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Infographic Considerations
September 27, 2021
An infographic is a visual that combines text, graphics, diagrams, and graphs to present information. When used effectively, infographics can be a powerful tool to guide students through the learning process. As described by Krauss (2012), “Infographics ask for an active response from the viewer, raising the questions, ‘What am I seeing?’ and ‘What does it mean?’” (p. 10). Infographics also present information in an organized way, which can improve students’ critical thinking, analysis, and synthesis skills (Yildirim, 2016).
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Using PowerPoint in a Video
September 22, 2022
The familiarity and ease of PowerPoint make it a natural choice for creating instructional videos. After all, your energy is better spent on planning and recording videos than on learning a new tool. However, creating quality slides still requires significant time and attention to detail.
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Improving PowerPoints
September 28, 2021
Sharing information via PowerPoint presentations is a long-established strategy in higher education. Designing PowerPoint presentations for online courses can pose unique challenges; however, best practices can help overcome these hurdles. With time and attention, faculty and instructional designers can create engaging and purposeful presentations with lasting value.
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Audio-Only Content to Support Learning
September 16, 2022
In comparison to instructional videos, the role of audio-only instructional content in online learning has received scant attention. When audio-only content is discussed, the research often centers on the use of audio feedback or student-created podcasts, rather than instructor-created instructional audio. Additionally, few studies have compared learning outcomes from recorded video lectures versus from audio alone, except within the context of specific disciplines, such as second language acquisition (Berner & Adams, 2004).
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Branching Scenario Best Practices Guide
December 29, 2022
Designed to simulate real-world experiences, branching scenarios are powerful tools for increasing student engagement. Like a choose-your-own-adventure book, a branching scenario invites users to explore a virtual world, using knowledge and skills from their coursework and information shared within the scenario to make decisions. The decisions they make lead them down different pathways (some of which may include embedded documents and videos) toward different endings. Depending on the complexity of the branching scenarios and the choices students make, they can experience a variety of different possible outcomes within a single scenario.
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Leveraging White Space
October 13, 2022
Good page design requires balance between white space, or negative space, and positive space. Positive space encompasses all aspects and types of content; on a course page, these objects might include an introductory paragraph, video thumbnail, infographic, callout box, opinion poll, or provocative quotation. Relative to these course components, white space might seem like a nice-to-have. Because it promotes clarity and reduces distortion, white space is just as important as content in instructional page design.
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Six Strategies for Multimodal Content Delivery
November 02, 2022
If you’re developing a course with synchronous and asynchronous elements, you have a host of options for engaging students and delivering content. Research suggests that incorporating multiple modalities increases accessibility, engagement, and learning (Mick and Middlebrook, 2015; Margolis et al., 2017). With that said, it is important to be intentional about multimodal course design. Both synchronous and asynchronous methods of delivery are effective, but activities can be better suited to one or the other modality and synchronous time is often limited. Delivering selected content asynchronously can support students’ understanding of how information is organized and leave more time for interactivity in synchronous sessions.
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Man wearing a costume in front of green screen
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From Screen to Scene: Building Your Own Green Screen Studio for Video Production
April 24, 2023
If you want to get high-quality, professional-looking green screen footage, you’ll have to do more than paint a wall green or place a pop-up screen behind you during your shoot. Use the recommendations below to set up a studio that is optimized for green screen video production.
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Spreadsheet Accessibility
December 12, 2022
Spreadsheets are used for a broad array of data-related tasks and projects across numerous disciplines. Maximizing the utility of spreadsheets as course materials requires careful attention towards their content and formatting. In this piece, we present recommendations for enhancing the clarity, consistency, and accessibility of course spreadsheets for students.
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Using YouTube in Your Course
January 16, 2024
The vast majority of instructors (97%) claim that video is “essential” to students’ academic experiences (Kaltura, 2022). However, it can be difficult for faculty to find the time and motivation to create high-quality instructional videos, leading them to source third-party videos from the internet. With countless videos being uploaded every day, YouTube is a logical choice for finding free, relevant, and engaging educational content. This post discusses some of the key factors to consider when utilizing YouTube to supplement the learning materials in your course.
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