Truman University
April, 2002
| Creating Learning Objects
and Assessment Tools with Macromedia Flash 5 and Flash MX Dr. Bruce L. Bird, Director Learning Objects In a recent book, The Instructional Use of Learning Objects (URL-A1), several authors propose various definitions of "Learning Object". This book as well as the references and URLs listed at the end of this article will lead you to the increasing literature on this topic. For the purposes of this discussion I have selected components from the definitions of learning objects proposed by several authors that seem to me to fit both the original conceptual intent of learning objects, the requirements suggested by authoring programs, and the needs of the user (teacher or student). My definition of learning objects: "Learning objects are digital resources which are small, focused, reusable blocks of instruction that can be combined in a variety of ways to build larger components of teaching and learning materials".The eventual goal is to have available a large collection of learning objects stored in a database available to teachers and learners alike that will enable them to combine and link these objects in an effective and efficient way in order to produce high quality learning materials. The concept of shared resources is not a new one, see for example EOE (URL-B1), Merlot (URL-B2), and Scout (URL-B3).Learning Object Examples At the Center for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching (CALT) web site (URL-C3) you will find some examples of learning objects I have created with Macromedia Flash (URL-C1). Some of these examples illustrate how student responses can be tracked and saved to an Active Server Page (ASP) text file or to an Microsoft Access database for student self-assessment, group projects, or course analysis (URLs C-2,3,4). Generic Academic Middleware Colleges and faculty have used academic web development software such as WebCT or Blackboard to move standard course materials onto the web for their distance learning courses. While there are many advantages to this approach the resulting course materials often do not take advantage of the new features (animation, audio, video) of the web medium or the power of networks (instant feedback, tracking, databases). The main reason for this is lack of faculty time to climb the learning curve associated with web development software. As a result many colleges have added instructional design teams (graphic artist, media specialist, instructional designer, web designers, instructional programmers) to support faculty in the development of technology enhanced course materials. Unfortunately, at many colleges the instructional design team is composed of a small number of multi-tasking individuals trying to meet a large number of demands. Generic middleware software that I have created using Macromedia Flash 5 eliminates the learning curve for faculty by only requiring them to use a standard word processor. They submit the word processing file to any member of the instructional design team (or trained student worker) that has rudimentary knowledge of Flash 5 software. This instructional team member converts the Word processor file into ActionScript arrays and then runs the generic software to publish an HTML file and a Small Web File (.swf). If faculty have some experience with web publishing software ( FrontPage, Dreamweaver), the two files can be sent to them whereupon they insert both files into their web site and link to the HTML file. For faculty with limited experience the instruction design team member (or trained student worker) will probably have to add the files to the faculty web site. During this presentation I will present examples of teaching materials developed with the help of generic middleware, describe the step-by-step procedure used with faculty to create these examples, and briefly describe some of the ActionScript programming involved in developing this generic software. The importance of the word "generic" will be emphasized by presenting and discussing in some detail ImageQuiz middleware that I have developed. The generic nature of ImageQuiz software is based on the recognition that all information printed on a page or displayed on a monitor screen (sentences, equations, maps, circuit diagrams, sheet music, photographs, chemical structures, biology slides, etc.) is 2-dimensional. Therefore software that recognizes this 2-dimensional nature of information is inherently multi-disciplinary, and thus generic. If time permits, I will present some examples of Flash 5 serving as a front end to Active Server Pages and to databases such as Microsoft Access as well as the implications of all this to the future relative role of faculty and instructional design teams. During the last 15 minutes of the presentation I will invite the audience to participate in a discussion of the following questions:
Related URLs A. Learning Objects
B. Shared Resources
C. Macromedia Flash
D. Assessment
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