Issues effecting the deployment of e-learning materials. Brian Mulligan Institute of Technology Sligo

We would like our materials to: Be Interactive Be Easy to Access Yield Useful Information

Delivery Mechanisms CDROM –Physical distribution –Updating difficulties Local Area Networks –Fast access –Local distribution only The Internet –Delivery over a distance –Bandwidth problems –Difficulties delivering anything other than HTML

Types of materials Text documents Graphics Video Audio Animation Multimedia Tests

Text documents MS Word –Lots of people know how to create these. –Not designed for viewing on the web –Avoid converting Word documents to web pages PDF format –Excellent tool for laying out documents –Most people can read PDF –PDF writer required

Text documents continued HyperText Markup Language (HTML) –Native language of web pages –Everyone can read these –Web editors easy to get –Can be made interactive (links, javascript) –Can easily organise sets of documents (web site) and refer to other resources on the web –For best results you need to learn a little HTML –Not as easy to get ‘pretty’ and reliable layouts. All can easily be distributed using all 3 mechanisms Mostly passive documents

Graphics Large colour pictures require a lot of storage Slow to load over the Internet –Consider reducing size –Consider reducing the number of colours –Use compressed format.jpeg – photogtraphs.gif – graphics May be embedded easily in text documents –Make them more readable/interesting –Can convey more information Easy to create using scanners, digital photographs Passive

Video Relatively easy to produce physically Most people can easily view them Require fast Internet access Cannot be viewed directly in a browser Special server software required for streaming Can be educationally useful Passive

Audio Low storage requirements compared to video Can be embedded in docucments (e.g. PowerPoint) Audio player required (most people have these) Can make documents more interesting Can help poor readers Passive

Animation A useful alternative to video Can show things that video cannot Lower storage and bandwidth requirements May require even more production skills and software than video Special player may be required which few people would have ( requires downloading skills) Passive

Multimedia based CBT Interactive learning materials Unrealistic to produce this in-house 100 development hours for every 1 hour of material May become widely available in future for commonly studied topics Special player required (usually) which few people would have (requires downloading skills) Some authoring systems claim to produce CBT which can be played on a browser (without plug-in) Can collect data about student performance but not necessarily share it. A lot of poor multimedia materials about (electronic page turning) – must be well designed as educational CBT

Tests Computerised Objective Tests Multiple choice, Hotspot etc PC or Web based Very easy to create questions and tests but not quite so easy to design Can be very powerful for assessment Students like the feedback (can be embedded in web pages, multimedia) To be most useful it should be able to: –Collect data on student performance –Share data on student performance (to do this on the Internet requires server software)

My Personal Views The Internet is the most flexible means of delivery and web pages are the most flexible format I will avoid doing much CBT development until: –I can run it on the Internet without ‘plug-ins’ (or ‘plug-ins’ become standard) –I can share data generated with other applications –Authoring systems can reduce development time. In purchasing CBT, sharing of data with other applications will be very important in the future

My Personal Views continued In Computer Assisted Assessment (CAA) collection and sharing of data are also crucial (requires more sophisticated software on the Web) Video and Animation are worth pursuing but ensuring the student has the skills to access it may be important. Audio and Graphics should be an easy way to enhance passive text based materials. Embedding a little interactivity will improve materials also. Keep it Simple – Share Information