Friday Feature: Visual Design

The"Eyes" Have It!

No doubt you have heard that we are now in the digital age, are constantly being bombarded by a barrage of visual images, and that the learning style of the new generation of students is more visual than many of those in previous generations. So, what does that mean when creating online content for our students?  Do we just add a bunch of images, slideshows, videos, etc., to our courses? Not quite.

Adding images to learning is vital. Allowing learners to absorb content using more than one cognitive channel, in addition to the text, is one way images can enhance the learners experience. But of course, we don't want to add images just to add images. We can utilize images to help with the navigational structure of a course. Different fonts and typeface can be used to separate elements when a lot of text is necessary. Appropriately sized graphics and color can also be used to draw the eye to a certain place.

A blog post, by Neha Goel (Nov. 14, 2014), highlights 4 questions to ask yourself before using visuals in your course:

1.     Do visuals decrease the content overload?

2.     Do visuals make the content comprehensible?

3.     Do visuals help keep learners connected to the course?

4.     Do visuals convey what you wish to tell the learner?

Read Goel’s complete blog post here:

http://blog.commlabindia.com/elearning-design/role-of-visuals-in-elearning

What kinds of projects can you do with your students to help them sort through the barrage of information? I just learned a new word—“infopics”. An infopic is a photo with text layered on top that is designed to communicate a message. To learn more about it, watch this video:

 




I hope you got some ideas from watching the video that you want to use with your students. AEA PD Online would love to hear how you incorporated infopics into your classroom. 

Please share with us!

In the Spotlight

Class Responder is a service that teachers can use to distribute quizzes to students and gather results as soon as students answer the quiz questions. ClassResponder can be used through your web browser or through their free iPad apps. There is an app for teachers and an app for students. Students don't have to create accounts to participate. Students simply enter your classroom code to join your ClassResponder activities.

It also offers pre-made quizzes. Like other student response systems, Class Responder is a way to deliver short review quizzes to your students. You can use the service to make quizzes to use at the end of a lesson to quickly check for your students' understanding of your lesson's main points. You can turn on ClassResponder's instant feedback option for your students so that they don't have to wait until everyone is done before they see their own scores.



Peggy Steinbronn, Ed.D.

AEA PD Online Instructional Designer

www.aeapdonline.org