1,000 words

Source: UXperience.com

The Genius of a Good Graphic (TED Talk)

Directly from TED.com:

In a talk that's part history lesson, part love letter to graphics, information designer Tommy McCall traces the centuries-long evolution of charts and diagrams—and shows how complex data can be sculpted into beautiful shapes. "Graphics that help us think faster, or see a book's worth of information on a single page, are the key to unlocking new discoveries," McCall says.

Do you have what it takes?

I snagged this one from the venerable Stephen Downes' OLWeekly and must share his anecdote as introduction to the study:

My first reaction was to roll my eyes when I read the title of this paper, because the designation of 'award winning' professors is unscientific at best. I remained sceptical on reading about the "five different roles: facilitator, course designer, content manager, subject matter expert, and mentor," because I know there's a lot more than that. But persisting with it paid off as it turns out to be an interesting and thorough article. There's a good (though not comprehensive) list of competencies (table 4) and an emphasis on the need for quality online instructors to be strong online learners themselves. The authors write, "Our study emphasizes the need for instructors to maintain a strong willingness to learn and grow in their pedagogical and technology skills. This requires seeing oneself as a lifelong learner, allotting time to learn about online teaching and learning, staying abreast of the latest research, theories, and techniques of teaching online, experimenting with technologies, making mistakes and learning from them." Too true. 

Award-Winning Faculty Online Teaching Practices: Roles and Competencies provides a robust and comprehensive framework for preparing faculty for online teaching and learning. 

UX: User Experience (& Why it Matters)

From the Interaction Design Foundation:

User experience (UX) design is the process of creating products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users. This involves the design of the entire process of acquiring and integrating the product, including aspects of branding, design, usability, and function.

As educators, it behooves us to think about UX and to apply the basic principles of sound UD (Universal Design) to any coursework we put online whether for an on-ground, hybrid, or asynchronous online course. UX goes beyond but includes issues of ADA accessibility and acknowledges and addresses the vast differences in how humans interact with digital content. It stands to reason that a well designed user experience can only benefit teaching and learning outcomes.

The IDF maintains a working (and dynamic) definition of UX and bountiful guide to its principles and resources at its UX Design site. Worth bookmarking and sharing!