Designing an Online Course...
It is vital today for educators to take into consideration the amount of media technology available to students for use in the classroom, lecture theatre and at home. There is a greater use of technology available for both students and educators than ever before as the film clip below demonstrates...
With this in mind it is vital for online course creators and developers to invest wisely in the material that they create and produce for their online courses. This blog will look at some of the pitfalls of online course creation from an aesthetic perspective.
According to J. Williams (2007) 'a key, overreaching goal for any educator is to ensure that the student has a memorable online learning experience while achieving the desired learning outcomes.'
This is something that has stuck in my mind when I consider that students today are faced with so many different ways to learn about topics that just using new technology such as the IWB and the VLE are becoming second nature with them. Using the VLE or an online learning environment is no longer gimmick enough to get student attention. The important thing today is creating a visually attractive web environment to grab student's attention. The problem is that many VLE providers are still in their infancy and provide user interfacers that are more functional than aesthetic and as Rosamelia Parrizotto-Robeiro and Nick Hammond (2009) argue there is a strong link between ‘aesthetics and usability’.
There are a number of factors that can help making online courses more aesthetically pleasing and user friendly:
The colours that you use.
The icons/images that you use.
The film clips that you use.
The font that you use.
This blog page will examine different aspects of designing an online course, supported by academic support, and explain why they are important for students. I am going to start this page with a look at why fonts are important for attracting student attentions.
The Importance of Fonts...
The first thing that students notice on an online course is the font that is used (Kirsten Thompson, 2008). We all know the debates about the use of Comic Sans over Arial or Times New Roman. One is more attractive to students than the other. What we as online course designers may need to consider is that it can do more than just transfer information to students - it can actually be viewed as a graphic element which can contribute to what, and how, you may want your learners to learn. It can also increase enthusiasm for an online learning environment.
I never used to put a lot of thought into fonts until I heard a student remark that she found one of my VLE pages easier to use than another because of font style. I tend to stick to Calibri and the one she was enjoying using was Comic Sans - this got me thinking that most us, whether designing a worksheet or online material don’t actually put too much thought into the fonts that we use. This is an amusing film clip that I found called Font College about using fonts.
Top Tips for Using Fonts when Designing
Online Course Material
Use a sans serif font if possible (without tails) for your text (Arial is the main font used for online content by most schools and you want yours to stand out)!
Use a 12pt size font.
Avoid the use of italics (text can sometimes appear as though letters are merging with each other).
Avoid using uppercase letters only (can be difficult for some learners to read).
Ensure a good contrast between background and font colour.
Colour blind learners can be disadvantaged if colour is used to hi-light important concepts or information.
Don’t Judge a book by It’s Cover… but we do…
The phrase ‘never judge a book by it’s cover’ is an important one to consider when designing an online course… because all people do judge websites and VLEs by the way that they look. It can turn us off or turn us on (Tom Kuhlman, 2009). Having developed the History VLE at my school for the last 18 months, with student input, I am now coaching staff about online course design using student quotes to help convince staff that VLEs have to be more than ‘storage areas for teacher’s notes and PPTs’ (WHS Student Quote, 2009).
One of the most common complaints from students accessing new online content from staff creating VLE material for the first time is that the courses look unprofessional and uninviting mainly due to the lack of images, icons and creativity. They find that because the online content looks boring at first glance that they switch off and click on different areas of the VLE.
D. Norman (2004) put across the point of view that there are three levels of emotional response by online course users in regards to visual content, i.e. fonts, icons and images used. He suggests that:
- A learner’s enjoyment of an online course is based upon visceral images and not cultural background.
- The more an online designer enjoys designing an online course the more the visual learner will enjoy using the online content.
- The design of the online content will impact upon the success of the learner.
A key aspect of designing online course content and maintaining student interest is that course designers should consider using more consistent graphics and design elements on the different web pages – often difficult to do on VLEs.
Once designers have selected an appropriate font they need to consider carefully the graphics that they will use. If you want to include boxes, buttons, and arrows then you should make a concerted effort to maintain the same style.
In addition, make sure that you don’t mix and match clip art – try to have a consistent style as it will maintain your student’s interest. Also using the same style of clip art or images will maintain a sense of consistency for your students. It will make your content look like it all belongs together. You can search the web for some fantastic online images that can really jazz up online content which will encourage students to complete tasks (Ngo, T 2003). This may mean throwing away some of your tried and trusted clip art and spending some time looking for fantastic icons and images.
It is really important when designing online content to make sure that you maintain image quality. Always start with the best image you can find to represent your ideas or instructions and go from there. One piece of advice when looking for images on the internet is to look for PNG rather than gifs or jpegs as this will help you to avoid pixelation, most importantly don’t scale up small images. You’re better off not using small images than putting a poor quality image on your online course as it will look unprofessional on the computer screen. You want everything about your course to look the best quality that you can (Kuhlman, T 2010).
Not everyone will become a graphic design pro overnight. In fact, the goal isn’t to be a graphic design pro. Instead, the goal is to understand basic design principles and then apply them to your online courses to make them enticing and user friendly for students accessing them at home.
While the course is still dependent on solid instructional design and relevant educational content, coupling that with good visual design is actually essential to making sure that your online course will be that much more effective and engaging for your learners.
Baldwin (2004) does argue that ‘the separation of style and content is the next step in the web's evolution, something to which VLEs are ideally suited. We need to think more about the cake and less about the icing on the top’ even though it is the icing that attracts you to the cake in the first place.
Film Clips (You Tube) as an Online Course Enticer...
One sure fire way to bring your online course to life would be to include the use of film clips, short animations and You Tube clips.
Students from Brighton University made valid points in a recent survey into effective online course. They listed a number of online resources that they would like to see e-learning courses have to make them a valid and worthwhile addition to the University learning experience. One group of Art and Design students were quoted as saying "We were shown bookbinding ages ago but I could do with a recap. Putting something online wouldn't mean we could stop going to the demonstration, but it would help us learn later." This is a classic example of blended learning and a clear statement as to why film clips and You Tube extracts would be excellent addition to online courses. It also breaks up the monotony of pure written content.
Conclusion:
I strongly feel that the nature, design and layout of an online course can have a great influence on the success of student learning that will take place. All of the literature infers that a good design must be in symmetry with the course content. Online learning environments, such as VLEs, must be as accessible to students as web pages and Internet sites. They can no longer be used as a dumping ground for resources or storage areas for course notes and lesson resources.
Bibliography:
Biggs, J. (1987), Student Approaches to Learning and Studying, Australian Council for Educational Research, Hawthorn, Victoria.
Kuhlman, T, (2010), http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning
Looi, C. K. (1998), Interactive learning environments for promoting inquiry learning. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 27(1), 322.
Parrizotto-Robeiro, P and Hammond, N, (2009), Does Aesthetics Affect the Users Perceptions of VLE?, Department of Psychology, York, England
Trinnick, M, (2008), Getting the Most out of your VLE, Independent Education Today,
Williams, J, (2006), A Theoretical Framework for Online Course Design, Journal of Online Teaching and Learning.
Williams, J.B. & Goldberg, M. (2005). "The evolution of eLearning’. 22 nd ascilite conference, Brisbane, Australia.
