Learning Media
As a learning designer, when planning interactive activities, one should consider the implications of choosing one media over another. Additionally, in the design process thinking about the modes of presentation as well as the type of learning will influence how you eventually design. Keeping in mind the learners and what they bring to the community and being transparent about the learning outcomes is always a great starting point as this is not a one-sized-fit-all approach. Utilizing traditional types of activities while having the potential for cutting costs, run the risk of not engaging learners or providing passive learning.
The OCoP has a specific mission to promote critical thinking in the learners as it pertains to Global Digital Citizenship. Imagine how technologies can contribute to this goal. While online learning technologies offer the learner "skilled use of media" and "more autonomy and control" (Anderson, p. 170), it takes something more. A combination of factors to include teacher presence, the learner's maturity level and learner's preferences for collaborative work contribute to the success of online communication (Anderson, p. 170). Other considerations about the selected media include the limitations or affordances of that media. So this is a very important message for the designer. With the introduction of media in the learning environment more dynamics are interjected and ones that can actually support the learner in unique ways. Thinking about the modes of interaction in the learning environment- what will the community communication look like? Will there be cooperation or co-construction? What kinds of media will meet the design requirements? Why even use interactive activities? What would you expect the learners to be doing together?
"Interactive media support a community based on what people do together". "Community becomes a process, not merely a place in which structured and systemic social interaction, using media is essential to significant learning (Fulford & Zhang, 1993; Ragan, 1999; Dilworth & Willis, 2003; Garrison & Cleveland-Innes, 2005; Conrad, 2005 in Anderson, 2008, p. 170).
Interaction must be designed into a course. Considering in the online context thus, different types of interactions, one will notice, they move along a continuum. At the lowest level, a learner interacts with the interface, then the content, other learners and eventually with the context in which the learning occurs. The current course utilizes various types of interactions. For example, in the example of civil discourse, the learners first interact with the LMS when they first learn about the course and learn how to navigate it to locate content. Secondly, once they have found their assignment, they must interact with the content by reading the directions, and then deciding on a plan for analyzing the materials. Then when they each make posts and read the responses of others' posts to the discussion board, they are interacting with peers and the moderator over a series of sustained postings. After this deepening conversation and having to think critically about a particular topic, the learners have synthesized learning on a subject area like digital equity and have managed to interact with the learning context.
Mutimedia Principles are established to gauge its impact on the design of online learning.