TEDx London: You are Contagious! • Vanessa Van Edwards

This is the best practical advice and most profound insight that I have seen in a long time. Want to get the attention of your learners? Here's how!

Free Animation Support: TED-Ed

Have you ever watched the uber-cool educational videos at TED-Ed? 

They are mesmerizing, and cover a wide array of topics and fields of study. What you might not realize is that the TED-Ed folks are happy to assign YOU your very own extremely talented animator and then the two of you create a video to rival all the others on the platform in terms of professional quality video production and animation skills. Check it out. Wouldn't that be a great way to go viral? 

In the meantime, ANYONE is free to create “lessons”—a way of instructor-annotating, narrating, and visually framing the exceptionally high quality educational videos already in the TED-Ed library free for your use. Your lessons can be linked into your own courses either as core or supplemental content in support of your learning objectives.

For more ideas on how to use the content and services offered at TED-Ed, email helpdesk@uah.edu to request a consultation with an instructional designer. 

Six (easy) alternatives to bullet lists

The only thing worse than presentation slides with a full paragraph (or two!) of text on them is a slide deck full of bulleted lists! But how do we take our visual design of academic content a step further so that it meets the learner halfway? Connie Malamed has six tips for just this purpose!

UDL/ADA TIP: Remember that info-intense graphics like these are not easy to alt-text for learners with low vision who use screenreaders. Be sure to create a text alternative to the graphic and link it nearby, with reference to that link in the alt-text fields of the graphics you embed in lieu of bullet lists. 

If you need help creating interesting graphics for your course or training,  you can create a free Canva education account using your .edu email address to really spice things up! The free education accounts include all premium services and products. 

If you need more in-depth advice or strategies, email the Instructional Design Team (IDT) at helpdesk@uah.edu and we'll set up a time to talk about how we can help!

Random example of information expressed graphically rather than as a bulleted list

“My Mind Began to Wake Up”

“If someone seems like they can't or don't want to learn, look for the physical obstacle and remove it.”