When creating an online course, it can be tempting to transfer traditional lectures straight into pre-recorded videos. While recorded video lectures, like the one I'm in right now, will continue to play an important role in online education, there are more options than video alone. Multi-modal learning objects such as video, audio files or infographics when done well, can enhance a learner's experience, assist you as an educator in activating a range of learning modalities, and allow for rich and dynamic learning to take place. We will explore this further throughout this course. A well-placed multi-modal learning object sits within a learning sequence when you're scaffolding an online course. Multi-modal learning objects should be intuitive, simple, effective content that is easy to navigate and considers cognitive load. Supportive, through the design of online learning communities that foster deep learning and peer engagement. Collaborative, involve the learner through interactivity and flexibility that promotes active learning. Engaging, create connection or emotion through the use of multi-modal text types such as video, audio, and infographic. In this lesson, we will introduce you to four principles to help inform the design, development, and implementation of your own multi-modal learning objects. The four principles are: purpose, space, time, and role. Now let's explore these principles in more detail. Principle number 1, purpose. Obvious consideration is, what is the purpose of the learning object? As an educator ask yourself, what is it that I want to create and why? There may be times when the purpose of the learning object is quite clear. For example, the purpose of this video is to help you meet the learning objective, develop and understand best practice design principles, and help prepare you for the graded assessment later in the week. However, on some occasions, the purpose of the learning object you are making may not be entirely clear when you start out and may evolve over time. Let's consider a three-step process that will help you to realize the purpose of your multi-modal learning object. Step 1, what learner action do you want priming? Do you want your learners to investigate, practice, produce, collaborate, discuss or acquire knowledge? Step 2, what connection are you offering learners and how can you promote learner engagement with the multi-modal learning object you're going to create? We can engage and connect with our learners through four powerful knowledge emotions: surprise, interest, curiosity, and awe. I'll go through these in some detail now. You could use the knowledge of emotion of surprise by saying something out of the ordinary to get people's attention. For example, if pigs could fly, who would need to take on the responsibility of training them to land safely. You could use the interest knowledge emotion by passing on an interesting or novel statistic that your learners may not have heard of before. For example, the odds of an average person dying from contact with hornets or wasps or bees is one in 63,325. You could use the knowledge emotion of curiosity by saying something that could spark debate or encourage a learner to seek out the information for themselves. For example, did you know that bananas hops? Don't believe me? I encourage you to do your own research. Finally, the fourth knowledge emotion is awe. Feeling awe often involves a sense of feeling small, like when you look up at the night sky. This knowledge emotion is challenging for an educator to replicate but if you can do it, research shows that learners are likely to remember the experience. Step 3, how will the learning object that I plan to create prime my learners for active learning? What do I mean by active learning? Active learning is a method of learning in which learners are actively or experientially involved in the learning process. In short, as an educator, you are actively asking your learners to do something. By going through these three-step processes before designing your multimedia object, it will help clarify the purpose of the learning object. Our next principle is space. Learners of all ages are now invited to be partners in creating their learning environment. This consideration can also be extended to online learning. When creating a multimodal textile, take time to consider the space in which it will sit or come to life. To create a space for all the learners to thrive, you should ask, do learners have some flexibility in where and how they learn? For example, is it possible to use audio such as podcasts so that learning can be achieved anywhere, anytime? Are learners enabled to connect with you and each other? For example, is it possible for you to encourage discussion of an infographic that you display on screen during a live Zoom class? Does your online learning environments support both collaborative and individual study? For example, will it be possible for learners to communicate through an online discussion forum in your course, or are they are only required to study alone, and is that space alone is to share work and provide feedback? For example, is it possible for you to create a space where learners can view their peers work and provide asynchronous feedback? It's important to consider space when designing and developing a multi-modal learning object. Let's now discuss principle Number 3, time. Today's world is fast paste. We're often distracted and have competing priorities. When we have the privilege of learners attention, how do we use their time efficiently and effectively? As educators, we have some influence over when and where we think the learning could or should happen for our learners, how it might happen, and why it should happen. In education, we use the terms synchronous interaction and asynchronous interaction to describe the nature of online learning interactions. Asynchronous learning is when learning happens anytime, anywhere. Learners engage with learning activities in their own time. Asynchronous programs are flexible, accessible, learner-centered, and personalized. For example, a self-paced course like this Coursera course, you are engaging with now, is an example of an entirely asynchronous learning experience. Synchronous learning is a more traditional approach where learning is received at the same time by the learners in a cohort. Synchronous programs can be collaborative and interactive. For example, an online Zoom workshop where participants can ask questions and chat to each other. An important note for all online educators, it is critical that you consider the Internet bandwidth of your learners because some online learning activities require more bandwidth than others. You can use the bandwidth immediacy matrix to help decide what is most appropriate for your learners. As an example, if we look at the top right-hand corner, we can see video conferencing. Video conferencing is immediate or synchronous and it requires a high amount of bandwidth. On the other hand, if we look at discussion boards, they are asynchronous or have low immediacy, and they require little bandwidth. When designing your multimedia learning objects, it's important to consider and use people's time wisely, whether it is time spent to study asynchronously or synchronously or a mixture of both. It's always best practice to clearly inform your learners of approximately how long it will take for them to complete a learning activity, including any newly developed multimedia learning objects you may include in your online course. Finally, and most importantly, what is an online educators role in online learning and teaching? This is principle Number 4. Educators bring immense value to learning experiences, from expert commentary through synthesis and critique, to provocative discussions through contextualizing and framing. They can read the mood of learners and can adapt to keep learners engaged or to extend their learning. Let's reconsider your role as an online educator by considering the following. Take this opportunity to re-frame your preexisting notions of what an educator is or should be. Reconsider what this could look like in the context of an online learning environment. This challenge is also an opportunity. Don't go straight to thinking about the limitations of teaching online, instead, start to think about the possibilities. Build relationships with your learners, and prioritize responding to any points of confusion. Just like in a traditional classroom , in online learning, you should use your time to prioritize building relationships with learners and supporting them through their practice. Lastly, cultivate the mindset of a facilitator who is inclusive in their practice. See yourself as a facilitator instead of an expert. Give your learners some autonomy and control over their learning. Support them to learn by providing them tools and opportunities to practice, invite them to be a partner in your delivery, to create their own multimodal learning types. Now let's recap, the full K principals are time, space, role, and purpose. As we mentioned at the start of this lesson, these principles help inform the design, development, and implementation of your own multimodal learning objects. In this week's challenge exercise, you will be creating learning sequences and identifying opportunities to create [inaudible] learning objects within them. Be brave, take your time, and enjoy the process.
