Create and Share Timelines

If you want to keep track of what happened and when, you can create your own online timeline and share it with others. Just go to TimeToast. There could be many things you need to add to a timeline: assignment deadlines, work completed, how your course is scheduled. You can also add links to websites, blogs or other resources. Have a look at the timeline I created below:

A message from Sheffield

Now where is that file?

Have you ever been frustrated because you can't find the file on your hard drive that you know is there somewhere? You remember some sketchy details: it was definitely a PDF, it described important findings on e-learning and more importantly - you desperately need it now for your e-learning project ;) !!!

Well here are some practical tips that I have found useful. I use a two-pronged approach: 

1. Ultrasearch (Free): http://www.jam-software.de/ultrasearch/.
2. Exalead One Desktop (Free): http://download.cnet.com/Exalead-one-desktop/3000-2379_4-10458231.html

I use Ultrasearch first because its fast. It does not compile an index of files, but searches the Master File Table for the file you need. This is useful if you can remember at least one of the words in the file's name. You can search using a wildcard (*) and restrict it to certain types of files.

If I cannot find the file using Ultrasearch, its time to get out the serious file indexing tool - Exalead One Desktop. Although this is free software, it is particularly difficult to locate on the Exalead website, so I have provided a download link to Cnet.

Exalead indexes all the files on your disk (as well as network drives if you want) and your email. It uses your browser to show the search results. Exalead provides what is called faceted results. This means you can click on various options to refine your search to a particular type of file, author, date, size, etc.

I hope this helps you to reduce the frustration and time spent looking for that elusive file!

Game changers - rethinking educational models

Starting week three with some input is useful (I hope). The book"Game changers: Education and information technologies" by Educause (edited by Diana Oblinger) contains a lot of information, but is an important stake in the ground of e-Learning. It reports on different new models of how ICTs are being integrated into higher education. Feel free to read some of the chapters that catch your eye, or skim-read here and there, but do take notice of this important publication. The book is a free download.

Week 2 - Design and start developing

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• Podcasting and context (Steve), 
• A new arrival and some liquid space analysis (Desire)
• Reflections from students (Muubuke), 
• Serving a communities health training needs (Elna) and 
• An e-course for 72 District AIDS Coordination Advisors in 72 districts in 10 provinces (Michael)

Our learning community is busy changing the health education world one byte at a time!

This week the focus is on the design and development "steps"/ aspects of the ADDIE model. This follows (or works in close conjunction with) the analysis phase. Getting your design's "fit" to context right is on the table.

In design, the getting of feedback as early as possible (it is called iterative feedback) and then adapting the quality of your design as you go on, is quite important. If one can show one or two colleagues, or ask one or two students to have a look at your idea and give you constructive feedback, you can improve your design ten fold! The best way to design is to start building early and get feedback early. I cannot stress this enough.

This is (by the way - and this is my perspective) also true for writing a thesis or research assignment. Once you start putting words on paper and getting "red penned" you really progress very quickly.

So, if you have not done so yet, get our there and talk about your idea with people around you. Listen to their responses, and see how their insights can help you to make your design more appropriate and relevant.

Happy designing and developing!

Context is Everything

Podcasting has been around since at least 2004. Although it’s not on the forefront of technological innovation, it can be extremely effective in the right context:

• With a podcast you can be in two places at once “virtually”. Physically present in one and your podcast can be your virtual presence elsewhere.
• You can save time. If you repeatedly have to give instructions, lectures  or other communications, why not podcast the talk and let your audience view it while you are more constructively engaged?
• What about the audience? If they have access to the podcast they can pause, review and go over the material repeatedly if necessary.

We started podcasting some second year lectures and were surprised at the students’ response. They found the podcasts so useful that we were asked to extend the process for the entire year – and beyond! 

So, we realised that when the students attend five or six lectures a day, they most likely suffer from information overload and cannot possibly assimilate all the new concepts. With the podcasts, they can go over the material as many times as they need to. And it has led to improved exam marks! (See this podcast for more details.)

End of 2012 Week 1 - Let's recap

It is the end of the (work)week 1! There has been some activity on the module, but (to be honest) not so much as I would have liked. I presume everybody is still gearing up (or maybe putting finishing touches on their research assignments ;).

The course is really about self-exploratory and immersive learning, and I do want to encourage everyone to dive in and start participating. It can only work if we all are activated and taking part in the learning community.

When looking at the blog this morning I stumbled upon some of the earlier posts (June 2009!). I thought it might be pertinent to share them again as they will help you get started. So here they are:

• Use an activity design template: http://mphilhse.blogspot.com/2009/07/activity-design-template-just-start.html
• Use story boards for interactive learning design: http://mphilhse.blogspot.com/2009/07/storyboards-and-tips-on-livelier-e.html
• Some broad background on theories of instructional design (to broaden ADDIE): http://mphilhse.blogspot.com/2009/06/theories-of-instructional-design.html

I hope to see everyone on the blogs and commenting over the weekend. Looking forward to the interaction and grappling together with this interesting field of e-Learning.

Free Creative Commons material

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Are you looking for photos or videos for your presentations, e-Learning matierial or blog but do not want to infringe on copyright? Then use CC Search, the Creative Commons search engine that returns images and other media that may be used (usually with attribution meaning you have to acknowledge the author) free of charge.

I tested the search (it was early and all I could think of was "Coffee") and I found and then embedded the image above in this blog post. The Europeana and Soundcloud searches look very useful (in fact all of them are very useful).

I encourage you to use CC Search when searching for that "hit the nail on the head" image or soundbite that will add quality to your work.

It is all systems go for 2012!

When it was February, October seemed such a long time in the future. But now it has arrived, and with it the promise of investing just over a month of your life in e-Learning. The idea is that you give yourself (and your diary!) space to immerse yourself in something that you always thought you could be/do. Now is the chance.

 I have recorded a short welcome message with important nudges on Sound cloud.

Week 1 is extremely important and I can only motivate everyone to make the most of this module.

Listen to the embedded Soundcloud track below.

ADDIE design example - m-Learning

This morning I received a link to an interesting article from a colleague (Dr Francois Cilliers): "Key instructional design issues in a cellular phone-based mobile learning project". I started reading it and then realised that the authors used the ADDIE model of instructional design (with some other theories blended in) for their project with Grade 11 learners and cell phones!

So - here is the link passed on to all of you as an example of how the use of ADDIE can look in "real life": http://goo.gl/NxffB

Enjoy!

Ready steady go - blog addresses to show

Well done colleagues on creating your first blogs! Please identify and archive your blogs' web addresses here by clicking on the "comments" link and then typing your name and the full blog web address, e.g.
Hi I am JP Bosman and my blog's web address is: http://vespasarecool.blogspot.com...

2012 Module orientation welcome

It is 2012 and that means the e-Learning module is now in it's 4th year! Every year I enjoy the module more, as I see the wonderful contributions and growth of participants, as their e-skills grow. I am also always surprised at participants' willingness to experience some discomfort in the learning process which is tough for some people as using emerging technologies in health sciences education is not necessarily a given (yet).

So this message is to say welcome to all e-Learning module orientation participants! We do hope that you will enjoy the morning's session and that some of you will choose this module and immerse yourself in the (sometimes) strange new (but always exciting) world of e-Learning.

The morning's session on 3 Feb 2012 is:

08:00-08:45 – General introduction to e-Learning and the module – Dr JP Bosman
08:45-09:15 – e-Learning from a medical perspective – Dr Steve Walsh
09:15-09:30 - Show and Tell: Previous MPhil Student – Dr Stefanus Snyman
09:30–10:00 - Hands-on: creating and using blogs
10:00-10:15 - Tea
10:15-12:00 – Blog experience continued as well as Soundcloud service explored.