Support Materaterials and Visualization for Distance Education

Support Materials and Visualization for Distance Education

Chapter 8 Terms and Phrases

 

1.        Interactive Study Guide:  Structured note-taking system that leads the learner through a series of concepts, and that requires some active and interactive involvement by the student.

2.         Visual Mnemonics:  Visual ways to remember things.

3.       Word Picture:  A graphic representation of concepts, principles and information

4.       Node:  central point around which subnodes originate

5.       Key Words:  most significant words in a statement that provides clues to the idea the statement is communicating.

6.       Analogy:  A way to describe something that is unfamiliar by comparing it to something familiar. 

7.       Ground:  Relates to the specific set of similarities and differences between the unfamiliar and the familiar.

8.       Center of interest:  The visual focal point of the graphic and should relate to its purpose.

9.       Semantic maps:  Two dimensional diagrams that use arrangements of nodes and links to communicate ideas and to show the relationship among ideas. 

10.   Mind Maps:  Use key words or phrases organized in a design that is nonlinear.

 

 

Chapter Goals

Develop a distance education course syllabus: 

A distance education course syllabus provides an outline of the content, delivery, and evaluation of a course.  The syllabus contains information such as course title, instructor information, textbook and materials, course policies, course goals, assignments interactive study guides, grading information, and pre-and post assessment. 

Use interactive study guides:

An interactive study guide is a structured note taking system that leads the learner through a series of concepts and that requires some active and interactive involvement by the student.  An interactive study guide can be used in a distance education class and a traditional class.  The ISG is used by students to break the information into smaller pieces of information.  A interactive study guide consists of the display and notes that provides the learner with a detailed outline that will relate to each topic.

Apply graphic design principles:
Graphic design is the process of communicating with visuals.  All printed and non-printed information should follow graphic design principles to provide the learner with effective visuals.

Develop word pictures: 

Word pictures are used as a visual mnemonic devise.  Word pictures aide learners in organizing and recalling information.  Word pictures can be presented in several forms such as outline, model of images, and note taking. 

 

                          Support Materials and Visualization for Distance Education  Summary     

Printed material was the foundation of distance education; however today technological media has replaced printed media.  The course syllabus and interactive study guide are very to the distance education environment.

Distance education syllabus is a guide for the distance education course.  The distance education syllabus provides structure for the content, delivery information, and evaluation of the course.  The syllabus contains the course logistics which includes the course title, important times, instructor information, and course material.  Instructional activities such as class schedule, assignment, course goals, and interactive study guides.  Assessment information and course polices are also included in the syllabus. 

The interactive study guide is another important tool in distance education.  An interactive study guide is defined as a structured note taking system that leads the leaner through a series of concepts and that require some active and interactive involvement by the student.  Interactives study guides are significant to distance education because it makes note taking effective, provides a guide the activities for the instruction and, can be used in any distance education class. 

When designing, an interactive study guide the instructor should follow all graphic design principles such as element of design, and principle of design. If these elements are used properly the instructor can develop and effective instructional study guide. 

Word pictures is defined as a graphic representation of concepts, principles and information that contains keywords that can stand alone to represent an idea. An effective word pictures cover chunks of information, provide a complete review of the content, utilize symbols, use visual sense for communication, inexpensive to reproduce and can be used for display by overhead camera. 

Word pictures can be categorized into two groups, semantic maps which are two dimensional diagrams that use arrangements of nodes to communicate ideas and mind maps which use key words organized in a design that is nonlinear. 

Analogy is defined to describe something that is unfamiliar by comparing to something familiar.  There are four parts in an analogy which are the new subject, the analogy the connector and the ground. To create a visual analogy the instructor should follow the following guidelines; identify clearly what the subject is, identify the connector, identify the known analogy and provide a ground for comparison. 

Printed materials provide are important aspect in distance education and provided background information and provides a sense of direction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Change Agent of Support Materials and Visualization for Distance Education

As a change agent of handouts and study guides and visuals I will collaborate with other members of my team and educate them on the effectiveness of a class syllabus and interactive study guides. I will discuss the important parts of a course syllabus and aide in creating a new syllabus that will contain all the important information such as course logistics, course polices, instructional activities and assessment information. 

I will also educate my team on interactive study guides.  Although most are using an interactive study guide I will go into detail of the different type display they can use when creating an interactive study guide.  We will also discuss with them the steps used to create an ISG such as, identifying the objective for the lesson, create a detailed outline,  identify key word, use geometric shapes to show relationships, create word pictures, sequence the information, and use proper graphic design principle. 

I will continue to research the effectiveness of handouts study guide and visuals to stay current with the changes of printed information.