Open resources for accessibility
Accessibility is a topic appearing in mainstream conversation with increasing frequency. When it comes to making course materials accessible, there are a variety of open tools available.
Christen Booth
Creatively Distracted
Christen Booth
Creatively Distracted
Category Emerging ideas
DetailsOpen resources for accessibility
GER outcomes in your syllabus
General Education Requirements (GER) for baccalaureate degrees describe required courses that students must complete in order to achieve a bachelor’s degree. Here at UAF, GERs provide a common set of learning experiences for students and have outcomes that encapsulate the…
Animate your course banner
The GIF format is ideal for creating animated images and they are commonly used to propagate memes, grab attention, succinctly explain a step-by-step process and otherwise communicate visual information quickly. We see them in news articles, our social media feeds and even in instruction. Is a GIF an element you would consider incorporating into the banner image of your online course?
Get to the point using animated GIF instructions
Is it possible to distill instructions to mere seconds using an animated GIF? While reading the Google product blog, I noticed they use this strategy to illustrate new functionality within their apps. These short demonstrations helped me understand new functionality without requiring me to launch the actual application and click around.
Weave meaning and media with interactive maps
Maps are a natural and efficient way to communicate spatial information. More than serving as tools to help us think about physical space, they are useful for visualizing and organizing information within the context of a particular place. Maps provide a concrete landscape on which to present a story tied to a place that can provide visually compelling interpretation of data.
Virtual worlds
Do you remember virtual worlds? They haven’t gone anywhere, but back in the middle of the last decade, 2006-2009, they were getting a good deal more attention than they are now. Names from the automotive industry, news agencies, music labels, and even universities jumped in to see what all of the hype was about. Worlds such as Second Life, Open Sim, Kaneva, and Blue Mars were just some of the virtual spaces people could walk into.
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) has been mentioned in the last couple years’ Horizon Reports for Higher Education as one of the latest upcoming technologies for education. You may have heard of new wearable technologies such as Google Glass that will bring AR to the masses in the near future.