In e-education educational content is typically digitalized and online in order be available to participants on any location and at any time over the Internet. However, in distance education the lecturer/instructor cannot additionally activate the participants with their presentation, the timbre and pitch of their voice, movement and gestures, or by monitoring the attention and motivation of the participants or two-way interaction. Also, providing real-time and face-to-face help to students is often not possible.
For these reasons the educational content for e-education should be prepared based on the following principles :
- the texts should be interesting and useful with examples, case studies, short exercises and quizzes;
- technical and expert content should be clear with sufficient previous explanation of the less familiar and new notions;
- the complex content should be visualised by using graphs, schemas, models, flow diagrams etc;
- the content should be divided into chunks which better suit the computer medium (content displayed on the screen);
- interactivity should be supported in working with the content "chunks" and other pedagogical elements;
- clear distribution and organization of the content (hierarchy, grids etc.) and the interrelations of the content elements;
- use animations, simulations, sound and video , as well as video records of lectures when possible depending on the Internet connection speed.
Content presentation in e-education is influenced by available technologies , or technologies that an instructor/lecturer has at their disposal for the development of educational content and putting it online, as well as technologies that the participants have at their disposal to view the content.
Videoconference lectures are a type of synchronous communication in which the lecturer’s presentation is recorded live and streamed at the same time to the participants on remote locations (teleconferencing room – TCR). Sometimes the content on electronic whiteboard is also used by the lecturer in conjunction with their presentation and other visualisations in the lecture. Videoconference lecture is sometimes also webcast .
Video-on-demand can contain video records of lectures, courses, presentations, as well as specially recorded and produced educational videos in different environments (e.g. video about computer assembling) etc. This asynchronous method of transfer of audiovisual content enables their previous editing, recording in a studio or in special conditions etc. Furthermore, a lecture that was one recorded can be used many times over a longer period of time (e.g. several years) without the need for the lecturer to repeatedly deliver live lectures.
Textual content with or without illustrations in an interactive or non-interactive format (e.g. PDF, Word or PowerPoint files, books in HTML formats on the web, electronic books etc.) .
These types of content presentation are suitable because their creation is not very complex (except with some types of e-books), nor does their use require hardware and software that is difficult to acquire.
Tests, quizzes, games, various exercises etc. are examples of interactive ways to check and supplement the acquired knowledge. This type of educational content enables the automation of feedback about how successfully the participants acquired the content, adds variety to the educational process, animates the participants, enables interaction between them, and can have a recreational function. The use of these activities usually requires LMS resources or appropriate program support.
Animations and simulations of different natural and artificial phenomena, experiments, technical instruments and technological processes etc. Development of such content is usually a long-term and expensive process if they contain many visual elements, but the final result is very attractive and encourages attention, understanding, memory and motivation of the participants.
Virtual reality and virtual worlds are particularly complex ways of representing the educational content good for activating the participants. Some participants identify with the information ambiance of a virtual world very vividly. In this world they can interact with different characters and physical environments, as well as other participants.
Regardless of different technological capabilities and the modern options of multimedia and the Internet, the most attention should be paid to the functionality of the content in educational and pedagogical sense, its availability in respect to the available resources and its cost-effectiveness bearing in mind the possibility of achieving the same or better educational results using alternative means. However, it is recommended that all teachers put at least a part of the content of at least one subject on the web, and try different possibilities of presenting educational content used in instruction, as well as to get to know and use some of the modern technologies.
Tips & tricks: If you do not have appropriate technical skills and support for development of educational content adapted for online education, plan to set some time apart for attending courses in order to acquire necessary competencies or trying various new technologies over a period of several months or a year or two. To acquire skills and knowledge needed for web design we also recommend taking courses, buying appropriate books, researching Internet sources and gathering collections of visually well-designed online educational content (e.g. with the help of screenshots).
