Using Visuals to Connect with Learners in Online and Blended Learning

Colleagues who create your own online instruction,

One of the benefits of online and blended learning, adult education teachers tell me, is that it can engage learners. I was asked in yesterday's World Education EdTech Center Blended Learning webinar, what is it exactly that engages the learner in blended learning? This is a great question that I will add to next week's discussion here on blended learning, and I hope that many of you will jump in with answers from your own experience using blended learning.

However, this thread is for those who create their own online instruction for blended, distance or online learning. It was stimulated by this Distance Learning and Digital Technologies post by Jeffrey Rohrlick, What other tips do you have for using visuals to connect with your learners in online courses?

Clearly, one way to engage learners, including adult basic skills learners, is through the good use of visuals, and Rohrlick has some interesting suggestions. I want to know what you think of these for your own work creating online instruction, and also want to know what other visual strategies you have found to be effective in engaging online liners.

Here are the strategies from Rohrlick's tips that I thought were especially interesting and useful in the context of creating online instruction for adult learners:

• Use Metaphoric Visuals– Using graphics may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to use “filler” images, rather than meaningful ones that augment the material. Think about visually representing concepts. For instance, you might show the parts of an essay as the various cars of a train, having the learner click on each train car for additional information. Metaphoric images like this can stick in the learners’ mind, making it easier for them to recall the concepts later.

First, I agree that "filler" images -- used to break up text, but that do not in any way enrich or augment the text, while they may be attractive, do not add value to the text.

I love the idea of visually representing concepts. Using images to represent concepts is powerful if you find the right metaphor. Of course, you can also create images with words, not actual visuals. For example, following Rohrlick, if you use the metaphor of a train for the parts of an essay, with words alone you could could describe the engine as the overall argument of the essay driving the reader forward on her thought journey, the dining car as having a menu of rich examples to whet the reader's appetite and nuture her on the thought journey, the sleeping car as an opportunity for reflection on the argument and its supporting details, to mull over the strengths and weaknesses of the argument, and as the train pulls into the station, the caboose, the last paragraph of the essay that reminds the reader of where she has been and of how the journey has concluded. Whether or not you like the metaphor of a train for describing the parts of an essay, or my particular verbal rendering of its images, the ides -- perhaps better executed by others -- is to use words to create engaging visuals to lock ideas in memory for the reader. Of course, this would only work for those who are already familiar with your metaphor, for example, for those who have seen or been on a train and know the cars referred to.

• .....use images to forge an emotional connection with your learners... Images that make learners laugh, feel sympathy, or stimulate their curiosity

• Break Up the Text– You can also use pictures to break up text-heavy pages, which can strain the eye. Inserting images throughout can give the eyes a rest, and allow the brain to connect the images with the text. Isolate the key information on the page and use images to direct the learners’ attention to that information.

I love the idea using images to break up text and also specifically to direct learners' attention to that information. Effective examples of that might be sidebar quotes or other texts with borders or boxes, comic strip speech balloons, large punctuation icons such as "?" or "!"  or a key icon for key concepts

• Think Visually– It’s easy to fall prey to the dreaded bulleted list for page after page, especially if you’re a linear thinker. Instead, try to imagine the information visually. Can you make those bullet points a chart, mind map, timeline, flow chart, or graph?

• Use Videos– Videos can be a great tool, especially for showing “how-to.” Many people enjoy watching others to learn a new skill. YouTube has plenty of tutorials where you can learn everything from knitting to bricklaying, attesting to the popularity of visual learning. If your budget allows, creating your own videos can be a great way to take your course to the next level.

I agree wholeheartedly, and have created a whole website of short classroom instructional videos that can be used (for free) in online adult education professional development courses, the Media Library of Teaching Skills,  http://mlots.org. I am also reminded of Zaption , software that allows you to annotate YouTube and perhaps other online videos.

• 508 Requirements-Just keep in mind that as with all visual elements for courses that require access for people with disabilities that there are special steps required to make sure that images and videos can be properly accessed by the various screen reading technologies. More on this topic in a later blog.

This is an important reminder.

What are your tips for using visuals to engage learners in online and blended learning instruction?

David J. Rosen

Moderator, Technology and Learning CoP

djrosen123@gmail.com