Creating Engaging

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Creating Engaging Online Materials
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http//www.extension.washington.edu/ol/
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Workshop Goals

• This workshop offers guidelines and tips for
  repurposing your content for effective electronic
  presentation, including
• enlivening your online writing as you convert
  lectures to online material
• converting text to graphics that convey clear,
  useful information and
• creating an interactive learning environment
  where you and your students can engage in
  discussions and share documents.

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Workshop Objectives

• When you complete this workshop, you will be able
  to
• convert printed material and narratives into
  attractive and effective online text consistent
  with Web conventions
• judge when it is appropriate to convert textual
  facts to graphics
• create graphics that convey useful information
  accessible to a wide range of abilities and
• create, facilitate, and monitor online
  discussions to help foster a sense of community
  among learners.

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Formatting Text Why?

• Writing for the Web is very different from
  writing for print
• 79 of users scan the page instead of reading
  word-for-word
• Reading from computer screens is 25 slower than
  from paper
• Web content should have 50 of the word count of
  its paper equivalentJakob Nielsen, Writing for
  the Web

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Formatting Text

• Journalistic Style
• rewrite in top-down form
• use active voice
• address learners as you
• edit for shorter sentences and paragraphs
• limit scrolling

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Formatting Text

• Chunking
• divide material into pieces by subject
• split up long paragraphs and sections
• add heads and subheads
• think about printing
• avoid fragmentation and redundancy

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Your Turn
Take five minutes to organize the material in the
unedited text document into topical chunks.
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Formatting Text

• Visual Style
• consistent representation of key textual elements
  as visual cues to meaning
• establish a style sheet
• choose type style and size for body copy, heads,
  and special terms
• select layout color or pattern keep it simple
• add icons and graphics as needed

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Formatting Text

• Focus and Review
• add a summary after significant chunks
• highlight key terms
• craft study or review questions
• devise activities to apply knowledge

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Formatting Text

• Linking
• supplement information in the narrative
• expand access to material resources and people
• add learner activity, interaction, and sharing
• focus on credible, established institutions that
  are major resources
• avoid overuse

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Using Graphics Objectives

• By the end of this unit, you will be able to
• decide when graphics are appropriate in your
  online materials, and justify your choices
• distinguish between "information" and "noise" in
  a graphic
• describe some ways to make graphics accessible to
  persons with visual disabilities
• explain why "alt tags" are necessary, and write
  useful ones and
• find existing graphics and use them ethically.

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What Can Graphics Do?

• Graphics can
• illustrate the flow of a process or
  cause-and-effect
• display or compare statistics, trends, or other
  related facts
• reveal information not readily obvious or
  evident
• illustrate a concept or convey an emotion and
• provide an alternative way to convey information
  for more visually-oriented learners.

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Illustrate the flow of a process, or cause and
effect
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Display or Compare Statistics, Trends, or Other
Related Facts
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Reveal Information not Readily Obvious or
Evident
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Illustrate a Concept or Convey an Emotion
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Your Turn
Discussion Question What are some other uses for
graphics?
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Noise versus Information, and Accessibility
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Your Turn
Discussion Questions Is this graphic easy to
read? Is it attractive? Does every element in it
provide useful information? What information does
it provide?
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One Solution A Variety of Dotted Lines
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Another Solution Lines of Different Weight
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Whats the Missing Graphic?
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Alt Tags Describe What We Should Be Seeing
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Alt Tags Are Useful for All Viewers
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Finding Ready-made Graphics Online
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Clip Art
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Clip Art
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Google Images
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Google Images Results
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Closeup of Results
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Facilitating Discussion Objectives

• By the end of this unit, you will be able to
• choose an appropriate discussion tool for your
  learners and purposes
• craft meaningful discussion assignments
• set standards for performance and participation
  and
• facilitate and monitor online discussions to help
  foster a sense of community among learners.

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Facilitating Discussion

• Discussion Tools
• e-mail Pine, WebPine, UMail
• forums or discussion boards GoPost
• blogs WordPress
• chat or instant messaging Windows
• audioconferencing C C Teleconferencing
• collaboration Peer Review, Portfolio, Share
  Space, GoPost attachments

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Facilitating Discussion

• Discussion FAQs
• What makes a compelling forum question?
• How do I encourage interaction and response?
• What is my role in an online discussion?
• Should I require participation?
• How do I evaluate participation?

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Facilitating Discussion

• Meaningful Assignments
• connect the assignment clearly to the material
  and your educational purpose
• relate to learners experiences
• focus on application and reflection rather than
  declarative knowledge
• ask questions or pose problems that have multiple
  answers, strategies, or approaches

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A Bad Example

• Dont try this at homeSome critics feel the
  United States is less prepared against a
  terrorist attack than we were in 2000. Discuss.
• Whats wrong with this prompt?

Your Turn
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Your Turn
Using the guidelines for meaningful assignments,
take five minutes to draft a discussion prompt
related to the material in the Influenza lesson.
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Facilitating Discussion

• Standards
• cover both rules for learner interaction and
  expectations for deliverables
• write clear, succinct, and complete descriptions
  and instructions
• include models and examples
• create and provide evaluation rubrics

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Creating an Assessment Rubric
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Facilitating Discussion

• Facilitation Guidelines
• decide your role and communicate it-set learner
  expectations early
• respond promptly
• facilitation vs. moderation
• vary your response none, individual, or group
• consider peer facilitation, small groups
• respond to problems privately

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Catalyst User Experience Project

• Help us design for your needs
• Initial and quarterly surveys
• Invitations to focus groups interviews
• 2-3 hours/year
• Hear from us
• Semi-annual newsletter
• 1-3 quarterly emails

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Evaluation

• http//catalyst.washington.edu/workshops/
• engage.html

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Contact Information

• Joe Dial jdial_at_extn.washington.edu206-685-6511
  
• Jan Kinney jkinney_at_extn.washington.edu206-685-63
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