Project 4: Final Project

Identifying and Applying the

Essential Elements of a Course Homepage

Andrea Compton

Introduction to Digital Media, 7361, Fall 2018

A well-organized course in an LMS begins with a well-organized homepage. This is the landing page where students arrive and get their first impression of the course and what kind of experience they may expect to have over the course of the semester. If the homepage is disorganized, missing essential information, and student is not able to locate even basic information about how or where to begin, then the their impression and expectations are very low right off the bat. This affects their motivation and enthusiasm for the course, even if in a very subtle way. On the other hand, a really well organized homepage with all of the essential information and clear instructions for where and how to start may just boost their motivation and enthusiasm for the course, especially if faculty add some of their own voice and personality in order to make a connection in the very beginning.

The following learning activities will demonstrate the essential elements of a course homepage. Begin by listening to the audio file below which introduces the purpose and importance of a well-organized course homepage, then watch the video for an overview, next click on the hot spots on the image below for more details about each element on the homepage. Finally, you can view other samples of course homepages.

The objectives of this activity are that the learner will:

Identify the essential elements of an effective course homepage.
State the purpose of the essential elements of an effective course homepage.
Apply the elements of an effective course homepage to their own Canvas course.

Click on the audio file to the left for a brief introduction to the importance of a well-designed, well-organized course homepage that contains some essential elements.

Final Project Mixdown 1.mp3

Click play and then click "CC" in the lower right-hand corner of the video for closed captions. You can also click the broken square icon, which is the last one in the lower right-hand corner, to view this video in full-screen.

Click on the plus sign in the purple circle on the image below for additional information about each essential element.

Sample Course Homepages

Audio, Video, and Images Created by Andrea Compton for this Final Project

The following original files were created and used in this project.

Audio (specifications provided for audio in the video as well as the audio file introduction)

For Video file

Audio specifications for files from the video can be found on the Project 3: Digital Video page
Embedded audio in the introduction video at the beginning of the video overview (created in Camtasia)
Audio narration is a separate audio track in the video overview (created in Camtasia)
Audio specifications for the background music can be found on the Project 2: Digital Audio page
Background music is a separate audio track with reverb, chorus effect, and fade in/out added and mixed down for lower volume in order to allow voice over to be easily heard (all completed in Adobe Audition)
Additional audio - Background music is Acoustic Breeze from Bensound - Licensing "Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music”

For Audio file (I recreated an audio file for this final project rather than using the one created for Project 2)

The voice track is recorded in Adobe Audition
Voice track was edited to remove breath sounds between phrases and sentences, long pauses, and errors in speaking. When I made an error in speaking, I paused, repeated the passage, then edited out the mistake later.
Effects applied to the voice track are vocal enhancer and noise reduction
The background music is Tenderness from Bensound - Licensing "Music: https//www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music"
The background music begins before and ends after the voice track
It fades in at the beginning and fades out at the end
Effects used on the background music are Reverb, In a Church, Small Room with output increased to +5 and overall volume decreased so that the voice track can be easily heard.

Video (I edited the video created for project 3 for this final project - changing one transition and two images):

The introduction video is a separate file at the beginning of the video overview (created in Camtasia)
The original techniques can be found on the Project 3: Digital Video page
Overview video with the following techniques, shots, and angles

Digital Image (I edited the digital image from project 1 considerably for this final project - I felt the original image needed better balance, the call-outs on the left should be easier to read, and I wanted to make the reference generic rather than specific to my institution):

The original techniques can be found on the Project 1: Digital Images page
Edits for the purpose of this Final Projects are:

Media Principles for Learning

I approached this activity the same way I have in my software application courses. I start with an introduction of the topic, what the objectives are for the activity, give an introduction through the audio file, show through the video, give a hands-on opportunity through the interactive H5P element, and then summarize using the sample homepages. Using multimedia to follow this process gives several options for communicating material and assessing learning, including learner self-assessment. I tested this site on Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, and Firefox browsers. I also tested on mobile devices. When I added the Step numbers (those were created in Illustrator), I placed those to the left of the audio and video projects because they would then appear above the above those items when placed on the left as opposed to the right when viewing on a mobile device such as a smartphone.

Accomplishing Learning Outcomes

The digital media used in this project works together to accomplish the learning outcomes by following a logical progression of introducing, explaining, using, and assessing the material in order to work through the objectives. They provide multiple ways of taking in and synthesizing information and then assessing if the objectives have been met. They allow the learner to view the information through multiple lenses.