UQ Rural Clinical School
Technology Enhance Learning Strategy -
"To value student contribution in the teaching process and promote
students as co-creators of content "

Developing students design and teaching skills through a program to create eLearning resources.


Program Coordinator
Kate Jurd
Learning Technologist
Rural Clinical School Network
Toowoomba
Queensland Australia

Think of the lectures and online content that you have already been exposed to during your studies – why are they good /bad?

What elements make them standout, grab your attention and motivate you to read more or stay focused?

What makes them a useful learning experience?

What design aspects are effective: Usability; visual appeal; useful information – engagement

.

Think about the ineffective elements:

How much information is presented on the page?
How many dot points?
How crowded are the details
Can you understand what is being presented?

Before sitting at the computer you need to plan your learning activity.
What are the objectives, what are the learning outcomes. What do students need to do with the content?
The story, visual design, the selection of media/ images/video/audio How will the media best represent the content or learning activity.
What is the sequence of activities, questions, feedback.
Storyboard is the first step to bring all these elements together.

Type of resource –
Pre lecture or tutorial preparation resource?
stand alone self paced module
case based scenario
Demonstration - video
Practical video demonstration of patient history/examination

Discussion of learning outcomes
What theory/science needs to be included?
Can the topic be demonstrated through practical examples/scenarios from the workplace? patient encounters?
Provide relevance to real world context - this gives more meaning,
Use practical examples
Real cases
Integrate questioning - providing feedback why answers are correct and incorrect assists with processes of clinical reasoning

Learning theories – relevance to eLearning content creation
See Getting started with learning theories: https://digitalteacherssc.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/getting-started-with-lea...

Mayer and Clark – digital media theory – design rules for elearning

Activity – think about how you learn – think about the learning theories in relation to your learning experiences – and think about them in terms of how you are going to create your elearning resource
Learning in a digital age: http://www.slideshare.net/timbuckteeth/learning-in-the-digital-age-theory-a...

Activity design
• What activities will be included to assist the learner in understanding the content
• What media could illustrate your topic eg video demonstration, video animation, images.
• Storyboard the squence of activities
• Content flow, navigation, questioning, feedback

White space
Alignment of elements
Less is better – easier to process and reduces the cognitive load.
Remember, visual content helps process the information - reduces cognitive load and at the same time connects and engages the audience.


Visual voice – font, colour – simplistic elements to represent the topic, convey meaning, motivate the learner
Image storytelling – the intentional use of images to convey the message/story
Media elements to support both visual and auditory channels – presented to reduce cognitive load

Another method to keep students engaged is to use a conversational style. Called the personalization principle by Mayer, the use of conversational rather than formal language during multimedia instruction has been shown to have a large effect on students’ learning, perhaps because a conversational style encourages students to develop a sense of social partnership with the narrator that leads to greater engagement and effort (Mayer, 2008).

Your slides should visually reinforce what you are saying - they don't repeat what you are saying. Use images of real people, relevant to topic/or field.
Authentic – use real photos of real people, moments that speak to human experience.Images that the audience can identify with - and that can evoke emotion.What images/media can represent your ideas, or represent aspects of your story? 

Use of images to create authentic scenarios that depict the people and the context of the workplace or setting that learning is to occur

Be careful of copyright.It is safer to create your own images.

Using Google images: "most of the images on google image search are copyrighted and shouldn’t be reused without the artists permission. In the same search tools area, you can select “labeled for reuse” and you will find images you are allowed to use for free. "
Taken from the following article on finding free images
https://first10em.com/2016/11/14/images/.

Elearning design is changing from the traditional eLearning courses to elearning resources in all forms: video, podcasts, cartoon animations, interactive cased based scenarios.
Communicating the learning story through a wide variety of media

Medical student showcase: Sketchnotes, Animation and 3D printing

https://mededelearning.wordpress.com/2016/08/23/medical-art-student-showcas...

Students at Dundee Medical School, developing learning resources, creating comics to support patient communication
and exploring the potential of 3D printing to help surgeons. 

Videos: Suited to illuminating the abstract or hard to visualise
Keep videos brief and targeted on learning goals.
6-9 minutes maximum length for student engagement

3 elements to consider for video design and to maximise their utility for student learning
• Cognitive load
• Student engagement
• Active learning

• Use audio and visual elements to convey appropriate parts of an explanation; consider how to make these elements complementary rather than redundant.
• Use signaling to highlight important ideas or concepts.
• Use a conversational, enthusiastic style to enhance engagement.
• Embed videos in a context of active learning by using guiding questions, interactive elements, or associated homework assignments

Sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/tilt

https://vimeo.com/161186943 How medical and dental schools are using Sketchfab

http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.c863
Graphic stories are engaging ways to enhance medical education.
Graphic stories can also be used to teach observational skills.

Think about your talents, your design capabilities, your creativity... what other possibilities could you explore