Design of educational digital resources

In this Report I am going to present a summary of the material read in class which is an article written by Fernando Posada Prieto in March 2012 and it contains topics, subtopics, images, videos, and links to other materials and also conclusions and references, at the end. The article presents  the main guidelines that a digital educational production project should have, since it is considered an essential factor for the integration of new technologies. We have to take into account that the success or failure of one of this projects is determined by the qualitative and quantitative degree of its daily use in the classroom.  It is also a reflection and it proposes ideas that can be used as basis for different projects that deal with the production of digital resources and their didactic application.      

Index 1. Context of use 2. Curricular specification 3. Characteristics of educational digital resources 4. The "Educational Digital Object" model 5. Principles of structural design of learning objects 6. Links to have an example of a DLO 7. My conclusion 8. References

1. Context of use Ther context of the project is the classroom itself, and the teacher plays the role of facilitator or advisor that guides students to discover and reinforce their learning.

2. Curricular specification This aspect implies that, for the creation of digital materials, we have to follow a logical order specifying objectives, contents, competences and evaluation criteria. Most of the time, the official curriculum is taken as a base to be applicable to the classroom context. The selection criteria are: 2.1 Adequacy, that is, the area where the resource will be used. 2.2 Suitability, choosing the elements of the curriculum that work best with multimedia technologies. 2.3 Priority, means that there have to be established actions focused on the minimum required teachings, since it is not possible to implement the resources in all the contents of the curriculum. 2.4 Need, understanding that resources should ideally be designed based on a need that arises, taking into account the contents of the curriculum. 2.5 Interactivity, that is, the material must allow the student a minimal interaction so that he-she can apply critical thinking and be responsible for the results of it. 2.6 Transfer, meaning that the materials to be designed must refer to activities of daily life.

3. Characteristics of educational digital resources According to the article, the characteristics that digital educational resources should have, taking into account technical, pedagogical and ergonomic factors are: Multimedia. It means that ideally, the resources should have text and audio, also video and animation images that allow the graphic description of processes through animations and simulation of experimental situations. Interactivity. Interactivity is one of the most important elements because it makes learning better. This element allows the student to be motivated since he has the possibility to make decisions, perform actions and receive feedback. In addition to this, interactivity also has a social factor that helps the student feel integrated as part of a communication process. Accessibility. This means that digital educational content must be accessible to students, functional and understandable, and also technologically accessible for all students and from any system like Windows, Linux or others. Flexibility. That it can be used in different learning situations, that is, in regular classes, at home, in the library, individually or collectively and be able to use it independently of the methodology used by the teacher. Modularity. That is, the modular design guarantees direct access to a topic of specific interest, so that its didactic application is greater and can be used in different learning scenarios. Adaptability and reusability. It refers to the fact that the design of personalized educational resources allows a better adaptation to different situations and, therefore, can be conveniently reused. Interoperability. Means that the digital educational content must include a data sheet that indicates the didactic uses in order to  facilitate its cataloging and search. Portability. That is, to achieve its dissemination. Digital educational resources must be developed with standards of development and packaging and have full functionality in different systems, including local use.

4. The "Educational Digital Object" model   4.1 What is a DLO? A Digital Educational Object or DLO-Digital Learning Object is a content based on digital help that has three basic characteristics: 1. It facilitates learning. 2. It has meaning by itself, that is, it is independent. 3. An example of a very simple DLO can be an image that bears associated data regarding its didactic use. 4.2 Types of DLO There are two types of DLO according to the levels of hierarchical modular architecturewhich will be briefly  described: • Medium DLO (M). It is the smallest, like an atom and can be an image, an audio, a video, a text document. • Integrated Media DLO (MI). It is the result of combining several media such as an image, audio, and text. • DLO Object of Learning (LO). It is a digital object that results from the combination of several media with a specific didactic function, for example, drag to sort a series of words. • DLO Didactic Sequence (SD). It is also the combination of several learning objects already created. It refers to the content of the curriculum, such as a sequence of pages with an initial presentation followed by other pages with interactions. • DLO Training Program (FP). It also combines several learning sequences (SD) but covers the whole subject of a level. • DLO Educational Resource (RE). It is the result of grouping several curricular programs. Let`s remember that the process of developing digital educational content focuses on the development of learning objects (OA) and their organization in didactic sequences (SD). 4.3 What is a Learning Object (LO)? It is the result of the combination of different multimedia elements and has a specific didactic function. It can include one or several learning activities and their evaluation, such as conceptual maps and evaluations.

5. Principles of structural design of learning objects Among the principles for the construction of the structure of a didactic resource are: Objects and sequences. Each SD (Learning Sequence) will be formed by several OA (Learning Objects) organized in sequence. Information and interaction. This means that the student will be give some information to process and solve the interaction applying what he-she has been learned. So, we can see that the LOs (Learning Object) are formed by an element of information and another element of interaction. Independence. The OA offers the student enough information to solve the interaction without needing to consult other sources, so the OA will be more independent and autonomous. Variety of activities. When designing a didactic sequence it should include different types of activities focused on the same content, such as filling gaps or associate items. Simplicity. It means that digital educational materials should be easy to use without diminishing its quality and didactic approach. It should be avoided that they are too heavy to "move" or that they require a very deep learning before giving minimal results. Cognitive effort. It refers that the didactic quality of the interactive activities will be given as the student develops his interaction with the resource. To do this, the designer must reflect on what the student think during his interaction and for this it is convenient that, among others, the designer investigates, develosp and evaluates needs of processes and results. In this way, we can say that a learning object is qualitatively better if it has more variety of mental processes to be demanded from the studend. Immediate feedback. That is, the student receives feedback regarding the outcome of his-her interaction. Counter of hits/failures. It is convenient that the material registers a final data statistic so that the teacher can consult it. Significant reinforcement. The material must give the student a positive reinforcement for the interactions carried out, without taking into account the time spent and the number of errors.  Analysis of answers In activities with open answers, synonyms and orthographic varieties should be taken into account, among others. Error treatment. It is required that the student has the option to return and have a new attempt if he makes a mistake during the activity. Additionally, it is convenient that the clues to solve problems are shown only when the student requires it. Individual / collective use. Ideally, the materials should be designed so that the student has the option to interact individually or in pairs or groups. Use time. The approximate duration for a didactic sequence should be ten minutes, since this will facilitate its application within the classroom context. Predominance of the interaction. It means that the interaction should be the priority way of acquiring the information by the student, avoiding presenting the information as a textbook. Randomness. It refers that it is advisable that randomness could be implemented for the same interaction so that the resource does not run out quickly after several attempts.  

Try this link to have an example of a Digital Learning Object:   https://prezi.com/ri1bzpew5ftx/an-example-of-a-digital-learning-object/          

7. My conclusion: Today we have a large number of tools and resources available to create engaging courses. We can mention social media, digital videos, and other digital resources and applications that connect students in different ways. When choosing digital materials there are many aspects that are important to consider, such as the content, accesibility and visual design, the evaluation system, feedback, etc.  So I encourage every teacher to learn about these new technology environments and to enrich our roles as teachers creating more exciting learning opportunities for our students.    

8. References   https://www.edx.org/es/course/Diseno-y-Desarrollo-de-Recursos-Multimedia-para-la-Ensenanza-Virtual-1 http://members.aect.org/publications/InstructionalUseofLearningObjects.pdf#page=7