Inspire Blog Category: Multimedia

Citations in Online Discussions

In the classroom we often discuss readings and other sources of information. Because students are often accustomed to digital communications in which sources are rarely cited, they can benefit from guidance concerning your expectations regarding citation. The instructor for TCE 512, Psychology of the Adolescent, worked with Ecampus to create an infographic through which she provides such guidance. This infographic is licensed under a Creative Commons license, so you can feel free to download and post it in your own courses. Also, remember that we enjoy collaborating with Ecampus instructors to create innovative resources, so if you have any interesting ideas we would love to work with you!
by · July 20, 2015

We can revisit and revise multimedia

Recently, we added 24 new birds to this “silhouette shape recognition” interactive for FW312. This was the 3rd time we expanded this interactive tool, and it serves as a nice reminder that Ecampus can continue to help improve your course materials year after year.
by · September 2, 2014

Effective Narrated Presentations

When developing course material for online learning environments—especially narrated presentations—it is important to consider not only the content, but also the design of the material. If material is designed in a way that minimizes visual and cognitive distractions it will be easier for your students to engage with the content. A particularly effective paradigm in understanding the relationship between content and design can be found in cognitive load theory articulated by John Sweller (1988, 1999). When students are processing learning materials, their total cognitive load is made up of intrinsic cognitive load and extraneous cognitive load. The intrinsic cognitive load is the amount of mental energy required to process the content of the learning at hand. The extraneous cognitive load … Effective Narrated Presentations
by · April 30, 2014

Could you use a quick cartoon?

The multimedia developers at Ecampus have the tools and experience to quickly generate cartoons for your course, illustrating hard to describe (or photograph) concepts with a dash of charm. Here are three recent examples of the quick cartoons we can make – each completed in about a week – with some insights into the development process.
by · October 18, 2013

Digital Timelines

Digital timelines are a great way to display a series of events in your online course. They can be used to capture historical events or a series of steps that occur in specific order, for example, a lab activity. TimelineJS is an easy to use online tool that allows you to create a timeline by pulling in various types of online media such as video, images, and maps from easy to integrate sites such as Twitter, Flickr, Google Maps, YouTube, Vimeo, Vine, Dailymotion, Wikipedia, and SoundCloud. The magic happens in a Google spreadsheet and it is as simple as inserting dates, links, and text into the appropriate columns. If you are interested in having Ecampus create a timeline for you … Digital Timelines
by · August 21, 2013