College of Education
University of Washington
EDC&I
583
Message Design
|
Instructor: Prof. Stephen T. Kerr |
Office: 122 Miller Hall Box 353600 |
|
Course
meets: 304 Smith Hall |
Telephone: (206) 685-7562 |
|
Tuesday,
4:30 - 6:50 p.m. |
E-mail: stkerr@u.washington.edu |
|
Office
hours: By appointment§ |
http://faculty.washington.edu/stkerr |
|
Session |
Date |
Assignment
for Session |
Topic
in Class |
|
1 |
|
--- |
Introduction--course,
participants; an overview of message design |
|
2 |
4/8 |
L*,
1-2; C&L*, Forward, Introduction, 1 |
Typography: When does it make a difference? Identify and discuss course projects |
|
3 |
4/15 |
L,
9-10; C&L, 2 |
Text: The psychological heritage of the
typographic world and the future of reading. Sample presentations:
Readings; redesign |
|
4 |
4/22 |
L,
7; C&L, 3-5 |
Maps: Wayfinding in
space and on-line Presentations:
Readings; redesign Positive and Negative
examples |
|
5 |
4/29 |
Review
of literature due L,
6, 11; C&L, 6-7 |
Graphics (diagrams,
charts, graphs): Telling stories visually Present reviews of
literature Positive and Negative examples |
|
6 |
5/6 |
L,
5; C&L, 8-10 |
Pictures and photos: When does
realism help? Presentations:
Readings; redesign Positive and Negative
examples |
|
7 |
5/13 |
L,
3; C&L, 11-15 |
Visualization using
animation, video, sound: What can you
do, and why? Presentations:
Readings; redesign Positive and Negative examples |
|
8 |
5/20 |
TBA |
Critical perspectives
on information design: Against dancing
penguins Presentations:
Readings; redesign Positive and Negative examples |
|
9 |
5/27 |
TBA |
Emergent directions
and trends: Where have we been, where are we headed? |
|
10 |
6/3 |
Final projects due
(with abstracts for class members) |
Final project
presentations; Conclusions |
§ To make an appointment,
please send me e-mail or call; scheduling happens faster if you let me know
what times, days are best for you!
*Texts:
(L) Lohr, Linda L. (2007). Creating graphics for learning and
performance: Lessons in visual literacy. 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
(C&L)
Clark, Ruth Colvin & Lyons, Chopeta.
(2004). Graphics for learning:
Proven guidelines for planning, designing, and evaluating visuals in training
materials. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer/Wiley.
Other
handouts (TBA)will
be distributed in class the week prior to that in which the reading will be
discussed.
1. Course Rationale and Goals
This course
deals with design principles for attractive and effective instructional
"messages" – materials for learning and education. The course
approaches communication for learning as an effort to construct shared
understandings and perceptions, what some call "meaning making." This means that we need to know how our
audiences think, what assumptions they make, how they see the world, and how
that world has influenced their assumptions.
With some idea of those factors, together with information from research
about perception and learning, we can design materials that facilitate meaning
making. A further essential aspect of
this course will be the attempt to balance artistic and empirical principles
for the design of learning environments.
We will be
examining how the heritage of our interaction with text and printed materials
have conditioned our ways of working with and thinking about information. From there, we will move to consider how this
heritage and other forms of presenting information are exemplified in
approaches used in emerging digital media.
While many of the principles involved are constant from one medium to
another, there are important differences; it will therefore be critical as we
proceed to distinguish what sorts of effects seem to appear in common across
environments and which do not.
The course is in
seminar format, with students actively engaged in discussion of relevant
materials, creating and presenting their own examples of materials, reading and
working in fields of individual interest, and presenting results to
classmates. At the end of the course,
you should have a keener grasp of the principles (both empirically-based and
esthetic) involved in effective message design, and you should also see more clearly
the implications of theory for preparing effective messages. I encourage you to see the course as an
opportunity to extend your own knowledge and skills in ways most significant
for you intellectually and personally.
As we think
about the approaches that are used to design instructional messages, try to
keep these perspectives at the front of your attention: (1) what is the range of materials,
documents, objects under each major heading that are used in learning
environments today (or that have been used in the past), and (2) what challenges
or difficulties (as well as benefits and opportunities) present
themselves as we increasingly put educational materials into digital formats?
2. Course Content and Sequence
The substance of
this course lies in the interaction among three related but different sets of
activities: readings, class discussions, and student projects. How well we manage to meld these together
into a coherent whole will be our barometer for success. The task is made more complex by the diverse
backgrounds of those who typically enroll; it takes some effort, but we have
typically been able to find a way of working that's satisfactory for
everyone! With these caveats in mind,
let us consider the requirements of the course in more detail.
3. Requirements
There are four
basic requirements for this course: (1) Participate! Do
the readings and other assignments; come to class prepared to discuss and
argue; (2) Presentations: Present and critique the readings; present a
brief "re-design" of an item you choose; bring to class positive and
negative examples of message design; (3) Literature review: Find five
articles related to your interests, prepare a brief review of them, and present
that review in class; and (4) Project or
paper: prepare a project or paper in which you design an instructional
message or otherwise use the principles discussed in the course.
a. Readings and class discussion.
We will be using two different books for this course:
Linda
Lohr's Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual
literacy (2007), and Ruth Colvin
Clark and Chopeta Lyons's Graphics for learning: Proven guidelines for
planning, designing, and evaluating visuals in training materials (2004). While these works overlap in some areas, they
have distinctly different styles and areas of emphasis. We will supplement these readings with other
materials "To Be Announced" as we move along. (If you have an item you feel would be worthy
of our common attention, let me know and maybe we can include it!) These items will be posted on the course web
site (off my faculty URL; see top of syllabus).
I
assume that you will do the assigned readings and come to class prepared to
discuss them. As you read, try to
evaluate the authors ' positions and conclusions, and come to class ready to
analyze these in detail.
(Due throughout; 5% of final course
grade)
b. In-class presentations and activities.
i. Presentation of readings: On a date you choose at the start of the
course, present in class a brief (15 minutes total) analysis of how the
readings relate to a particular issue of interest for you, and lead a discussion. This does not mean that
you should simply summarize the points the author made. Instead, focus your attention on how the
author's basic assumptions connect with an issue you're interested in. The assessment of your work on this
assignment will be based on your ability to do these two things: (1) identify the author's basic assumptions,
and (2) make a practical link with an issue or topic you are pursuing in your
own work. (Note that this link does not
have to be tight or close; it may be simply that the reading has suggested some
new ideas or perspectives for you, or that it inspires you to look for related
literature in another field.) I'll do a
sample presentation in class on April 22, so you'll have an idea what's
expected. Provide for the rest of the
class a one-page handout with your summary of assumptions and a set of connections
or new ideas. Be ready to talk for about
5 minutes, and then lead discussion for another 10 minutes.
(Due throughout; 15% of final course
grade)
ii. Presentations of re-design ideas:
On a date you choose at the start of the course, present in class a
brief (15 minutes total) example of re-design – that is, take an
existing item of educational material that you have some experience or
connection with (could be a text, handout, visual material, fragment of
animation, etc.) and show how you would re-design it to be more effective. This is not about your artistic skills – you
don't have to actually re-engineer a complex animation or produce a new graph
or chart! The idea is to take something
you have some familiarity with, and show how it could be improved. The readings may come into the discussion, or
not, depending on what you choose to present.
Again, I'll do a sample presentation in class on April 22, so you'll
have an idea what's expected. Be ready
to talk for about 5 minutes, and then lead discussion for another 10 minutes.
(Due throughout; 15% of final course
grade)
iii. Positive and negative examples:
During the quarter, bring to class positive or negative examples of
educational (broadly defined) message design; think about why you selected what
you did, and whether your choice has broader significance! Bring in at least two during the course of
the quarter (can be either positive or negative).
(Due throughout the quarter; CR/NC
assignment)
c.
Literature Review. Prepare a brief report in which you identify
several key research-based references for one of the topics considered in the
course. The point here is to become
familiar with relevant journals and on-line resources, to compare the merits of
different authors' perspectives and research methods, and to begin to become a
"connoisseur" of these kinds of materials.
Choose a subject area or topic that is of
interest to you. The review may be
related to the intended topic of your Course paper/project (see below) or not,
at your discretion. In previous
quarters, many students have found that it makes sense to combine efforts and
focus on one topic for both literature review and project, but a significant
minority have found that there is a benefit to exploring more than one topic
during the course. You choose!
Do a search of the literature that
describes research-based studies related to your topic. Use the many databases and tools available to
you via the UW Libraries: ERIC,
PsycINFO, JSTOR, individual titles of journals available via electronic
subscription, and many other specialized resources in particular sub-fields
(for example, human-computer interaction, computer-supported collaborative
work, etc.). Also, search widely in
other databases accessible through the Web.
Select five (5) of those studies that you
believe present the best evidence or the most intriguing results. Summarize each of them briefly and then draw
conclusions about the value of that particular approach to message design for learning
and education. Do this in no more than 5
double-spaced pages.
Be sure to provide a complete citation
(in APA format) for each the studies you cite.
Pay attention to the specifics of APA format for e-resources.
We'll discuss your reviews and the
articles you found most significant in class on April 29.
(Due April 29; 15% of final course grade)
d. Course project/paper.
The course project or paper should present and discuss the design for an
educational or instructional message.
This could be in the form of text, graphic materials, video, web-based
materials, or some other combination.
You are not expected to
produce all of the materials proposed; rather select a small segment of the material to demonstrate your approach to the
whole. You should, however, prepare a
comprehensive description of the entire set of materials – include as
appendices whatever sketches, storyboards, outlines, scripts, screen shots, or
any other information that will help me know what you are proposing.
Most of your effort should go into
describing why you intend to present your message in the way you have proposed,
and to justifying your choices based on research and theory (both as discussed
in the course and as otherwise investigated by you). If you are working on a particular instructional
design project as part of your job, it may be possible to join the paper with
that work; see me and discuss.
An abstract (1 page maximum) should be
prepared to accompany the paper, and enough copies of the abstract made for
distribution to each member of the class at the final session, at which time we
will discuss together how projects evolved as you worked, what aspects of the
work turned out to be especially problematic or rewarding, and what approaches
you would try (or avoid) if you were to undertake the next step.
FORMAT:
Final projects may be either in traditional term-paper format or in some
multi-media combination. If you submit a
multi-media effort, be sure that it is viewable on hardware available in our
classroom. Regardless of format, all
products should at least be accompanied by a brief paper-based description of
design elements and the rationale for their choice (including relevant
references). If submitting a traditional
term paper, please see that it is printed in a 12 pt. font, double-spaced, and
stapled (no binder or cover). All
papers/projects (including brief descriptions) should be prepared in accordance
with the guidelines contained in the Publication
manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.; 2001). Typical paper length: not more than 15 pages.
(Due 6/3; 50% of final course grade)
4. Necessary Notices:
DUE DATES: Having assignments ready by the date due is
an essential requirement and a basic expectation of graduate study. Failure to observe this requirement can have
dire consequences! Grades of
"incomplete" will be given only for certifiable medical reasons or in
other extraordinary circumstances.
DISABILITY
ACCOMODATIONS: To request academic
accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disability Resources for
Students, 448 Schmitz, 206-543-8924/V, 206-543-8925/TTY, or at
http://www.washington.edu/students/drs/.
If you have a letter from Disability Resources for Students indicating
you have a disability which requires academic accommodations, please present
the letter to me so we can discuss the accommodations you might need in this
class.
If you have questions or
concerns about disability accommodation do not hesitate to contact me or DRS
directly.
PLAGIARISM: Plagiarism, submitting someone else's words
or ideas as your own work, is a serious academic offense. Cases of suspected plagiarism will be
referred to the Associate Dean for Academic Programs for adjudication. Possible penalties range from disciplinary
warnings to dismissal from the university.
All students are expected to demonstrate academic integrity at all
times, and to learn what constitutes plagiarism. A useful definition of plagiarism can be
found at:
http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm#plagiarism
A word on the oral
presentations and discussions. It is important to learn how to present ideas
clearly and briefly, and how to critique others' presentations incisively and
positively. It is easy to criticize
someone else's work; it is harder (and more essential) to do so in a way that
preserves that person's self-image and dignity.
The most respected scholars are those who manage to combine helpful
suggestions for how things might be done differently with a tone that is
constructive and collegial. You should
strive to attain this kind of scholarly approach in your work here!
5. Grading
The various
requirements for the course will be weighted as follows when computing grades:
|
Oral
presentation of readings |
15% |
|
Oral
presentation of re-design |
15% |
|
Literature
Review |
15% |
|
Positive/negative
design examples |
(CR/NC) |
|
Participation
in class discussions |
5% |
|
Final project
or paper |
50% |
STK