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Use Development Aids
We have created a variety of aids to help the instructors and staff members we work with in our programs, projects, and short courses develop learning activities and materials with common digital technologies. Some of these aids are available in this section. For more, as well as pedagogical aids and information, see other pages on this site and meet with our planning and design or evaluation and assessment consultants, take our short courses, or participate in our programs.
Creating different diagrams may help you plan the content and navigational structure of technology-enhanced learning activities and materials. Learn about some common techniques.
Unless your digital learning activities and materials are designed for accessibility, people with certain disabilities may face barriers when trying to use some or all of them. Learn about some of the issues that surround accessible Web design and related campus and other resources.
Copyright issues related to technology-based teaching and learning are often complex and can involve considerations of University policies, federal statute, and consultations with experts. Learn where to find campus and other support for ownership, fair use, and permissions issues and legal advice.
Creating visual representations of how your learning activities and materials will look and behave on a screen may help you design effective technology-enhanced learning activities and materials. Learn about some common techniques.
Learning objects are small, reusable chunks of instructional materials that can be included on course Web sites or with other digital instructional materials. Sometimes they have no implicit instructional objective; they are shell programs in which instructors can insert their own content (such as a quiz game shell in which instructors insert their own questions), or media elements that can be aggregated and used with other digital instructional materials (such as a photograph or video clip). Sometimes they do have specific instructional objectives but can be reused in a variety of courses and learning contexts (such as an animation illustrating a law of physics). We have developed learning objects for instructors with which we have consulted and as part of special projects. You can adapt them for use in your own courses. You must have Adobe Flash MX® software to open and customize them.
With our matching game learning object, students match images to appropriate labels. It originally was used to create vocabulary building exercises for foreign language students or small children. Get sample exercises and instructions about how to customize it.
You and your students can use our mind-mapping tool to create a visual representation of the relationships between ideas or things they are studying for your class.
Our Movie Player template makes it easy to create a control panel where the user can select from several digital video clips and includes standard controllers for each video clip.
Use our Flash Template file and print these instructions to convert PowerPoint presentations to Flash .swf files in a few easy steps.
Use our quiz object to create basic multiple-choice tests.
We worked with Barbara Martinson, an associate professor in the Department of Design, Housing, and Apparel, to create a Design History Timeline learning object with Adobe Flash MX®. Get an example timeline and instructions about how to customize it for your own use.
