Becoming a Mobile Diva: Successful Strategies from an Online Orientation

Topic

Introduction

What is a diva? I will have the audience think about a time they felt like a diva, briefly share that experience in pairs, and get input from the audience about characteristics of a diva. Drawing from these characteristics, I will transition to the concept of a Mobile Diva.

Who is a Mobile Diva? A Mobile Diva is anyone who works to create, support or use instructional content with these characteristics:

• mobile friendly
• diverse
• interactive
• visually engaging
• accessible

This combination of strategies has led to the success of our community college's online orientation during its pilot in the past academic year. In fact, the mobile diva strategies are particularly appropriate for the community college population. In this session, I will provide a brief overview of the online orientation, then dive into the characteristics of a mobile diva. We will conclude by taking time to reflect and plan so that the audience members can take steps toward becoming mobile divas in their own environments.

Online Orientation Project

Description of the online orientation

The first part of the session will focus on an overview of our community college’s Online Learning Student Assessment (OLSA). During the 2018-19 academic year, we piloted our Online Learning Student Assessment with a two-fold purpose: (1) to assess student readiness for our online learning environment and (2) to provide an orientation to that online environment. The OLSA includes three required sections: Technology, Study Skills and Communication Skills. Students also have the option to complete another module which covers the online resources Tri-C offers to support student success. At this point, I will demonstrate a short selection OLSA.

Technologies used in the online orientation

Next, I will briefly discuss some technologies used in the design and implementation of the OLSA. The OLSA was designed using Articulate Storyline 360 and hosted as a course in Blackboard. The results were then passed from Blackboard through our Banner system to One Record so that the OLSA completion score becomes part of the profile for each student who takes it. The combination of Storyline 360 and Blackboard allowed us to orient students to the online environment within that online environment, thereby allowing for transfer of this knowledge to students’ courses. Storyline 360 specifically allowed us to use diverse characters and a variety of interactive features to teach and engage learners in a mobile-friendly, accessible course.

Success of the online orientation

Although the orientation was optional, over 1,600 students have completed it to date. After completing the orientation, about 1,000 of the 1,600 students completed a survey to provide feedback, which has been overwhelmingly positive. Over 90% of students indicated that the OLSA prepared students for the online environment at Tri-C. About 90% believe that the OLSA represents the diversity of the community college population. Students have similar positive feedback for how well the OLSA covered Blackboard basics, our institutional email, time management, online communication and more. Interestingly, about a third of the students completed the OLSA on mobile devices.

Mobile Diva Design Strategies

While the online orientation was the project that fostered my development as a mobile diva, these strategies can be transferred to a variety of educational and training initiatives. In the next portion of the presentation, I will describe and demonstrate these strategies.

Mobile friendly

Learners can engage with mobile-friendly content on a desktop, laptop, tablet or smart phone. Indeed, the distinction between these categories is becoming blurred. For example, how would a Chromebook be categorized? In fact, the economic and age diversity of community college students means that mobile friendly content is accessible to more students than content limited to a computer. Some students own smart phones but cannot afford computers.

As far as creating content, it is important to take into account the fact that if it is online, students will be accessing content using their phones. One way to be mobile friendly is to chunk content so that there is not too much text on each page or slide. Another way to chunk content is to have more, shorter learning objects that students can engage with when they have time in their busy schedules.

Diverse

The community college population is very diverse, and we are no exception. We see a very diverse student body as well as diversity in our staff and faculty. As such, it only makes sense to represent diversity in both the learners and instructors when designing content. As you know, to be representative, think about ethnicity, age, gender and gender identity, and other factors.

Inclusivity means that the projects and content that we work on should take into account diverse students’ life situations. Considerations such as level of technical experience, fluency in English, economic struggles and others are important.

Interactive

Interactive content engages the learner, so it is important develop a variety of interaction. A variety of interactive and multimedia features were employed in the OLSA, including simulation of technology, drag and drop interactions and scenarios. Multimedia elements such as videos also engaged learners.

In thinking about the projects that you have a hand in, consider their interactions. Courses and content that have a “read this, write that” or “read this, answer that” format are not very engaging. How can you incorporate video or audio into your projects? What options to you have to include interactions, encouraging students to get in there and get their hands and minds on the content?

Visually Engaging

The OLSA was developed to be visually engaging. Although it is branded, it is not boring. The scenes are different for each character, with animations to keep it interesting. The visual interest is important for engaging the learners’ interest, but visual consistency is also important. For example, keeping the button interactions the same throughout the OLSA makes it easy to navigate.

Whether your visual style is richer or more minimalistic, consider ways that you can provide what could be called predictable variety in your visuals. In other words, consistency is as important as variety in your visual design choices.

Accessible

Creating content that is accessible, ADA and WCAG 2.1 compliant is a challenge that overwhelms many of us. However, it is worth the work, not only for legal reasons but because it is only fair to do so. For instance, students with visual and hearing challenges or learning differences are just as important as any other students. Some aspects of content that is accessible include color contrast, keyboard navigation, alt text and tab order. Thinking about ways to provide alternative paths in your content is another way to be more accessible. In the scope of this session, I am not able to go in depth about these practices, but I want to encourage you to take the next step toward making content accessible.

Your Mobile Diva Plan

Before the question and answer time, I will give the audience an opportunity to think about their next step in becoming a mobile diva. I will facilitate an opportunity for reflection with questions about the diversity of their populations, the technologies that are available, and more. I will also provide a handout with an outline of the characteristics of a mobile diva, with space for ideas in each category.

Interactivity

Short think-pair-share question at beginning about diva experiences

Demonstration of the OLSA on a website that the audience can access

Mobile Diva Plan for reflection and next steps

Takeaways

Individuals who attend will be able to apply the Mobile Diva strategy to engage learners.

• Design or provide content that is mobile friendly
• Represent diversity in projects
• Utilize interactive media to engage and motivate learners
• Provide visual interest and consistency
• Take the next step towards accessibility