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- Audio matters: make the investment of time or money.
- To estimate recording time, 3-4 x length of content + 15 minutes for breaks
- Learn when to stop and when to keep going. This comes mostly with experience, understanding when things should be re-recorded or not. Sometimes, re-recording a flustering professor makes the situation worse.
- Estimate 175 spoken words per minute
- For scripting, the shorter the better.
- How will you edit your video?
- Where will you record?
To design a MOOC platform, the Penn State Team used Coursera. First, the content needed to be organized. By using a wireframe to organize the objective and the weekly content for learners. This conversation also lead to usability, when considering who the audience was, and what needed to be done.
There are many different tasks for learners in MOOCs, from watching videos to participating in forums, and with a thought-out design, it will greatly increase the ease of learning through MOOCs.
There were a few stumbling blocks for users along the way, based on the way Coursera builds templates. With JavaScript and a lot of research, it was done. Then, CourseEra announced that the JavaScript + CSS strategy couldn’t be done. Back to the drawing board, it looks like. With more research and thought, the team created a style sheet, but it could not be applied throughout the entire course at once. There are dynamic pages that couldn’t apply the sheet at all, creating another inconsistent mess. Oh, did I mention that you only have one shot with your sheet? If you want to make changes, you’ll have to delete your style sheet, make changes, upload the new one, and hope. It was a lot, but it was done.
What was used:
- Bootstrap – for typography, tables, grid systems, and buttons.
- Typekit – for typography
- Javascript – for video lightboxes
The team looked into typography, colors, and layout to create the design of the MOOC, which really made a difference. The layout for each week of coursework, as it originally stood, was a little hard to navigate for users. Using tables and better headers with consistent typography, users had an overall better experience.
Protip: have your own mini-beta test with students. Get their feedback, and edit for usability.
Was it worth it? All the videos, recordings, animations, web designs, and headaches are a lot of time spent. Of all the MOOCs offered (ALL of them), the Penn state Epidemics MOOC was ranked #14. Retention rates were high, as well. Coursera claims a 3-7% retention, while the Epidemics MOOC had 14% retention. So, was it worth it?
Yeah, I think so.
Jackie Vetrano is a Customer Success Manager at Merit. She works with colleges across the country to create innovative ways to recognize student success. She is a SUNY Geneseo alumna and a Buffalo native. This post originally appeared on LINK: The Journal of Higher Education Professionals.