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Showing posts from August, 2018

Online Course Design: Using Images to Enhance Student Learning

Images are a great way to convey information, but it is important to use images that help to communicate your message. Images used for decoration or disconnected to content add nothing and can even detract from your message. Research supports the idea that people learn better from text and graphics than from text alone. One theory suggests that people may store information in long-term memory better with textual information paired with relevant graphics. Our brains process visual information presented by graphics faster than text. According to the Visual Teaching Alliance: Approximately 65% of the population learns visually 90% of the information entering the brain is visual Visual Aids increase learning by 40% Our eyes can register 36,000 visual messages per hour Image Types Which image format should you use? The answer is it depends on the type of information you wish to convey. Here is a short primer on image formats. Jpeg (Joint Photographers Experts Group) i...

Online Course Design: Writing Text That Students Will Actually Read

We’ve all had that teacher, lecturer, instructor, or seminar presenter who lost us within the first couple of minutes of their presentation. Perhaps you worked hard at paying attention, but the complexity, monotone delivery, PowerPoints filled with text, or flat out boring material made you lapse into a coma.  Text has a propensity for becoming that boring presenter. We tend to scan and shy away from large blocks of text. Why, because we work to process information in the most efficient way with as little effort as possible and when faced with a page full of words our brains want to just run and hide. Our brains continually attempt to reduce cognitive load and we can ease their burdens by presenting text in a way that allows for efficient processing. Keep in mind that reading on a screen is very different than reading printed material. I can’t emphasize this point enough. I admit my guilt in simply dumping textual material formatted in MSWord into my online courses, as I’...
My short story, "Alder's Journey," about a scientist with an artificial brain, was just published by UK Sci Fi online magazine The New Accelerator: https://thenewaccelerator.com/alders-journey-by-bruce-forciea/ Y ou can read Alder's Journey and other short stories in my collection of short stories on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Anomalies-Reality-Collection-Science-Fiction-ebook/dp/B01N8X2BG7/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533332983&sr=8-1&keywords=anomalies+of+reality