Inspire Blog Category: Multimedia

Before Recording Narrated Slides: #1 Copyright

Curious what an Ecampus Instructional Designer is looking for when they approve slides for narrated lectures?  It certainly depends on the course content. Generally, the top three things I am looking at are copyright, accessibility, and aesthetics. For this post, I am going to focus on copyright and I will return to the other topics in a future post.  A copy of the slides, which includes links to helpful materials, is available below the video as well as a list of resources. https://youtu.be/49DNaOW82Ho Slides: Copyright Considerations for Narrated Slides Resources: Creative Commons Search (may require attribution) Flaticon (requires attribution) Freepik (requires attribution) Unsplash (does not require attribution)
by · June 5, 2019

The Value Of Images In Online Learning

What’s An Image’s Value? Have you ever created an online course without using images? No? That is not surprising as images can convey emotions, ideas, and much more. Their value is often captured in an old adage: A picture is worth a thousand words. This article will discuss the value of images in online course design and how using visuals to accompany instruction via text or narration might contribute to or detract from an online learning experience. Let’s begin. Multimedia Learning: Images, Text, and More Online learning is a modern form of multimedia learning. Richard Mayer (2009) described multimedia learning as that learning that integrates the use of words and pictures. In traditional classrooms these learning resources might be experienced … The Value Of Images In Online Learning
by · May 13, 2019

Lecture Videos: Short & Sweet

When teaching face-to-face, you might break your lectures into weeks because you will only meet with students once or twice a week.  You hope to give them all the information they need during your face-to-face sessions for them to successfully complete work independently between classes. While a typical face-to-face lecture can span 50-90 minutes, there is evidence to suggest shortening the length for your online students may be a better practice.  Your online students may be in and out of your course many more times than they would be face-to-face and this gives you the opportunity to think about designing your video lectures differently.  Organizing your lectures topically, rather than weekly can be a powerful way to redesign your course. … Lecture Videos: Short & Sweet
by · March 18, 2019

Exploring Podcasting For Online Courses

One of the common ideas instructors have to bolster student-content engagement in a course is to add media. Podcasts are a type of media element that can support learning in a number of ways. It is relatively easy to link to an established podcast. Planning and producing your own podcast is more involved. This post explores the idea of producing a podcast for your online course. Is it something you should consider? Prior to diving into the value and purpose of podcasts it is useful to understand what a podcast is…and what it isn’t. The term podcast is a portmanteau of “iPod” and “broadcast”. This blended word says a lot because a podcast is a digital recording that is produced … Exploring Podcasting For Online Courses
by · August 3, 2018

Game Design as Pedagogy (Project-Based Learning)

Many educators have contemplated the use of games as way to engage learners, or maybe thought about using some elements found in games to engage learners. A big hurdle for integrating games into a course is the amount of work it takes to build them to use in a course, even if you have the skill-set. Of course, you could always take the easier route and try to integrate an existing game into a course. The hurdles there involve cost and finding a game that supports the content specific to your course. There is another approach to bring game concepts into the learning environment that does not necessitate a huge investment of time, combining game design with problem-based learning. Create … Game Design as Pedagogy (Project-Based Learning)
by · July 30, 2018