E-LEARNING (UNIT-III)

Delivering e-Learning & e-learning evaluation

Introduction

• The most daunting tasks of instructional design team is to decide on a

format to deliver an e-product.

• most teams rely on data and feedback from assessments, analysis,

reports, and studies of the audience.

• In today's electronic world each software company promises to

deliver development tools with specific functions and features that are
comparable with each other

Delivery Tools

• To simplify matters, divide our presentations into three types:

• Simple: those that produce one-way communication from computer to

the audience.

• Interactive: those that produce two-way communication between

computer and audience.

• Interactive with Assessment: those presentations that assess the

effectiveness of the presentation themselves while delivering two-way
communication between the computer and the audience.
Delivery Tools
• Designing accessible content requires designers and developers to pay
close attention to the user experience.

• Issues of compatibility and performance are critical when selecting

the proper tools.

• Three robust and very popular applications are those developed by

Adobe (formerly Macromedia):

» Flash,
» Director and

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» Authorware.

Flash

• Macromedia Flash Player. "It is one of the world's most pervasive

software platforms, used by over 1 million professionals and reaching more
than 97% of internet-enabled desktops

• this technology is highly successful in reaching the target audience.

• Adobe also claims the newest version of the Flash development

application includes a number of features to implement many accessibility
issues.

• the developed product include components such as menus, site ,help,

resizable text, alternate labels, handling of audio (with labeled audio),
keyboard navigation, and handlers so the application interacts with assistive
technology devices.
Director and Authorware

• Director is geared at this point in time to interact with Learning

Management System (LMS) packages among other features.

• Authorware which is geared to the development of entire electronic

courseware, complete with a sophisticated level assessment tools.

• The key word being at this point in time, since Flash is closing in the
gap between, Director,Authorware, and many of the other tools available to
developers.

Adobe Acrobat
Portable Delivery Format (PDF)

• The issues related to file-size and printing , Adobe's Acrobat Portable

Delivery Format (PDF) technology is used.

• before Acrobat, electronic distribution of content was nothing short of

problematic and inconsistent.

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• Authors and recipients were required to have knowledge of the
technology used to produce the content.

• File-size of deliverables was prohibitive for any electronic transfer

among the parties without costly equipment setups.

Flash

• Macromedia Flash Player. "It is one of the world's most pervasive

software platforms, used by over 1 million professionals and reaching more
than 97% of internet-enabled desktops

• this technology is highly successful in reaching the target audience.

• Adobe also claims the newest version of the Flash development

application includes a number of features to implement many accessibility
issues.

• the developed product include components such as menus, site ,help,

resizable text, alternate labels, handling of audio (with labeled audio),
keyboard navigation, and handlers so the application interacts with assistive
technology devices.

Director and Authorware

• Director is geared at this point in time to interact with Learning

Management System (LMS) packages among other features.

• Authorware which is geared to the development of entire electronic

courseware, complete with a sophisticated level assessment tools.

• The key word being at this point in time, since Flash is closing in the
gap between, Director,Authorware, and many of the other tools available to
developers.

• The issues related to file-size and printing , Adobe's Acrobat Portable

Delivery Format (PDF) technology is used.

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• before Acrobat, electronic distribution of content was nothing short of
problematic and inconsistent.

• Authors and recipients were required to have knowledge of the

technology used to produce the content.

• File-size of deliverables was prohibitive for any electronic transfer

among the parties without costly equipment setups.

• Adobe Acrobat simultaneously solved many other problems in several

fronts.

• It was the technology that allowed the printing world to resourcefully

address the distributed-printing requirements of their operation.

• Acrobat files now incorporate handlers to communicate with assistive

technology devices.

• Adobe Acrobat is an application that essentially generates PDF files

as a delivery, end-of-the-process product

• It has been furnished with powerful features that deal with handling of
the tagging of documents to accomplish a high level of user-accessibility.

• Acrobat quickly became a sought after solution for various electronic

deliveries.

Formatting

• "The fundamental reason for HTML standards compliance is to ensure

that use only those elements and structures that are likely to be understood
by the widest range of user agents."

• SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model - )assumes the

existence of a suite of services called by some of a Learning

• Management System and by others a Learning Content Management

System, and formerly called a Computer Managed Instruction system.

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• "WebXACT is a free online service that used to test single pages of
web content for quality, accessibility, and privacy issues.“

• The security of file is using Adobe Acrobat to make a PDF file.

• These files maintain their digital qualities such as a vector image.

They are typically used for text files, such as a Microsoft Word file.

• Implementation of e-learning course depend on how technologically

up to date your client is.

• There could be limitations where the client might not have access to a
Flash plug-in because of government regulations.

• Some of the most popular tools are Macromedia Flash, Director and
Authorware.

Delivery Methods

• The most common delivery methods are:

» CDROM,
» DVD-ROM, and
» the Internet.

• CD-ROM's can hold up to 800 megabytes of data and are one of the
most common methods of delivering e-learning today.

• One advantage of using CD drives are standard on nearly all of the

personal computers in use today.

• Another advantage is that duplicating CD-ROMs is a simple and

inexpensive process handled by even a novice user.

• traditional CD-ROMs may limit the amount of multimedia elements

use in your instruction because of their storage capacity.

• Due to the high demand for this multimedia to be included, DVD-

ROMs have become a popular choice for delivering e-learning.

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• DVDs can hold up to 4.7 gigabytes of data which makes them ideal
for holding multimedia.

• With both DVDs and CDs the issue of getting the finished product to
the people is an issue.

• Mailing costs need to be considered when choosing a delivery

method.

• To avoid these costs, a third popular method of delivery needs to be

discussed: internet hosting.

Hosting

• Material is to reach a worldwide audience, need to find a server to

host your materials.

• A server is a computer designated on the Internet to hold data and be

available to the entire world.

• In a corporate setting the company will host the materials on their own
server.

• In an educational setting, materials will be hosted on a server at the

institution that they are typically used at.

• It can range from a few dollars a month for a package up to thousands

of dollars per month for high traffic sites with many interactive features and
large databases.

• Bandwidth considerations become an issue when have high volume of

learners accessing your material online.

• When e-learning is delivered to a massive audience, a large amount

of bandwidth is needed.

• If the bandwidth isn't available, users will have their browsers time
out or just grow impatient waiting.

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Instructional Game Characteristics

• Video games play an important role in today's media world.

• video games are now costing as much as a full-length feature film to
develop

• Video games can be used in an instructional setting to motivate

learners, as well as provide positive learning results.

• Researchers have suggested that a systematic examination of game

factors or game characteristics should help in refining theoretical
formulations of effective instruction.

• These game characteristics are fantasy, rules and goals, sensory

stimuli, challenge, mystery, and control.

• These characteristics provide a common vocabulary for describing the

core elements of instructional games.

Fantasy

• Entertainment includes escape from everyday normal life. Jumping

into an imaginary world full of different wonders distinct from normal life
without facing the consequences of one's actions.

• fantasy becomes an important characteristic of instructional gaming.

Throwing players into a fantasy world can be an excellent learning
experience.

The player has entered a world with no consequences. Also,

• the lessons needing to be learned become much more extensive when
the player is in a fantasy universe of much more interest.

• Learning core, real life fundamentals while acting as an exciting

fictional character in a fictional environment can lead to more successful
results because learning has now become entertaining.

Rules and Goals

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• When playing a game, one is usually working towards completing an
overall goal.

• the goal and rules are another important characteristic of games.

• When in a game, normal rules and constraints of real life are

suspended, and new rules are put into effect.

• if the player breaks the rules in a game, play is stopped and brought
back into the boundaries of the game, keeping the player on track towards
completing the goal.

• The goal in a game is always given to the player in a clear and

specific way.

• For example, when feedback in a game indicates that the player's

current performance is not meeting the requirements to complete a goal, he
or she is compelled to work harder.

Challenge

• When being motivated to complete a goal, an individual must be

challenged by the goal at hand.

• This concept applies heavily to instructional video games.

• There are several ways in which an optimal level of challenge can be

obtained.

• The goals within the game should be clearly specified, but the path to
achieve the goal should be left up to the player.

• Keeping the player challenged throughout the game can be done by

increasing the complexity of the goals.

• The game should also involve progressive difficulty levels, so that a

first time player can pick the game up and not be overly challenged.

• a master of the game can still be challenged to find new ways to

complete a goal.

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• Statistics and score keeping allow the player to keep track of him or
her performance in the game

• Finally, the goals in the game must be meaningful to player to

enhance the game experience.

• If a player sees purpose in the goal he or she is trying to achieve, he or

she becomes motivated to complete it, increasing the challenge in the game.

Mystery

• One of the most popular genres of movies and books is mystery.

• Mystery keeps the viewer or reader fully engaged because of the

curiosity to find out what is going to happen next.

• Mystery is also an important characteristic of video games.

• Video games need to keep the player curious enough to keep playing
until he or she achieves his or her goal.

• Curiosity can been broken down into two kinds:

– sensory curiosity and
– Cognitive curiosity.

Sensory curiosity is the interest evoked by novel sensations,

• cognitive curiosity is a desire for more knowledge.

• Sensory curiosity is achieved by sensory stimuli, making the player

want to see what amazing visuals or sounds throughout the game.

• Different thrills keep the player immersed to see how many new and
exciting situations he or she can get into.

• Cognitive curiosity is achieved by story, characters, and environments

in the game, as well as creating the desire to see the rewards by completing
the goals in the game.

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• If a game can create a successful premise the player will be motivated
to progress through the game.

Control

• the feeling of being in control is comforting. Control is the final

important characteristic of a game.

• Games allow the player to have a sense of control in choosing

strategies, directing activities, and decision making that directly affects the
outcome of situations.

• the game needs to dictate certain aspects of what the player can and
cannot do,

• In instructional gaming, research that has compared effects of

program control versus player control on user reactions and motivation has
yielded consistently positive results.

The ability to choose the way to accomplish a learning goal will allow for
the player to be more motivated to complete the goal, as well as enjoy the
process better.

• If a goal in an instructional game is gaining knowledge on a certain

subject, allowing the player control of the steps to reach this knowledge can
be very beneficial.

Video Games for Instructional Purposes

• The use of video games for instructional purposes can have great
advantages.

• The control of the steps in completing an educational goal, breaking

away from the usual linear way of learning.

• Instructional games allow the learner to enjoy gaining knowledge

because games throw the player into a fantasy world void of real life rules
and boundaries.

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• Making a mistake in a fantasy world only results in trying again
without facing the consequences.

• Rules in a game keep the player focused and on track toward

completing learner goals while not over challenging him or her nor making
learning too easy.

• Video games are also highly entertaining, making use of sensory

stimuli to shock the player's senses and creating situations in a game that are
not possible in real life.

• Games also evoke curiosity in the player by using mystery.

• Wanting to progress through the story in a game or to find out what

bizarre situations will pop up next will motivate the player to complete the
learning goals

• adding in goals that will lead to the acquisition of knowledge can be a

very refreshing thing in today's technological world.

Delivering E-Learning Synchronously

 The online training that can be delivered through various strategies.

 web-based training (WBT),
 computer based training (CBT),
 synchronous and asynchronous

 Web-based training allows for a large population of people who are in

various places in the world to experience e-learning through the use of text,
streaming media and graphics.

 Computer based training is an alternate means of

 delivering web-based e-learning via LAN, the Internet, or most
commonly a CD-ROM.

 Synchronous (live) meetings allow learners and the instructor to meet

and conduct teaching and learning at the same time though they are
physically in different locations.

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 The method of asynchronous e-learning is an independent self paced
training that does not require an instructor.

 It can occur at anytime and for irregular intervals of time.

 Synchronous E-Learning
 The method of Synchronous e-learning delivery offers the benefit of a
live classroom via the Internet.

 According to a survey done in 2001 and 2002 WebEx and Centra

were the leading technology platforms for delivering synchronous e-
learning.
About WebEx and Centra
 Centra is an enterprise web conferencing and online learning
environment that combines a highly interactive virtual training classroom,
online meeting.

 WebEx is a product for providing on-demand collaboration, online

meeting, web conferencing and videoconferencing applications.

Centra

 Centra Symposium allows for presenters and attendees to meet in a

real time setting incorporating voice and video.

 The system requirements for Centra are Windows 95, 98, Me, NT,
2000, and XP, Internet Explorer 4.01+, Netscape 4.08+, 28.8 Kbps or faster
network connection, and Pentium 166, 64 MB memory.

 In Centra, the presenters are the creators of the meetings and have full
control over the presentation; they also invite the attendees to the real time
sessions.

 The attendees attend the meeting using an ID provided by the

presenter(s).

 Centra features break out rooms and audio conferencing.

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WebEx

 WebEx allows users to collaborate in real time meetings using a

standard browser over the Internet that incorporates data, voice and video.

 WebEx synchronous meetings are hosted applications and therefore

do not require the users to purchase or install any special kinds of hardware
or software.

 It issupported by various browsers such as Windows, Macintosh,

Linux, and Solaris systems as well as Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox,
Netscape and Safari.
Synchronous E-Learning Features

1 • Audio and video conferencing

2 • Whiteboard - a virtual blackboard
3 • PowerPoint slides
4 • Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VOIP)
5 • Net surfing
6 • Video - streaming and prerecorded
7 • Chat application – text messaging
8 • Virtual break-out rooms
9 • Polls & quizzes
10 • Assessment tests (results fed back)
11 • Session record and playback

Exploring podcasts in education

 What is a podcast?
 What tools are required?
 Where do I find content?
 What are the educational
applications?
 How do I begin?
What is a podcast?
 “The practice of making audio files available online in a way that
allows software to automatically detect new files and download them.”
Wikipedia
 Podcasting is a means of one-to-many audio distribution via the
Internet.
 Term was coined from “iPod” and “Broadcast”

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Actually, it is not just audio
 Audio
 Audio with images
 Video
 Photos
 PDFs

Educational podcasting
 A podcast is "a method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio
programs or music videos, over the Internet ,on mobile devices and personal
computers...

 podcasting's is about creating content (audio or video) for an audience

that wants to listen or watch when they want, where they want, and how they
want.“

 Illinois Senator Barak Obama dedicates part of his official website to

podcasting WORKS IN (PC, Mac and Linux) platforms.

 NASA's website provides podcasts such as Science @NASA –that

gives subscribers an in-depth look at educational content by subject matter.

 Podcast.com's website lists six major categories of educational

podcasts covering news, literature, history, philosophy, languages and music
education.

 It encourages college students to "use your MP3 player to listen the

latest information on test prep, college admissions, and financial aid.

 Mansfield University encourage listeners to tune into their podcasts to

hear from current students about the realities of college.

 Podcast.net's 2006 'The Podcast Directory' lists

 1473 titles under "Learning & Instruction" &
 136 podcasts listed under "Kids & Teens>School".

 Continuing Education courses are also available for anyone interested

in learning how to create podcasts.

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 Corey Deitz (2006) provides both an online tutorial and a free online
course entitled, "Learn To Edit Audio Like A Radio Pro" accessible from the
About.com website.

 Andy Wibbelsof podcastingbootcamp.com offers an online course

delivered via a private ecampus along with teleseminar calls by phone for
$60-$120

 It uses include classroom lectures, sick day lectures, guest interviews,

student audio presentations, repurposed content for distance learning,
transcription for the deaf, read synthesized speech for the blind and recorded
exam review lectures.

 The University of Arizona (2006) provides podcasting support for its

faculty on their website and encourages faculty to use podcasts as a
complement to their course content.

 "Podcasting can be an effective complement to class lectures, a way

for students to deliver speeches and presentations, a tool to use with distance
learning courses, and a resource for remediation of students with learning
disabilities.

 The Education Podcast Network highlights submissions from

elementary students across the nation.

 Radio Willow Web in Nebraska boasts podcasts by kids for kids and
highlights works from students in Kindergarten through fifth grade.


 Podcasting is growing in popularity at all educational levels, from

kindergarten through graduate school.

 Whether for fun or while learning facts and sharing knowledge,

podcasting is the wave of our educational future.

Using podcasts in class or for homework

 Most podcasts use a weblog as their homepage. When you visit the
blog you should see links to audio files.

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 Podcasts can then be downloaded and transferred to a portable
mp3 player, recorded to CD-ROM for use in class, or students can be
directed to them for self-study purposes on the computer.

 Many of the ELT podcasts come with transcripts to help

understanding.

Podcasting in Education

 Publish student work

 Assess student learning
 Distribute school assignments
 Create archive of class lectures
 Interview guest experts
 Archive oral histories
 Communicate with parents
 Provide community outreach
 Create audio tours
 Provide public safety messages
 Access personal and professional development

Types of Podcasts

The nature of the medium

 A series of media based episodes, not one file.
 Podcasts from hundreds of series can be managed and accessed from
one application
 Podcast are often informal journals with dated sequential entries.

Strong points of podcasts?

 Audio can be listened to while doing other things.
 Adds a new dimension and learning style to the Internet.
 Efficient access to hundreds of sources in one application.

Where does the content come from?

 Traditional print, radio, and video publishers are re-publishing
existing and original content as podcasts.
 Universities are supporting standard and distance learning courses
with supplemental podcasts.

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 Museums and other organizations with an
educational purpose.
 Individual self-proclaimed content experts.
 Over 15,000 audio books available from Audible.com.
Opportunities for authentic
student products
 Sound-seeing tours
 Broadcast student audio plays
 Interviews with content experts
 Ongoing student produced “radio” talk shows about content learned

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