Helton, Design Journal 1

Beginning to think about what tool I want my revised course to reside in, I worked up a little project in EdApp. I like the interactive slide templates, how easy it is to not only use but make it look good, and that it can be viewed on phones, tablets, and computers. I don't like that it requires an account, and it seems like you have to move through the minilessons in a linear fashion, so any choices would have to come at the "course" level.

I'm starting to explore Articulate 360's products and trying to decide between Rise 360 and Storyline 360. Essentially Rise is easier to use, but Storyline has more ability to customize content. I'm leaning towards Storyline, because I find it easier to learn the hard thing first. I'm probably going to use EdApp for my final project, so I'm thinking about making one piece of my course module a stand-alone activity in Storyline. I can still link and include it in EdApp that way.

Starting to work on the storyboard assignment, it was helpful to translate my written syllabus into a series of icons (these are just placeholders at this point, but who knows, they may make it into the final product). While each of the five modules is designed to be roughly the same amount of work, some of them have a lot more individual items than others. Finding a way to make it look coherent but also clean is important.

Digging a bit more into my last comment, what I'm really talking about is the esthetics of the final product. Neither Dörner (1999) nor Razzouk and Shute (2012) specifically discuss esthetics, but Razzouk and Shute do discuss visual features. In one study they share, the participants were found to integrate visual and technical elements when designing. How much of our experience as learners is influenced not just by the content, but by how it is presented visually?

References.

Dörner, D. (1999). Approaching design thinking research. Design Studies, 20, 407–419. Razzouk, R., & Shute, V. (2012). What is design thinking and why is it important? Review of Educational Research, 82(3), 330–348. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654312457429