Multimedia Full Course Design and Development
Problem and Solution
World Science Scholars are to participate in interactive courses and a vibrant online community. These courses explore diverse disciplines, from neuroscience and nanotechnology to physics, and computational thinking, and grapple with groundbreaking discoveries, such as decoding the human genome and searching for black holes.
To accomplish this, the needs were:
A rigorous and interactive curriculum delivered on a custom LMS.
Faculty to produce courses that capture that would inspire young, mathematically talented students.
LMS Design
We customized the WordPress LMS using LearnDash to create more specialized interactions such as live discussions, an interactive whiteboard, a course tracker, and a community forum. In this screenshot, you can see the interface following best practices and the WSS style guide.
In modeling other UX experiences like Netflix, the different modules scroll horizontally through the various chapters of the module.
A tracker was also designed to help users monitor their progress across the course.
Responsibilities
Design custom LMS
Instructional Design
Media production and editing
Interview SMEs
Storyboarding
Style guide
Tools
MS Suite (Powerpoint, Excel, Word)
Keynote
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Audience & client
The World Science Scholars (WSS) is part of the World Science Festival (WSF). WSF was founded and created by Brian Greene, Professor at Columbia University and author of The Elegant Universe.
WSS take part in a two-year journey of learning and discovery with WSS faculty, including Nobel and Breakthrough Prize winners, best-selling authors, and experts working at the cutting edge of their fields.
Best Practices in LMS Design
My priorities in developing an LMS:
Less is more. Users should be one click away from where they are going. Also managing dulpicate pathways minimizes confusion.
The user is in control. Allow users to skip around and not move sequentially to provide autonomy and make the course more accessible.
Know where you are. Users should know where they are in the course via a course overview tracker.
Using ADDIE
A logistics chart guides the development process which approximates the ADDIE model.
Since evaluation was centered around student participation and retention, rather than content learning, our big challenge was engagement.
Working with SMEs
Working with SMEs is challenging due to the technical content and capturing that vision when video production time is limited. This clip is from Professor Sara Walker's course.
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Storyboarding
The storyboard was developed for the video production process and supported my collaboration with the video team.
Implementation
This is a screenshot of the completed course in the LMS. Students have the freedom to navigate the course at their own pace and culminate it with a live session with Professor Walker.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge