LTEC 5110 - Curriculum Design and Instructional Resources

What have you learned in the course about designing instruction from a multimedia perspective? We have reached the end of this summer class and I am relieved.  This class was loaded with content and assignments and from week one, I knew I would have to organize my time well to make sure I kept up with the workload.  I have learned a lot from this class.  It has so far been the one class that has introduced me to designing instruction sets.  Although this class had so many parts to the project and we used multiple media programs, I am glad is done and my projects are complete.  I have learned a lot of theory as well as multiple applications.  The biggest lesson I take from this class is to stick with the project, even if it seems daunting and to be proud of the work I have produced.  From the readings I learned that sometimes using too many media applications to teach a topic can be redundant and overload the learner.  As Clark (1983) sug...

What have you learned in the course about designing instruction from a multimedia perspective? We have reached the end of this summer class and I am relieved.  This class was loaded with content and assignments and from week one, I knew I would have to organize my time well to make sure I kept up with the workload.  I have learned a lot from this class.  It has been so far the one class that has introduced me to designing instruction sets.  Although this class had so many parts to the project and we used multiple media programs, I am glad is done and my projects are complete.  I have learned a lot of theory as well as multiple applications.  The biggest lesson I take from this class is to stick with the project, even if it seems daunting and to be proud of the work I have produced.  From the readings and learned that sometimes using too many media applications to teach a topic can be redundant and overload the learner.  As Clark (1983)...

For this week’s assignment, we were asked to combine all our previous instructional sets into a multimedia set, as a single web page.  In this web page, we were to include audio, video, images, and text instructions as a single form.  The most challenging part of this last project was deciding what to include, which format to use without making the instructions redundant or overload the learner.  Overload of content is something that Lang (1995) warned us about as he described the limited-capacity of information processing that humans have. What have you learned thus far about designing instruction? I have learned a lot from this project.  I learned to use programs I had not used before and although I am not an expert at any of them, I’m glad I got introduced to them and I hope to use them in the near future.  I learned that different students learn with different types of instructions and if I take anything out of this class, is this.  I also learned t...

How has your journey of learning to use multi and single media to teach been so far? What have you learned?  My journey in using multi and single media to teach has been very rewarding and challenging at the same time.  Prior to this class, I did not have any previous experience using Audition, Premiere Pro, or InDesign.  Out of all the applications we used for our instructional design sets, I have to say that the hardest one to learn was hands down InDesign.  I think if I had taken this class during a full-term semester, I would have had the time to really learn InDesign and enjoy it a bit more.  I would recommend that this program not offered this course as an eight-week course.  Although I found it to be the hardest application to learn, I also found it to be the most rewarding.  In the end, I was really happy with my ‘Audio/Visual’ assignment for week 10. As far as the other applications, I was already familiar with Photoshop and with Dreamweav...

What have you learned thus far about designing instruction from a video media perspective? What was beneficial? What was difficult? How did it change the way you think about learning and teaching?  What is helpful about using video versus a single medium for delivering instruction? For this week’s assignment, my instructional set changed from text and audio to video only instructions.  Doing this video project made me realized that you have to have the right equipment, such as video camera, light, software, space, tripod, etc. in order for the project to turn up nicely.  Sadly, I had an outdated camera, poor lighting and couldn’t get anyone to assist me in some of the shots.  I also made the mistake of shooting some videos with an iPhone and some with my old camera and I didn’t realize the size of the videos were going to be different.  I had to re-shoot several of the videos due to this problem. Positives There are a lot of positives for using video for in...

What is different about developing instruction with both images and audio combined? Are there limitations? Benefits? If so, what are they? For this week’s assignments, we changed our instruction set to include text, audio, and images.  This has been so far the most challenging part of this project because InDesign is a program that cannot be learned in a matter of a couple of weeks and because the content is extensive.  Watching the training videos were not enough to understand how InDesign behaves, particularly how rollover and buttons behave.  InDesign is also a program that has so many options, menus, layers, etc. that it becomes daunting to get all the content to communicate properly with one another.  Having the limitation of working with only one page made the assignment a bit more difficult to manage as one has to repeatedly hide and unhide layers. Is it more efficient? Do you think about how you instruct someone differently? Using multimedia to create i...

What have you learned thus far about designing instruction from a multiple media perspective? What I have learned about designing instruction from a multiple media perspective is that if one doesn’t have a clear picture of how the multiple media aspects work and behave with one another, the work can become frustrating.  I would have liked to have had a better understanding of how roll over effects behave because this is the one area of this week’s assignment that I had the most trouble with. Looking back, I should have spent more time developing a sketch concept for each individual layer and one for the whole project. How do you think the use of audio-visual instruction will benefit teaching and learning? What do you think will be potential issues with the use of audio-visual instruction? Audio-visual instruction can benefit teaching and learning as it has the ability to reach different kinds of learners.  Some learners learn best visually while others do best ...

This week’s project moved from image and text instruction to audio-only instruction.  I was dreading this part of the project because there isn’t anything I dislike more than the sound of my own voice.  Some people have the right voice for audio narration, I’m not one of those people.  Also, I am a bit self-conscious because I have a bit of an accent and it is very noticeable with certain words. What is different about developing instruction with audio? Is difficult to explain the difference between developing instruction with audio versus developing instruction with text or image.  The process and the applications used are totally different.  I needed to learn to use Audition, as I was new to this software and the process was long and tedious.  Between taking breaks from the Audition tutorials, I worked on my script.  Once I felt comfortable enough in the program, I was able to get started with the recordings fairly fast.  I did have to re-rec...

Sounds According to Alten (2002) sound is described as “vibrations that set into motion longitudinal waves of compression and rarefaction propagated through molecular structures such as gas, liquids, and solids” (p. 14).  Audio is the second most distributed medium of instructions, with text been first (Unwin & McAleese, 1988). How do you think the use of audio-only instruction will benefit teaching and learning? There are so many positives when it comes to using audio-only instruction.  Audio content is mobile friendly.  Learners can download the audio content to a CD, flash drive, smartphone, and iPads and play the recording anywhere, including in their car while driving to a vacation destination.  Audio files can also be managed easily, rewinding them or fast wording them as one chooses.  Audio files can also be used very effectively to teach someone a new language.  It allows the learner to do proper words pronunciation, something that text ba...

What have you learned thus far about designing instruction from a multiple media perspective? How do you think the use of visual-text instruction will benefit teaching and learning? What do you think will be potential issues with the use of visual-text instruction? How do you think it will impact your teaching and learning? What do you think is better about using both images and text? What not? How do you feel about using multiple forms of media instead of a single medium for delivering instruction? After working in InDesign this week, I feel like there so much in this program to learn.  This program can be a little intimidating at first as there are so many options and tools.  This program is a very powerful application which allows for the creation of very nice looking instructional material.  I think InDesign is perfect for designing content with both images and text as it provides a lot more freedom to do different kinds of layouts.  Other applications like ...

What is different about developing instruction with both images and text combined? Is it more efficient? Do you think about how you instruct someone differently? Are there limitations? Benefits? If so, what are they For this week’s assignment, our project changed from using image only instructions to a combination of multimedia, using images and text.  We also switched to another program, this week it was InDesign.  I am new to InDesign and I don’t know if the quick tutorials were enough for me to feel comfortable with all of my work, but I tried my best.  I’m glad I learn a new application and hope to put it to good use doing instructional material at work.  I will just need to come back and finished watching all the other tutorials. With the combination of images and text, my layout changed from the previous week.  Although at first, I wanted to include an image next to each step, I felt some steps were easy enough and descriptive enough that they didn’t n...

Reflect on what you have come to understand about the design of instruction that primarily or exclusively employs a single media such as graphics to teach. What did you learn about designing instruction from a single media perspective? What are its limitations? How is it beneficial? How can/will you use it for teaching and learning in the future?   What are the limits to the use of media in general for learning and teaching? If Clark is correct, why do we bother? How did this perspective change the way you think about learning and teaching? For week four, our project changed from text-based instructions to using only visual images.  After reading the instructions and looking at the examples, I thought I had this assignment figured out but that was not the case.  Although I’m fairly familiar with Photoshop, I had to start and re-start my Photoshop documents a few times because I accidentally skipped a design step or because I had to remove a step.  Even after dra...

On week three, we covered color theory and visual design.  I really enjoyed this week’s reading content.  Some of it was familiar to me as I took a color theory class many years ago, during my undergrad course work but some of the content was new to me or I had forgotten all about it.  I have to say that I just find it fascinating that Sir Isaac Newton, a physicist, created the first color wheel.  How great is that? Color theory is a system of rules and guidance for mixing various colors for creating aesthetically pleasing content. Because color and the visual design of documents are a very powerful visual communication tool, it is extremely important for those who create instructional material to be mindful of their use.  For example, color can produce feelings such as happiness or sadness.  It can also imply associations like for example, red and white might be associated with Christmas, while black and orange are associated with Halloween (Schwertly, ...

Our activities for this week were on the topic of text and hypertext .  Our assignments required that we use only text or hypertext on our instruction set.  I really enjoyed all of the assignments for this week.  At work, part of my duties require that I create short, step-by-step instructions that the faculty or students can use to learn a simple task for a new software or application.  For very short instructions (half a page of less), I typically try to use simple text and limit the use of hypertext.  I do so when I want the user to focus on the simple task at hand.  Although I have not had professional training for developing instruction sets, I based my designs purely on the feedback I receive from my users. I don’t necessary think that using text-only format on an instruction set hurts or helps explain a subject matter.  I think deciding which format to use will depend on how easy or difficult it is to explain the topic.  If images or v...

Reflect on the following: What do you think you already know about the use of media for learning and teaching?  Discuss some examples of instances in which you have used media to teach or learn personally and how effective you found it to be.  I have done application/software training off and on for over 15 years. I’ve done workshops for PowerPoint, Excel, Access, Word, Outlook, ExamSoft, Blackboard, Photoshop, etc. Sometimes the training/workshops can go very smoothly and sometimes not so much. I remember my worst experience, it was a workshop for MS Access. My first mistake was agreeing to teach Access since it is not an easy software to understand or to teach, and my second mistake was offering it as a hands-on training for a large group. I quickly became aware that things were not going to go so well when I realized some users were not comfortable with the computer and didn’t know the difference between a right-click, a double-click, or a triple-click. Needles...

I just started my second semester for my masters’ program at UNT.  I was hesitant at registering for summer courses because I have a lot of home and work projects going on, including the replacement of all the windows at my house.  I need to learn to prioritize what’s most important and not take on so many projects.  I’m nervous about taking two summer courses because the courses are short but full of reading content and assignments.  For the first week of class, I have 12 assignments do.  I need to organize my week’s calendar so that I can complete all assignments on time.  Yesterday, I worked on creating my weekly folders and subfolders so that I can begin my semester in a more organized way than I did last semester.  There other tools that I want to use to keep track of my reading assignments, etc. This week’s reading assignments include topics: ADDIE ID (Gustafson, Branch)  Computer Mediated Communication (Romiszowski, Mason)  De...