Having just returned from a week of judging the the eLearning 18+ category
at this year's EMMA judging session, I am wondering if those are the wrong
questions to be asking. Techhie questions around design are totally wrong.

I saw the first glimmerings of eLearning getting it right and would be
interested if others are seeing this as well.

First off the questions asked revolve around the technology. These are
people we are dealing with here. Never forget that. Therefore the technology
should be transparent or appropriate to the learning objectives. But I think
you have to look deeper.

Most Colleges, Universities and Private sector institutions approach this
from the perspective of a physical paradigm. There is a class room. There is
a teacher. There are books and so on. Then they spend upwards of $50,000 to
develop what I call a digital in basket. I review the online material and
respond by email with my assignments. In this case the objectives are doomed
to failure and the money should have been spent on postage.

I saw a site this week, that simply shreds that paradigm and throws it on
the dung heap. The site is:

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/B/blackhistorymap/

From a design POV you will think "OH Yuck!" Instead go deeper and suddenly
eLearning becomes vibrant. The timeline allows you to review the
"literature" based on the time selected.

The actual learning is done through what the web does best - collaboration
and facilitation.

On the collaboration front a rather lively discussion board with threaded
conversations is available. They tell the visitors to create their own sites
on the subject and then point them to the tools that will allow them to do
it. Suddenly a dry subject takes on a personal dimension. Check out the
videos. No BBC here. They are snippets of independent productions. They even
give the learner an opportunity to add to the link collection by adding to
the knowledge base.

The facilitation is subliminal, but it is there. The provision of the web
tools , the list of links, the literature and so on are simply there and
are there to facilitate the learning not hamper it.

Another site I reviewed-

http://prince.byu.edu/so_courses/provo/eng115/frameset.htm

Does exactly the same thing only with a lot less elegance and subtlety than
the Channel 4 site.

What ties these two sites, on opposite sides of the planet, together is a
solid pedagogical foundation designed to foster learning in a digital, not a
physical space.

In your rush to develop these cool online courses you need these principals
- collaboration, facilitation and pedagogy- to be clearly developed,
documented and agreed to before one flipping pixel is illuminated. If the
site design sucks, tough beans. If it fosters the course's learning
objectives and the students actually learn something then the project will
be a success.

OK, pile in!



> -----Original Message-----
> From: dreamweaver@blueworld.com [mailto:dreamweaver@blueworld.com] On Behalf
> Of Francis McNamee
> Sent: 19 October 2002 10:11
> To: Dreamweaver Talk
> Subject: designing online learning modules
>
> Are there industry standards relating to interface design for online learning
> modules? I am thinking specifically about the following:
>
> 1. What screen resolution to design for?
> 2. Navigation button location, top, bottom, left?
> 3. Is scrolling acceptable?
> etc
>
> Any advice or links to such resources would be greatly appreciated.
>



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