Why a Multimedia Inventory is Important for Instructional Designers

Preparing a multimedia inventory can be a tedious task but when done right, they often provide a comprehensive list of items in a website. If the table is structured adequately, it can help instructional designers identify different types of multimedia quickly and easily as well as help them note any revisions or missing files. The inventories are also a measure of good practice when developing web sites or pages and, as discussed in an online chat with a fellow classmate, should be started at the beginning stages of LMS development rather than accumulated at the end. Starting an inventory from the beginning of the process not only saves time but once the list has been compiled, the author or designer can remove any files from the list that are not used and also be able to list where in the process any copyright requests are taking place.

Relating to the SECTIONS Model

The inventory takes into consideration most of the SECTIONS model. In Vista, I am mainly targeting adults. Most of the content for the web writing portion of the course is text while some content for the usability design portion includes visual content – mainly imagery and videos. While deciding which types of multimedia to include, the SECTIONS model provided insight into what should or should not be added to the inventory. In sum, the questions I had to ask myself in relation to the model were: “Is this relevant to the instructional content?”, “Is it necessary?”, “Are there any accessibility issues to consider?” and “Is the media current?”

During this week’s group discussion, I realized that the use of screenshots may be a copyright issue; therefore, a decision has yet to be made on whether or not to use them. Nevertheless, they have been included in the inventory in the event they will be used. This copyright issue alone questions the costs, teaching and learning, and organizational issues of the SECTIONS (Bates & Poole, 2003) model. What is the cost of using a screenshot and is there a liability issue that creates a barrier for the organization or institution with its use? Do students really need this screenshot to get a point across? What are my alternatives – can I mimic the appearance or structure of a website and create my own imagery or is that a copyright issue as well? How long will it take for the original author to reply to a request for permission to use their work if no Creative Commons Licensing or other terms of use exist?

Although I favour interactivity in course content, I think it is more important to consider usability first, since there are more issues associated with the use of content. For this project, it is easy to miss identifying copyright permissions – definitely something that should not be overlooked.

Reference
Bates, A. W. & Poole, G. (2003). A framework for selecting and using technology. In Effective teaching with technology in higher education: Foundations for success. New York: Wiley, John & Sons. Retrieved June 6, 2009 from UBC WebCT Vista: ETEC 565A.

Selecting communication tools in WebCT was relatively easy since I could just go into build and choose which tools to activate in the course manager. The tools I chose were the voice board, discussion forums and chat rooms. After their activation so they showed up in the left navigation bar, implementing these tools proved to be a bit more of a challenge after I created the specific elements. The problems were not so much in editing the properties of each tool but with organizing them. For instance, in creating the category “Discussion Activity #1” and a sequence of topics underneath, say Group Discussions from Group 1 to Group 5, I thought I would have to start backwards with Group 5 and work towards 1 to have the topics show up in ascending order like one would have to do with discussion message creation. Turns out my backwards thinking was wrong for creating topics. The same thing happened with creation of the chat rooms where the organization completely messed me up. What threw me off with organization was trying to move chat rooms up and down to get them in the right spot. The “Move Selection Above” and “Move Selection Below” options were confusing and it took me a while to figure that out. Other than that issue, setting the properties for the discussion and chat rooms were quite straightforward. I like how there is an option for the discussion forums to be graded and a log option for the chat rooms.

Another tool I had considered for this assignment was Google Docs since it provides asynchronous editing of documents between team members. However, I did not really feel it should be categorized as a communication tool. I tend to associate communication as developing dialogue and conversation, whereas Google Docs is more of a productivity tool rather than a communication tool. Google chat may have been more of a relevant option but I felt that it was important to keep the communicating within Vista, especially for students without much experience with instant messaging.

The following proposal has been developed for a mock situation and non-existent company called Mocke Health Corporation.

Executive Summary

Mocke Health Corporation is seeking an online training solution to support over 3000 employees in 26 locations worldwide. To meet Mocke’s needs for a stable and secure online learning management system (LMS) that can be globally accessed, the proposed LMS for use is WebCT Vista. From an operational standpoint, WebCT Vista provides adequate technical support and secure server hosting that a large corporation like Mocke requires. Consequently, from an educational perspective, WebCT Vista offers a system that includes features such as asynchronous and synchronous communication (i.e., discussion forums, live chat, email to other users or trainers), assessments, feedback, content placement, and file uploads/downloads.

Background

For over 30 years, Mocke Health Corporation specializes in providing products and services to healthcare professionals worldwide. As Mocke Health continues to expand its offerings, the company is in need of an online learning system that can accommodate over 3000 employees who work in departments relating to corporate development, health services, research and development, and sales.  The learning management system must also be available to a wide variety of clients including healthcare professionals and their colleagues.

LMS Selection: Why WebCT Vista?

According to Bates and Poole (2000), the SECTIONS framework helps facilitate the organizational decision for choosing suitable learning technology. The following uses the SECTIONS framework to consider the implementation of WebCT Vista:

•    Students and Organizational Issues: The individuals using Vista are mainly employees located in various parts of the world including the Americas, Asia, Europe and Australia. Therefore, it is important that the users have an LMS that is conveniently accessible from various locations, even if they are employees on a business trip who would like to login to their online course at any time of day during the week or have materials readily available. Vista offers secure access that is available any day of the week at any time. Additionally, students are not expected to have advanced technical skills to use the LMS and can work on the courses at their own pace.
•    Ease of use and Speed: As mentioned in the previous section, even novice students can use Vista for their courses. They are not expected to be experts in using the technology. The same holds true for trainers and course developers. Vista supports trainers, instructors and students with orientation sessions to help them get acquainted with the system. As well, the interface design is relatively easy to navigate and content, if organized in a meaningful manner, can prove useful for the users. Vista’s most important feature in terms of Mocke’s needs is its reliability. As a commercially available LMS used by other institutions and organizations, Vista servers are reliable with few technical-related issues (Bates & Poole, ). While version upgrades may affect costs and time, Mocke has a strong IT department that can provide adequate technical and professional support to its employees.
•    Costs: The approximate cost to Mocke for the use of Vista would include licensing, training plus hosting in the first year. Costs for this would initially run at around $20,000. While some training is available for free, the costs of additional significant training have been included in the start-up costs. These costs are expected to be slightly lower in subsequent years since training will not likely be necessary and can be performed by existing Mocke staff in the future. Future costs would be more focused on licensing and hosting. The advantage to hosting with Blackboard, the company that runs WebCT Vista, is cost-effectiveness. Having Blackboard as a server host, at least in the first year, would remove responsibility that the IT department has towards network outages and data security (Blackboard, 2009). The estimated cost for placing and delivering materials online would be around $50,000 in a two-year time period. Because most materials are already electronically distributed, this would save time and costs. The return on investment can be measured by 1) the effectiveness of the courses in the first year and 2) whether the courses have had an impact on employee performance (Accenture, 2008).
•    Teaching and Learning: Vista accommodates a variety of learning styles and can support different types of media. Learners can be assessed in discussion forums and through quizzes and assignments. Each trainer or course developer can customize the course as appropriate for the subject matter. In conjunction with the National Educational Technology Standards set by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE, 2008), teachers should “engage in professional growth and leadership” by helping improve student learning as well as developing leadership and technology skills (p. 1). Using Vista as an LMS can help teachers and instructors do this.
•    Interaction and Interactivity: The Vista LMS maximizes the opportunities for interaction and interactivity since it allows learners to globally access the courses and have discussions with one another. Synchronous communication platforms such as live chat can prove advantageous.
•    Novelty: Vista has been compared with other LMS platforms and proves to be the best solution for Mocke. Upon consultation with other employees and directors of Mocke, Vista is a solution that will provide significant return on investment in the long-run.

References

Accenture. (2006). Return on learning, part 3: Measuring the return on investment in training. Retrieved June 7, 2009 from http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/Outlook/By_Subject/Human_Resource_Mgmt/ReturnLearningPart3.htm

Bates, A. W. & Poole, G. (2003). A framework for selecting and using technology. In Effective teaching with technology in higher education: Foundations for success. New York: Wiley, John & Sons. Retrieved June 6, 2009 from UBC WebCT Vista: ETEC 565A.

Blackboard. (2009). Blackboard managed hosting. Retrieved June 7, 2009 from http://www.blackboard.com

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National educational technology standards and performance indicators for teachers. Retrieved June 7, 2009 from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

I found myself conflicted as to which LMS to choose for the proposal. Currently, I am in the middle of a job shift, I did not have to think about the institutional context until recently. Having worked as a graphic designer in a corporate environment that was not heavily involved in creating instructional modules aside from those authored in PowerPoint, a) it was not my decision to make and b) the company was not looking for an alternative at the time. On Monday, I start a new job at UBC as a Grad Assistant and, while UBC has the Vista platform available, this particular department is looking for open source alternatives. So why am I not choosing Moodle?

About a year before the acquisition of WebCT by Blackboard in 2005 (Elearnity, 2008), I used WebCT to assist with some course development. Since starting the MET program, I quickly noticed the difference in the “look and feel” of the Vista version. In fact, I am not overly impressed by the user interface design and yet, I am choosing it as my primary learning management system (LMS) because I think it would be important for me to understand the pros and cons of using WebCT from a development and design standpoint. While I would have rather chosen Moodle as my LMS platform, I chose WebCT Vista instead because this may be one of the only opportunities I have to experiment with it. Honestly, it’s more of a “nice to have” experience. Another reason is that I have Moodle installed on my web server from a team project I worked on last term and there will be many more opportunities after this course for me to play around with it – benefits of open source. I believe most, if not all, of my group mates have chosen Moodle as their LMS and I would be more than happy to assist them as best I can. I think it will be very interesting to make the comparisons between WebCT and Moodle as I work on my project. From a user interaction perspective, I think it would also be interesting would be to develop the same course in Moodle and see which one would be easier to navigate around and use.

Yesterday, I attempted the toolkit tutorial for Vista and found it relatively straightforward and easy to follow. There were a few steps during the creation of the Assessments/Quiz that left me confused for about a minute or so because what I was instructed to look for did not exist. I remember when I first launched Moodle on my website, I must have driven my teammates crazy (my sincerest apologies to them!) because I was basically “winging it” with setting up accounts, administration and such. It was not until about a week or two later that I discovered the Moodle tutorial to clear the confusion. Not having set up the build for Vista, I am not sure how difficult it is. I was tempted to skip the toolkit tutorial to see if I could figure things out on my own as a course developer so I could make the comparison for ease of use with Moodle but I think the fear of messing things up and not knowing how to “reset to default” upon doing something incorrectly took precedence.

Reference
Elearnity Limited. (2008). “Blackboard acquires WebCT”. Retrieved May 31, 2008 from http://www.elearnity.com/EKCLoad.htm?load=ByKey/DWIN6H6CTB.