Segmenting Content and Integrating Rich-Media

1. Segmenting Content and Integrating Rich-Media

2. Let’s Talk About Your Content • You probably have something that would be considered Primary Content for your course: • The primary flow of information in Modules or content areas. • May include: • Text (one or more documents). • Assigned readings (books, articles). • PowerPoint slides. • Audio or video of you presenting material (e.g., portions of lectures). • Web resources (such as audio, video, articles, posts on the web).

3. If you use PowerPoints… • When do PowerPoints work as Primary Content? • They are detailed enough to be understood on their own, or • You included notes for any slides that required more explanation, or • You recorded audio or video to accompany them.

4. One or More Content Types • You may have one type of content that represents the primary flow of information. • Better yet, you may have two, three, or more primary content types. • If so, you’re probably already providing some segmenting and self-pacing. • Students are getting it in pieces, and they actively navigate to find more. • Either way, segmenting involves: • Looking at your content, • Finding any natural breaking points within it, and • Dividing it into those pieces.

5. Segmenting Principle • Which is better? • Giving your students everything in one chunk. • Asking your students to focus for limited periods and then having them click somewhere to initiate another learning segment. • The second one: • You allow them to pace their own learning. • It gives the experience an activefeel (student is searching and digging for more information). • Three studies on the impact of segmenting showed: • Large increases in information retention and transfer of skills to novel situations. Source: Mayer, Richard E., “Applying the Science of Learning: Evidence-Based Principles for the Design of Multimedia Instruction,” American Psychologist, November 2008, pp. 760-769.

6. Example • Dr. Bruce Keillor’s course on Strategic Marketing Management: • He used PowerPoints for his in-class lectures. • They were full lecture-length. • The bullet-points were concise, and there was no annotation.

7. Concise is Good, but … • Concise is goodin PowerPoints – fewer words is better. • But it means these PowerPoints can’t be Primary Content by themselves. • You can’t follow them without more help.

8. The Recording Option • To add that information, Dr. Keillor decided to record his lectures using Adobe Presenter. • He began by identifying natural breaking points in the lecture. • He then recorded several videos per lecture.

9. A Peek at One Week • One of Dr. Keillor’s lectures was called Understanding Markets & Competition.

10. It then became … • Four videos:

11. It then became … • Four videos:

12. It then became … • Four videos:

13. It then became … • Four videos:

14. One PowerPoint = Many Videos • We kept it all in one PowerPoint and added title slides at each of the breaking points. • He then recorded one … saved his video … and started a new video with each new title slide. • Thus, he created a Primary Content flow and started to provide segmenting through the recording process.

15. What Next? • Is that segmenting? • It’s somesegmenting. • Take it one more step, and you can give a real sense of: • Student pacing their own learning • Digging for more information • Consider adding materials or learning activities between your series of Primary items. • If Primary Content is videos from a lecture, think about other kinds of media or learner activities to put in-between.

16. Possible “In-Betweeners” • Questions: • Blackboard can add assessment items between content items. • You can do these as non-credit: • For this placein your course – between content – easy questions tend to be effective. • According to Thorndike (early behaviorist), one of the best reinforcers for adults is telling them “right” when they answer a question correctly. • “Friendly” (easy) questions in the content area may: • Increase the sense of interaction. • Lower the initial intimidation factor of engaging with your materials.

17. Possible “In-Betweeners” • Questions • Discussion: • Send them to the Discussion Board to post their thoughts. • Better yet, pose a question they can address based on the material in the segment.

18. Possible “In-Betweeners” • Questions • Discussion • YouTube mashup: • Maybe there’s video or a Flash animation out on the web that adds a visual dimension to what they’re learning.

19. Possible “In-Betweeners” • Questions • Discussion • YouTube mashup • Article • Blog post or other web content • Audio podcast • Slide presentation out on the web (check SlideShare.net)

20. How Many “In-Betweeners”? • You don’t need to throw several between each content item. • You don’t even need to have one between every content item. • Look for: • Good, quality content. • Effective enhancements to the learning experience. • Maybe something that lends a little humor. • Pepper those through your Primary Content. • So look for quality itemsconveyed through a varietyof media.

21. Our Example • What does Dr. Keillor’s module look like with “in-betweeners”?