In this blog, I will evaluate 3 rise courses. As you already know from my other blogs, evaluating helps us become better instructional designers. We can see what other developers did well and where we can improve. I hope you enjoy my evaluations and input, and as always I welcome feedback.
Course 1: Animal Sounds Guessing Game
In this course, the developer used a block pattern that was simple and easy to follow. The learner was asked if they know what animal makes a certain sound, play the sounds, then click to reveal the answer.
This pattern did not change throughout the course; as a learner, I knew what to expect every time. I enjoyed this. It was self-paced, and each animal sound was played for at 15sec, giving the learner enough time to think. Once the learner heard the animal sound, they could spend as much time guessing before clicking and revealing the answer. The answer was written, and an image of the animal was displayed. There was no scorekeeping throughout, so it made learning less stressful. The graphics and colors are consistent throughout the pattern of the learning activity repeated throughout the course, so we can say there is alignment.
I appreciate that instead of writing out the animal's sound, the developer provided sounds. This is something that I will consider when creating a course. It seems the audience of this course is small children, so adding sounds made the system feel like an experience one would receive in a classroom and could also be easily adapted as an instructor lead classroom activity.
This course is a little bit longer. The content of this course is compliance, which generally is not stimulating and dry. Yet, I feel the developers did a great job. I like the visual overview of segments by topic: the welcome message, the main content of the course, supplemental information, and the quiz at the end.
The content of this course is stern and commands attention; I appreciate the slower pace for consuming this type of material. Scored quizzes throughout help the learner stay focused and emphasize the importance of this content.
It uses red lettering, an apparent contrast to the white background. This course had much content and was text-heavy. I feel like the alignment was off, each section did not repeat the same pattern some had drop downs for definitions, while others had sliding panels or full text with no interactive prompts.
This course was text-heavy with few images. Visually it reduced my motivation because of text heaviness but to be fair, this is a serious topic.
Though the course alignment was off, I feel that forcing the learner to click in different places keeps the learner engaged. I could see myself using the same table of contents and quizzes throughout courses where the learners need to be aware of the critical information.
Course 3: The Growing Power of Social Media
This course group's content is in four segments. It lists the getting started and each platform the learner will be using Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. As a learner, it’s nice to know what to expect.
The course takes a steady pace, scattering quizzes throughout, and uses quizzes as a social mechanism rather than assess learning. This is great because it promotes social engagement, which is excellent for learning.
The developer uses excellent visuals to showcase each platform's strength and how learners can best promote themselves in each. For example, the “Instagram” section showcases the importance of color themes and how they can draw people to your page, while the Twitter section shows what a great post is and isn’t. There is alignment as it follows the same theme and patterns throughout, guiding the learner to the next section.
They used images and graphics to show what each icon meant in the app and numbers to indicate the number of users each app has to show the potential of followers. It is all done interactively and engagingly.
This course was on social media, and as we all know, it is meant to get us to stay on longer and be engaged; I feel they did a great job creating that atmosphere in this course. I could see myself using this interactive style to engage my learners in my future courses.