Social & Mobile Learning

After the final week, I had two weeks of intervals until the 400x course begins. I took the liberty of andragogy in practice to learn Adobe Captivate to produce an additional interactive eLearning module. 

Learning can happen anytime and anywhere. In fact, about 70% of the learning occurs when we actually apply knowledge and skill in real-life situations along with 20% of informal guidance and 10% of official training. Outside of the classroom setting, we intake and digest a large amount of information from social settings such as the on-the-job-training at the workplace, coaching and mentoring, peer review and feedback, casual interactions at home, etc. 

While in-person interaction carries learnable components, social interaction on e-learning platforms should be carefully planned to maintain learner engagement and participation. Instructions for peer interaction activities must be very clear and technology must work properly for everyone participating. 

According to smartphone statistics, the number of people owning a device will reach 85 % of the global population by 2023.

Mobile learning is gaining popularity as more eLearning content can be accessed by people who want to learn on the go at places in low-internet connectivity conditions. It also can be a powerful tool to remove accessibility barriers due to a lack of digital inclusion, available devices, and further intersectional disparities. However, the type of learning appropriate on a module device is different from online learning which is typically delivered on a desktop or laptop. Because of the limited screen size and bandwidth, m-learning is suited for aiming at a single topic in chunks, used at the point of need as performance support or job aid. Examples include videos, digital publications, microlessons, simple games, and quizzes. For learners, mobile phones or tablets can be used to create assignment content and exchange ideas among peers as a form of social learning (FAO, 2022).  

How this module supports the objectives: Each unit supports one enabling objective. Over the course, all learning objectives adapt Bloom's taxonomy. The enabling objectives in each module gradually advance to the next level of the cognitive process dimension, reaching the highest level, categorized under "6 Create" in module #3.

Course goal: Taking the course leads to increased work performance and employee satisfaction in the organization.

The terminal learning objective of module #3: Assemble visual documents of long-term vision and mid-term SMART goals to share with the people involved. 

Enabling objectives: 

 ✔️ Classify the difference between a goal and a system.

Learner interaction:  Learners are guided to use interactive functions (navi button, inputting name, flashcard, selecting CC, viewing the table of content, playing video and audio, downloading, transcripts, knowledge check).

Authoring tool & why: Adobe Captivate - robust functions, detailed controls

A new, lighter, stand-alone, locally accessible version of Moodle works without the Internet (https://steve.moodlecloud.com/course/view.php?id=4). Spoodle runs directly from a flash drive and can load course material and all the related Moodle activities and resources along with it. The solution is handy when accessing learning resources. However, the social aspect of Moodle (forum) cannot be achieved without an Internet connection (FAO, 2022). 

Process

1. Determine which part of the module to develop with Captivate.

2. Copy scripts.

3. Learn Captivate foundations.

4. Turn the Rise block structure into a Captivate slide (content skin, flip cards, tabs, carousel, adding video, knowledge check).

5. Learn how to use NeoSpeech and adjust it to make it sound natural.

6. Add captions to audio slides.

7. Learn about Execute Advanced Functions, variables, interactions, multi-state objects, click-to-reveal with audio, and tabbed content.

8. Somehow preview stopped working. Stuck...

9. Debug for 1 week. Slow process...

10. Problem solved! Triumph! There was an incorrect input in one of the Execute Advanced Functions, which made a code malfunction.

11. Re-do of PowerPoint video to replace audio 

12. Some problems exist with responsible functions and incorrect feedback on the quiz slide.

13. But decided to move on and come back later.

Thoughts

Which part of the course should use which Captivate function to make the learning impactful? 

In the end

Although not all new techniques are suitable for the portion of the model I worked on, it's important that I know the capacity of the tool. I just learned a small portion of what Captivate can do. Good to schedule time to learn new tools while due is not an issue.