E-content Design and Development

E-content Design and Development

Wide varieties of digital materials which are of educational significance are available online. Some of the quality materials which are available free of cost or with minimum restrictions can be used, re-used and modified by teachers and students for their teaching and learning.  As textbooks are too expansive, the students are switching from textbooks to digital course materials. These materials provide both teachers and students a greater interactivity and social collaboration. One of the materials which can be designed and developed used, re-used and distributed is e-content. 

E-content is becoming popular because of it’s flexibility of time, place and pace of learning. E-content includes all kinds of content created and delivered through various electronic media. E-content is available in many subjects and almost all levels of education. It can be used by wide variety learners with diverse needs, different backgrounds, and previous experience and skill levels. It can be shared and transmitted easily and promptly among unlimited number of users around the world. Teachers, students and others get benefited by the use of well designed and developed e-content. It is advantageous to the educational organizations to make their program accessible to their teachers and students on campus, home and other community learning or resource centers.  It has a significant implications for open and distance learning institutions.  

Well developed e-content can be delivered many times to different learners. Individual course components i.e. units, lessons and media elements such as graphics and animations can be re-used in different contexts.

Designing and Development of E-content

The purpose of e-content development is to create an information rich society. Every one in the society is empowered to create, receive, share and utilize information for their progress. Very well designed, developed and validated e-content will provide access to high quality meaningful digital content and serve as an effective virtual teacher.

E-content design, development and approach will depend upon the nature of the content and the learners. It will also depend on the quality and complexity the learning you wish to create. Various instructional design models are available according to our requirements. Most of the models involve the process of analyzing the learner needs and goals of the instructional material development, development of a delivery system and content, pilot study of the material developed, implementation, evaluating, refining the materials etc. In designing and development of E-content we have to adopt one of the instructional design models based on our requirements. Before understanding the designing and development of e-content it is essential to understand the meaning of instructional design.

Analysis: It is the first phase of this model meant for examining the suitability of the e-content to be developed. It is related to analyzing the learning needs, context, learner, task and content. Analyzing the learning needs is identifying the needs from the perspective of different learners, teachers, subject experts, practitioner, policy makers etc. Needs are to be clearly stated.

• Contextual analysis is collecting data related to the context of learning such as learning environment. Whether the e-content developed is for the individual or group, formal or informal, facilitated or self-learning etc.
• Learner analysis is collecting data related to learners academic levels and attributes such as skills, motivation, visual literacy, language competency, learning styles etc. That is nothing but preparing the learner profile. It helps to know about the learner.
• Task analysis is stating the purposes of developing the e-content. Deciding whether that is developed for educating, training, creating awareness, developing skills etc.
• Content analysis is nothing but preparing a content outline. Good content comprehension is required before designing and developing content. It includes verifying the content with respect to cognitive appropriateness, factual accuracy, completeness etc. It also includes classifying the content into facts, concepts, principles, processes and procedures.

Design: It is concerned with defining the learning objectives, structuring the content logically, specifying the instructional and evaluation strategies, and preparing for visual and technical design.

•  Learning objectives are to be defined in clear, realistic and measurable terms. Learning objectives are the statements that describe what the learner will be able to do at the end of the course or program. Learning objectives should specify performance and communicate their purposes. Prepare a detailed content outline in which content is thoroughly analyzed and logically organized.  Content is to be structured logically following simple to complex, known to unknown, concrete to abstract, general to specific etc.
• Instructional strategies are to be stated clearly. Depending on the learning style and nature of the content we have to decide the appropriate instructional strategy. Appropriate media mix that is combination of audio, video, graphics, animation; simulation etc is to be decided.
• Learner evaluation strategies such as practice, computer marked or tutor marked assessments, pretest, post-test, remedial tests etc are to be specified. We have to decide about the formative and summative assessments. Before developing the content for the selected course review the proposed learning objectives. Make sure that content, assessment tests and exercises match the objectives stated. Provide the information and knowledge required to meet the learning objectives.

Development: It is related to the creation of story board. Story board is nothing but scripting the entire course content. The term ‘story board’ is taken from film production. In a movie it indicates the visual representation of the various scenes.  In e-content development the story board describes step by step script of the final outcome of the e-content i.e. story board is created to provide a blue print of the course with each and every detail along with the content notes. The story board is created based on the objectives and instructional strategies. Here the developers create and assemble the content assets and learning objects. Programming and integration of all media elements into a cohesive multimedia package are the part of this phase.

Implement: In the implementation phase, materials are distributed to learners. A comprehensive implementation strategy document is developed. This document should cover the course curriculum, learning outcomes, method of delivery in terms of hard ware and soft ware requirements and testing procedures. Ensure that the web site is functional if the material is on the web site.

Evaluation: The evaluation phase consists of two parts i.e. Formative and summative evaluation. Formative evaluation is present in each stage of the ADDIE process. Summative evaluation determines the adequacy of the distributed materials in achieving the course objectives. Material is to be revised at all the stages based on the feedback received.