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Educator's Voice

Volume 5, Issue 6
June 9, 2004

"Jot" To Be Just-On-Time: Storyboard Your New Course

You've been asked to author a new online course. Great! When does the course run? Not until next fall...and your start date for development is...NOW.

As an online instructor and a member of the eCollege Instructional Design team, I have been party to many a last-minute authoring extravaganza. Simultaneously developing and teaching a course will get your adrenaline pumping, but it's not a fun game. There's also a question of fairness to the students. Instructors want and need to focus on the student and the student's learning experience. This focus often can't be achieved when you are teaching with half-an-ear while pondering the setup of next week's unit.

Who has the luxury of time and institutional support for design deliberation and deliberate course building? OK, not many. You do have some things going for you, though. You know Bloom's taxonomy and the importance of addressing varied learning styles. You own your subject matter expertly. Do you own a three-ring binder?

I have found that storyboarding is a valuable aid in preplanning a course and in initial course building. Here are some ideas from my notebook:

Start out with some formal structure. In my binder I have tabbed dividers. In the first few pages is an outline of my course. How many units do I, or must I, have? I'll need a divider for each. The syllabus needs a divider, too. The Course Home, as a gateway to the learning experience, will definitely require its own section, with extra pages for items under the Course Home.

All we are doing here is sketching and musing a bit and shuffling paper while adding dividers. This can be done over lunch. Now your brain has been exposed to this just-on-time course building idea. Over the next week or so you can write down ideas, scratch some out, and add others. Draw and place pictures of images you may want to use on your imaginary page. This is fun, not work!

Hopefully, you are starting to see a course outline -- just the hard structure, mind you. What the course will cover becomes Units -- maybe you are adding some Content Items where you are sure there's an opportunity for a discussion, lecture or activity. You may think about what has worked in the past -- online or in the classroom -- when planning content that provides interaction and an opportunity to address the different learning styles. Consider your goals and how you can help the students to express their knowledge and shine.

You're jotting all of this down, right?

We've just gone from planning the hard structure (course outline) and slid into mapping out the soft, or interactive, structure of the course. That is a natural progression. Continue in this manner until you feel you've got spaces and ideas for all of your content. You're armed and ready to face the tabla rassa of your course shell!

There are many resources with advice around the planning and organization of your online course; you are likely familiar with a few. You can avail yourself of the Educator's Voice archives for a start (click on the link and scroll down to find the following suggested reads):

Taming the Unruly Syllabus
Virtual Office
Quick Course Checklist

I wish you the best success in your efforts and encourage you to be stress-free (OK, stress-reduced) and just-on-time in the first run of your course!

       --Vicki Galloway Harsh, M.A.

TIP

Embedding Visual Multimedia in eCollege Courses

Using multimedia can add a consistent look and feel to your course, as well as help the user better distinguish one course from another. More and more people are developing Flash and Swish objects for their courses. They're easy to add to the eCollege System!

Here are the steps for embedding Swish and Flash files into a course:

  1. First, you need to publish an HTML file with the Swish or Flash program. The HTML file contains code, "<object></object>" tags that are necessary for embedding files. Locate this code within your HTML file.

    Here is an example of what the code will look like:

    <OBJECT id=intro2 codeBase=http://download.macromedia.com height=225
    width=650 classid=clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000><PARAM NAME="_cx"
    VALUE="17198"><PARAM NAME="_cy" VALUE="5953"><PARAM NAME="FlashVars" VALUE=""><PARAM NAME="Movie"
    VALUE="
    intro2.swf
    "><
    PARAM NAME="WMode" VALUE="Window"><PARAM NAME="Play" VALUE="-1"><PARAM NAME="Loop" VALUE="-1"><
    PARAM NAME="Quality" VALUE="High"><PARAM NAME="SAlign" VALUE=""><PARAM NAME="Menu" VALUE="-1"><
    PARAM NAME="Base" VALUE=""><PARAM NAME="AllowScriptAccess" VALUE="always"><PARAM NAME="Scale"
    VALUE="ShowAll"><PARAM NAME="DeviceFont" VALUE="0"><PARAM NAME="EmbedMovie" VALUE="0"><
    PARAM NAME="BGColor" VALUE="FFFFFF"><PARAM NAME="SWRemote" VALUE=""><PARAM NAME="MovieData" VALUE=""><PARAM NAME="SeamlessTabbing" VALUE="1">
    <EMBED src="
    intro2.swf" quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF WIDTH="650" HEIGHT="225" NAME="intro2" ALIGN="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></EMBED> </OBJECT>

  2. Next, upload all of your files to a file folder in your course, using the File Manager. Once you have uploaded the files, create a test link to the flash file in an open area in your course. The link you create will look something like this:

    <a href="/ec/courses/crs-test-1234567/flash/intro.swf" target="new">test</a>

  3. Copy the orange string of the link. Paste this string into the two areas in the Swish or Flash embed code above that are in red.

    The code should look like this:

    <OBJECT id=intro2 codeBase=http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave height=225
    width=650
    classid=clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000><PARAM NAME="_cx" VALUE="17198"><PARAM NAME="_cy" VALUE="5953"><PARAM NAME="FlashVars" VALUE=""><PARAM NAME="Movie" VALUE="
    /ec/courses/crs-test-1234567/flash/intro.swf
    "><PARAM NAME="WMode"
    VALUE="Window"><PARAM NAME="Play" VALUE="-1"><
    PARAM NAME="Loop" VALUE="-1"><PARAM NAME="Quality"
    VALUE="High"><PARAM NAME="SAlign" VALUE=""><
    PARAM NAME="Menu" VALUE="-1"><PARAM NAME="Base"
    VALUE=""><PARAM NAME="AllowScriptAccess"
    VALUE="always"><PARAM NAME="Scale" VALUE="ShowAll"><PARAM
    NAME="DeviceFont" VALUE="0"><PARAM NAME="EmbedMovie"
    VALUE="0"><PARAM NAME="BGColor" VALUE="FFFFFF"><PARAM
    NAME="SWRemote"
    VALUE=""><PARAM NAME="MovieData" VALUE=""><PARAM NAME="SeamlessTabbing" VALUE="1"> <EMBED src="    /ec/courses/crs-test-1234567/flash/intro.swf
    " quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF WIDTH="650" HEIGHT="225" NAME="intro2" ALIGN="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></EMBED> </OBJECT>

  4. Copy the code above. Paste this code into the desired location in your course, using the HTML tab in the Visual Editor.

  5. Last, make sure you save your changes. Your Swish or Flash file now is embedded within your course!
       -- Eric Levitt, Instructional Multimedia Developer