Viewing these samples may require downloading a few plug-ins. Links to the required applications/plug-ins are below for your convenience. The tools I heavily rely on for instructional development are: Adobe Photoshop, QuickTime Pro, Microsoft PowerPoint & Word, Macromedia Authorware & Dreamweaver, and Revolution.

I've placed the instructional design document for the SimMavica project online. This document includes the following deliverables:

Project Instructional Goal & Performance Objectives
Task Analysis
Instructional Strategy
Practice Storyboards
Criterion-referenced Assessment Items
Simulation Logic Flow Chart

Learn to use the Sony Mavica FD-7 camera using a virtual one! SimMavica is an Authorware Professional tutorial/simulation for learning to use the Sony digital camera.

The SimMavica Authorware Simulation was created to demonstrate the practice value of “smart” on-line simulations. This module (which tracks over 60 variables) provides the user with coaching for over 100 conditionally triggered events including; power off, no disk, disk full, battery dead, lens cap on, disk door open, and more. The simulation includes animations and appropriate sound effects.

View a streaming QuickTime movie (4.5MB) of this training resource.

Play the streaming Authorware Simulation (hold CTRL key down as this file opens). View a large screen capture (120k) by clicking the thumbnail at right.

If it does not open, you'll need to download the Authorware player for your operating system.

Each year our Center assists the Provost's office with our New Faculty Orientation program. In years past we've offered bus tours of the campus and guides have quickly overviewed our facilities, campus history and traditions, and provided basic information about key services and resources available to faculty and students.

We decided this year to create a self-paced virtual tour that would allow our new 80+ faculty to explore at their leisure. The focus is upon "People, Places and Things" of Georgia Southern. Find our more about this product or download the version for your OS.

Play an interactive game designed for use as a fun way for reviewing facts or a reading assignment.

This game shell is designed to allow instructors to create & import a text game file to "populate" the game board squares. The game keeps score for two players/teams and includes bonus opportunities like daily doubles and category captures. The "stimulis" can include media such as jpegs, video or audio files.

Visit the Twisted Jeopardy web page to download the executable game file. This site also provides a good overview of the game and what your executable download includes. Twisted Jeopardy is available for Windows, Macintosh OS X and OS9, and Linux.

This resource is being distributed via MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching). We plan to offer an archive of gameboard files organized by subject matter/discipline.

View Screen Capture

Check out this streaming training video for our on-line workshop "Creating Web Pages with Netscape Composer." This five minute movie compares and contrasts JPEG and GIF images types.

The dimensions of this movie are 600 x 350 and include an audio transcript complete with time marks. As the movie plays, a minute:second time code plays within the movie, so the user can adjust the slider to "navigate" to a point of interest within the movie.

This series of videos is designed for on-campus high bandwidth (T1+) Internet access and each clip models wise use of digital video. These movies do NOT utilize "talking heads" that offer so little instructional value.

While not formally trained in graphic design I have a pretty good eye and a good knowledge of both Adobe Photoshop and the drawing capabilities of PowerPoint, so my web pages are clean and attractive (IMO!). I design web pages primarily using Macromedia Dreamweaver, or Netscape Composer-- with a good dose of straight HTML/CGI when required (to create content randomization for instance).

I rely on the tools that are available to our faculty members, but I do push toward maximizing practice opportunities and building in performance feedback for the learner. "Putting the Teacher in the Text/Webpage/Software" is foremost in my mind in designing interactive projects.

Media has great value to me as a learner. I encourage faculty to provide media-rich content when it adds value. These "Using Media" pages provide some suggestions for the use of audio, video, and still & animated images for instructional webpages. The thumbnail at left is a link to one of these pages.

One of my recreational passions is sailing. This site started as the result of some of my responses to a Banshee sailing listserv. I developed a "course support" model by gradually developing resources in other workshops. Scanned images, drawings, animations, videoclips, etc. were developed in workshops on those topics. The Banshee website is designed to familiarize novice sailors with the basics of rigging, launching, sailing and landing a dinghy sailboat. The site is full of detail and potential for learner interaction.

Another instructional piece I've designed and developed is on the subject of Poster Design. This support resource guides the user through the steps and options for creating a large (36" x 48") slide to be printed by a color plotter. The process is illustrated with a large number of enhanced (with use of text, arrows, etc.) screen snapshots and a few animations. The sequence is also available as a print-friendly PDF file.

Instructional Animations ; Pictures worth 10,000 Words

I started my career in higher education as a gymnastics coach and an instructor in coaching techniques. As a teacher of performance activities it was important for me to be able to provide highly detailed descriptions of complex actions that are critical for optiminal performance. I found that text-only descriptions are often misunderstood. Pictures help-- but line drawings sequenced carefully add even more value.

The samples here were created using the drawing tools provided in PowerPoint and then captured as a Quicktime movie. This process provides the learner with control of pacing during playback.

The drill at right is used to teach tumblers to rotate from the hands to the feet during a roundoff, to position the body for a powerful flipflop (backward handspring). This animation provides a "big picture" as the entire sequence is displayed within one frame- then the skill is animated to drive home the important events that a spotter/teacher must attend to during this drill which occurs very rapidly.

A similar animation for a minimized kip on the high bar is composed of 5 critical images. Color-coding can be used to highlite sequencing within a still composite image.

Here's one more animation thast includes "free frames" in review with text overlay explanations.

Line drawings are often superior to video-clips in instructional value. Most performances include minor flaws in execution and getting the clip just right can be very time consuming. Often video clips contain many many frames (images) that do not add value to the visual information. Animations can illustrate only critical changes in position. This allows for smaller file sizes for animated visuals. Videos too often contain distracting information (events occuring in the the background, blurred images, etc.).

Similar resources can be found on a web page focused on developing a gymnast's body awareness.

Simple Simulations/Courseware

Most of us know the basics of using PowerPoint for creating presentations. BUT! Did you know that you can create interactive training resources (tutorials) with PowerPoint too?

Click the image at right to sample a training module designed to familiarize faculty with using a document camera to display a common form of media - an 8.5" x 11" document standard 12 point Word document. This particular form of media is often troublesome for both the instructor and the learners. The purpose of this simulation is to allow the instructor to experience the short-comings of this conflict between media and technology PRIOR to using a SMART classroom on our campus. This file requires Microsoft PowerPoint. You can also try out the newspaper simulation and the 35MM slide simulation.

MERLOT Community

I am an active member of the MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Online Learning and Teaching) faculty developer community. Visit my profile.