Engaging Learners

Britt Carr,Creative Director,

Advanced Authoring, LLCChapel Hill, NC

Agenda

• About Advanced Authoring

• Benefits to institutions and organizations

• Strategies

• Examples

• About Britt Carr

• Acknowledgments

• Advanced Authoring uses innovative technologies to create meaningful, learner-centered experiences for institutions, or organizations

• We create activities:

• designed to immerse and engage the learner

• designed to show learner’s mastery

• designed to provide quality learning experience

• Founded by Britt Carr, in response to requests from institutions and organizations

• To assist with increasing quality of instruction in an online format

• As a supplement to traditional classes,

• As well as completely online courses or programs

Strategies

Challenges facing institutions

• Enrollments are skyrocketing

• Instructional technology resources are tight or nonexistent

• Teaching loads are heavy on faculty and staff

• Classrooms are crowded

• Institutions need a better way of using online instruction to stay competitive

Solutions

• Invert classrooms

• Free up resources/facilities by shifting knowledge acquisition outside the classroom- but do so in a learner-centered fashion rather than a passive approach

• use face-to-face class time for meaningful discussion or facilitated group work

Solutions

• put the learners in charge of their own education

• allow students to demonstrate deeper knowledge or mastery of subjects

• allow learners to personalize their experiences

Solutions

• We design activities that challenge students to think rather than to memorize

• We create activities designed to build comprehensive knowledge

• We design to be reused vertically, within the discipline

• We architect interactions that can be repurposed horizontally, within the institution

Randomization

• We make activities that randomize challenges and their solutions

• We let the learner try and try and try again

• We remove the assumption that they know simply because the guessed the right choice

Customization/Personalization

• If available, we use information about the student to personalize

• We make the activity literally about them

• We allow the user to alter the outcomes, or preferences, perhaps several different ways

Interaction / Simulation

• We create activities that look and act as the real world would

• We design interactions to take advantage of multi-modal learning

• We allow the user to alter the outcomes, or preferences, perhaps several different ways

Examples

For a complete demonstration, please visit our poster session, or view the screencast demos at:http://www.advancedauthoring.com/sloan/

Miami University’s Sewing Tutorial

• Photorealistic, 3D machine

you can thread.

• Recycled for stage lighting safety tutorial

• Designed to help students learn sewing safety procedures

Art Institute’s Virtual Photo Studio

• 3D photorealistic environment

• Random, timed challenges

all using the same approach

• Designed for mastery of troubleshooting electrical

photography equipment in a studio situation

Miami University’s Virtual Audience

• Audience watches, listens, and

reacts to you!

• Random actions by audience designed

to distract the performer

• Designed to help students suffering from stage fright

Current Projects

MBA BusinessSim

• Simulated company where student

assumes various management positions

• Game play is aligned with each course’s

syllabus

• Designed to help students make business decisions

with outcomes that might affect them later in the sim

Stanford Microscope Tutorial

Stanford Microscope Tutorial

Contact US:

britt_carr@advancedauthoring.com

www.advancedauthoring.com

Screencasts of activities shown here, and many more:

www.advancedauthoring.com/sloan/

Who is This Britt Carr Anyway?

• ’92: producing forensic video for courtroom exhibits w/ 3D

• ’94: building online degree programs for NAU-Online and Arizona State Universities. Founded Advanced Authoring.

• ‘98-2001: Internet Strategist for Macromedia, Inc. Ed/eLearning/Govt. Group.

• Managed Macromedia’s eLearning Award Program until 2004

• Instructional Designer / Tech. Specialist for Miami University2001 - August 2010.

Accomplishments /Recognition

• Clute International Institute on Teaching and Learning; “Best of Show” 2008

• Invited to join Adobe Education Leaders Organization, 2008

• Miami University Pride Award / Delivering Value Winner 2009

• New Media Consortium, “Best of Conference”-- People’s Choice and Judges’ Choice,

2009.

• Ohio Learning Network, Invited Keynote Speaker, 2009

• Invited Presenter, Adobe On-Demand- Education Series, 2009

• Invited Presenter, Adobe MAX 2009/2010

• Invited Presenter, Adobe Summer Institute, 2009/2010

• Adobe Impact Award for contributions to education, July,2010

AcknowledgmentsRyan Davidson - Flash DeveloperMichele Gingras - Miami UniversityMeghan Petters - Miami University

Tim Rentler - Education Management CorporationMike Link - Education Management CorporationThe student workers at A.L.T. - Miami University