Findings of the Cultural Awareness Initiative by Jeff Hunter Spencer Tafe

The following presenters need to be acknowledged for their valuable contributions via video conference or f2f in the learning opportunities of the Cultural Awareness Initiative.

Peter Robertson, Kangan Batman Tafe, “Adapting Courses for Indigenous Learners”
Melanie Sorensen and Ian Kenny, WestOne, “Access and Equity in eLearning”
Ann Davenport, CALS Adelaide, “Instructional Design”
Michael Coghlin, DMIT, “What’s Hot in Flexible Delivery”
Jeff Catchlove, DMIT, Usability of Internet Resources”
Catherine Davies, Spencer Tafe, “Dreamweaver”
Marie Jasinski, Design Planet, “Harnessing your Power to Innovate, Lead and Change”

Tips

• Work out your target audience
  
• Work out your content, write a draft so you have a text version
  
• Work with instructional designers to plan how you will present your resource
  
• Plan activities or features that will reduce the amount of text to be read
  

From Jeff Catchlove “Usability of Internet Resources”

Gain user input when working out your requirements definition

When testing designs use typical users. See tasks from the users’ perspective

Aim to make pages

• Aesthetically pleasing
  
• Clear, simple, transparent

To enable users to focus the task design should be clear:

• Visually
  
• Conceptually
  
• Linguistically
  
• Functionally

KISS - Provide only elements that are required

Make resources consistent & predictable

• The system should look, act and operate consistently
  
• The users should be able to anticipate the results of their actions.

Provide direct, intuitive ways for

• Completing tasks
  
• Accessing information

Test the prototype

• Review by clients and stakeholders

Test the final draft

• Review by learners and teachers

Review the final product before resource hand-over

• Review by client, funding body

Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for May 1996)

1. Using frames
   
2. Gratuitous use of bleeding-edge technology
   
3. Scrolling text, marquees, running animations
   
4. Complex URLs
   
5. Orphan pages
   
6. Long scrolling pages
   
7. Lack of navigation support
   
8. Non-standard link colours
   
9. Outdated information
   
10. Over-long download times

From Melanie Sorensen and Ian Kenny WestOne “Access and Equity in eLearning”

Universal Design

• Design products and environments to be usable by everyone without the need for adaptation or specialized design.

Center for Universal Design, 1997

The World Wide Web Consortium

• Also known as W3C
  
• Committed to improving Web accessibility
  
• Launched the Web Accessibility Initiative
  
• The WAI - Established three priority ratings
  Priority one has 14 guidelines

Common Web barriers

• Images without alternative text
  
• Lack of alternative links/text for imagemaps
  
• Misleading use of structural elements
  
• Uncaptioned video or audio
  
• Lack of alternative information for users who cannot access scripts or multimedia
  
• Sites with poor colour contrast

Graphics – alt tag

• Make graphics accessible – use alt tag
  
• How to determine appropriate alt text?
  
• Answer these questions:
  
  • When I click on it what happens
    
  • It looks like ….
    
  • It is an image of …..

Navigation

• Keep navigation consistent throughout your site
  
  • Keep frames at a minimum
• Provide clear explanation of structure – site map and/or contents structure
  
• Provide an outline of page/site for those using screen readers

Links

• “Click here” is not enough
  
• Linking to a new window should be identified
  
• Size of landing zones is important
  
• If the links are graphic – provide text as well

Validation & evaluation tools

Automatic:

• Bobby
  
• W3C MarkUp Validator
  
• WAVE
  
• A-Prompt

Manual:

• Check again WAI guidelines
  
• Conduct user testing
  
• Repeat whenever you update your materials

Colour

• Don’t say “click on green button”
  
• Colour deficiencies and colour blindness are quite common
  Vischeck - http://www.vischeck.com/

What can you do about W3C compliance?

• Follow guidelines – W3C’s WAI
  
• Use A&E resources and checklists

Go beyond minimum standards - do what you can

Keep asking yourself:
How can I make my e-learning materials better for people with different levels of abilities?

From Ann Davenport, CALS, Instructional Design

Sites on Instructional (Educational) Design

University of Colorado at Denver:
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/idmodels.html

University of Natal
http://www.und.ac.za/users/murrell/classrm/theoryed.html

University of New South Wales - Cognitive Load Theory
http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/education/CLT.HTML

Edith Cowan University, Western Australia
http://www.ecu.edu.au/lds/rd/id

Cognitive Theory
http://scs.une.edu.au/411/resources/2000/Materials/573/573_2.html

ID for multimedia
http://scs.une.edu.au/Units/CurricSt/CSIT413/473_97/473_15.html

Educational Web design - University of New England
http://online.une.edu.au/info/guide/design_for_the_web.html

Writing for the Web: A Primer for Librarians
http://bones.med.ohio-state.edu/eric/papers/primer/toc.html

Web page design for designers
http://www.wpdfd.com/index.htm

A Web Tool for Comparative Analysis
http://www.edutools.info/course/index.jsp

Hot Potatoes Interactive Elements
http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/

Online course examples
http://www.sheppstc.org.au/learning_online/courseegs.htm

Teaching and Learning styles facilitating online learning
http://www.tafe.sa.edu.au/lsrsc/one/natproj/tal 

About Web-based Instructional Design
http://snow.utoronto.ca/Learn2/design.html

Other resources include:

Metaphoric / Problem based models are popular here
http://flexiblelearning.net.au/toolbox

Fablusi Role play simulation
http://www.fablusi.com/

Discover site (Tasmanian Education Dept) No log in required, click to enter
http://www.discover.tased.edu.au/netlearn/courselst.htm