​In recent days, there have been numerous announcements of plans by governments and institutions to shift their face-to-face (F2F) courses to online delivery. The aim is to implement social isolation practices, in order to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many (if not most) instructors and students, this will be their first foray into the world of online teaching and learning -- and that can be quite scary. 

​I develop courses for online learning, and I teach instructional design for online learning. I can tell you with no uncertainty that simply dumping your lecture notes and resources into an online portal is not effective. I can also tell you that it takes time, expertise, and resources, to develop and deliver optimal online courses. However, I realize that under current circumstances, these conditions cannot be met by the majority of instructors faced with rapidly moving their courses online.

​I'm sharing this guide to do two things:

• To tell you that "you've got this!" You can do it.
• To help make the experience as effective as possible for both students and instructors in a rapid transition to online learning scenario.

I'm not going to dive into seminal works, or the key theories that inform effective instructional design for online learning. I'm going to focus on practical strategies to get your students and your course online as quickly as possible, using tools that anyone can access and become comfortable using, while avoiding things that could lead to a disastrous experience.

​The first thing to do as an instructor is to develop a "plan of attack." You do not want to spend the rest of this term, or an entire upcoming term, panicking about how you are going to manage this transition. You need a plan that you can focus on day-to-day, and week-to-week.

Communications.
​Set aside time at the beginning and the end of each work day for reading and responding to emails, student inquiries, and discussion posts. It can be quite easy to eat up your entire day with these things if you don't schedule yourself!

Development.
​Schedule some "development" time for each work day, which you will use for preparing materials to share through your online channels. 

Keeping Ahead.
​Stay at least one week ahead of your students. You should be using your "development" time to prepare the resources and activities that you will need for next week, while responding to students as they work through this week's activities.

Consistency.
​Use a consistent format for preparing and sharing your resources and activities each week. This will help you to manage your development activities, and it will help students to navigate them once they are posted.

Time Off.
​Set aside time for yourself, and your family. Let your students know what your working hours are, and avoid "routine" work on the weekends. (I still check in at least once a day, just to see if there are any fires to put out, or any students who have urgent needs... even if just to send them a quick note to let then know when I will get back to them in detail.)

For most of us, we are going to need to handle three main things in a rapid transition to online learning:

1. Moving our classes / lectures online.
2. Setting up channels of communication with our students.
3. Posting, submitting, and grading assignments.

​Some institutions already have virtual classroom environments, such as Adobe Connect, Blackboard Collaborate, or even Zoom. If you are mandated to use these resources to host live (synchronous) class sessions, I strongly advise against simply lecturing to a camera for a full hour (or two hours, or three...). This can be difficult for you (to prepare enough material, and to not feel awkward). Instead, use this time to host class discussions, and to get students working on collaborative activities based on the current week's materials. In essence... flip your class. 

​Using your live class time to lecture is a waste of your opportunity to connect with your students. If you are going to be lecturing to a camera anyway, it is far better to pre-record your lecture. You can share the recording through a website, or your organizations learning management system. Students can watch it at their convenience. They can pause it. They can rewind it. The can revisit it as often as they need. This frees up your live time to actually interact with your students, to get them working on collaborative activities, and to provide them with encouragement and troubleshooting support.

​Already have PowerPoint presentations ready for your F2F classes? Great! PowerPoint has built in features that will let you record your presentation, and share it as a video file. Refer to my video Turning PPT Presentations into Videos (Power, 2015) to learn how to do this.

​Personally, I now prefer to use Screencast-O-Matic. There is a free version available, and it is fairly easy to learn how to use. Want to learn more about how to get started using Screencast-O-Matic? Check out this ​Screencast-O-Matic Tutorial by Technology for Teachers and Students.

​If at all possible -- avoid posting lengthy "lecture" or tutorial videos. Nobody wants to watch a talking head for an hour, and your students won't retain the key points anyway! It is perfectly okay to record your lecture all in one go... but leave a pause for a few seconds in between your major points. That way, you can "chop up" the video file into several smaller videos. A good length for an instructional video is no more than 5-10 minutes. It's better for streaming bandwidth, and it's easier for students to watch short videos at their convenience, and digest the key points. It also makes it easier for you to reuse individual videos in multiple courses, or as refreshers later in the course.

Your institution cannot handle the bandwidth needed to stream all of the recorded lectures and live virtual classes that we're going to be asked to facilitate -- and it may not even realize that yet! Handling recorded or live video streaming requires specialized servers, with a lot of bandwidth. But, there's no need to panic! Just use YouTube. YouTube specializes in this, and their servers are optimized for mass distribution and streaming. Upload your recorded lecture presentations to YouTube, get the link for your video, and share that with your students. Don't want to make your recordings visible publicly? Set the video you have uploaded to "unlisted." That will block it from search engines, but still allow anyone with the direct link to watch it. Do not set it to "Private." Refer to my post on Using YouTube to Share Video in an Online Course (Power, 2019) for more on this.

​Just because we're practising social distancing in the midst of a pandemic doesn't mean our students need to experience social isolation from either us, or their cohort. You will likely have access to a learning management system for your course once it shifts online. There are tools built in that you can take advantage of, including discussion forums. I strongly recommend setting up three main types of discussion forums:

Set up a News and Announcements forum.
Put this right at the top of the course home page, so that students will see it as soon as they login to the course. Use this to post regular general announcements, important reminders, etc. I frequently also use it to post weekly wrap-ups, where I summarize what we've done in the previous week, and what we're going to look at in the upcoming week.

Set up a Questions and Help forum.
Put this right under the News and Announcements forum, if at all possible. I generally ask my students to use that forum for any and all questions related to the course content, assignments, or anything else that others in the class could benefit from knowing, and to refrain from sending me such questions by email. That achieves three things:

• Your students will know where to find answers to common questions.
• You can avoid answering the same question multiple times.
• You can better manage your time, as it will reduce the number of emails that you get!

​I tell my students to use email to connect with me if they have an urgent matter that cannot wait until the next time I login to the course (i.e., it can't wait until tomorrow), or if the issue is private or sensitive in nature.

Set up Weekly/Topic discussion forums.
Use these for discussions related to the actual course materials and activities for a given topic or week.

Assignments.
​Set up some means for sharing assignment instructions, receiving assignment submissions, and distributing grades and feedback to your students. If you have access to a learning management system, it should have built-in assignment drop box tools. If not, simply set up a Google Drive folder for each assignment. Be sure to configure the link sharing settings so that students can actually save files into the folder. And be sure to specify a filenaming convention, so that you don't end up with a dozen or more students all submitting files named simply "Assignnment 1.doc."

Want to open up a great communication channel with your assignment feedback? Now that you've gained some experience recording your lecture presentations, check out my recent post on Using Video to Provide Assignment Feedback (Power, 2020).

​If you don't have access to an online space such as a learning management system through your institution, I highly recommend using the Canvas Free for Teachers platform. You can get up and running quickly, and enroll up to 250 students in a single course if needed. Refer to my recent post about Creating Your Own Courses Using Canvas for everything you need to get started.

​In addition to your regularly scheduled virtual classroom sessions, it's a good idea to let your students know when and how they can connect with you live. I like to schedule "Open Office Hours" using an online platform. You can use your class' Adobe Connect or Zoom link for this... but if you don't have access to something like that, why not just use Google Hangouts? Set up a meeting room at the start of the term, share the link with your students, and schedule times when you will be logged into the space. I will login at the pre-scheduled times, and stay logged in for the whole hour (or however long the session is), even if none of my students show up. I can continue working on something else if they don't. If they do pop in during the hour, I can meet with them just the same as if they came to my physical office on campus.

​If your students already have physical textbooks, that's great. But, if they don't, you will need to provide them with some way to access the learning materials for a given topic. The easiest way to do that is to create a page in the learning management system (or on your website) for a given week or topic. Then, share links to the resources, with some introductory notes, and instructions on what to do with the resources.

​If any of the materials are copyright-protected, avoid posting actual copies of the materials. Instead, post the full bibliographical reference, a link to the site hosting the resources, and any instructions that students will need to access the materials. Oftentimes, this might simply be to remind students that they will need to login to their school library account to access the resources.

​If you have created your own videos, you can simply post the YouTube links for them. Some learning management systems and website platforms will let you easily "embed" the video right on the page. This might be a bit trickier if you've never done it before... but is a good idea if it can be done. The idea is to minimize the number of times that students need to navigate away from your course site, and then find their way back again!

​If you are going to upload your own "print" materials, refer to my recent video Two Basic Steps to Make Your Documents Digitally Accessible for tips on how to make sure your documents meet basic digital accessibility requirements.

Speaking of Digital Accessibility -- just because you're faced with a rapid online learning deployment doesn't mean that you can ignore local, regional, state/provincial, or national Accessibility requirements! I won't go into detail on that in this post. But, you can find some great resources to help you get started with understanding these requirements, and taking basic steps that anyone can do to meet them, from some of my recent posts:

Students can become as overwhelmed in an online learning environment as you can, especially if it is their first time taking a course online. I frequently share the following post as a link (near the top of the course homepage) in my courses, to help students learn to manage their time with both course readings and discussions. Feel free to share it with your students!

​As I've already noted, the strategies covered in this post won't help you to create the perfect online learning experience. But, they will help you to get up and running quickly, while making the experience manageable for both you and your students (and avoiding a disasterous online learning experience).

Adobe (n.d.). Adobe Connect. [Web page]. Available from https://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.html

Blackboard, Inc. (2020). Blackboard Collaborate. [Web page]. Available from https://www.blackboard.com/teaching-learning/collaboration-web-conferencing/blackboard-collaborate 

Google (n.d.). Google Drive. [Web Page]. Available from https://www.google.com/drive/

Google (n.d.). Google Hangouts. [Web page]. Available from https://hangouts.google.com/

Google (2020). YouTube. [Web page]. Available from https://www.youtube.com/

Instructure (n.d.). Canvas: Free for Teacher. [Web page]. Available from https://canvas.instructure.com/login/canvas

Power, R. (2015, January 25). Turning PowerPoint Presentations in Videos. [YouTube video}. Available from https://youtu.be/40uF8H2KgoY

Power, R. (2018, June 12). Accessibility in Online Teaching and Learning. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. Available from https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/accessibility-in-online-teaching-and-learning

Power, R. (2019, January 13). Optimizing Your Time with Online Courses. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. Available from https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/optimizing-your-time-with-online-courses

Power, R. (2019, January 14). Using YouTube to Share Video in an Online Course. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. Available from https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/using-youtube-to-share-video-in-an-online-course

Power, R. (2020, February 13). Helping Everyone Access Your Online Learning Resources. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. Available from https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/helping-everyone-access-your-online-learning-resources

Power, R. (2020, February 12). Two Basic Steps to Make Your Documents Digitally Accessible. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/AKzuXghQFnc

Power, R. (2020, February 26). Creating Your Own Courses Using Canvas. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. Available from https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/creating-your-own-courses-using-canvas

Power, R. (2020, March 6). Using Video to Provide Assignment Feedback. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. Available from https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/using-video-to-provide-assignment-feedback

Power, R. (2020, March 6). Using Screencast-O-Matic to Provide Video Feedback. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/Le_ek1aRjdw

Screencast-O-Matic (2019). Video Creation for Everyone. [Web page]. Available from https://screencast-o-matic.com/

Slade, Tim (2017, February 26). 250+ Free Stock Photos for eLearning. [Web log post]. Timslade.com. Available from https://timslade.com/blog/stock-photos-for-elearning/

Technology for Teachers and Students (2016, December 26). Screencast-O-Matic Tutorial - FREE Screen Recording Tool. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/s1jIPo1bWCo

​Zoom Video Communications (2020). About Zoom. [Web page]. Available from https://zoom.us/about

I frequently use video to provide feedback on different types of assignments. For traditional research papers, I tend to provide text-based feedback, often as embedded comments. I find that makes it easier for students to refer back to when making revisions, or writing future papers. However, some assignments lend themselves to the more personalized touch that video provides -- and it is often easier to "show" rather than "tell" when providing feedback on web-based projects, video assignments, multimedia presentations, etc. 

In addition to the positive feedback that I've received from students who have received video feedback on their assignments from me, I also frequently get asked things like:

• How did you do that?
• What sort of time investment is involved?
• What software did you use?
• How can I do this for my students?

My go-to tool for producing video feedback is a screen capture application called Screencast-O-Matic. I also use Screencast-O-Matic to produce tutorial videos for use in my blog posts or online courses. In the following video, I demonstrate how I use Screencast-O-Matic to produce feedback videos for a project-based assignment.

Want to learn more about how to get started using Screencast-O-Matic? Check out this ​Screencast-O-Matic Tutorial by Technology for Teachers and Students.

West and Taylor (2015) showed that students overwhelming preferred narrated video feedback, noting that students found "that video feedback was clearer and less ambiguous than other forms of feedback and improved both the quality and quantity of the feedback received" (p. 400). They also noted that students found video feedback a great tool for increasing their sense of rapport with their tutors or instructors. 

Creating Engagement in the Classroom (n.d.) summarizes three key benefits to using video feedback:

• Video form provides higher quality communication with more detail, clearer instructions, and a more personalized approach to education.
• Offers a tool that shines in the “student-centered, intenional learning framework.”
• Video establishes a form of communication preferable to students making them more motivated to act on the feedback.

​Stannard (2018) provides an in-depth look at how the use of screencasting applications improves the way we give feedback to students. 

Creating Engagement in the Classroom.org (n.d.) Student Engagement Using Video Feedback. [Web blog post]. Available from https://creatingengagementintheclassroom.org/student-engagement-using-video-feedback/

Power, R. (2020, March 6). Using Screencast-O-Matic to Provide Video Feedback. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/Le_ek1aRjdw

Screencast-O-Matic (2019). Screencast-O-Matic: Video Creation for Everyone. [Web page]. Available from https://screencast-o-matic.com/

Stannard, R. (2018, August 10). Using technology to improve the way we give feedback to students. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/YMpcawBR5uk

Technology for Teachers and Students (2016, December 26). Screencast-O-Matic Tutorial - FREE Screen Recording Tool. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/s1jIPo1bWCo

West, J., & Taylor, W. (2015). Enhancing the assessment experience: improving student perceptions, engagement and understanding using online video feedback. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 53(4), 400-410. Available from https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2014.1003954

Some of the most fun instructional design courses that I have facilitated have been ones where participants actually design, develop, and pilot test their own online learning course modules. I like to use the Canvas Free for Teachers platform for these types of projects because it is a robust and easy-to-use LMS. I frequently use the platform to run some of my instructional design and educational technology-themed courses. 

I recently held a tutorial session for one such course, where I walked students through the steps of getting started with the building phase for their pilot projects using the Canvas learning management system. While running the live tutorial session (via the Adobe Connect web conferencing platform), I recorded my demonstrations. I then used Screencast-O-Matic to edit the footage, add closed captions, and produce a series of videos focusing on how to get up and running with your own courses in Canvas. This series of videos covers:

• Creating a New Canvas Course "Shell"
• Configuring Basic Canvas Course Settings
• Creating Canvas Content Pages
• Setting a Canvas Course Home Page
• Working with Images in Canvas
• Embedding Web Content in Canvas
• Creating Assignments in Canvas
• Creating and Organizing Canvas Content Modules
• Testing and Publishing Your Canvas Course
• Adding and Managing Canvas Course Participants
• Backing Up and Importing Canvas Course Content

Architects prepare blueprints before contractors set about building houses or office towers. Engineers prepare schematics before technicians construct complex machinery. The same process holds in eLearning development. As Adeboye (2014) explains, without preparing a map of what an online module should look like, it’s easy to suffer from scope creep (the scope of the project continuously growing, because there are now criteria to indicate what needs to be done, and when it is done). It’s also possible for you, as a developer, to get lost and start feeling over your head. Adeboye also describes some of the key components that you should be including in a storyboard for an online teaching module.

Gutierrez (2014) provides some more useful tips on how to get started in her article A Simple Guide to Creating Your First eLearning Storyboard. In the following video, I demonstrate how I use an Excel spreadsheet-based blueprint when I build online courses. In this example, I am using the storyboard for a course that I developed for Athabasca University using the Moodle learning management system.

​Penn State (2016) provides downloadable blueprint templates that you can use to design your own online course modules. Or, you could download my Sample Blueprint Template or Sample Excel Blueprint.  Alternatively, you could create your own template, or use one from your own institution.

The following blog posts provide some additional resources that are helpful as you design and build your online learning resources. Some of these provide tips and tricks to maximize Digital Accessibility. Others focus on humanizing the online learning experience, helping students to optimize their time with course readings and discussions, and how to use YouTube effectively in your online courses.

• Accessibility in Online Teaching and Learning
• Adding a Human Touch to Online Learning, Right From the Start
• Helping Everyone Access Your Online Learning Resources 
• Optimizing Your Time with Online Courses
• Using YouTube to Share Video in an Online Course

Adeboye, D. (2014, Oct 21). Principles of Storyboarding for e-Learning design. [YouTube Video]. Available from https://youtu.be/l9PZ2bEuKFA

Gutierrez, K. (2014, September 25). A Simple Guide to Creating Your First eLearning Storyboard [Web log post]. Available from http://info.shiftelearning.com/blog/a-simple-guide-to-creating-your-first-elearning-storyboard 

Instructure (n.d.). Canvas: Free for Teacher. [Web page]. Available from https://canvas.instructure.com/login/canvas

Penn State. (2016). Course Blueprint and Audit Template. [Web page]. Available from http://facdev.e-education.psu.edu/plan/audit

Power, R. (2018, June 12). Accessibility in Online Teaching and Learning. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. Available from https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/accessibility-in-online-teaching-and-learning

Power, R. (2019, January 13). Optimizing Your Time with Online Courses. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. Available from https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/optimizing-your-time-with-online-courses

Power, R. (2019, January 14). Using YouTube to Share Video in an Online Course. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. Available from https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/using-youtube-to-share-video-in-an-online-course

Power, R. (2019, January 22). Adding a Human Touch to Online Learning, Right From the Start! [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. Available from https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/adding-a-human-touch-to-online-learning-right-from-the-start

Power, R. (2019, February 17). Using Storyboards to Develop eLearning Courses. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/Ua4bWufBRgo

Power, R. (2020, February 13). Helping Everyone Access Your Online Learning Resources. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. Available from https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/helping-everyone-access-your-online-learning-resources 

Power, R. (2020, February 26). Adding and Managing Canvas Course Participants. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/qXDQpPCRHzQ

Power, R. (2020, February 26). Backing Up and Importing Canvas Course Content. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/dowQ5-0FB74

Power, R. (2020, February 26). Configuring Basic Canvas Course Settings. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/cCd-mjp0lmg

Power, R. (2020, February 26). Creating a New Course in Canvas. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/CM9OeqID0Zs

Power, R. (2020, February 26). Creating and Organizing Canvas Content Modules. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/2ljQ2AXCG7M

Power, R. (2020, February 26). Creating Assignments in Canvas. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/CeRZ_9KO7uI

Power, R. (2020, February 26). Creating Canvas Content Pages. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/UISNpTFSoDs

Power, R. (2020, February 26). Embedding Web Content in Canvas. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/1arVnjuxta4

Power, R. (2020, February 26). Setting a Canvas Course Home Page. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/OZWOQY22p5k

Power, R. (2020, February 26). Testing and Publishing Your Canvas Course. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/2jlZyfVmw0k

Power, R. (2020, February 26). Working With Images in Canvas. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/26l4Dyj5jLU

Power, R. (2020, March 12). Using a Quiz for Adaptive Release in Canvas. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/8zPsh2Jwwlo ​

Publicdomainvectors.org (2020). Under construction road sign. [Image file]. Available from https://publicdomainvectors.org/en/free-clipart/Under-construction-road-sign/80023.html

Screencast-O-Matic (2019). Video Creation for Everyone. [Web page]. Available from https://screencast-o-matic.com/

Slade, Tim (2017, February 26). 250+ Free Stock Photos for eLearning. [Web log post]. Timslade.com. Available from https://timslade.com/blog/stock-photos-for-elearning/

One of my graduate Education students recently asked for me for advice on how to make her dissertation document more digitally accessible, so I recorded a short video (2020, February 12) that highlights the two things that I find most commonly needed when writing papers, or creating instructional materials using a word processor like Microsoft Word:

• Properly "tagging" headings
• Adding ALT text to images

I should point out -- as I do in the video -- that it is generally a bad idea to embed text within an image in a document (or on a web page). The text is not machine readable and, thus, will not be read by a digital screen reader application. That makes whatever text you have embedded within the image inaccessible to anyone who relies on a digital screen reader. It also creates difficulties reading the text on different screen sizes, as the text will not "reflow" or resize properly.

Learning Technologies at College of DuPage (2018, July 3) has a good overview of additional tips for Creating Accessible Word Docs. They also have a wealth of additional resources on The Accessibility Cheat Sheet (2018, November 13) page.

I frequently create web-based content to either host learning resources, or to mediate the teaching and learning experience. Sometimes this content is hosted in a blog post (such as this one), on a public-facing web page, or on a content page within a learning management system (LMS). The three most common things that I find myself doing (and that I recommend to students when creating web-based content) are:

• Properly "tagging" headings
• Adding ALT text to images
• Checking the Color Contrast Ratio

​When it comes to properly "tagging" headings, I recommend sticking to the pre-formatting heading tags, which can be found on the toolbar at the top of the content editor. Just like with a Word document or PDF, anyone using a digital screen reader can easily navigate your page using their keyboard, or a digital switch, by "tabbing" through the pre-formatted headings. If you manually format your text, users won't be able to do this. (Sticking to the pre-formatted headings has an added advantage for you, because it allows site administrators to globally apply updates to organizational styles, including fonts, sizes, and colors, without you needing to update all of your previously created content!)

eLearningBTC (2014) has an excellent video that demonstrates how to properly tag heading levels in the Canvas LMS. While the specific interfaces may look different for the various LMS platforms (such as Brightspace / D2L, Moodle, Blackboard, etc.), the concepts and principles are essentially the same in all of their content editor tools.

A simple rule of thumb for both documents and web-based content -- do NOT rely on color to tell the story (Comrade, 2015; Giessman, 2018). It seems counter-intuitive, but reliance on color to convey an important message can render your content inaccessible to a lot of users. In a similar vain, make sure that the colors you do use have a sufficient color contrast ratio. That means, it should be easy to distinguish your text against the color of the background. When in doubt, stick to reliable old black and white!

You can use the The Paciello Group's (n.d.) free Color Contrast Analyzer tool to check your content for compliance with basic digital accessibility standards. Also, check out Interaction Design Foundation's (2018) Web Fonts are Critical to the Online User Experience - Don’t Hurt Your Reader’s Eyes.

​Video is becoming an increasingly popular platform for sharing instructional content (or for student creation of assignment presentations). Video can be highly effective in this role. But, video is an audio-visual platform. Some users may not be able to hear your narration. Others may prefer to view the content with the volume turned off. For that reason, you should ensure that your videos contain closed captions. (Matheson, 2017)

For my Two Basic Steps to Make Your Documents Digitally Accessible video, I taught myself how to use Screencast-O-Matic's (2019) new Captions feature to add closed captions. The following video (Screencast-O-Matic, 2018) shows how to do that yourself:

​Now, you may not have access to video editing software such as Screencast-O-Matic. But chances are, if you are working with video content, you will be working with YouTube (Google, 2020) as a hosting platform. YouTube has built-in tools that allow you to automatically add closed captions, to upload your own captions, and to edit them online. VidIQ (2019) has an excellent quick overview of just how to do this:

For more closed captioning resources, check out Described and Captioned Media Program's (2018) Caption It Yourself website.

A Quick Workaround

If you are not able to add closed captions when creating the video, one quick alternative is to prepare a document with the video's transcript, and post a link to a PDF of the transcript along with the video. It is not an ideal solution -- but for some, it is at least a basic means of providing a machine-readable way to access the content.

I was inspired to create this blog post when I was asked for some advice from one of my students, and then a colleague asked me if I had any good "cheat sheets" with basic Digital Accessibility tips for students or faculty. So... here is a Digital Accessibility Cheat Sheet that I put together summarizing some of the key points in this post.  (Don't worry -- while this image-based version isn't really accessible, the downloadable PDF version is!)

​Moritz Giessmann (2019) has posted an infographic-based cheat sheet for creating accessible web-based content (don't worry -- this infographic is HTML-based, not an image file, so it is accessible itself!).

You can find a whole lot more detailed cheat sheets and resources from the following sites:

• Comrade's AA Compliance Cheat Sheet
• Digital A11Y's WCAG Cheat Sheets & Checklists
• Learning Technology's The Accessibility Cheat Sheet

The following sites have even more resources, including full digital accessibility toolkits:

• Accessible Digital Documents and & Websites
• Accessibility in E-Learning
• BCampus Open Education Accessibility Toolkit

Comrade (2015). AA Compliance Cheat Sheet. [Web page]. Available from https://comrade.github.io/accessibility/cheatsheet.html

Coolidge, A., Doner, S., & Robertson, T. (2015). BCampus Open Education Accessibility Toolkit. [eBook]. Victoria, BC, Canada: BCampus. Available from https://opentextbc.ca/accessibilitytoolkit/ 

Council of Ontario Universities (2017a). Accessible Digital Documents & Websites. [Web page]. Accessible Campus. Available from http://www.accessiblecampus.ca/reference-library/accessible-digital-documents-websites/

Council of Ontario Universities (2017b). Accessibility in E-Learning. [Web page]. Accessible Campus. Available from http://www.accessiblecampus.ca/tools-resources/educators-tool-kit/course-planning/accessibility-in-e-learning/ 

Digital A11Y (2020). WCAG Cheat Sheets & Checklists. [Web page]. Available from https://www.digitala11y.com/wcag-cheat-sheets/

Described and Captioned Media Program (2018). Caption It Yourself. [Web page]. Available from https://dcmp.org/learn/213 

eLearningBTC (2014, June 26). Canvas Tip #18: Using Heading tags to improve Accessibility. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/EN6M_Ksthms

Giessmann, M. (2019, October 18). Accessibility Cheat Sheet. [Web page]. Available from https://moritzgiessmann.de/accessibility-cheatsheet/

Google (2020). YouTube. [Web page]. Available from https://www.youtube.com/

Interaction Design Foundation (2018). Web Fonts are Critical to the Online User Experience - Don’t Hurt Your Reader’s Eyes. [Web page]. Available from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/web-fonts-are-critical-to-the-online-user-experience-don-t-hurt-your-reader-s-eyes 

Learning Technologies (2018, November 13). The Accessibility Cheat Sheet. [Web page]. Learning Technologies at College of DuPage. Available from https://www.codlearningtech.org/2018/11/13/the-accessibility-cheat-sheet/

Learning Technologies (2018, July 3). Accessibility Series: Creating Accessible Word Docs. [Web page]. Learning Technologies at College of DuPage. Available from https://www.codlearningtech.org/2018/07/03/accessibility-series-creating-accessible-word-docs/

Matheson, G. (2017). 5 Reasons You Should Caption Your Videos. [Web blog post]. Access Innovation Media. Available from https://blog.ai-media.tv/blog/5-reasons-you-should-caption-your-videos

The Paciello Group (n.d.). Colour Contrast Analyzer (CCA). [Web page]. Available from https://developer.paciellogroup.com/resources/contrastanalyser/

Power, R. (2018, June 12). Accessibility in Online Teaching and Learning. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. Available from https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/accessibility-in-online-teaching-and-learning

Power, R. (2020, February 3). Adding ALT text in Canvas. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/5wAR9OMWK78

Power, R. (2020, February 12). Two Basic Steps to Make Your Documents Digitally Accessible. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/AKzuXghQFnc

Screencast-O-Matic (2018, July 19). Adding Captions on your Screencast-O-Matic Videos. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/vMW4qrrFc0g

Screencast-O-Matic (2019). Video Creation for Everyone. [Web page]. Available from https://screencast-o-matic.com/

Slade, Tim (2017, February 26). 250+ Free Stock Photos for eLearning. [Web log post]. Timslade.com. Available from https://timslade.com/blog/stock-photos-for-elearning/

VidIQ (2019, February 1). How to Add Subtitles to YouTube Videos [New Method]. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/qfJthDvcZ08

I've seen some recent Tweets showing excitement over some of the pending changes to formatting recommendations in the forthcoming APA Publication Manual version 7 (due for realease in October 2019). One thing that I'm pleased to see is more clarification on writing style to approach diversity and inclusion, as emphasized by Amy Diehl:

​The recent hype over the APA Publication Manual version 7 reminded me that I had planned to do a blog post with some recommendations for student paper writing, based on some of the feedback that I find myself most commonly providing to my undergraduate and graduate-level Education students. I won't dwell too much on formatting specifics -- as I haven't seen the latest APA Publication Manual yet. But, I will provide some tips on writing style and formatting for stronger academic papers.

Three of the most common things that I point out in feedback on student papers relate to the use of a first-person perspective, the use of colloquialisms, and the use of subjective adjectives and adverbs. Here is the advice that I provide to my students (straight from the handy checklist of notes that I have ready when reviewing assignment submissions):

• Avoid using a first-person perspective in a formal academic paper. No matter how valid your points are, the reader tends to dismiss them as either anecdotal or biased when the first-person is used.
• Avoid using colloquial phrases, unless they are part of a direct quote. They may come across as subjective to your reader, or as cliche.
• Avoid using subjective adjectives or adverbs in a formal paper. Your reader may determine their meaning differently from what you intended. Unless you can quantify the adjective or adverb, avoid using it.

I have frequently commented on improper formatting of Running Headers in student paper submissions -- but it looks like I no longer need to worry about that. Running Headers will no longer be required for student papers in APA version 7. But, here is the list of some of the most common formatting comments that I have provided in feedback to my students:

• For an APA paper, you should open the main body with a Level 1 header. Either repeat the title of the paper, or use “Introduction.”
• When stating the purpose of your paper, only use “will” in a proposal. Once the paper is written, say that it “does.” Use something like “this paper explores…”
• Spell out numbers from zero to nine, and use numbers for numbers 10 and above (unless you are presenting a statistical figure).
• Do not use contractions in formal writing.
• Only use "&" when citing a group of authors inside of parentheses for an in-text citation. Use "and" when listing the group of authors in a sentence.
• Do not include active hyperlinks in an APA format paper. Instead, just include the URL formatted as plain text (unlinked).

One big change that appears to be coming with APA version 7 is with the use of et al. for in-text citations. Previously, the standard was to list all authors (if four or fewer) the first time you cited them in your paper, and then to use et al. for subsequent citations of the same resource. Under APA version 7, you will be able to use the format first author, et. al. (year) for ALL in-text citations with three or more authors.

Although I do not (at this point in time) deduct marks for this, I do like to point out to my students when they are not doing things to increase the digital accessibility of their papers. The easiest thing to do -- with the greatest impact for the widest possible audience -- is to use the formatting styles tools in your word processor. Too often I find that student manually format their paper titles, subtitles, and Level 1, 2, 3, etc., section headers. Doing this makes it impossible for anyone using a digital screen reader application to easily navigate your document. By formatting these elements using the formatting styles tools, you make two things possible:

• You can automatically create a table of contents for your document.
• Readers using digital screen readers can easily "tab" through your document sections, without forcing their applications to read the entire document out loud to them. 

Of course, you will need to update those formatting styles from your word processor's defaults to comply with APA standards.

This video shows how to use and modify the formatting styles in Word. 

​This template may not reflect all of the forthcoming changes -- but it should provide you with a good start on preparing an undergraduate or graduate paper following APA standards.

​Click on the button below to download a general paper template for MS Word, reflecting some of the changes coming for APA version 7.

American Psychological Association (2019, August 6). Seventh Edition of APA's Best-Selling Publication Manual to Publish in October with a 700,000 First Printing. [Web page]. Available from https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2019/08/publication-manual

@amydeihl (2019, October 9). Use of singular "they" is no acceptable in APA style formatted papers [Tweet]. Retreived from https://twitter.com/amydiehl/status/1182135456479219712?s=19

GCFLearnFree.org (2016, February 8). Word: Applying and Modifying Styles. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/w2lES-5Ynbk

Slade, Tim (2017, January 17). 100+ Free Hero Images for eLearning. [Web log post]. Available from https://timslade.com/blog/hero-images-for-elearning/

Why do some superstitions and myths linger? Is it because they have some kernel of truth that will help guide us through an uncertain and increasingly complex world? Or is it because they sound like an easy-to-understand truth, that explains life's complexities in a way that makes it easy for us to justify otherwise irrational actions? Always influencing our decisions, yet threatening to to undermine our intentions because of their inherent lack of scientific merit? In the case of the concept of Learning Styles, I fear it is the latter option.

The spectre of "learning styles," and its proclaimed "importance" as a consideration in instructional design, continues to loom over education systems -- despite well-informed entreaties to abandon the myth in favor of evidence-informed decision-making. I recently asked a group of graduate-level education students to draft position papers on their personal teaching philosophies with respect to the integration of educational technology. We had spent the first few weeks of the course discussing the core competencies of Instructional Designers, and exploring a range of key learning theories. Not once in the course readings were Learning Styles included as a fundamental concept. Yet... the concept has popped up in Tweets using the course hashtag, and in a number of students' teaching philosophy statements. 

I don't normally discuss Learning Styles in my courses, because they are not only unproven -- they are disproven. Corporal punishment was once also considered acceptable in schools. But -- unlike corporal punishment -- the myth of Learning Styles remains so pervasive in schools, colleges, and universities, that I feel I would be remiss if I didn't address it in some way. If the brilliant and creative educators whom I have the privilege of collaborating with every day are being affected by this insidious myth, then I feel I should at least give them some "food for thought" -- some fuel for a healthy debate, rather than letting blind acceptance of something that has been "debunked" continue unchecked.

I am not a neuroscientist, and there are plenty of reputable authors who have commented on this topic more eloquently than I could... so I will not pontificate. I will summarize a few key points, and point to some of these excellent resources that every instructional designer, practicing educator, and education student should take the time to read.

​As Donald Clark (2016) noted, Learning Styles are distillations of myriad learning theories into "simple models... which are simplistic, easy to learn, easy to put on a training Powerpoint slide, and easy to explain." They distill complex learning theories into simple categories of how students "learn best," focusing on their preferred modes of receiving and interacting with learning content. Learning-styles-online.com (n.d.) list the following seven categories, with which I'm certain most educators are familiar:

As Clark (2016) laments, "they are represented as researched, evidenced and science, when they are not." Clark has published a number of blog posts discussing the lack of science behind the Learning Styles myth and the reasons why it is still so (alarmingly) pervasive, which are well-worth reading:

• Learning Styles - final nail in coffin? (Clark, 2010)
• 7 reasons why teachers believe, wrongly, in ‘Learning Styles’ (Clark, 2016)
• University faculty believe in Learning Styles and promote it to students while their Teacher Training departments say it's a myth (Clark, 2018)

Likewise, Steven Wheeler (2011) posted an excellent summary of what he called A Convenient Untruth.

Some Key Points from Clark, Wheeler, and the many academic sources they cite (which include both neuroscientists and educational researchers):

• There is NO evidence that Learning Styles really exist.
• There is NO evidence that addressing Learning Styles has a significant impact upon learning achievement.
• Training teachers to, and requiring them to integrate Learning Styles into their instructional design and lesson planning distracts them for evidence-based efforts.
• An over-emphasis on Learning Styles unnecessarily pigeon-holes students, convinces both students and their teachers that achievement issues can be attributed to their Learning Style preferences, and may lead students to not exert as much effort when learning is presented in ways contrary to their perceived preferred styles.
• Despite the lack of evidence for the concept of Learning Styles, and the fact that many teacher training programs overtly dispute their validity, the concept remains prevalent in both K12 and higher education contexts.

The gist of a recent Tweet by one of my graduate education students (while sharing a link to an article from Forbes (McCue, 2019) espousing the importance of Learning Styles) was that incorporating them into instructional decision-making helps more students to achieve learning goals, because we'll hit more of their preferred "styles." Without getting into too much science -- targeting Learning Styles preferences should not be the focus. But, there is evidence-based merit to incorporate a variety of teaching and learning approaches. Such variety increases engagement, because it reduces the "normalization" of instructional presentation. In other words, it prevents desensitization to the presentation format. It also peaks learners' interest -- ALL learners, not just those who prefer one "style" over another. Boredom can take students out of the engagement zone talked about in Flow theory (Learning-theories.com, n.d.)! Then, there's also the benefit of multi-modal, or multi-channel reception of content (Mareno & Mayer, 2000; Quinette, et al., 2003; Zheng, 2009) . Evidence has shown that information presented through multiple modes -- targeting multiple senses -- is better understood, and better encoded into long-term memory.

Long story short -- there are plenty of valid, rigorously tested learning theories and models that we should be considering when making instructional design decisions. There are plenty of reasons to incorporate variety in how we present material, and expect our students to interact with it. There is not only NO need to rely upon over-simplified models that sound good (but lack evidence) -- reliance on such models leads us astray from informed decision-making (and potentially risks us making harmful instructional decisions).

Clark, D. (2010, February 15). Learning Styles - final nail in coffin? [Web log post]. Donald Clark: Plan B. Available from http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2010/02/learning-styles-final-nail-in-coffin.html

Clark, D. (2016, October 8). 7 reasons why teachers believe, wrongly, in ‘Learning Styles.' [Web log post]. Donald Clark: Plan B. Available from http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2016/10/7-reasons-why-teachers-believe-wrongly.html

Clark, D. (2018, June 16). University faculty believe in Learning Styles and promote it to students while their Teacher Training departments say it's a myth. [Web log post]. Donald Clark: Plan B. Available from http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2018/06/university-faculty-believe-in-learning.html

ClipartXtras (n.d.). Chalkboard. [Image file]. Available from https://clipartxtras.com/categories/view/de245518959d7fb4318c464ae3016506010232ea/chalkboard-clipart-transparent.html

Kisspng (2019). Chalkboard eraser. [Image file]. Available from https://www.kisspng.com/png-chalkboard-eraser-blackboard-sidewalk-chalk-2228618/download-png.html

Learning Styles Online (n.d.) Overview of Learning Styles. [Web page]. Available from https://www.learning-styles-online.com/overview/

Learning-theories.com (n.d.) Flow (Csíkszentmihályi). [Web page]. Available from https://www.learning-theories.com/flow-csikszentmihalyi.html

Mareno, R. & Mayer, R. E. (2000). A learner-centered approach to multimedia explanations: Deriving Instructional Design principles from Cognitive Theory. Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer-Enhanced Learning, 2(2). http://imej.wfu.edu/articles/2000/2/05/index.asp

McCue, T.J. (2019, January 30). How Combined Learning Style Not Just Visual Or Kinesthetic Can Help You Succeed. [Web log post]. Forbes. Available from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/01/30/how-combined-learning-style-not-just-visual-or-kinesthetic-can-help-you-succeed/#5f329857d9cc

PlusPNG (2019). Regular Zombie. [image file]. Available from http://pluspng.com/png-7866.html

Quinette, P., Guillery, B., Desgranges, B., de la Sayette, V., Viader, F., & Eustache, F. (2003). Working memory and executive functions in transient global amnesia. Brain 126(9), 1917-1934. Available from https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awg201

Wheeler, S. (2011, November 24). A convenient untruth. [Web log post]. Learning with 'e's. Available from http://www.steve-wheeler.co.uk/2011/11/convenient-untruth.html

Zheng, R. Z. (2009). Cognitive effects of multimedia learning. [PDF file]. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/CRMSE/personal_pages/sreed/Manipulating_Materials.pdf

I teach a number of courses that focus on different aspects of instructional design for online learning. One thing that I always like to emphasize is the importance of "humanizing" the online learning experience. Too often, students (and instructors) complain about the loneliness and isolation of being in an online course. If it feels that way, then the principles of creating a Community of Inquiry have not been considered during the instructional design process! 

The Community of Inquiry framework (Athabasca University, 2016; Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2001) tells us that we need to facilitate three key "presences" in order to set up an effective online learning experience:

1. Social Presence -- Connections between learners.
2. Teacher Presence -- Connections with the instructor (and the instructor's presence, guiding and facilitating the learning process).
3. Cognitive Presence -- Connections with the learning content and activities.

​Even before we enroll students into our online courses, we need to put careful thought into how we are going to foster these presences (and how they will interact with each other). This is part of the "Teacher Presence" aspect. Another important part of the Teacher Presence aspect is just actually letting your students know that you are there, and helping them get to know you as a person. As Pacansky-Brock (2015) explains, this is the "Secret Sauce" to help your students feel welcomed!

​One activity that I have engaged some of my instructional design students in aims to maximize Teacher Presence from the very first moments that students enter into an online course. 

​First impressions are as important when teaching online as they are in a face-to-face classroom. Unfortunately, online teachers don’t usually have the opportunity to physically greet their students at the door. But that doesn’t mean you can’t introduce yourself, and personally welcome your students to your course. Creating an online Instructor Introduction or Course Welcome video is a great way to establish teacher presence, and inspire and motivate your students from the moment they first login to your online course. Dwayne Reed’s Welcome to the 4th Grade (2016) is an excellent example of an Instructor Introduction video that has become an online sensation.

​Now -- we can't all create something as elaborate (and catchy!) as Reed's musical intro. But that doesn't mean we can't add the same sort of personal touch. For a more practical (and easy-to-create) example, check out the Instructor Welcome Video that I created to add into my online courses.

​One of the most important tips that I can give is to avoid talking about the course itself. You wouldn't start talking about the details of your course if you were physically greeting students at the door on the first day of a face-to-face class. Neither should you when greeting them at the start of an online course! Save that for a second, course specific video.

Avoiding course specifics in your Instructor Welcome Video has an added practical benefit for you -- it increases your Return on Investment for the time spent on creating your video. If the video is a personal greeting, and not about a specific course, then you can use it in more than one online course! And, that brings me to my second big tip -- try to avoid saying things in your video that will immediately or quickly date it. Avoid saying things like "I'm currently pursuing...." Instead, say something like "In 201x I began...." That way, you don't need to redo your video as soon as things change (which means you also don't need to hunt down every place you've shared the video, and update the link to the new version).

I used the free version of PowToon to create my Instructor Welcome video. But, there are plenty of other free video creation applications that you could use (and some awesome paid ones, as well). 

​Here are just a handful of additional resources that you might find helpful:

• Using YouTube to Share Video in an Online Course (my blog post with tips on how to work with YouTube as an online instructor).
• How to Make Your YouTube Videos Interactive (Byrne, 2017) 
• 6 Steps For Making An Engaging eLearning Promo Video For Your Course (Michael, 2017)

Athabasca University (2016). The Community of Inquiry [Web page]. Available from https://coi.athabascau.ca/ 

Byrne, R. (2017, February 6). How to Make Your YouTube Videos Interactive [Web log Post]. Free Technology for Teachers. Available from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2017/02/how-to-make-your-youtube-videos.html#.WJodp2IrKUk

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education model. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105. Available from http://cde.athabascau.ca/coi_site/documents/Garrison_Anderson_Archer_Critical_Inquiry_model.pdf 

Michael, A. (2017, February 5). 6 Steps For Making An Engaging eLearning Promo Video For Your Course [Web log Post]. eLearning Industry. Available from https://elearningindustry.com/6-steps-making-engaging-elearning-promo-video-course

Pacansky-Brock, M. (2015, June 2). Instructor Presence: The Secret Sauce. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/P8S1aOA8HkE

Power, R. (2018, September 12). Hi There! Meet Rob Power. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/nC5AmaFws34

PowToon (2017). Available from https://www.powtoon.com/

Reed, D. (2016, August 20). Welcome to the 4th Grade. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/XBLcuGunRxU

​Slade, Tim (2017, January 17). 100+ Free Hero Images for eLearning. [Web log post]. Available from https://timslade.com/blog/hero-images-for-elearning/

​I recently had a question which reminded me... I should never assume that everyone already knows how to use YouTube! I like YouTube as a EdTech tool, because it is a powerful way to share video content with your students (why bother worrying about how to process and stream video content, when YouTube already has powerful servers that will do it for you!). And that doesn't mean that you have to direct them to YouTube to view it. You can embed your YouTube videos directly into a website, or an LMS content page.

To that end, here are a few resources that might be helpful. This first video shows the basics of how to upload and share videos in YouTube. As noted in the video... you do need to login. All you need for that is a GMail / Google account!

​This next video goes over some of the basics of choosing a privacy setting for your video. It's important to choose the right setting. If you want your video to be available publicly, then choose "Public." If you want to share your video with your students, and embed it into a webpage or LMS page, choose "Unlisted." "Unlisted" means the video can't be found using a search engine, but anyone with the link can still view it without a password. If you don't want anyone to view it without you directly allowing "just that person" to see it, choose "Private." Even with a direct URL, no one will be able to watch the video unless you authorize their email address!

​Finally... here are some quick tutorial videos showing the basics of how to embed a YouTube video (whether it's one you uploaded, or another video that you found on YouTube) into pages in some of the LMS platforms that I have worked with most frequently:

​One of the great things about embedding a YouTube video into a webpage or course page in an LMS is that you won't be violating the video owner's copyright (assuming the person who posted the video isn't violating a copyright within the video itself!). That's because you're not actually making a copy of the video. You're essentially just sharing a link to it, and if the owner decides they don't want anyone to use it anymore, they can remove the video, or change the privacy setting. When they do that, your embedded player simply won't show it any more!

​YouTube has a few different "licencing" options when you post your own videos. The default is "Standard YouTube Licence," which is essentially a copyright licence. I prefer to change that setting to a Creative Commons Attribution. Using a CC Attribution means that you are letting others reuse your video as an Open Access resource, so long as they properly attribute you. It also means that you are allowing others to make a copy, edit, remix, or combine parts of your video with other Creative Commons videos from YouTube!

Eves, D. (2014, January 2). How to Properly Upload Videos to YouTube. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/Hlxqk0iHp5w

Gniffke, D. (2016, May 11). Canvas - Embedding Video. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/l2ebbdJPy0o

Interesting Videos (2017, February 2). Creative Commons License YouTube cc Not Standard Youtube License. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/e-46x3mpS8M

Power, R. (2015, January 25). Embedding Videos in D2L. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/QZ4558qvzhw

Scott Gardiner Technical Services (2016, May 2). How to Embed a YouTube Video on Your Weebly Website. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/4PfKoV9XyN0

Straub, S. (2018, February 17). How To Embed Media Such As Youtube Videos Into Blackboard. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/BWIF_d2Vcc4

Tattershall, E. (2017, June 6). Embedding Video in Your Moodle Course. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/K4zAZuHGNrM

thebasicgist (2013, June 6). Youtube Settings: Unlisted v Private v Public. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/fViYcDDZyhk

University of Leicester Learning and Teaching (2016, February 29). Embed a YouTube video in Blackboard. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/ES-CZtBdHOI

I frequently share this advice to my students at the start of a new course (in some form or another, and often in separate communications). Since we're at the start of another term, I figured that this would be a good time to share some useful time management strategies for anyone participating in an online course.

​There are often a lot of readings included in your course units. But, that doesn’t mean you need to spend all of your time reading, reading, reading…. Your instructor may share a lot of resources in your course to give you a broad perspective on the types of resources out there, and issues to consider. You don’t need to read and digest EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. Take a look at each of the resources, and try to pull the main points out of them – particularly as they apply to you and your own context!

This short video by Thomas Frank contains some great nuggets on how to speed up your overall reading, and get the most out of reading for learning. In particular:

• Pre-Read for Title, Abstract, Headings, Key Terms – this will give you a good sense of the key points, and what you should be looking out for when you read deeper.
• Attack the Reading with a Purpose – consider why YOU need to read the piece, and what YOU want to get out of it. Connect it to your own context, and look for the points that relate to that.
• Skimming – Skim through the reading to find those sections that are most important to you. Many “academic” resources contain A LOT of information that you don’t necessarily need RIGHT NOW!
• Read those key sections a little more deeply, and make some notes about how they relate to you and your needs. Skip the sections that provide extra details you don’t need right now (you can always re-read them later, if you are really interested, or the need arises).

​I recently responded to a student who shared the following comment in the Questions and Help forum in one of my courses:

​Here are some of the strategies that I suggested:

First strategy... you don't need to read each and every post! 

• Post your own responses for the weekly questions.
• Read and respond to a handful of posts from some of your classmates (look for ones that haven't had a lot of responses yet).
• While it is valuable to hear everyone's voice on the topics and questions we are exploring... it can also drive you mad trying to read them all (especially in a class with many active students!).

Second strategy... set up a "Daily Forum Digest."

• You can configure your Daily Digest preferences in most Learning Management Systems. (For instance, in Moodle, click on the dropdown arrow next to your name in the top right corner of the screen. Then select Preferences > Forum Preferences.)
• If your LMS allows it, (Moodle, for instance, does) tell the LMS to mark all new messages as "Read" once your Daily Digest is sent out to you by email (which will avoid the shock of seeing so many unread messages when you login to the LMS, and the time-consuming task of navigating to, and viewing them all to get them all marked as "read").
• I find that the Daily Digest option is useful for time management, because you know what time it will arrive in your inbox. Everything is grouped together by forum in one place, and you can quickly peruse from your inbox to see if there is anything important. If not, and you have your preferences configured to mark them as read when the Digest is sent, then you don't have to worry about those messages when you login to the LMS. If so, there will be a link in your Daily Digest to go directly to that message (so you can find it, even if they have now all been marked as "read").

Third Strategy... set aside a specific time when you will review messages. 

• Allocate yourself enough time to post your required original posts and responses, and a bit of time for perusing other posts, course announcements, etc.
• Stick to that amount of time, even if it means you can't get to reading all of the insightful posts made by your classmates!

Fourth Strategy... if your instructor has a dedicated Questions and Help forum, use it! 

• If you have coursework related questions, or general questions about the course site, administrative issues, etc, post them in that dedicated space. Your instructor will likely check there first when they are logging in to the course site.
• Avoid burying questions for which you expect / need an instructor response in regular module discussion forums. Your instructor may be following some of the strategies outlined above, may not have time to read each and every post in the regular forums, and may miss your query amidst that sea of new posts!

I hope this advice helps!

Frank, T. (2015, October 2). 5 Ways to Read Faster That ACTUALLY Work - College Info Geek. [YouTube video]. Available from https://youtu.be/kmDMrxUSXKY

Slade, Tim (2017, January 17). 100+ Free Hero Images for eLearning. [Web log post]. Available from https://timslade.com/blog/hero-images-for-elearning/

On the surface, this question sounds like it should have a straightforward answer. But, often the definition of instructional design can be murky, because there is a lot that it encompasses. Right now, I am facilitating a couple of introductory-level instructional design courses at different Canadian universities. I thought that it might be helpful to draw upon some of their course resources to summarize what instructional design is, from my perspective.

In one of my courses, participants are asked to review a blog post by Tom Kulhmann (2008). Kulhmann's post What Everbody Ought to Know About Instructional Design provides a video example, and discusses it's instructional design elements. Along the way, he injects five key bullet points about what instructional design is:
​

• Instructional design is more than just putting information in front of learners.
• Instructional design has clear goals, and gets your learners focused on the right things.
• Instructional design provides context and perspective.
• Instructional design compresses the learning process and saves time.
• Instructional design engages learners with clear and meaningful content.

For the most part, I agree with Kulhmann's observations -- although I would argue that "compresses the learning process and saves time" is not always a desired objective of the ID process. That would all depend on the context -- and in some contexts, you may want to deliberately extend the learning process! However, I think that there are enough "gems" in Kulhmann's points to craft a basic working definition of instructional design for the purposes of those "new to the game."

​The precise roles and tasks of an instructional designer may vary, depending on their school or organization. I've created the following infographic to illustrate the breadth of the roles that I've played as an instructional designer and instructional developer. These roles include:
​

• Consultant / Advisor
• Creator
• Champion
• Project Manager
• Quality Assurance

And, of course, there is a lot of overlap between all of these roles!

References:

Kulhmann, J. (2008, July 22). What Everybody Ought to Know About Instructional Design. [Web log post]. Rapid eLearning. Available from https://blogs.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/what-everybody-ought-to-know-about-instructional-design/