UMUC

Center for Teaching and Learning

Online Faculty Innovators: Deborah Griggs

Transcript:

What is the pedagogical value of adding audio and/or images into an online course activity?

Pedagogically, I'm excited about the possibilities for incorporating audio and images into other activities, both in this course and others.

I still have to think about where these kinds of formats might be necessary and useful. This activity's development into multiple formats was completely "organic." Architecture is visual as well as abstract; focus on images is a natural for an activity on this subject. I want to use images and audio only where they seem "natural" or especially useful.

I can imagine that in literature courses there might be less use for images, although audio would be wonderful for short "readings" if the sound quality is good.

How did you manage dealing with so many new technologies at once?

The HTML version was easy to create because I'd worked with all of the individual programs and elements before. The PowerPoint/Audio version was much more time-consuming, and I set only small goals for myself, making sure that I was not reliant on getting it done under pressure. This made the learning curve much more enjoyable.

Why or why not would you use any of these technologies again?

I'd use all of the technologies again, although I would use Impatica for sound only where sound was either supported by text and only of secondary or momentary importance, not where sound was the main means of imparting a great deal of information.

I would use the PowerPoint/MP3 only as an alternative format, since without PowerPoint, students would have to download the free PowerPoint reader and I don't want to require students to do so. I'm hoping that I can convince UMUC to put a reader program on our servers or incorporate it into WebTycho in the future.

Until that happens, I've decided to always offer PDF text/image versions for students with limited Internet access, Impatica for those with slow modems and no PowerPoint, and the MP3/PowerPoint version for those who have the necessary configuration. I feel that this will be the fairest.

Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently next time?

I can't think of anything I'd do differently, except find a way to get better information about hardware before buying anything. I am in a small town in Germany and had a very hard time finding out what kind of microphone would be best for my purposes! The cheap headset that I already had turned out to be better than the more expensive mike recommended at my local Media store. This kind of frustration is probably worse than that created by my own "trial and error" mistakes in creating the products.

Are you satisfied with the outcome of your work?

I'm totally satisfied with the HTML activity, although I think I need some fine-tuning in the assignment that I attached to it, since my case study is much broader than what students are expected to create and I need to make the ways they can pick and choose from the architectural/historical aspects I've presented clearer.