Greetings,
Here is a Web-based version of my ECEL09 conference presentation on the topic:
Online Presentation Strategies for Visual Learners
http://www.programhouse.com/webpres/phecel09pres1.htm
This Web-based PowerPoint presentation (optimized for the Internet Explorer browser) outlines the major points of a (peer-reviewed) paper that provides a foundation for identifying and measuring learning styles in an online course, how online learners can accommodate divergent teaching styles, and how online teachers can accommodate divergent learning styles.
The presentation continues with a description of how these research findings have been initially applied in the author’s online courses as the basis for subsequent action research focusing on usability of these techniques within an online learning environment.
The instructional techniques of this innovation are described in terms of how online teachers can search, select, encode, and annotate video segments, still images, animations, and other visual types of information in course management systems within the context of legitimate re-use tactics and data repository use that conform to established intellectual property conventions for public domain, licensed, and fair use of existing visual materials.
Presented at the 8th European Conference on e-Learning, University of Bari in Bari, Italy on 29-30 October 2009.
http://www.academic-conferences.org/ecel/ecel2009/ecel09-home.htm
Insights, experiences, and other comments welcome in reply,
Doc
I just wanted to say that the presentation is great! It’s nice to see all these technology created to help simplify education to learners (visual/ verbal). I believe that consentrating on visual learner needs in classroom then explaining it in the classroom would be helpful to both visual and verbal since the teacher is showing it for the visual learners and discussing it for the verbal learners to interact as well. I think technology is getting better and better in education, which will help in creating a bright future for the future generation!
Hi Nof, Thanks for your feedback. It appears from your comments that you share my goal of addressing the needs of learners with a strong visual preference for the presentation of information, so I am glad to know that this was helpful and that you are working on achieving these goals as well. Thanks and best wishes, Doc
Hi Doc,
I enjoy the use of videos in my on-line learning experience. I recently took a programming class and the teacher used the same style to deliver the class material to us. I enjoyed being able to read the material and as an added tool the teacher posted a presentation complete with step-by-step guides with his voice over explaining the material covered in the text, not to mention the tutorials that are all over the Internet. Nothing beats being in a face-to-face class, but using video presentations, powerpoint presentations, and tutorials certainly bridges the gap in my book.
Thanks Jennabeth, for elaborating your preferences for visual material in your online courses. I also appreciate it when learners embed videos in their discussion posts, but I realize that most course management systems do not make this an easy process, so it often involves advanced skills to achieve it. This is an area of unfulfilled user need.
Hi Doc, This blog/study was so interesting for me. I recently nominated a teacher at UMUC for an excellence award because she not only made an introduction & review video, but also covered all the major points in videos she made herself. She was a very hard physics/chem instructor, but her videos made me feel as though I knew her. I understood her personality and what was important to her for us learn but what she stressed verbally in the video. Online classes sometimes feel impersonal, so I greatly appreciated the time, effort and humility she took to make the videos. I thought about it for a long time and realized that it must be extremely difficult for a teacher to make these videos, not because of the technical aspects so much, but more because it is hard to put yourself out there like that. This teacher even more so, since she had a speech impediment and had several students who seemed a little hostile towards her. I feel her doing this took courage and I appreciated her effort. It made a huge difference in my grade in the end, since I watched the review video repeatedly and found that all the subjects covered were on the final.
Thanks Tara Li’ for sharing your experience as an online learner with a teacher who created and used videos to support learning. It does take a lot of time and effort to create and/or select/use relevant and effective video material, but from your testimonial to her effort and from the feedback I receive as an online teacher who uses videos, it appears worth the effort.