Educator's Voice

Volume 7, Issue 8
September 14, 2006

Blazing the Trail

Maps seem to be everywhere. You can read about unseen maps in books like "The Davinci Code." You can go online and use maps.google.com to find any place in the world. You can even buy a hand-held GPS locator map that makes the old AAA TripTik look like drawings in the sand. So, since maps seem to be quite popular, I'd like to suggest a new one. One that blazes a trail in your course. One that blazes a trail on the Internet. One that blazes a trail for education. I'd like you to consider a Learning Style Course Map.

While there are still some who deny the effectiveness of courses being offered online, most have come to understand that the research and experiences of thousands of online teachers and students has proven otherwise. In fact, a few pioneers in education even realize that there are things you can accomplish online that would be extremely difficult face to face. I'd like to suggest one such idea to you: Learning Style Course Maps.

Think about how great it would be as a student, to take a class geared specifically to your way of thinking or learning. Consider the outcomes of students who have participated in courses that speak to them in every sense of the word and on every level. What might it do to test scores? What could it do for learning outcomes assessment? What would it do for education?

The concept is relatively simple. Pick your favorite set of learning styles / indicators. Whether you choose Kolb's Type indicators, the Myers-Briggs personality suggestions, or even the base elements of visual, audio, and kinesthetic doesn't matter. There are dozens of theories pertaining to individual learning styles and you can use any as a starting point.

After you pick the learning style you feel is most appropriate for your students, you then need to find or create a learning style inventory or assessment. There are dozens out on the Web. You may want to use one from a resource that you have acquired. You might even want to build the assessment yourself using standard multiple choice entries in an exam or survey builder. The point is for an assessment to be available to students that will give them the answer to the question, "What is my learning style?"

Place the inventory at the beginning of your course. It should be one, if not the first, exercise they undertake upon entering your online course. As a pre-test, it is important to remind students that while they may receive points for participating, they will not gain or lose points based on any answers. Explaining the reasoning for the test is a good strategy here.

After creating the assessment, begin to look at your course materials. How are your lectures, notes, readings, etc. being delivered? They probably favor one of the main learning styles (most likely your own). Therefore, they are designed most effectively for that learning style. So, after determining how your materials favor one style, create duplicates of the content. For ease of an example, we'll use visual, audio, and kinesthetic. Often, online lectures are designed in visual format. We use graphics and text to illustrate our ideas and concepts. What if we took those same elements and placed them on a narrated PowerPoint? Suddenly, we're reaching the audio learners a little better. Now, what if we changed the lecture to an exercise that used physical activity on the part of the learner? Now, we've made an effort to help our kinesthetic learners! See what I'm getting at?

After you create your multiple lectures, assign them to groups or label them differently. Don't hesitate to continue using the same discussions, simulations, or quizzes for everyone, but now each of your learners has a unique trail through the course. Give access to these materials to any student, a group of students, or a specific learner, however you choose. (By the way, allowing everyone access is ideal as most people have multiple learning styles at work at any given time.) But now, your students will be able to contextualize the materials like never before. They will have a map to guide them through the learning experience. They will learn, apply, contextualize, and understand more than ever before.

The final step is easy. After your students are enrolled and class begins, have them take the pre-assessment. When they know their predominant learning style, place them in the appropriate group, or show them the right set of content items to use. In other words, give them their map through your course.

Think of how different learners will come together in the discussion area to bring meaning and perspective to the ideas you've presented! Placed within the contextual framework of the course, this map will be so easy to follow and have so many benefits. It can truly differentiate learning institutions. It can help distinguish excellent faculty. It can completely make a distinction for students who will appreciate the "personal" nature of the course.

So blaze your own trail. Set up the map for your learners to follow and guide them in. The extra work will be well worth the effort as we look to educate in ways that meet the demands of today's student mind. I hope you give this a try (even for only one unit of content) and see the outcome. I believe you'll enjoy the results that you see. As always, good luck and good teaching!

—Jeff D Borden, M.A.

TIP

Interactive Simulations and Software Demonstrations

Do you need to visually teach your students a piece of software? Wouldn't it be great if you could capture all of your onscreen actions and add text captions audio narration, and simple e-learning interactions without any programming knowledge? Well you can!

Adobe Captivate is a very easy way to create professional-quality, interactive simulations and software demonstrations in Flash format. Without any programming or multimedia skills, you can automatically record onscreen actions, including editable mouse movements, text captions, and scored click boxes. You can also add e-learning interactions such as data-entry fields and customizable quizzes. The small file size and high resolution of the Flash format makes Captivate ideal for rapid application training, user support tutorials, and online product demonstrations. It's so easy, anyone can do it! It's also easy to add to your eCollege course by using the File Manager and the Visual Editor.

For additional information about Adobe Captivate, please visit: http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/