E-ffective Writing for E-Learning Environments

583 Pages·2004·5.373 MB·English

by  Katy Campbell

E-
FFECTIVE
W
RITING FOR
-L
E EARNING
E
NVIRONMENTS
K C
ATY AMPBELL
Information Science Publishing
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ii
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Copyright © 2004 by Idea Group Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Campbell, Katy, 1955-
E-ffective writing for e-learning environments / Katy Campbell.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 1-59140-124-0 (Hardcover) -- ISBN 1-59140-125-9 (ebook)
1. Education, Higher--Electronic information resources. 2. Education,
Higher--Computer-assisted instruction. 3. Internet in higher education.
4. Curriculum planning. I. Title: Effective writing for e-learning
environments. II. Title.
LB2395.7.C357 2004
378.1'734--dc21
2003008768
Paperback ISBN 1-59140-216-6
British Cataloguing in Publication Data
A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in
this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.
iii
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Elizabeth A. Buchanan
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Katy Campbell
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iv
E-ffective Writing for e-Learning Environments
Table of Contents
Preface................................................................................................vi
Introduction.....................................................................................viii
Chapter 1
Five Factors for Planning ....................................................................1
Chapter 2
User-Centered Design (Part 1 – Cultural Diversity) ....................... 39
Chapter 3
User-Centered Design (Part 2 – Age, Gender and Accessibility)... 62
Chapter 4
Selecting and Evaluating Learning Objects.................................... 94
by Ellen Whybrow
Chapter 5
From Text to e-Text – Message Design......................................... 118
Chapter 6
From Text to e-Text – Resisting Print............................................176
Chapter 7
Structuring the e-Learning Environment ..................................... 195
Chapter 8
The Active e-Reader....................................................................... 221
v
Chapter 9
Usability Testing............................................................................ 242
Chapter 10
e-Learning Trends – The Mobile Environment............................. 286
Glossary.......................................................................................... 302
References......................................................................................308
Handbook......................................................................................315
Introduction...............................................................................................321
Chapter 1.....................................................................................................327
Chapter 2.....................................................................................................345
Chapter 3.....................................................................................................372
Chapter 4.....................................................................................................381
Chapter 5.....................................................................................................389
Chapter 6.....................................................................................................415
Chapter 7.....................................................................................................430
Chapter 8.....................................................................................................437
Chapter 9.....................................................................................................460
Chapter 10..................................................................................................493
A Story of Practice.....................................................................................497
References...................................................................................................533
Index .............................................................................................. 538
About the Authors.........................................................................548
vi
Acknowledgments and Credits
One day in 1998, Dennis Foth, the Director of Applied Arts in my faculty, dropped by
my office. His unit was in the middle of redeveloping their writing program and he
wondered if they should include a course about writing for media other than text.
Writing for New Media, a 12-hour evening course, was born.
Over the next two years, I taught this evening course on four consecutive Wednesdays.
It soon became apparent that there were many more interested in the content than the
program could accommodate. At the same time, I was getting frustrated with the face-
to-face didactic approach. Dennis and I agreed that I would re-purpose the course for
a blended delivery; incorporating the original materials I had developed. Over 300
hundred hours later, I uploaded a modular course of ten topics ranging from the role
of the New Media Writer to the Team Process in new media design, which had two face-
to-face meetings and ran over 20 weeks. Over that time participants developed a
portfolio by completing only the topics they needed, completing activities in a
workbook, and contributing to an asynchronous threaded discussion.
Those resources, which I now think of as learning objects, have again been re-purposed
and extended for this book. So, thank you, Dennis, Susan, and your staff in Applied Arts,
for getting me started on my writing career!
Teaching an online course over 20 weeks, at a home computer in the kitchen, requires
tremendous patience and understanding from your family. My extraordinary husband,
Rick Roder, and my excellent daughter, Courtney Bonar, supported me through several
offerings of Writing for New Media and pitched in to find web site exemplars, references,
glossary terms and new research for this book. Without Rick my uneasy relationship
with technology would have long ago defeated me. I love you both and promise to dote
on you once this book is out of my hands.
I have wonderful and brilliant colleagues who have contributed to the process, helping
me with research, identifying resources, tolerating my single-mindedness, and authoring
sections, chapters, and activities in the Handbook. Special “thank-yous” to Winghan
Chen, who flew in from Vancouver Island to spend a month editing and filling in missing
pieces; Ellen Whybrow, a wonderful instructional designer in our unit who authored
Chapter 4 on her holiday; Margaret Haughey, one of my favorite colleagues, for her
steady advice and insights; the excellent Colin Geissler who took away from his own
precious time to work with my husband to find exemplars and create examples; and
vii
Catherine Gramlich who has inspired me for four years. Catherine pulled the final version
of this text together, which was a mighty creative, editorial and organizational task.
And thank you to all my colleagues in Academic Technologies for Learning from whom
I continue to learn.
Thanks also to our exceptional administrative assistant Bev “who is the boss of me”
Adam who protects me from everyone, but especially from myself. Bev, I would simply
have to end my academic career if you left.
Many of the examples in this book were offered by my very generous colleagues with
whom we have worked and have supported in their efforts to design e-Learning
environments. Dr. Sue Gibson, from the Faculty of Education; Dr. John Boeglin from
Faculté Ste Jean; Dr. Rod Wood from the Faculty of Law, all from the University of
Alberta; and Dr. Jose Pereira from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary. Each
of these individuals allowed me to use sections from their courses and stories from the
development process, but more importantly I learned invaluable lessons about
personal/professional growth and relationships from them all.
At the same time I was developing this content I was the co-lead of the Learning Design
Working Group for IMS Global Learning Consortium. I want to express my appreciation
to Industry Canada - Cliff Groen, Yuri Daschko and Mary daCosta - for supporting my
participation; and to all the members of our working group for opening my eyes to the
whole world of learning objects, and standards and specifications. Through these
activities I have met wonderful colleagues and have found a whole new research
program!
Finally, I come from a family of strong, smart, funny women who individually and
collectively work critically, uncompromisingly, and with care, humor and integrity in
the world. This group includes my late grandmother Margaret Gutteridge, a headmistress
from Sussex who kept her family together in a new country; my much-missed mother
Pat Campbell, a professional woman and highly-respected teacher in a time when women
were supposed to stay home; my sister Sue Campbell, a fierce philosopher and her
partner Jan Sutherland, a new lawyer with an active social conscience; my sister Lori
Campbell, who has spent over a decade working with aboriginal communities in
northern Canada and who is now helping launch the University of Alberta’s new
Aboriginal Teacher Education Program; my beloved daughter Courtney Bonar who is
now following her own educational goals; and my new, adored niece Jesse Aluki
Campbell, the “happy soul”.
viii
Introduction
Developing an e-Learning environment is a complex, time-consuming task. This book
and accompanying Handbook have been designed to guide you through the process.
E-ffective Writing for e-Learning Environments is written to support instructors of both
young and older adults. Because I work in a higher education context, many of my
guidelines and examples will reflect my experiences there. However, most of my rec-
ommendations can be equally applied to training, continuing professional education,
or non-formal learning environments.
I have written this book with three audiences in mind:
1. The instructor who is exploring e-Learning options in order to make a
decision about the design and delivery of a resource, activity, course,
or program. I often refer to these e-Learning components interchange-
ably. Sometimes we refer to these as educational or learning objects.
2. The instructor who is ready to begin converting one of these components
from a face-to-face delivery (F2F) to a hybrid or entirely online de-
livery format.
3. The instructor who has already re-purposed an e-Learning component,
but wants to ensure that the result is effectively designed. The rec-
ommendations in this book will help you evaluate and perhaps revise
your course.
The Handbook contains additional information, examples, practice activities, and tools
and resources. Tools include checklists, charts, design guidelines, and other resources
that you can use as references while you develop your e-Learning components. Please
feel free to remove pages from the Handbook to support your work. For example, I
have enlarged various checklists and taped them to the wall behind my desk so that
when I need a reference I can simply glance up from my keyboard.
This book integrates research and practice in user-centered design and learning de-
sign and is intended as a development guide for experts in areas other than instruc-
tional or educational technology (in other words, experts in cognate areas such as
Biology or English or Nursing), rather than as a learning design textbook.
ix
You do not have to have technical skills to use this book. While based on current
research, it is organized and written in direct language that does not assume that you
want to learn about the field of instructional technology, become an instructional
designer, or a Web developer. However, incorporating just a few ideas will make your
course more accessible and effective.
The organization of this book reflects the development process – from planning and
development through formative evaluation and identifies trends and issues that fac-
ulty or developers might encounter along the way. The story of faculty members’
course development journeys illustrate design guidelines.
The book is based on user-centered design guidelines and learning design theory and
practice. With a growing emphasis on supporting international learning audiences and
with increasingly diverse local populations, accessibility is a concern. Accessibility
guidelines reflect diverse learning needs related to sex, age, language, culture, geog-
raphy, access to technology, mobility, perceptual and cognitive challenges, socioeco-
nomic status, and others.
Instructors need to know whether their courses provide effective learning experi-
ences. Usability, broadly defined, is an important component of this framework. For-
mative evaluation, or usability testing, is an essential step in course development.
This book contains an entire chapter on usability methods and tools, illustrated with
real-life cases.
Global repositories of learning objects are promoting the availability of adaptable and
re-usable digital resources. With this emerging development, the faculty is relieved
from the expensive and time-consuming task of creating their own technologically
sophisticated resources – a task that requires the development of new skills over a
steep learning curve. This book provides background information on learning objects
– what they are, where to find them, and how to use them.
E-ffective Writing for e-Learning Environments is designed to model the user-centered
design guidelines on which the content is based. So, the page design reflects prin-
ciples such as chunking, use of sidebars, and multiple headings. The readability level
ranges from 8-10. Course examples are provided, as well as the reflections of faculty
members who have been involved in e-Learning. The book is also based on active
learning principles and each chapter contains embedded questions to challenge your
assumptions and understanding about your audience, content and design. This is a
cognitive strategy that encourages reflection – a strategy you can use in your own
course.
The chapters of this book are outlined as follows:
Chapter 1: Five Factors for Planning contains five reasons to develop an e-Learning
environment and five planning factors to consider in the development process. Learn-
ing outcomes in three domains are presented through Bloom’s Taxonomy. Learning
styles, learner profiles, learning activities, and authentic assessment are important