Ed Tec 452: Educational Multimedia Design
Thursdays 4:15-6:45pm, SCB200A
(with selected meetings in the E. Desmond Lee Technology & Learning Center)

Instructor: Joe Polman, Ph.D.
Office: E. Desmond Lee Technology & Learning Center, Suite 100 Marillac Hall
Office Hours: Mondays 3-5pm, Thursdays 10-12am Phone: 516-4804,
Email: polman@umsl.edu
Web: http://www.umsl.edu/~edujpolm (follow link to "My courses" for materials)

NOTE: This syllabus is subject to change. Assignments will not be added; changes will be to your benefit.

Course Purpose

Students will learn principles and techniques for the design of functionally and visually effective multimedia educational resources. Emphasis will be placed on techniques for the computer-based production of materials incorporating text, graphics, and video. Rapid prototyping and evaluation techniques will be incorporated.

Required Activities

There are four main activities associated with the course:

  1. Attending class weekly and actively participating. These sessions will be devoted to development work and activities, as well as presentation and discussion of readings and other assignments, led by the professor and students. You should notify me before class if you know you will not be able to attend, and as soon as possible if something unexpected arises. Missing more than two class meetings will require makeup work.
  2. Occasional short reflection papers and assignments. These will relate to the readings and/or serve as preparation for class discussion.
  3. Making a presentation of key points and leading the class in discussion of one reading during the semester. The signup for these will be this week.
  4. Completion of a two part design and development project that will span most of the semester. This will include numerous graded interim versions of design sketches and plans followed by a prototype and 2 revisions of a multimedia educational web resource. Students may work alone or in pairs on the project.

Grading

Grades for the course will be based on work in class and out as follows:

Books

Norman, D. A. (1988). The design of everyday things. New York: Doubleday. (Referred to as "Norman" below)

Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia learning. New York: Cambridge University Press. (Referred to as "Mayer" below)

Other readings

Soloway, E., Guzdial, M., & Hay, K. (1994). Learner-centered design: The challenge for HCI in the 21st century. Interactions, 1(2), 36-48.

Schank, R. C., & Jona, M. Y. (1991). Empowering the student: New perspectives on the design of teaching systems. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 1(1), 7-35.

Note: The other readings will be available on the course MyGateway site.

Class schedule

Week 1. Introductory Class: Designing for Learning

Class Activity on Aug 22
* Intros & Goals
* Syllabus review
* MyGateway
* Overview of web architecture

Week 2. Becoming design critics
Assignments to be completed before class this week

* Read Norman: Prefaces and chapter 1: The psychopathology of everyday things
* Collect a list of everyday things you encounter in the coming week that are poorly designed. Become a design maven.
* 2-3 page paper on the psychopathology of an educational technology you have used or experience (what is wrong with the design and why, as Norman talks about in the assigned reading). Be prepared to discuss it in class.

Class Activity on Aug 29
* Discuss readings
* Discussion of poor design in everyday life and educational technology
* Overview of HTML and Dreamweaver (a basic HTML document is here; the Beginner's Guide to HTML is a good reference, and the Bare Bones Guide to HTML gives a short description of all the "tags")

Week 3. Designing for every day and doing iterative design work
Assignments to be completed before class this week
* Generate a list of ideas that you think could become part of a multimedia educational web resource you design and create.
* Read Norman chapter 2 (The psychology of everyday actions), Norman 3 (Knowledge in the head and in the world), & G. Salomon "Case A: Iterative design of an information kiosk"

Class Activity on Sep 5
* Discuss readings
* Begin hands-on Dreamweaver instruction

Week 4. Designing multimedia messages for learning
Assignments to be completed before class this week
* Find an educational web resource you like and describe why you like it and think it is effective.
* Read Mayer Preface, Chapter 1 (The Promise of Multimedia Learning), 2 (Multimedia Instructional Messages) & 3 (A Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning)
* Write a paragraph proposal for the information content project

Class Activity on Sep 12
* Discuss readings
* comparison and evaluation of the design of educational and some other web resources, including the ones you have collected.
* Continue hands-on Dreamweaver instruction

Week 5. Seven principles of designing multimedia messages
Assignments to be completed before class this week
* Skim or read Mayer Chapters 4 (Multimedia Principle), 5 (Spatial Contiguity Principle), 6 (Temporal Contiguity Principle), 7 (Coherence Principle), 8 (Modality Principle), 9 (Redundancy Principle), 10 (Individual Differences Principle)
* Everyone should read Mayer Chapter 11 (Principles of Multimedia Design)

Class Activity on Sep 19
* Students will present the seven principles in 10-minute PowerPoint presentations
* Discuss readings
* Complete hands-on Dreamweaver instruction

Week 6. Designing the conceptual content
Assignments to be completed before class this week
* Read Norman chapters 4 (Knowing what to do) & 5 (To err is human)
* Write out specifications of information content project

Class Activity on Sep 26
* I will summarize some articles on learning from hypertext
* Work on information content project

Week 7. Designing for Use and Users
Assignments to be completed before class this week
* Read Norman chapters 6 (The design challenge) & 7 (User-centered design)

Class Activity on Oct 3
* Discuss readings
* Work on information content project

Week 8.
Assignments to be completed before class this week
* Work on information content project

Class Activity on Oct 10
* Work on information content project

Week 9. Thinking about interaction: From content-centered to learner-centered
Assignments to be completed before class this week
* Read the Learner-Centered Design articles and Schank, R. C., & Jona, M. Y. (1991). Empowering the student: New perspectives on the design of teaching systems. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 1(1), 7-35.
* Complete working version 1 of information content project

Class Activity on Oct 17
* Discuss readings
* Begin interactive project

Week 10.
Assignments to be completed before class this week
* Spec plans for interactive project

Class Activity on Oct 24
* Continue interactive project

Week 11.
Assignments to be completed before class this week
* Continue interactive project

Class Activity on Oct 31
* Continue interactive project

Week 12. Usability Inspection Methods
Class Activity on Nov 7
* Work on usability inspection

Week 13.
Assignments to be completed before class this week
* Complete usability inspection & implications Class Activity on Nov 14
* Continue interactive project

Week 14.
Class Activity on Nov 21
* Continue interactive project

Thanksgiving Holiday

Week 15. Final Class Meeting
Assignments to be completed before class this week
* Get ready to demonstrate your site

Class Activity on Dec 5
* Evaluations and Interactive Symposium in the TLC.

Version 2 and reflection paper on process are due by the assigned time of the final exam, Thursday, 12 December, at 4:15pm.