Developing Online Courses With LearnFlex

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For more information on LearnFlex™ please visit www.learnflex.com

Developing Online Courses

With LearnFlex

A White Paper By

Gary Woodill, Ed.D.

Chief Learning Officer, Operitel Corporation [email protected]

Chad Nolan, B.A.

Content Developer, Operitel Corporation [email protected]

Michael Skinner

CEO, Operitel Corporation [email protected]

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Introduction

Learning online can happen in many different formats. Perhaps the most common format is the presentation of learning materials organized as a “course”, often given by a corporate training department or an educational institution. While recognizing that there is a much broader context for learning and teaching on the Web, in this paper we describe what we have learned while designing and building over 60 online courses and 15 educational CD-ROMs over the past ten years.

The production of first-rate courses for delivery on the Internet is a complex business (see diagram, next page). It requires the skills of several kinds of individuals, such as subject matter experts, instructional designers and web developers. (See the box below for a description of the many possible roles in the production of online course materials).

TEAM ROLES IN ONLINE COURSE DEVELOPMENT

Making appealing educational material for the Web is an exercise in both instructional design and in producing Web-based multimedia. Depending on the scope and content of the project, 20 discrete roles may be needed to produce effective online courses (of course, the same person may fill several roles). These roles may include:

1. Executive Producer/Project Sponsor 2. Producer/Project Manager

3. Quality Assurance Expert

4. Creative Director/Multimedia Designer 5. Art Director/Visual Designer

6. Artist

7. Interface Designer

8. Usability Specialist/Human Factors Expert 9. Game Designer

10. Subject Matter Expert/Content Writer 11. Assessment Specialist

12. Instructional Designer/Training Specialist 13. Script Writer/Storyboard Designer 14. Animator (2D/3D) 15. Sound Producer 16. Music Composer 17. Video Producer 18. Multimedia Programmer 19. HTML Coder/Programmer

20. Lawyer/Media Acquisition Specialist/Rights Clearance Specialist 21. Marketing Director/Marketers

(adapted from Vaughan, 2001)

The team that performs the above roles needs to work together. While there is a tendency to have a “lone wolf” Web programmer try to do the whole job, Vaughan (2001) issues the following warning: “A

multimedia expert working alone will be hard-pressed to compete with a team of experts and may be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of effort required to build a complex project single-handedly.” (p. 33)

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The Process of Content Development: an overview

Briefly, the steps and sub-steps in the course content development process are as follows: 1. ANALYSIS – elicit and analyze the following:

• Business requirements (organizational goals of learning) – develop use cases • Technical requirements (hardware)

• Technical and security requirements (software) • Learning Requirements (what is to be learned)

• Learner Characteristics (experience, age, gender, cultural background, etc.) 2. PLANNING/DESIGN

• Detailed specifications for the features of the course • Plan the content of the course and develop a course outline • Describe instructional frameworks and strategies to be used

• Create first versions of the Graphical User Interface and Navigation • Produce a marketing and sales plan for the course(s)

3. COURSE DEVELOPMENT

• Set up project management procedures and documents • Develop written content

• Develop instructional activities

• Write assessment questions and/or activities • Write a full storyboard for the course 4. WEB DEVELOPMENT

• Produce or locate multimedia assets for use in the course – graphics, animations, video, audio • Divide up text into screen sized “chunks”

• Plan and program appropriate instructional activities • Decide on document naming conventions

• Finalize GUI design and cascading style sheets • Develop templates for repeatable tasks

• If applicable, set library categories

• Assemble prototype of entire to show client for approval • Test course with real users

• Modify course based on client feedback 5. IMPLEMENTATION/EVALUATION

• Testing course before uploading to a Learning Management System (LMS) • Thoroughly test course after installation into a Learning Management System • Write documentation – user’s manual, technical manual, and online help • Train course administrators and users

6. ONGOING MANAGEMENT AND SUPPORT • Obtain feedback on courses from users

• Migrate ownership of the software – identify owner and transfer responsibilities, documentation

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Analysis

No online course development project should start without a thorough analysis of all the

requirements for and constraints on the courses to be delivered. Without analysis and agreement on what has to be done, there is usually no consensus on the nature of the final product, risking rejection of the development team’s efforts as various parties continually introduce new ideas. The project manager needs to ensure that business requirements, hardware and software

requirements, the learning requirements and the learner characteristics are all taken into account, and that the project plan is followed.

Business Requirements

The first step in any course development process is defining the vision, scope, and requirements of the project. The vision of the project starts with articulating the “business requirements” and “business rules” that led to the initial proposal to develop online courses. (Note: non-profit, educational and governmental organizations may be seen as businesses in the sense that they have a mission to fulfill within a set of budget constraints and have usually defined a set of procedures for the operation of their particular organization.)

The next step is to write a vision statement and an outline of the initial scope of the project. The definition of scope should include the major features of the course, the assumptions and

dependencies in building the course, and any limitations and exclusions.

Questions to be asked in the business requirements elicitation stage of the development of an online course are:

a. What is the subject matter of the course?

b. What is the grade level or difficulty level of the course?

c. What are the educational objectives for the online course? What is to be taught? d. What are the characteristics of the learners that might influence the course? e. What is the learning theory or instructional approach to be used in developing the

course?

f. Will the course be based on legacy material or new original material, or both? g. What form will the assessment of learning take?

After defining the business requirements of the course development project, it is time to elicit the requirements of end users. This is done through a process of gathering information from all major stakeholders who will use the course(s). This step is essential, although in many

organizations there's a tendency for it to be skipped. This is usually because there is a committee of experts within the organization who decides what is to be included. However, without user input and documentation, there are usually surprises when the material is delivered to the end users. As well, without detailed specifications, there is always the danger of "scope creep" whereby the requirements continue to grow and the project is never finished.

From the answers to the above questions, gathered from representatives of all stakeholders, along with the information gathered from end-users, an initial requirements document can be produced.

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The next step is to determine the characteristics of the course development and delivery environments.

Technical requirements (Hardware)

All Web courses are delivered through a combination of hardware and software. Before any Web course is developed, it is best to review the development and delivery environments for that course. In planning for hardware for course delivery, it is necessary to examine three distinct aspects. These are the client environment, the server environment, and the network that joins the clients and server together.

The client environment refers to an end-user’s computer and its capabilities. For courses that use video or audio, for example, there needs to be a minimal configuration of hardware to support these kinds of media. The server environment refers to the computer(s) that will deliver the courses to the users via a network. The specifications for a server depend on the likely peak number of simultaneous users.

The network used to deliver online courses is usually based on Web standards or “protocols” (e.g., TCP/IP, which stands for “transmission control protocol/internet protocol”). Its

transmission and reception capacity is referred to as bandwidth. The minimum amount of bandwidth needed is determined by the size of the course files being sent to the user by the server, and the peak number of simultaneous users.

In general, the smaller the file size of any given piece of a course, the faster it will travel over the network and be processed within the user’s computer. In planning for the development of online courses, therefore, it is best to reduce file sizes as much as possible, and to know what types and sizes of media should not be used due to any restrictions in the bandwidth of the network or in the minimum configurations of users’ computers.

Technical requirements (Software)

Computers and networks run using software, the programs that give instructions on what to do with all aspects of the online environment. In a “thin client” configuration, users need only to have a compatible web browser to access the online course material. However, some courses may need a “plug-in” before certain courses will play within the browser. A plug-in is a computer program that is downloaded before a user tries out the courses for the first time, and allows that particular kind of program to be viewed. For example, Flash Player from Macromedia is a plug-in which allows dynamic and interactive course content developed in Flash to play on the user’s computer. The first time you try to view course materials that have been built using Flash, the option to install the application on your computer will automatically be made available to the user. (Note: Flash is now built-in for the newest Web browsers).

In terms of server software, selecting and installing the right Web server software is a highly technical topic best left an organization’s Information Technology (IT) Department. As well, the IT department will need to specify any security requirements that the online course developers will need to keep in mind.

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Finally, a course developer should know the authoring environment and set of tools to be used to build the courses. Tools may be installed and used on the computers of each developer, or can be Web based tools, whereby the tools are on the Web server, and are accessed through a Web browser. Here is a list of the typical software and hardware needed to author online courses using an IBM compatible environment (end user computers can be much less capable, and need to run the recommended Web browser without being too slow):

For building text documents- Any word processor (MS-Word1 recommended) For building graphical assets- Adobe Photoshop2 and Illustrator (recommended) For building Web graphics- Adobe ImageReady (recommended)

For building Web pages- Dreamweaver MX + Course Builder & Learning Site Extensions

For diagramming- Microsoft Visio (recommended) For video editing- Adobe Premiere (recommended)

For animation- Macromedia Flash MX (recommended)

For audio editing- Sonic Foundry Sound Forge (recommended) For shooting video- any digital video camcorder (with a Firewire

(recommended) or other capture card connection)

For shooting photographs- any digital camera (the higher the number of pixels, the better)

Recommended computer- Pentium 4, 2.0 GHz with 512 MB RAM, 30+ GB HD or better

Recommended browser- Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher

Learning Requirements/Learner Characteristics

The main task of an instructional designer is making connections between the learning

requirements of the organization and the characteristics of the learners. The steps are as follows: a. Analyze the learning task – i.e., what needs to be taught? How can the learning task be

broken down into a set of smaller steps?

b. Analyze the characteristics of the typical learners, including:

i. What are the learners’ previous experiences with the subject matter, and with learning tasks in general – are the learners likely to be novices, or informed or expert learners?

ii. Gender of the learners;

iii. Cultural, racial, class background of the learners;

iv. Age of the learners – important in terms of what metaphors, designs, settings, and images might engage this generation of learners;

v. Are there learners with disabilities whose requirements for accessibility will need to be taken into account?

vi. What are the learners’ motivations for taking this course?

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Try to ensure that all participants in the course creation cycle are utilizing the same version of Word, in order to avoid any versioning problems, such as nested tables.

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vii. What are the learners’ “learning styles” (there are several meanings of this term); and,

viii. What are the constraints of the learners’ computer technology?

Planning/Design

Detailed Specifications of Course Standards and Features

Once requirements have been elicited, it is advisable to write detailed specifications for the course to be developed. This is not the content of the course, but the standards and features that will be used in its development. The presence of a specifications document ensures the consistency in the overall course design, and uniformity in the common elements used throughout the course.

Course Content Planning

Courses writers are important members of the courses development team (sometimes they are called “subject matter experts”- SMEs). While their main role is to produce the raw materials for the written courses and tests, other members of the team should consult these writers whenever there are questions concerning the courses. As well, they definitely should review the end results of the course production process as part of quality assurance (“QA”) procedures.

Course Process Planning

Teaching online is not just a matter of presenting relevant pieces of content in the correct order. Learning in a structured course is a process that has multiple stages. The instructional designer of online courses needs to be aware of the needs of users at each stage. If the course is moderated, then the online moderator also needs to be aware of the stages in the online learning experience. Gilly Salmon (2003) suggests the following five stages as learners work through an online course:

§ Access and motivation – how do you help people to get online, and once there, how do you make them feel welcome and comfortable with the medium?

§ Online socialization – if group interaction is important to teaching an online course, how do you get people to meet and get to know each other?

§ Information exchange – how do participants in a course get access to information that they need to learn?

§ Knowledge construction – how do you help learners to consolidate the information that is available and turn it into useful knowledge?

§ Development – how do you move the learner to continuation of learning beyond the course, and how do you get them to apply what they have learned in settings beyond the course?

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Instructional Activity Planning

According to the American philosopher John Dewey, learning is a transformative process involving a balance between undergoing and doing. Undergoing is all the things that happen to us in life, including things in learning environments, over which we have little or no control.

Doing refers to all the things over which the learner has control and exercises power. According

to Dewey, we need a balance of both kinds of experiences to grow up as a productive and creative individual.

Unfortunately, most online courses are based on undergoing. That is, the learner is presented with a great deal of subject matter to watch or to read. Aside from the usual rote memorization based assessment at the end of the course, there is often little for a learner to do in most online courses. We believe that the addition of relevant instructional activities to an online course will greatly increase learning and reduce the well-known problem of high learner attrition.

It is interesting to note that the concept of interactivity is a combination of undergoing and doing. That is, true interactivity is based on a loop – first something is presented to the user, then the user does something in turn. Depending on the user’s response, something new may be presented, and the user can react again. The quality of the user’s response is important here. Having the learner solve a problem or perform a difficult task will elicit more thinking and learning than simply clicking a link to turn a page. Therefore the quality of the interaction is important in influencing the amount and type of learning that will take place.

Instructional Frameworks and Strategies

The instructional designer is critical to producing courses that are educationally sound as well as engaging to the user. The instructional designer is the bridge between the writers and the software architects and programmers. Without a good instructional designer, and the storyboards they provide, online courses tend to be a lot of text to read, with the occasional test and/or graphic. Instructional design involves understanding what is being taught, the characteristics of the target learners, and the best instructional strategies or activities to teach these particular courses to this group of learners. It also involves understanding and planning for the constraints and advantages of online media.

There are literally hundreds of teaching strategies for Web-based courses. The work of the instructional designer is to match the learning objectives of a course with both online learning activities and the type of learner. If the instructional designer is successful, the user will have advanced his or her knowledge by carrying out the planned instructional activity in part or in whole on the Web. Based on the analysis of learner characteristics, determined in the

ANALYSIS phase, the instructional designer must select learning strategies and matching learning activities to be implemented in the course s/he is designing. Learning strategies are often based on particular educational theories, and may include:

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i. Behavioural strategies. These strategies may be most appropriate for novice

learners. Here the instructional designer/teacher is “prescriptive”, informing the learner of how to best start learning in this area.

ii. Cognitive strategies. A cognitive strategy might work best for informed

learners who already have a sense of the subject matter. Here the instructional designer/teacher is “integrative”, as he or she tries to tie new material with the learner’s previous learning.

iii. Constructivistic strategies. Constructivistic strategies are likely to work for

expert learners, who want to develop their own frameworks for understanding the area being taught. Here the instructional designer/teacher is “facilitative”, supporting the learner with resources as the learner defines his or her own path through the materials.

Once a theoretical approach has been chosen, the instructional designer must select an activity or a set of activities that will best teach the given subject matter to the learner(s) being taught. There are many web-based instructional activities that can be used, depending on the type of learning to take place. The following table lists a series of learning modes, matched with their corresponding online teaching activities.

Learning Modes matched to Suggested Online Teaching Activities

Modes of Learning: Online Teaching Activities:

Learning as Discovery Browsing, Reactive Objects, Hidden Learning

Learning as Memorization Presentation, Drills, Testing

Learning as Ordering Matching, Drag and Drop, Numbering

Learning as Lookup Navigation, Searching, Libraries

Learning as Practice Task Simulation, Drills, Performance Feedback

Learning as Representation Whiteboards, Drawing, Diagrams, Media

Learning as Innovation/Creation Puzzles, Games, Tools, Playscapes, Microworlds

Learning as Experimentation Scenarios, Simulations, Role Playing

Learning as Identity Formation Communications, Reflective Images, Role-play

Learning as Attitude Formation Discussions, Images, Feedback, News

Learning as Collaboration Groupware, Messaging, Workshops, Causes

Learning as Social Interaction E-mail exchanges, “Webinars”, interactive games

Learning as Transgression Hidden Identities, Political Organizing

Learning as Reflection Reflection Forms, Journals, Self-Diagnostics

Learning as Inquiry Question Boards, Interrogate Knowledge Banks

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After a particular teaching activity has been selected, appropriate assessment techniques need to be used to confirm the degree of learning that has taken place.

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GUI (“look and feel”, navigation, templates, etc.)

The qualities of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) used for navigation and interactivity can enhance or detract from the educational impact of a course. Here are some general principles for GUI designers3 to think about when developing the “look and feel”, navigation standards and layout of an online course:

a. always try to have a combination of graphics and text on screens, rather than text only;

b. if you want to “engage” the learner, either use movement on the screen or have the learner carry out an activity. Static text and graphics are often not enough to maintain interest;

c. movement on a screen should be used to draw attention to an specific point, or for emphasis. Extraneous or competitive animation can distract the learner from what is being taught;

d. course content is the most important aspect of any online learning program. Make the content the focus in the design. Don’t make the navigation so flashy or busy that it distracts from the courses; and,

e. before designing instructional activities, analyze the learning task and the

characteristics of the learner(s). An instructional activity needs to be appropriate for both, and not just presented for “fun” or for something to do.

Course Development

Project Management

Extensive content development for online courses requires a project manager, and project

management documentation. Many of the skills needed to manage an online course development process are the same as other production processes. The task of a project manager in all projects is to manage time, costs, scope, personnel, quality, communications, risks, procurement and integration.

For course development, the project manager needs to focus on the course development

lifecycle. There are many techniques, procedures, and software tools used by professional project managers for project control. If simplicity is a goal, then a properly set up spreadsheet may suffice for tracking the various stages of a project. For other situations, it is more appropriate to use project management software, such as Microsoft-Project.

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A good source for web page design tips and “rules” can be found in Jakob Nielsen’s Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity December 1999, New Riders Press

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Content Development

There are at least five ways to generate educational content for online courses.

• Use educational materials that already exist and are owned by an organization. These are usually known as “legacy courses”. These legacy courses can often be “repurposed” for use in a online environment.

• Writers or instructors can be engaged to write original course content (“original courses”).

• While a course is underway, users can create content either through assignments or through the collection of discussions and presentations (“user generated content”).

• Course content can be purchased “off the shelf”, such as the courses supplied by NetG and SkillSoft.

• Existing web content can be used as course content (for example, this is the basis of “Web Quest” types of instructional activities).

Legacy courses are often disorganized and the material to be used can be in multiple electronic formats. Some content, such as printed course manuals, may not even be in an electronic format (although the author or publisher may have an electronic version). Converting print materials to electronic files is a laborious and time–consuming process. It involves placing each page of the materials to be converted on a scanner, making a scan and then converting the resulting files into one of two formats. One possible format, using Adobe Acrobat, preserves the graphics and the layout of the original, resulting in single *.pdf files. The other possibility is to process the

scanned file with an optical character recognition (OCR) program such Textbridge or Omnipage. If the latter method is used, the text will be in a format that can be read and edited by any word processor.

In writing original course content, course authors must keep in mind the unique characteristics of the medium for which they are writing. Computer monitors make poor books. Yet many courses consist of screen after screen of text, interspersed with a few graphics. Often documents on the Web scroll down below the screen, sometimes at great length. In writing for computer delivery, keep these guidelines in mind:

a. Divide the writing into small chunks. If at all possible, avoid the scrolling of screens by placing only a small amount of text on each screen.

b. Write short sentences. Even better, display written material as a set of points. c. Try to plan for at least one graphic on each screen. This is a visual medium – make

use of this fact.

d. Avoid a linear presentation of a course, unless it is deemed necessary from an instructional point of view. One of the strengths of Web-based delivery is the ability to make hyperlinks throughout the material. Users then can explore the material in their own ways.

e. Avoid having a narrator read your text to the user, except where it makes sense in instructional terms (e.g., teaching English as a Second Language). Listening to someone read can be tedious, and most people can read the text faster than the narrator can speak.

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f. Have your writing carefully edited. Typos and bad grammar seem to jump off the screen, and can be a major distraction from the message you are trying to convey.

Storyboards

After working through an instructional design process, the instructional designer then completes a storyboard for each course, or section of a course. The purpose of a storyboard is to give the multimedia producers and web developers firm guidelines on how to build the course, including web learning activities and assessments. Finally, before a course is released for use, a thorough quality assurance (“QA”) program must be undertaken. The instructional designer needs to check that all items in the storyboard were built as specified and that all activities and assessments work as intended.

Web Development

Identify/Locate Media Assets

The Web is a visual medium and is not particularly suited for text-rich presentations. A well-designed online course uses a variety of “rich media” to illustrate, engage, and teach. (Note: It is important to get copyright clearances on any material that you plan to use that is not produced “in-house” or is not in the public domain.) Here are some of the possibilities of media assets that can be used, and a few tips on producing each type of asset for Web-based courses.

Text

Text is used in at least five different ways in Web-based courses. These are:

§ Text is found as part of a graphic or animation. (e.g., the label on a button, title of a film). Here text is created through the program that makes the graphic or animation. § Text is found within a Web page, formatted with various HTML tags, XML tags or

through a “cascading style sheet”. In this case, text is entered using hand coding of the text or through the use of a Web page authoring program such as Macromedia Dreamweaver.

§ Text is contained in a database, is placed into a specified location on the page when a Web page is “built on the fly”, and then sent to the user’s computer as an HTML page. This requires dynamic Web programming languages such as Active Server Pages, Cold Fusion, or Java Servlets.

§ Text is found in a document that was authored in a word processor (such as Microsoft Word), a page layout program (such as Adobe Pagemaker), or in a document

presentation program (such as Adobe Acrobat). In this case, the text is created in the original software program and is opened on the screen with the appropriate reader for that file format.

§ Text can be part of the user’s input while interacting with the Web-based course. This text is displayed and may be stored for future presentation. This technique usually requires a dynamic programming language and the storage of the generated text in a database.

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Graphics

The proper use of graphics in Web courses is important to their impact on a user. A badly placed or sized graphic or a graphic that no one can view can greatly diminish the integrity of a lesson and the effect it has on a learner.

The most common file formats utilized on the web are the .JPG and .GIF file types. “JPEGs” provide a more diverse range of colour (ranging in the millions, compared to the .GIF format’s, 256) and are therefore better suited for images where there are gradual transitions between colours. JPEG’s are best suited for photo-realistic imagery, since photo-realism requires millions of colours to represent shade and tone. JPEG’s also provide the best process for compressing and interpreting the transitions between varying colours. For example, a graphic more suited for GIF format (e.g., an image with mostly flat colours) that has been saved as a JPEG will have visible “artifacts” left over from the compression.

In most computer generated images, where a gradual transition is not as critical (e.g., in graphs, diagrams, or text documents), or where the ability to render a graphic’s background as

transparent is important, the .GIF format is a good choice. While often resulting in a smaller file size, .GIF files provide the best process for compressing single colours across large areas. Therefore, a graphic with limited amounts of colour, or with large areas of a single colour, and is not photo-realistic, is best saved as a .GIF. A graphic more suited for JPEG format (one that has many colours or gradients) that has been saved as a GIF will show ‘dithering’ (a jagged looking gradient of colour) in its colour transitions. The best means of handling all your graphics work is through a program such as PhotoShop or other graphics editor that allows for the editing and converting of both JPG and .GIF file formats.

Identical images can appear to be very different in size when viewed on two different monitors. The apparent size of graphics on the Web depends on two factors – the setting for the resolution of the user’s monitor, and the resolution of the actual image. While printed materials start to look good at settings of 300 dpi (“dots per inch”), the original Windows monitors only displayed images at a relatively small 96 dpi (72 dpi for MacIntosh monitors). Because newer and larger monitors have more “dots” (more correctly called “pixels”) on their surface, and because there is software that can change the number of pixels being displayed, image size can change simply based on the number of pixels available over the total area of the screen. Older Web sites (and older CD-ROMs) often were set to 640 x 480 pixels to be displayed, while in the past few years, a setting of 800 x 600 pixels was standard, especially for users with smaller monitors. In

practice, many users today have their screen resolution set to 1024 x 768 pixels, making a 800 x 600 pixels web site appear as a window in the middle of the user’s screen. There is no magic rule here, except to design web courses for the minimum screen width likely to be used by the user group for which the courses are being designed.

Animation

Images can be animated using various technologies. One way is through a process of displaying several .GIF images in sequence, called an “animated Gif”. This method is a crude, yet very effective means of displaying step-by-step movement at a steady pace.

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The program “GifGifGif” is a very effective means of capturing and animating step-by-step motion from any computer. It is available at a relatively low cost (~$28.00 USD license fee accessible online) from http://www.peda.com/ggg/download.html.

Flash MX from Macromedia utilizes a more advanced technology that allows for a dynamic, clean and crisp image that fluidly transitions from one frame to the next. While animated .gifs may be suitable for basic animation, Flash is well suited for complex challenges and interactive animations, allowing for the user to take part, or even control the actions in the animation. Because it is a vector-based4 technology, Flash utilizes smaller file sizes than conventional bitmap animations of the same type.

Macromedia’s Dreamweaver already comes equipped with default Flash buttons, allowing for the quick and easy placement of dynamically interacting buttons in any section of a course module. See http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/ for more details on Flash.

Video

The advantages of online video, the advances in compression technologies and the increase in accessible bandwidth has resulted in a boom in the number of video media editing applications available to the consumer, many with advanced features. By analyzing the connection of the user, a streaming media server can begin playback of a video source before the file finishes downloading, allowing for the courses to be viewed as soon as possible. In addition, streaming video software can often track video usage, and allows the option of delivering competing media types, or different versions (of smaller sizes, etc.) of a single media file depending on the needs or capabilities of the end user’s system. While these processes do require specialized media servers to stream video on the Internet, the benefits to the end user are significant.

Alternatively, if media clips can be kept to a small enough size, a network with a high enough bandwidth could get by with a “downloading” method for video display. However, in the event of a slow connection, the download could take some time. In addition, non-streaming video sources do not possess the tracking abilities of streaming media programs.

The competition between video file standards has been fierce. To provide video playback over the Internet, the user requires a specific player on his or her system equipped with a specific compression/decompression algorithm (often called a “codec”) in order to view a video signal. The user must possess the specific player with the right codec for a particular browser. In short, the user may be required to download a player or codec in order to integrate video media into course material. While multiple media types could be offered to the end user to view, this would create an additional burden on production and programming, and issues of storage needs to be addressed before deciding on this option.

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Vector based graphics are made up of mathematical statements which represent lines and colour. Alternately, Bitmap files store the information for each and every pixel in an image, but allow for more photo-realistic images with a finer level of detail.

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Audio

Using audio files in an online course can be a very effective means of transferring information to a learner. Good sound maintains the integrity of a course, while less than ideal audio can cause frustration to both course administrators and users.

The first rule in audio use is to capture a clean, clear sound. With a clean and clear sound, the file size is reduced (due to the program NOT compressing the “noise” associated with a bad

recording), resulting in a smaller file to be transferred from the server to the user. The best way to ensure high-quality audio is to provide a high-quality source, as only limited “tinkering” to improve sound can be accomplished using even the most advanced of audio editors.

The second rule in audio use is to compress the audio properly, taking into account issues such as bit rate, file size and expected connection speed, ensuring that the quality of the audio source is not compromised during this conversion to a web-deliverable format. By converting sound files to a web-deliverable format (e.g. .ASF, .MP3, .RM, etc), these files can be incorporated into course courses seamlessly at a size realistic to web-delivery constraints.

Applications such as Sound Forge (http://www.sonicfoundry.com/), allow for the quick and easy editing of sound files using an intuitive and clear interface. Like video, certain audio types require the use of additional players, with some formats having advantages over the others.

Other Web Development Considerations

Briefly, here are some other things that a project manager supervising the development of online courses needs to take into consideration:

§ Document Naming Conventions - The choice of a universal naming convention is key to the organization of the large number of files created in the development of online courses. § Version Control – as an online course development project progresses, different versions of

planning documents, storyboards, and prototypes will emerge. A version control system is highly recommended in order to avoid confusion in project documentation

§ Backup Procedures – while both hardware and software has become more reliable over the years, accidents can and do happen. Backup media should be stored in a different physical location than the originals, or should be placed in a fireproof, waterproof safe.

§ Consistency in Design – one of the dangers of developing Web materials in general is that a lot of people have opportunities to change elements of how things will look and work. Strict control of the “look and feel” is needed, supervised by a properly trained designer. In order to create a sense of continuity within a set of courses, a common look and feel design should be employed, through the use of Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) and templates. Templates and cascading style sheets allow for the quick editing of common characteristics and regions of any number of web pages that share the same design files, while maintaining consistency in design.

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§ Use of Templates - When designing a web course, it is important to maintain a sense of congruency between pages. Rather than starting each page from scratch and rebuilding the common elements for each, a template can be built once, containing all the elements that are to be shared among pages (e.g. background graphics, layout regions, title area, page

numbering area, etc). Once the template has been developed (and approved!), developers can start page creation using the template as a source, saving valuable time by only being

concerned with the individual content to be displayed.

§ Use of Cascading Style Sheets - Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) allow for the setting of various style variables (text font, weight, size, colour, etc.) across a set of pages by storing this data in one location. Not only does using CSSs allow for a font style to be quickly applied to a region on a page in one action, but they also allow for the changing of every instance of the particular style from its centrally stored location. The use of CSSs improves workflow, and also ensures that if the style is properly applied, all content will share common characteristics.

§ Use of an Asset Library - In order to maintain a productive workflow, the assets and files used in the development of a course must be properly catalogued, and be easily available for reuse.

§ Assembly of a Prototype - Once all the pieces have been assembled (storyboard, design metrics, graphics, templates, style sheets, media assets, etc.), a Web page creation program is utilized to combine all these elements into a “prototype”, a working approximation of what appears on the storyboard. The prototype can then be shown to the client who ordered the online course in order to elicit feedback and/or approvals.

§ Change Management Procedures – the development of online courses should a number of feedback loops whereby both clients (those who have commissioned the course) and a representative group of end-users (those who will take the course) will see the results of the project at various stages. Both the feedback and any changes agreed to with the client should be documented and signed. This protects both parties in any future disputes.

§ Quality Assurance Procedures – quality assurance procedures need to be instituted from the beginning of an online course development project. Before a version of the online courses is presented to a client, all the online materials need to be thoroughly and systematically checked by someone who is independent of the development team. All “bugs” should be corrected, and then the materials retested, as new errors can be introduced when corrections are being made.

§ Ongoing Monitoring - Once courses have been installed and released to users, it is important to continue to monitor them in terms of functionality. Sometimes bugs in programming are subtle and hidden and only show themselves after a period of time. Such errors should also be documented and reported to technical staff. As well, a period of time for using the courses that have been developed is needed, in order to assess their effectiveness, and to report any usability problems. Finally, because the technology for online learning is continually changing, there will come a time when an upgraded version of the course will be needed.

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§ Documentation and Training – the final stage of delivering online courses is the provision of documentation and training. A user’s manual, a technical manual and online help files are usually the minimum requirements. Training may not be required if the design of the courses follows familiar design principles, so that learners will not encounter procedures or demands for which they are not prepared.

Content Development using LearnFlex



Assembling, Installing and Testing a Course

Assembly

Assembling a course using the proposed methods involves connecting the pages together using a combination of Macromedia’s Learning Site Command and Coursebuilder Extensions for

Dreamweaver MX. These programs facilitate the quick and easy creation, collection and adjustment of a course as a whole. More advanced construction methods can be achieved if by using the default options provided by Macromedia to create new options.

LearnFlex LMS – eClassroom Course Assembler

The LearnFlex Course Assembly tool was designed with the universal Macromedia Dreamweaver Learning Site extension in mind. LearnFlex automatically strips out the Dreamweaver navigation coded and replaces it with the LearnFlex eClassroom navigation. The benefit of this includes book marking, better tracking, and course separation into modules and lessons.

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Step 1 – Course Setup

Select Course Upload

Select the course you wish to add the online content to. Select the destination folder on your LearnFlex implementation.

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The Dreamweaver Course dropdown is populated with courses that have been created using the Catalogue Course creation tool, then given a session but not published. Please note the online property must be set to Dreamweaver

The Department Folder is a folder under the root Dreamweaver Folder, and it serves to help separate the various courses into a more manageable structure.

Step 2 – Course Upload

This page uses an ActiveX component that makes the upload process easier for the user. It is mainly an Internet Explore 5+ component, but will work if a ScriptActive plugin for Netscape has been downloaded. In this case a page will come up asking the user to download the plugin if the program detects that the user’s browser is Netscape.

The page will also pop up a certification from “Persists Software”, explaining that the ActiveX component needs to be downloaded and installed on the client machine. With out agreeing to this download, the user can’t upload his/her course content.

Click the Select Folder button to browse for the course folder, on the client’s local machine.

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Select the appropriate folder.

Click Include sub-folders Click Scan

The content folder MUST be a child folder off the root drive. For example, “C:” would be a root drive. In the above illustration the content folder selected is “stats”. The full path for this folder is “C:\stats\”.

Once the content folder has been selected, make sure the Include sub-folders checkbox is selected. This will include any sub-folders under the course content folder. Sub-folders include images, scripts, templates, etc.

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TIP

The Remove Selected feature isn’t recommended for most users. Most of the files that are in the course content folder are required in order to keep the course functionality intact.

Your screen should look similar to the illustration above. All the files and their paths are displayed. If a mistake was made all the files can be removed by clicking the Remove All button and redoing the browsing process, or by selecting the incorrect files and clicking on the Remove Selected button.

Once the browsing process is complete, click the Upload button to begin the file transfer process. This should only take a minute as it sends selected files to the server. The transfer process might take longer depending on the client’s connection speed.

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A progress bar is displayed, showing the files as they are uploaded.

Step3: File Structure - Set Up

Enter the Module Name

Enter the Lesson Name

Select ADD. Enter the lesson names and press ADD until this module is complete. Click Save

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The following pop-up boxes should appear confirming that the modules and lessons have been entered successfully.

Two pop up windows will confirm that the module and lessons have been successfully inserted into the database.

If the module or lesson name already exists, the pop will change to “Module already exists!” or “Lessons already exist!”

Duplicate module names are not allowed in the same course. Duplicate lesson names are not allowed under the same module. Repeat if needed to add more modules and lessons.

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Step 4: File Structure - Populate Modules and Lessons

This step is final step in the assembly, the most important and the most difficult.

First select the module you want to work with from the Module Name drop-down. It’s best to do things in order so that a module isn’t forgotten.

Then select the lesson you want to add topics to from the Lesson Name drop-down.

The program created the “Test” lesson shown in the above illustration. All test pages for that lesson and module should be added to “Test” lesson only. This is for the tracking functionality.

You’ll notice that in the Select Topic Pages list box all the content pages are shown. The sorting is by file name. These are the course content pages you’ve uploaded.

Select the topic pages you want associated with the module and lesson names selected. Move the selected topic pages over to the Selected Topic List by either double clicking the selected item, or by clicking the Arrow button if you have a group selection.

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Once all the desired pages are added for the selected lesson name. Click the Save button. This will save the pages into the database.

A pop up will confirm that the topics have been successfully inserted into the database.

Repeat for the next lesson in the Lesson Name drop-down. Until all the lessons under the selected module have the proper topic pages associated to them. Then select the next module from the Module Name drop-down and the first lesson in that module from the Lesson Name drop-down.

Repeat the topic page selection process for each lesson under the newly selected module name. Remember to save before changing to the next lesson.

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This will start a sync of the files and add any necessary pages, as well as automatically put the URL for the course into the database.

Another hidden step is the removal of the course from the Course Select drop-down. Once content is successfully loaded for a course, a flag is set in the database to keep it from showing in the drop-down.

Removing Course Content

Select the Dreamweaver course.

Click Next

The course content will be removed.

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Uploading a Splash Page

Select the Dreamweaver course.

Click Next

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Select the HTM or HTML file that you wise to use as a splash page. Select Open

In order for the credits page to show up it must be enabled. Pleased make sure this is checked.

If you would like to credits page to appear only once for each user, please select Run Once.

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Testing of courses before they are uploaded in LearnFlex

The first stage of testing should take place after the course has completed the development cycle, but before the courses are uploaded into the LearnFlex. Issues to be looked for in testing include:

1. Proper references to graphic files (all graphic files should reside in an images folder off of the root).

2. Proper links to templates (template files should reside in an Template folder off of the root) 3. Proper reference to the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) used in the development of the

course/s.

4. That all links leading to exterior pages (eg. on the World Wide Web) or interior document (eg. PDFs) are accurate5.

5. Ensure that all content pages have different and distinct titles. (Ensuring this will prevent issues in the “After LMS Installation” testing phase.) In addition, avoid using and commas in these page titles, as this causes problems within the navigation.htm file’s data storage. In essence, the testing of courses at this stage is quite similar to the testing of regular website content, with all the same issues and criteria.

Testing after LearnFlex installation

Courses should only be installed into LearnFlex once they have passed the testing phase described above. This will ensure that errors in terms of content presentation are dealt with before it enters LearnFlex, where it becomes increasingly more difficult to address issues of content, layout, etc. Testing after LearnFlex installation is geared more towards ensuring the successful installation of a course into the LearnFlex than the course itself. Once a course has been installed, participating in the course best tests the quality of a course. While completing the course, additional “bugs” may appear, that need to be reported and corrected.

Post Implementation Review/Evaluation/Ongoing Support

Once courses have been installed and released to users, it is important to continue to monitor them in terms of functionality. Sometimes bugs in programming are subtle and hidden and only show

themselves after a period of time. Such errors should also be documented and reported to technical staff. As well, a period of time for using the courses that have been developed is needed, in order to assess their effectiveness, and to report any usability problems. Finally, because the technology for online learning is continually changing, there will come a time when an upgraded version of the LearnFlex will necessitate an upgrade of the course content in order to best leverage the new LearnFlex features. This possibility is best planned for in advance.

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After courses have been delivered, their “owner” needs to be identified, and given proper

documentation and training. This person needs to be the main contact person for any problems that may arise in the future use of the online courses.

♦ ♦ ♦

As noted at the beginning, building an online course is a complex process, requiring multiple skills sets. When it is done well, it often “looks easy” from the point of view of the learner, but that is usually just a testament to the skills and creativity of its authors.

References:

Salmon, Gilly (2003) E-tivities: the key to active online learning. London: Kogan Page. Vaughan, Tay (2001) Multimedia: making it work. New York: McGraw-Hill Osborne.

For more information contact:

Dr. Gary Woodill, Executive Vice-President, Alipta Corporation [email protected]

Michael Skinner, CEO, Operitel Corporation. [email protected]

Toll-free: 1-866-849-3630