texture and elicits an emotional response from the student. If the environment is unattractive and confusing then the students will respond by finding the course unattractive and confusing. I see a lot of unattractive and confusing online courses. If you think this is nonsense then think about this why do we build air conditioned, well lighted, and attractive learning spaces on campus. Why not just slap some plywood shacks together and teach in those if the environment does not influence the learning?

The design and work flow of the course dictates the emotional response of the students. Take a look at a math class for example. Math anxiety is a real emotional response to learning math. Students break out in a sweat and feel confused and extremely anxious when trying to understand an algebra problem. Couple this with a poorly constructed online course and we have a situation that’s not very conducive to learning.

Designed Touchpoints

Taking a look at the diagram above we see that students come in contact with the course and it’s designed interface form the outer layer aesthetics to the inner layer meaning. Each layer elicits a emotional response from the student:

Aesthetics – the color, shape and texture (how it looks)

Interaction – interacting and browsing the course workspace (how it feels)

Performance – how the course interface functions and performs (what it does)

Construction – the physical properties of the interface (how it’s made)

Meaning – In the end having gone through all the layers, the user distills meaning from the touchpoints. A mental picture of the entire learning experience with the touchpoints is formed in the students mind (what it means)

I have been searching for the past 10 years for what I would call the natural discussion. This would be something that was a lot closer to a group of people just having a simple discussion. Many feel that the discussion board is fine for this but I find the threaded discussion clunky.  In many cases these multiple threaded messages are hard to follow in particular with large groups. Would it not be easier to follow and discuss things if we could just hear and see each other? I believe I have found a simple technology tool that allows students to see and hear each other in a asynchronous discussion.  This tool is VoiceThread. In earlier posts I have outlined several VoiceThread work flows that allow for multiple levels of interaction between students and instructor. Now I would like to bring this all together into a complete course.

Working with some great faculty I have been able to pilot this technology in several courses. This pilot allowed me to integrate VoiceThread into the overall course design and hopefully improve the level of collaboration in these courses. These were courses across multiple disciplines including marketing, international business, and the sciences. Below I will outline some of requirements and design criteria for the courses:

Design Criteria

• The tools will be integrated into the Learning Management Systems
• Will allow students to create and share simple presentations
• Will have collaborative work spaces where students will communicate asynchronously using text, voice or video.

Work Flows

Two basic work flows were applied in all of these courses:

• Work Flow # 1 – Discussion and Collaboration Space (This replaced the LMS discussion tool.)
• Work Flow # 2 – Student Presentation and Collaboration Space

Assignments

• Beginning Course Introductions (Ice Breaker)
• Weekly video case study discussions using VoiceThread
• Course Team Project Presentation using VoiceThread

Student Technology Requirements

• Microphone (minimum)
• WebCam (optional)

Student Support

• VoiceThread support page and help discussion
• VoiceThread FAQ
• Multiple video tutorials covering must-know items

Grading Rubrics

• Team Presentation Scoring Rubric
• Chapter Case Study Participation Scoring Guide

Applying the above criteria and simple best practices in design have yielded some excellent courses. The students were excited about using this technology and after a week or two all had moved from posts using the text option to using audio and video. The number one comment we heard was they liked the fact that they could hear each other which allowed them to put a voice to the face of their fellow students.

Here is a simple mind map poster that highlights some of the basic design criteria for these courses:

Building Highly Interactive Online Courses Using Your LMS and VoiceThread

Teaching is important, teaching is critical to the success of the student but you can’t teach online without design. I see some teachers who make up for bad design by just being there all the time for their students. Just think how much better it could be with a great teacher and a great design.

This is why I really like the book by IDEO CEO Tim Brown. The subtitle of this book is “How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation.” Tim goes into great detail about how design can influence at many levels. Toward the end of the book he talks about how we can design our life and also how life is a prototype. You have to admit this seems to be a somewhat elegant idea. Life is a design that is still in the works–a series of trials and errors.

Tim Brown talking about Change by Design on Vimeo.

Design Thinking

My own experience with using e-books is limited. Currently I am using the web-based CourseSmart Reader software supplied with the desk copies of the books I get from Cengage Learning. I usually get both the paper and e-book versions of the book so I can access the content anywhere. In most cases I can gain access to the e-book immediately and then wait for the textbook to arrive in the mail.

The e-book interface is pretty simple and I find it to be more than adequate and functional.

Course Smart e-Book Interface

The user can search and add notes and return to the Table of Contents by clicking on the tabs along the left side of the frame. Using the interactive Table of  Contents you can jump to any chapter or chapter sub-topic  just by clicking. All of the tools available to work with the content are located on the upper right menu. There is a “Go To” option that will allow you to jump to any page in the e-book. The note tool allows you to add your own notes to the page and can be accessed through the “Notes” tab on the Table of Contents.

The highlight tool allows you to highlight content on the page. With the copy tool you can highlight text and copy it to a document. This is handy for making simple note-card documents using Word that could be used as study aids. There is a zoom tool to allow a closer look at charts and graphs. Another convenient tool is the email button that allows you to highlight parts of the text and email these to yourself or someone else. This could also be used to create study aids by allowing the student to collect a set of items that they feel need more attention. Then when time permits these items could be reviewed. The print tool allows the student to print the book content for another type of study aid. There is a help feature and buttons that allow for simple paging through the book.

Let’s take a closer look at the e-book. This is a guided tour of  Chemistry in Context, 6th Edition.

Now I can search and watch Lynda.com tutorials using my iPhone. This is great!  I can have access to help from anywhere just when I need it.

Lynda.com iPhone App

In their defense,  it can be difficult to apply teaching method when there are so many factors  getting in the way such as faculty, program coordinators, deans and everyone else trying to get into the act. Add in the rigid and inflexible nature of most learning management systems, and it’s no wonder that  method just goes out the window.

When I talk about method I am talking about adult learning theory and the application of these methods to online courses taken by adult college students, specifically constructivist design thinking. With that said, I try to use the teaching methods that best fit the course subject matter and the teaching style of the individual faculty I am working with.

My design thinking is a stream of consciousness that contains three main theories / methods: Robert Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, Malcolm Knowles’ Whole-Part-Whole and the simplicity of Experiential Learning offered by Carl Rogers.

Online Learning Module

I have observed that students learn more if they have structure and context. With this in mind, I usually start by applying a  hybrid model of the first 4 events of Gagne’s Nine Events and Knowles Whole-Part-Whole (advanced organizer) to get students started. What this looks like online is a simple set of learning outcomes for the learning module and a short overview lecture video or annotated graphic presentation. In the second sequence I like to give students a chance to apply the learning. I am not looking for mastery, I just want to have them do something like a discussion or wiki sharing exercise. Many courses wait until the end of a module then have the discussion which looks like the designer just added the discussion as an afterthought. In many cases, the application of learning comes too late and is less effective in reinforcing the module’s learning outcomes.

The second and third modules above are the parts in Knowles Whole-Part-Whole and are designed to deepen the learners’ exposure to the content. Depending on the complexity of the subject matter, I may use a three- or four-sequence module with the last sequence containing review materials of some sort. This is also where I would put games and simulations to give learners a different perspective of the content. This also helps reinforce and support all learning styles and multiple intelligences. Readings and videos are not enough in my opinion. I want to include a spectrum of learning objects and modes. Most online courses I see are no more than textbook readings with test or paper writing as the main assessment schemes. What a waste of a wonderful learning environment where almost anything is possible.

The last sequence is usually something traditional like a test for mastery in the subject. This could be a group test or short group essay or where I have the students apply something learned in the module to their final group project. This final project is the return to the whole (Knowles) or the embrace retention event in Gagne’s Nine Events. This is the opportunity to apply the learning and promote retention.

VoiceThread Student Presentation Mode Work Flow

Along the same lines group presentations are also enhanced by these same tools students can work as a group in VoiceThread to develop and present media rich presentations. Since VoiceThread is web-based it allows easy access to the workspace for all the group members.

VoiceThread Group Presentation Mode Work Flow

The VoiceThread interface offers a very simple work flow to upload and modify materials used for presentations. You click on “Create” and then you get three buttons.

To create your VoiceThread,  you will need some content and the easiest way to do this is just upload it from your computer. When you click on “upload,”  you can browse your computer for PowerPoints, PDF’s, Word documents or  videos and graphics you need to construct your presentation. You can also browse the thousands of photos available on Flickr or at the New York Public Library. You can use many of the current document, graphic and video formats.

Once you upload your materials,  VoiceThread allows you to reorder them as you like. You can also add, remove,  or replace items whenever you like. The next step is to add any audio, video or text annotations. Your videos may already have audio but maybe you don’t have any videos or you may be planning to add audio and Webcam videos to your PowerPoints  or graphics. This is what the comment button is for.  Just click there and your presentation will fill most of the screen. Here you can choose the slide and then add the type of comment that you would like. This is where you turn your simple graphics and PowerPoints into online lectures with video and audio. You can even draw right on the slide using the built-in draw tool. This is great for math and science topics.

The last step is to share your presentation and here you also will have several choices. You can share with the whole world or just with a select group of users. You can also allow other people to comment on your presentation. Here is a short screencast:  “How To Create Your First VoiceThread.”

The work flow for the student is fairly simple. In its most basic form,  the student watches the presentation and that’s it.  VoiceThread is just a hosting site for rich media lectures. The next step is to make the lecture more interactive by asking students to interact with the presentation content by commenting.

If you use PowerPoint 2007 or later you can embed links right in your VoiceThread. Then link  out of your VoiceThread to any online resource. For example. you could  have the student go to a full text database and search for a journal article relevant to the course subject. Then have them post a review of the article and the article citation as a comment. Take a look at the mindmap of the basic work flow above. You can see that there are several options for collaboration, both instructor-student and student-student interactions. Having the ability to participate in a more natural asynchronous conversation using voice or video is powerful.

Discussion boards have never given this opportunity for human interaction. I use them, but I always find then clunky and a poor substitute for real discourse. Yes, I could use DimDim or Adobe Connect Pro to have real time collaboration, but what if my basic design criteria calls for an asynchronous design and I want more than text based discussions?