Notes from Merlot session: Tools for transforming curriculum
- Laurie Harrison - adaptive technology resource centre, U of T
- Supporting learner-centric transformation of content
- needs to personalize:
- accessibility (disabilities)
- lack of access to
- printed material
- speech or audio
- visual material
- note taking
- class dicsussions
- Use of adaptive technologies
- screen readers, magnification, keyboards, voice recognition, text-to-speech
- Different technologies/clients
- pda
- wireless
- google...
- lack of access to
- background knowledge
- learning preferences
- pace and path
- accessibility (disabilities)
- TILE Project
- The Inclusive Learning Exchange (TILE)
- http://www.barrierfree.ca/tile
- goals
- reusing and repurposing learning objects
- customization by educators
- use of IMS Learner Information Profile to accomodate individual learner preferences
- preferences in profile used to set content and system display
- Strategies
- Independence of content and structure from presentation to accomodate learner preferences
- flexible display
- flexible content aggregation
- set profile to determine preferences for transformations
- content separate from preferences
- examples
- change css types of things
- colours (background and text) to make it more readable for visually impaired users
- navigation and content affected by change to stylesheet selection
- Q: How to enforce use of CSS in content?
- Aggregation details
- flat (simple) vs. details
- allows "beginner" and "expert" views of a content aggregation
- flat (simple) vs. details
- change css types of things
- Independence of function from control
- flexible input
- onscreen keyboards instead of regular keyboard
- flexible navigation
- flatten hierarchy (one level at a time) or deep hierarchy (whole tree)
- flexible input
- Increased granularity of learning objects to allow presentation of alternative formats and modalities
- captioning
- ASL
- described video
- range of modalities supported by same content (text tracks in video...)
- graphic and textual presentations of same content (image vs text intensive presentations)
- video with optional closed captioning and sign language translation, or audio description
- Session-specific preferences
- learner outcome goals
- topic exclusion
- placeholders/bookmarks
- review vs. self test ...
- Implementation of accessibility guidelines and interoperability specifications
- access system friendly interfaces
- every learner with a disability is potentially a different external "system" that needs to inter-operate
- use IMS specs to interoperate with people as well as software systems
- Independence of content and structure from presentation to accomodate learner preferences
- Guildelines and specs
- W3C web accessibility - WAI/GL
- W3C Accessible Authoring Tools - WAI/AU
- IMS
- implementing IMS specs as they are being developed to provide feedback on accessibility needs
- Accessibilityy extensions to the LIP (ACCLIB) - encodes learner preferences
- Metadata - develop extensions to allow identification of resources that meet the criteria indicated in the learner's prefs.
- "is screenreader friendly"
- "has closed captioning"
- ...
- Content Packaging - packaging content into modules. Identification of alternate resources
- package text-oriented vs. image-oriented depending on learner's prefs
- will in in next CP spec
- ACCLIP
- accessForAll element
- display
- screenreader
- screenEnhance
- ...
- control
- keyboardenhanced
- onscreenkeyboard
- ...
- content
- alternativesToVisual
- alternativesToText
- ...
- display
- Interoperability with IMS
- accessForAll element
- Dynamic retrieval and transformation of stuff to hide complexity from users
- Demo
- Preferences
- I would like...
- text on screen easier to see
- preferred language
- navigation options (depth vs breadth first)
- alternatives to audio
- captions (incl language)
- sign language...
- ...
- Define bits of style sheet (font, size, colours)
- I would like...
- Whole point of LIP is that the profile is interoperable - can be shared with other systems
- Preferences
- James McClellan - automated creation of resources for HTML based Concept Maps
- Introductory engineering course that links resources together via concept maps
- hundreds of LOs
- students need to know where the LOs are, and how should they use them
- students need to know that a LO belongs to a particular part of a course
- adding context to help them know what/when to study
- develop LESSONS that use the LOs as part of the lab
- "If you build it, they will come" DOESN'T WORK! They need guidance on what/when to use LOs
- Hierarchy of organizing information (read from bottom to top)
- Courses
- books
- units
- chapters
- lessons
- labs
- learning objects
- labs
- lessons
- chapters
- units
- books
- Courses
- How does this relate to concept maps?
- task of processing incoming info is made easier if info is presented in visual formats
- concept maps present relationships in graphical form and allow us to understand complex info.
- show items (LOs) with relationships indicated
- concept maps used to structure information in academic courses (other uses, but this is the context here)
- software at
- http://cmap.coginst.uwf.edu/info/
- java app
- allows the user to add resources
- web pages, videos, pdf docs, etc...
- they add the items, and describe the relationships
- IHMC CMAP Software
- looking at automation to link resources
- linking database of all 12 chapters of the textbook into the map
- concept map --> template HTML for concept map --> HTML concept map with resources
- create a basic concept map template
- perl scripts used to convert the template html file to a concept map html file with more resources and resource types
- HTML map runs only in IE/Win (DOH!) he's a mozilla freak, so that will likely change
- Working on dynamic creation of concept maps using PHP and database, rather than pre-canned, massaged maps from the perl pre-processing technique
- GUI Movie Making
- 3 movies are create for each GUI
- tutorial - how to use
- theory - explains theory and its applications
- lab - examplifies problem solving techniques using GUIs
- Use Camtasia Studio and SnagIt software --> 10 MB AVI movie files (WTF?)
- can export to better formats
- Camtasia does screen capture with narration
- Talks a LOT about Camtasia - not sure how that relates so tightly with concept mapping...
- Uses its own codec - looks like windows only?
- Used as media-rich instruction manual for how to learn individual learning objects as part of a lab
- 3 movies are create for each GUI