You might remember Visually Intensive Learning (VIL) from the Emerging Markets Poll early in the course or last week’s mLearning and ELL OER where it was mentioned. If not, we’re here to refresh your memory!
VIL is a broad category of educational practices and technologies, covering any learning material which significantly relies on visual communication. As indicated by the name, these learning materials are visually intensive, as opposed to being overly text or audio centric.
As you will see in our OER, VIL is more than just the selection and placement of images accompanying text, and in fact sometimes excludes reading entirely. In our OER we break VIL down into the use of:
Our hope is that this resource will provide some guidance on how and when to use VIL and connect you to some useful tools and resources. Additionally, the discussion questions at the bottom of the “Why Use VIL?” and Exploring VIL pages will help supplement our resource by gleaning information from you and the other experts in our cohort, so please contribute and don’t be shy!
We have also added an assignment where we hope to feature some of the amazing work of our peers, so if you’d like to create a new piece of work, or you’ve ever created a dazzling infographic or visually stimulating video you’d like to share, please send it to us and we will feature it on the site.
Once you have made your way through our resource, please share your feedback below on what worked well for you, what did not, and how you think it could be improved. Thank you for taking the time to explore Visually Intensive Learning with us.
Adrian Wheeler, Alice Shin, Laura Ulrich, Ryan Valley
Hello Adrian, Alice, Laura, and Ryan,
Really enjoyed your OER. It was visually beautiful, well researched and written, engaging, and introduced me to some new-to-me tools, so I will be bookmarking for future use for both myself and my students.
When you do your revisions, might I recommend that you add Alt Text to your images, as right now your images are not accessible to all. For the most part this was not a huge issue, as the text on the site around the images gave the information that you were imparting. This is a big issue, however, on your Graphics page, as all the information was given in an infographic with no Alt Text added to it, making it inaccessible to those with visual impairments. Secondarily this also is detrimental for people finding this information via a search engine, as search engines catalogue information on the web utilizing text.
Finally, I am curious about the future / venture forecasting here. Where do you see the future challenges and opportunities with VIL?
Thanks again for an enjoyable OER.
~ Erica
Hi Erica,
Thanks for exploring our OER and providing feedback! You bring up a great point about accessibility, and it really is one of the big downsides of VIL. VIL is, by its very nature quite inaccessible to those with visual impairments. This is amplified by the fact that VIL relies on the the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words”, regrettably, without that “picture” you are left with a large amount of text or audio to describe the same concept and the advantage of the teaching medium is lost.
As for future forecasting, VIL is becoming increasingly popular and expanding with new technologies such as AR, VR, and educational games. The downside of all this, is the increase in resources required to develop those experiences. Either way, I am very excited to see where the market goes and what the industry looks like in ten years time!
That’s where digital tools can help, Adrian. Most digital platforms offer the option to add Alt Text to your imagery, making it accessible. And the beauty is that search engines then reward you for taking that extra step. It may not be the picture itself, but with well written descriptive text accompanied by the imagination, it could still create a beautiful picture in the mind’s eye.
I really like how Alice addressed that crafting visuals can be a learning aid for the visually impaired in ‘Why Use VIL’. I actually have a visually impaired friend who is a very talented photographer. But while visually impaired individuals may enjoy crafting visuals, it is still important to make sure they are not excluded from the information that those images share, and we are fortunate to live in a time when digital tools make that easier for us.
I also appreciated that accessibility was addressed directly in the video unit with advice on making video content accessible to all.
My query on the future forecasting of opportunities and challenges was more of a prompt as I may be misinterpreting this in the Assignment, but I suspect with the name Opportunity Forecast that needs to be included, and with the wonderful work you’ve done, I hate for you to lose marks for not including that. And yes, I quite agree with you that the opportunities and creative possibilities of VIL are only growing. It will indeed be a delight to discover what that brings us in the next 10 years.
Hi Erica,
Thanks for your feedback. In truth, I had never heard of Alt Text and had to look it up, but we will explore adding it to the site in our revisions. As for forecasting, we attempted to include it in each page, but by the sounds of it, we may be better served with a dedicated page. We will work on expanding that in the revision phase.
I haven’t used wix before, but with most website building software when you click on the image in the drafting section of the post, the option to add Alt Text will either appear as a prompt or in the sidebar. This is usually easy to do. It just requires a little extra time. I posted an example from a WordPress site, here: file:///Users/ericahargreave/Desktop/Screen%20Shot%202020-10-21%20at%201.01.11%20PM.png If that’s inaccessible from your end, let me know, and I will email you the example.
Hi Erica,
Since your comment I have looked into how to add Alt-Text in wix and its actually quite easy, just a little counter intuitive as instead of calling it “Alt text” or accessibility it’s an option called “What’s in the image? Tell Google” I suppose that betrays their priorities haha.
Oh wow, that certainly does betray their priorities. I have to admit, I didn’t actually know the real purpose of Alt Text until the past year, as it had been first introduced to me as a way of improving a site’s SEO.
I posted this in the Wix, but am re-posting so it might be more visible:
Speaking of Adobe Illustrator. The Adobe MAX concert is on again this week… but you don’t need to travel to LA or pay thousands of $$. It’s a free webinar! It ends today (Thursday) but many of the sessions are accessible with on-demand recordings. I’m not sure for how long, but at least through the end of the month. Lots of tutorials on Adobe Creative Cloud programs (including Illustrator) to help with those steep learning curves! Plus some very helpful portfolio workshops too.
https://www.adobe.com/max.html
Some sessions talk about where to download free demos of Creative Cloud programs, so even those without a CC subscription might be able to have a play.
When I say concert I mean conference, of course. I must be feeling cooped up!
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for posting this! Adobe MAX really is a great resource, its a fantastic way to learn more about CC and get inspired by some of the best creatives in the world.
Hi Week 7,
My Highlights
– Interactive discussion posting for each section
– Breakdown of less to more dramatic videos; explained well since it reminds me how different learners may respond accordingly
In terms of improvements, I would prefer if there were more visuals to explain some of the important information. Overall, I I enjoyed the content on VIL. Thanks!
Just wanted to add on that I liked the “graphics” section the best.
Thanks for your feedback Amanda! Is there a particular section you would like to see expanded with visuals?
Adrian, Alice, Laura and Ryan — You’ve put together a highly informative OER. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour into VIL, and was surprised to learn how much there is to learn about this space. What I especially enjoyed the resource contributions provided both by your team and our classmates. In light of recent events there seems to be significant demand for these resources in team collaboration, remote research and distant training. I think the real practical value of the VIL space will be in finding better ways to combine information in the most effective mediums in such a way that the Equal Reality training is fully represented. With thanks to you, great OER.
Hi Jamie,
Thanks for your feedback! I’m really glad you enjoyed out OER!
Hey Week 7 team! Great job on the OER! I liked the simple, straightforward comment sections, though the colour for the submit tab is grey and right under it you have the green coloured button to go to the next page so after writing a comment I accidently hit the green button and lost all my work.
Thanks for sorting out VIL in different ways, and for utilizing VIL to deliver your content.
This seemed to be well researched information that flowed and was clean and clear in design.
Thanks again!
Hi Johannes,
Thanks for your feedback! I’ll make sure to adjust the location of the button during our revisions.