Not the most creative of titles, but an accurate account of this week's material. I have been thinking a lot about the online tutorials and my own experience. Some of the points of Johnston's work have stuck with me, most notably the pros and cons of online tutorials. It's great to be able to cover material at your own pace and your own convenience, but there is that drawback of not having a live resource to explain and clarify what you aren't sure on. It made me think of my experiences learning Excel. The first time I set out to learn Excel (more than the very basic stuff), I took a course at the public library. This course was pretty basic, and we didn't have much of an opportunity to do anything hands on, there was no application element. The second time, I actually did Microsoft's online training. This was much more beneficial and I actually learned quite a bit. It also included practice exercises, and had printable reference sheets that made it easy to compile a reference manual of sorts. In that scenario, I definitely liked the online training, but there are many things I would prefer in class instruction. My courses here at the University, for example. There is so much I would miss out on if all I did was download a copy of the PowerPoint slides and give myself the lecture! I definitely agree that online tutorials can be valuable tools for learning, though.
I have also been thinking about ADDIE, that good old instructional design process. The book was specifically referring to live teaching, but I think the same process would be invaluable in designing an online tutorial. Many of the benefits of using the instructional design process would be particularly beneficial for an online tutorial. For example, being able to design a course that could be used over and over for years is a desirable quality in online tutorials. Getting consistent results is also critical. And the idea of having one shot applies as well. So, even though the case study and examples from Veldof's book are classroom experiences, the same ideas are applicable in other areas, as well.
I am pretty excited about the screencasting tools--I love free programs, especially when I actually learn how to use them! More on that in the future, I imagine.
I know this barely touches the surface of the material for this week, but I just wanted to share my thoughts. Till next time.
I find it interesting that the workshop at the library did not have much of a hands-on component for learning Excel. For me, nothing beats hands-on learning when it comes to computer programs. It seems that if they may not have applied ADDIE, since they did not seem to realize the needs of their leaners! A combination of the online training you received and an in-person workshop probably would have been very powerful.
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