E-Content Development

E-content Development
Introduction
Today the entire world is moving speedily towards digitization and we have to learn new things using new technologies. The evolution of computers especially the internet has affected all spheres of our life. Ten to fifteen years back we used to spend our time in the library for information in books, magazines and journals. Now a day we search for the information in the web sites. Access to information has become very easy because of information sharing on World Wide Web (www).
Quality of teaching and students' learning are determined by the teachers who teach them. Well trained teachers with required knowledge, skills and commitment can develop scientific and critical thinking, promote tolerance, and develop cultural and social values in them. Innovative technologies will make it possible to achieve these by providing new ways to teachers. But these new technologies are placing more demands on teachers to learn how to use them in their teaching and learning processes. This great transformation is posing challenges to teachers and teacher educators in using technologies in creative and productive ways. Hence, we as teachers have to meet these new challenges by continuously acquiring new knowledge and skills to discharge our duties effectively.
`ICT can offer tremendous opportunities for capturing, storing, disseminating and communicating a wide variety of information. Rapid expansion of knowledge and availability of variety of ICT has made knowledge, inclusion and integration of ICT in teaching and learning inevitable for us now. Moreover, ICT can promote international collaboration and networking in education and provide more flexible and effective ways for professional development. It can also help in pre-service and in-service teacher training programs.
OBJECTIVES
  • state the meaning of e-content.
  • explain the process of designing and development of e-content.
  • explain the phases in different instructional design models
  • create e-content for a particular topic. 
  • state the meaning of re-usable learning object.
  • describe the use various tools for editing graphics, audio and video.
  • explain how authoring tools are used in creating e-content .
  • Creating e-content faster.
·         E-learning through e-content
Meaning of e-content
Wide varieties of digital materials which are of educational significance are available online. Some of the quality materials which are available free of cost or with minimum restrictions can be used, re-used and modified by teachers and students for their teaching and learning.  As textbooks are too expansive, the students are switching from textbooks to digital course materials. These materials provide both teachers and students a greater interactivity and social collaboration. One of the materials which can be designed and developed used, re-used and distributed is e-content. 
E-content is becoming popular because of it’s flexibility of time, place and pace of learning. E-content includes all kinds of content created and delivered through various electronic media. E-content is available in many subjects and almost all levels of education. It can be used by wide variety learners with diverse needs, different backgrounds, and previous experience and skill levels. It can be shared and transmitted easily and promptly among unlimited number of users around the world. Teachers, students and others get benefited by the use of well designed and developed e-content. It is advantageous to the educational organizations to make their program accessible to their teachers and students on campus, home and other community learning or resource centers.  It has a significant implications for open and distance learning institutions.               
Electronic content (e-content) which is also known as digital content refers to the content or information delivered over network based electronic devices or that is made available using computer network such as internet. According to Oxford dictionary ‘e-content is the digital text and images designed to display on web pages’. According to Saxena Anurag(2011) ‘E-content is basically a package that satisfies the   conditions like minimization of  distance, cost effectiveness, user friendliness and adaptability to local conditions’.
Well developed e-content can be delivered many times to different learners. Individual course components i.e. units, lessons and media elements such as graphics and animations can be re-used in different contexts.
Designing and Development of E-content
The purpose of e-content development is to create an information rich society. Every one in the society is empowered to create, receive, share and utilize information for their progress. Very well designed, developed and validated e-content will provide access to high quality meaningful digital content and serve as an effective virtual teacher.
            In designing and development of E-content we have to adopt one of the instructional design models based on our requirements. Before understanding the designing and development of e-content it is essential to understand the meaning of instructional design.
According to Wikipedia ‘instructional design’  is the practice of creating instructional experiences which make the acquisition of knowledge and skill more efficient, effective and appealing. The process broadly consists of determining the current status of learner understanding, defining the end goal of the instructional material and creating some ‘intervention’ to assist the transition. This systematic approach provides a step by step process for the analysis of the learners’ needs, the design and development of the material'. Most common and popular model used for creating instructional materials is the ADDIE model. This abbreviation stands for the five phases involved in the model. They are analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate. This model is initially developed by Florida State University to explain the processes involved in the formulation of an instructional systems development (ISD) program for military inter-service training. ISD was meant for training individuals to do a particular job. This can also be applied to any inter-service curriculum development activity. Originally the model contained several steps under its five original phases (analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate). Over the years the steps were revised and finally the model itself became more dynamic and interactive. 

Analysis: It is the first phase of this model meant for examining the suitability of the e-content to be developed. It is related to analyzing the learning needs, context, learner, task and content. Analyzing the learning needs is identifying the needs from the perspective of different learners, teachers, subject experts, practitioner, policy makers etc. Needs are to be clearly stated.
  • Contextual analysis is collecting data related to the context of learning such as learning environment. Whether the e-content developed is for the individual or group, formal or informal, facilitated or self-learning etc.
  • Learner analysis is collecting data related to learners academic levels and attributes such as skills, motivation, visual literacy, language competency, learning styles etc. That is nothing but preparing the learner profile. It helps to know about the learner.
  • Task analysis is stating the purposes of developing the e-content. Deciding whether that is developed for educating, training, creating awareness, developing skills etc.
  • Content analysis is nothing but preparing a content outline. Good content comprehension is required before designing and developing content. It includes verifying the content with respect to cognitive appropriateness, factual accuracy, completeness etc. It also includes classifying the content into facts, concepts, principles, processes and procedures.
Design: It is concerned with defining the learning objectives, structuring the content logically, specifying the instructional and evaluation strategies, and preparing for visual and technical design.
  •  Learning objectives are to be defined in clear, realistic and measurable terms. Learning objectives are the statements that describe what the learner will be able to do at the end of the course or program. Learning objectives should specify performance and communicate their purposes. Prepare a detailed content outline in which content is thoroughly analyzed and logically organized.  Content is to be structured logically following simple to complex, known to unknown, concrete to abstract, general to specific etc.
  • Instructional strategies are to be stated clearly. Depending on the learning style and nature of the content we have to decide the appropriate instructional strategy. Appropriate media mix that is combination of audio, video, graphics, animation; simulation etc is to be decided.
  • Learner evaluation strategies such as practice, computer marked or tutor marked assessments, pretest, post-test, remedial tests etc are to be specified. We have to decide about the formative and summative assessments. Before developing the content for the selected course review the proposed learning objectives. Make sure that content, assessment tests and exercises match the objectives stated. Provide the information and knowledge required to meet the learning objectives.
Development: It is related to the creation of story board. Story board is nothing but scripting the entire course content. The term ‘story board’ is taken from film production. In a movie it indicates the visual representation of the various scenes.  In e-content development the story board describes step by step script of the final outcome of the e-content i.e. story board is created to provide a blue print of the course with each and every detail along with the content notes. The story board is created based on the objectives and instructional strategies. Here the developers create and assemble the content assets and learning objects. Programming and integration of all media elements into a cohesive multimedia package are the part of this phase.
Implement: In the implementation phase, materials are distributed to learners. A comprehensive implementation strategy document is developed. This document should cover the course curriculum, learning outcomes, method of delivery in terms of hard ware and soft ware requirements and testing procedures. Ensure that the web site is functional if the material is on the web site.
Evaluation: The evaluation phase consists of two parts i.e. Formative and summative evaluation. Formative evaluation is present in each stage of the ADDIE process. Summative evaluation determines the adequacy of the distributed materials in achieving the course objectives. Material is to be revised at all the stages based on the feedback received.
Now, let us learn the main features of some popular alternative models.
Dick and Carey Design Model
  • Starts by identifying instructional goals
  • Ends with summative evaluation
  • Focuses on specific objectives
  • Similar to that of software engineering.
Hannafin and Peck Design Model
The Hannafin Peck model (1987) uses a three phase process
Phase 1: perform a needs assessment
Phase 2: design
Phase 3: develop and implement instruction
(Note: All the phases involve a process of evaluation and revision)
Knirk and Gustafson Design Model
The Knirk and Gustafson model (1986) also uses a three stage process:
Stage 1: identify the problem and set instructional goals
Stage 2: design and develop objectives, set instructional objectives and specify strategies
Stage 3:develop materials
(Note: This can be used for individual lessons or modules; focus is on evaluation and development seems to come late in the process. 
Standards of E-content
E-content standards are rules that most e-content developers should abide by. Standards are engineering or technical specifications that help e-content developers to establish uniformity. The different kinds of standards are mandatory, voluntary and defacto. Mandatory means one should comply, voluntary is one may or may not follow and defacto which are well established common practices but may not be formally published. Ensuring the high quality of the e-content is concerned with creating, communicating, and maintaining consistent development standards. Writing and textual, graphical and page design, questions and test, interactivity and audio/video standards and guidelines are to be ensured before finalizing. With respect to the quality of the e-content it should be correct, adaptive, communicative, interactive, reflexive, explorative, standardized etc.
Formal standards bodies such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) etc publish the electronic standards. W3C is international standards organization for World Wide Web.
E-learning industry follows certain standards for integration of course ware. There are several standards available today for content integration and interoperability. International bodies generally design and publish the standards.
According to International Organization for Standardization(ISO) standards can be defined as  “documented agreements containing technical specialization or other precise criteria to be used consistently as rules, guidelines or definitions of characteristics to ensure that materials, products, processes and  services are fit for their purpose.”
Share-able Content Object Reference Model (SCORM): It is a powerful tool. Content can be created and used in many different systems. Content can also be used in many situations without modification. It is the most widely used standard in all LMSs. It has applications in general usage as well as defense related uses.
Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC): This was the first standard to be adopted by the e-learning industry. It is still actively used in the aviation industry.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) IMS Standards: This enables high quality accessible and affordable learning experiences. This standard is mainly used today schools, colleges, universities, government institutions etc.
Instructional Management System Global Learning Consortium (usually referred to as IMS GLC, IMS Global or simply IMS) is a global, nonprofit, member organization that strives in shaping and growing the learning industry through community development of interoperability and adoption practice standards. Their main activity is to develop interoperability standards and adoption practice standards for distributed learning,  
Learning Objects and Re-usability of E-content
The term learning object was coined in 1994 by Wayne Hodgins. It gained quick popularity among educators and instructional designers because these digital materials are designed to allow easy reuse in a wide range of teaching and learning situations. Before understanding the meaning of learning object it is essential to know the meaning of asset. In Wikipedia ‘Asset is defined as the smallest, indivisible digital unit for information transfer, e.g. a picture or a short text, a plain picture/text combination or a small and simple animation. 
Learning Objects
Learning Objects are defined in different ways by different organizations and individuals. Let us consider some of the definitions of Learning Objects here.
According to Wikipedia ‘a learning object is a resource, usually digital and web-based, that can be used and re-used for learning’.
According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) a learning object is "any entity, digital or non-digital, that may be used for learning, education or training".Chiappe defined Learning Objects as: "A digital self-contained and reusable entity, with a clear educational purpose, with at least three internal and editable components: content, learning activities and elements of context. The learning objects must have an external structure of information to facilitate their identification, storage and retrieval: the metadata."Daniel Rehak and Robin Mason define it as "a digitized entity which can be used, reused or referenced during technology supported learning".
Learning objects are any items which have the potential to promote learning. An object which can promote learning and teaching is considered as a learning object. For example a printed book, a news paper report etc. Digital learning objects are any thing in the digital form such as learning design or whole course or other forms of resources from a set of learning out comes. These are cataloged and stored in leaning objects repositories. A learning object consists of several learning assets that are structured in a pedagogically meaningful way.
Following are some important characteristics of learning objects:
  •  Learning objects are a new way of thinking about learning content.
  •  Learning objects are much smaller units of learning, typically ranging from 2 minutes to 15 minutes.
  • They are of discrete nature. Because of their discrete nature they can be categorized and stored independently
  • They are self-contained – each learning object can be taken independently
  • They are reusable in the sense a single learning object may be used in multiple contexts for multiple purposes
  • They can be aggregated means learning objects can be grouped into larger collections of content.
  • Every learning object has descriptive information. It becomes easy for identification, search and re-use.
Re-usability of e-content
Three aspects are important in the re-usability of e-content. They are technical, non-technical and pedagogy related ones.
• Technical re-usability of e-content is concerned with the various kinds of tools used to support e-content. These tools may include documentation such as guidelines and instructions saved in the repository.
• Non technical re-usability of e-content is related to the standardization initiatives, intellectual property protection, knowledge transfer, organizational, managerial, social aspects etc.
Pedagogy related re-usability includes content, scenarios and pedagogic approaches. E-content can be modified and re-used easily.
E-content Tools
E-content can be created in a variety of ways by using variety of tools and software. E-content development combines Content Management System (CMS) and Learning Management System (LMS). Several proprietary software, freeware, open source software, public domain software and so on are available for e-content development. Among available tools and software packages, Microsoft Office, Libre Office, Software Package can be used easily by the beginners of e-content development.
Freeware: It can be used without any monetary charges. However, restrictions are imposed for its use, modification and redistribution. In this source code is not provided. This tool can be passed on to any one free of cost.
Open Source Software (OSS): It is computer software and its source code is made available to the public. It is licensed with an open source license. Copy right holder provides the rights to study modify and distribute the software free of cost to anyone for any purpose. Open Source Software is very often developed in a public collaborative manner.
Proprietary software is software that is owned by an individual or a company. It will have major restrictions on its use and its source code usually kept secret. These are exclusive property of their developers and can’t be copied or distributed without complying with their licensing agreements.
Public domain software: The copy right holder donates it to the public. It is available free of cost to every one and it can be used by any one for any purpose and only with very minimal restrictions.
Graphics, Audio and Video-Creating and Editing
There are several audio, video and graphic creators and editors available online. Some are free and some are proprietary.
Wevideo is a video creator and editor which allows us to edit and make video in an easy and intuitive way on this cloud-based app. It allows you to control the video sections easily in areas like the transition, fast and slow motion, adding effects etc.
Magisto is a video editor that can help you make your video in just a few steps. Upload the video, than you can choose one of the premade editing styles, add a sound track, add a title and the video will be ready for download or for sharing on the social media.
DrawPad is a Graphics editor and an easy-to-use image composition and manipulation program for all types of graphic design projects. You can make sketches and paintings on your computer, create logos, banner ads or billboards, draw diagrams, icons and other web graphics
PhotoShop is well known and widely used graphic editing software. It helps in image editing and drawing. One of the important features of PhotoShop is layer styles which allows you to create graphics quickly with ease.
MyPaint is a graphics editor which can be easily used by teachers and students for digital painting. It enables people to create quick sketches and also complex artistic drawings on their computers. MyPaint is a simple and easy to use tool. Menus and interface are very simple. You can start drawing on the canvas without any distractions.
Inkscape is free, open source vector drawing and editing tool. It is a useful tool in doing line art. Inkscape can be used in all major computer operating systems like Linux, Mac, and Windows. It can be imported and exported to many major file formats.
GIMP is a robust image editor. It is well known open source software which is completely free. It is a good alternative to Adobe PhotoShop and has most of the characteristics of PhotoShop. It has the features like powerful painting tools, layers and channel support, multiple undo/redo, editable text layers etc.
WavePad: This  is a audio editing software. This  is a full-featured professional audio and music editor for Windows and Mac. It lets you record and edit music, voice and other audio recordings. When editing audio files, you can cut, copy and paste parts of recordings, and then add effects like echo, amplification and noise reduction. WavePad works as a wav or mp3 editor.
Audacity is free open source software. It is a easy to use multi track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac, GNU/Linux and so many other operating systems. Using audacity you can record live audio and also computer playback on the windows, vista, etc. It can convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs. Using audacity software you can edit audio that is cut, copy and mix sounds together according to your requirements. You can change the speed and pitch of a recording. Numerous effects can also be given to the audio material.
VideoPad is a powerful and easy-to-use video editor that lets you import videos, add music and effects, then burn to DVD. You can edit video from any camcorder Capture video from a DV camcorder, webcam, or import most the video file format. More than 50 visual and transition effects are available to add a professional touch to your video. You Create videos for DVD, HD, YouTube etc. You can burn movies to DVD for playback on TV, or as a standalone video file to share online or put on portable devices.
Magisto is a video editor that can help you make your video in just a few steps. Upload the video, than you can choose one of the premade editing styles, add a sound track, add a title and the video will be ready for download or for sharing on the social media.
VideoPad is a powerful and easy-to-use video editor that lets you import videos, add music and effects, then burn to DVD. You can edit video from any camcorder Capture video from a DV camcorder, webcam, or import most the video file format. More than 50 visual and transition effects are available to add a professional touch to your video. You can create videos for DVD, HD, YouTube etc. You can burn movies to DVD for playback on TV, or as a standalone video file to share online or put on portable devices.
Openshot is a free, simple to use open source video editor for Linux. It is user friendly software which every one can use and get great results. Openshot can take peoples' videos, photos and music files. It helps you to create the film as you feel like. You can easily add sub-titles and transitions. It can export film to DVD, YouTube, Vimeo and many other formats. Openshot integrates well with two other open source programs that are 'Inkscape' a vector editing program and the 'Blender 3D' animation program. It supports many video, audio and image formats. Audio mixing and editing is possible in Openshot.
Concept mapping: Digital concept mapping tools are another versatile tool for creating e-content in visual form. There are both online and offline concept mapping tools and these are some time referred as mind mapping tool. Teachers can easily create concept map on various topics, edit it, link it to the websites, and add graphics. This could be used as a student activity and create a repository of concept map related to the subject that you are teaching.
Some of the famous open source concepts mapping tools are Visual Understanding Environment, free mind and freeplane. There are many proprietary alternatives with various features. Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is explained below:
Visual Understanding Environment (VUE)
The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is an Open Source Application tool of Tufts University developed by it's Academic Technology group. VUE 3.0 is the latest release of the Academic Technology Group and it has the features such as dynamic presentation of maps, map merging, enhanced key word tagging and search capabilities etc.
This concept mapping tool can be used by teachers and students for meaningful integration of digital resources into their teaching and learning. This tool can be used with ease for creating concept maps, mind maps, decision maps etc. It helps the user to construct clear pathways through the resources linked together on the concept map. These concept maps help students to identify connections and get the clear and deep understanding about the entire things connected together.
As VUE tool provides a flexible visual environment for structuring, creating, presenting and sharing digital information, this tool can be used for e-content creation and development. All the concept maps given in this course material are created using this VUE concept mapping tool only.
Activity: Watch this video available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdKV8NApAeo  to understand more about creating concept maps using VUE concept mapping tool.
Authoring Tools
Various tools are available to produce e-content. Microsoft Power Point and word processors are also e-learning tools. These tools are not appropriate to present interactivity, testing and scoring. To develop interactive content various elements such as examples, illustrations, animations, audio, video, interactivity etc are assembled. For this purpose we can use special tools which are authoring tools or author-ware. 
An e-learning authoring tool is software packages which can be used create and modify web content for the use by other people. Examples are blogging, wiki online forums etc. This tool can be used by e-content developers for creating, packaging and delivering the e-content to the learners. By using authoring tools one can produce attractive and useful graphics. Authoring tool or author-ware is a programme that helps to write hypertext or use multimedia applications. Authoring tools allow authors or e-content developers to integrate or use any array of media to create professional, engaging and interactive e-content. In Wikipedia ‘An authoring tool is defined as a software application used to create multimedia content typically for delivery on the world wide web(www)’.  Content authoring tools may also create content in other file formats so that material can be provided through compact disc (CD) or in other format for various different uses.  Authoring tools can be used by people with minimum technical skills.   
The main advantage of authoring tools is their easier and faster use. Using these tools e-content can be developed and transferred easily. There are many categories of authoring tools which differ with respect to their features. Very simple Microsoft PowerPoint converters to powerful tool boxes are available for e-content development and delivery. These authoring tools have some common features. They are
  • Scope for interactivity
  • Navigation-ability to move throughout the content based on the content menu.
  • Editing -e-content developers can make changes or update the material easily.
  • Preview or play back -it is possible to preview or play back the material.
  • Cross platform and cross browser inter offer-ability - it is possible to run on all platforms and different browsers.
There are many authoring tools in which there are Proprietary software, free software, open source software etc.
eXe Learning is a free software tool that can be used to create educational interactive web contents.eXe learning can generate interactive content and it allows one to create easily navigable web pages including text, images, interactive activities, image galleries or multimedia clips. All the educational material generated with eXe Learning can be transferred to different digital formats. That can be used independently or to integrate them into a Learning Management System(LMS) like Moodle.
Once installed eXe learning has its own tutorial in the help menu. eXe learning can be downloaded from www.exlearning.net
The Xerte is a free and open source authoring tool which provides a full suite of open source tools for e-Learning developers and content authors producing interactive learning materials. This project is funded byNottingham University.
Adobe Captivate is proprietary software. It is a rapid responsive authoring tool that is used for creating e-learning contents such as software demonstrations, software simulations, branched scenarios, and randomized quizzes in Small Web Formats (.swf) and HTML5 formats. It can also convert Adobe Captivate generated files formats (.swf) to digital MP4 (.mp4) formats which can be played with media players or uploaded to video hosting websites. For software simulations, Captivate can use left or right mouse clicks, key presses and rollover images. It can also be used to create screen casts, and to convert Microsoft PowerPoint presentations to Small Web Formats and HTML5 formats.

Creating e-content faster: Helping SMEs do more than just "information overload"

The growing need for training and learning in every industry brings out the need to develop e-content faster and continuously. This requires time cutting in every step in the process of e-learning development. One such crucial step is extracting relevant information out of Subject Matter Experts(SME) which can take up an unnecessary large chunk of the total development time.

Here are 7 Top Tips to ensure that SME interactions are faster and feed-in to the entire process of e-learning development:

1.      Introduce course design and objectives.
Many of us view SMEs as demigods who are the experts in their field and will have little to do with actual learners. Now SME are experts and they have vast knowledge in their area of expertise. Without the necessary facilitation on what the learning objectives are and what the learners want to know – the SME will always lack direction as to how to present the information. If the course design and objectives are shared in advance, the SME can align his or her thoughts accordingly. This will reduce the ‘weeding-out’ exercise that often takes a lot of time as experts have a lot to share but most of it cannot be included in the e-learning course.
2.      Share examples of good e-content.
Most SMEs are often not from a training or e-learning background but have vast experience, both intellectual and practical in a particular field. Sharing examples of e-content with them will expose them to the requirements of learning. This will help them align their thoughts and let the right information flow. For instance, they can see for themselves how scenarios work in e-learning and can suggest practical themes or scenarios that can be used in the e-learning course.  It will help them visualize the final content better and if all goes well, give suitable inputs for improving course design as well. All in all, if guided well, SMEs could contribute more than just information for the development of an e-learning course.
3.      Ask relevant questions.
SMEs are more often than not pressed for time and have to take time out of their regular schedules to contribute in an e-course. It is a good idea for developers to learn a bit about the topic before approaching the SME as it will help know ‘what’ to ask and understand the answers better. Once the list of questions is ready, sequence them as per the design of the course. For the first round of questions, it is not wise to restrict the SME into the confines of word-count as it is easier to cut-down information than have too little information to work with. In further rounds, as the questions get more direct, the SME can be given a rough word-count to work with.
4.      Utilize formats that SMEs are familiar with.
Most SMEs work a lot on formats such as MS PowerPoint or MS Word. These formats can quickly be transformed into SCORM complaint e-learning using rapid authoring tools. So utilizing these formats is a good idea when time is of the essence in e-learning development. Formats can be created in PPT or Word for the SME to fill in. The chosen font or colors can be shared with the SME to reduce development time further. The content can be then edited and quickly transformed into e-content. Even if design and editing takes some amount of time, the utilization of these formats at least ensures that the content is already placed in a way that does not have to be worked upon much.
5.      Encourage use of diagrams.
When explaining something, most SME use a lot of diagrams to illustrate learning. Encourage SMEs to include diagrams in the content – however basic in look or design. The look and design of the diagrams can be fine-tuned and made to look better or made e-learning ‘friendly’ with the use of tools like annotations and so on. Since the basic idea of the diagram comes from the SME – it will be a good learning tool and will save considerable time as developers do not have to create graphics from scratch – only work on existing diagrams.
6.      Encourage use of audio.
SMEs can also be encouraged to use audio narrations to explain topics in detail. When such detail cannot be used in a course as On-Screen Text, the audio can be included as extra material that the learner can read later to understand topics in detail. Here too, the final audio might have to be re-recorded to ensure quality and the script might have to be fine-tuned. But when the rough material is ready, editing and fine-tuning is an easier job to do than create the same from scratch.
7.      Utilizing existing material.
SME also have a lot of existing material on their subject. And a lot of them are in formats like MS PowerPoint or MS Word which can be transformed into e-learning quickly. Utilizing the existing material to create e-learning content can be a good idea. The SME could provide inputs as to how to align the existing material to the specific needs of the e-course and these changes can duly be made. But there is a negative side to this approach as e-courses and presentations are created for different purposes and just converting a PPT into an e-course might not be sufficient. For the e-learning delivery, the content might have to be re-furbished considerably. But even then existing material can be a good place to start.
For rapid creation of e-content, every step of the development process needs to crunch time. Extracting information from the SME is an important step of e-learning development and a necessary one at that. With suitable interventions and empowering the SME to do more, we can definitely get the best out of SME interactions and create powerful e-learning.
E-learning through e-content
One of the most innovative and promising outcomes of distance learning and telecommunication relationship is e-learning. It is a process whereby teachers and students are linked up in an electronic media/computer network (Majumdar, S. and Park, M. 2002). E-learning facilitates the learner in terms of any time learning, anywhere learning, asynchronous interaction and group collaboration. E-learning provides the possibility of teaching based on learning objects (Wiley, 2001). Learning objects are the smallest independent educational components which can be reused in e-content of different subjects and authors; thus it is more economical and time-saving in e-content development. The teaching method in e-learning has changed from being teacher-based to being student-based. Virtual environment can create pervasive and dynamic interaction through virtual simulation which will upgrade learning accompanied by hearing and seeing to practical learning and experiencing (Ataei & Najibi, 2010).
Final Thoughts
Content is the heart of learning and medium acts as nerves in that. Although content development plays a key role in e-learning, it is undoubtedly not an easy process (Jegan,2004). It requires expert knowledge in the subject area, patience in creating the necessary objects that make up quality, interactive courseware, and a high sense of creativity in structuring and sequencing the topics to make a complete whole (Omwenga et al, 2004).From this we can predict that e-Content production enrich the e-learning in a dynamic way. It is said that people are visual minded. They retain 20% of what they hear. 50% of what they hear and see. And probably, 100% of what they hear and see and do. This is what e-contents are poised to do and what e-contents are intended for.
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