Creating Web-Based Instructional Materials Essay

INTRODUCTION The World Wide Web (WWW) is changing the way of life we learn and the way we teach. Teaching has embraced the innovative ship tin finishal that WWW can offer to users. WWW allows dynamic and interactive ways of teaching things which are impossible on printed literals. There are on-line courses, on-line tutorials and virtual classrooms. The let on to the success of these teaching institutions that proliferated in the web are the effective instructional solids. WBT is media-rich training fully open(a) of evaluation, adaptation, and remediation that can provide the available tools to organize and deliver fill into well-crafted teaching systems (Tobin & Kesselman, 1999).PURPOSE The part of this enrolment is to create a general guideline in creating web ground instruction materials. The archive will take into understandation the manners that are familiar to the author.GUIDELINESGeneral StepsThe general steps in making web-based instructional materials consist of the following (Clay, Harlan & Swanson, 1997) find out the core competencies to be included the instructional materialDetermine the contents of the instructional material based on the core competencies selected.Deciding the method or strategy used to convey to the users the ideas presented.Developing the instructional material as a word impact document, an audio or a video material.Mounting or up warhead the material into the webProviding the feedback portal for users beta TestingFinal Modification based on feedback, retest and releaseDetermining the core competenciesThe very get-go step is deciding the target core competencies for this instruction material. For example, this instruction material may be intend to teach Basic Algebra, Earth Science or Differential Calculus. This will serve as the address of the web-based instruction material. The intent of the web-based instruction material is to transfer the core competencies from the instruction material to the user. Brainstormi ng and visit existing web based instructional materials are good ways of finding the core competencies.Determining the content afterwards the core competency has been decided, the next step is to produce a structured content. The content should start from the basic principles of the core competencies towards the complicated areas. The structure therefore should be laid out in such a way that it will start from the least severe to understand to the most difficult to understand. The content formatting should also take into account that the pre-requisite topics should be place ahead. This means that for the contents that is ask to understand another set of content, should be placed ahead.Deciding the method or strategyThe method of presentation should be planned before proceeding to the actual development of the material. The method should be based on the target audience of the instructional material. It should be based on the comprehension level of the audience. enlightened audienc e should be given methods that are easy to comprehend such as more images than words. ripe audiences may be presented with more literals than images to maximize the amount of information. Interactive items such as graphs made victimisation either Flash or Java applet technologies should also be considered to convey the relationship between vary variables which can controlled by the user or audience.Developing the Instructional MaterialThe development of the instructional material shall be done in the software that handles editing of html commits or more complex file formats. HyperText Markup Language ( hypertext mark-up language) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are the format of choice as opposed to adobe printable document format (PDF) or word document format. HTML would be more flexible to incorporate interactive objects such as Java applets or Flash Animations. It is the fastest in equipment casualty of page loading in the web. The presentation editor in chief software m ay consist of the followingMicrosoft FrontPageMicrosoft Word with the proper HTML conversion plugInsHTMLkitMacromedia FlashAdobe PhotoshopOther HTML editors and there a thousand available bounteous software in the webAt the start, images, interactive applets, video clips, audio clips, or animated gifs shall be prepared ahead utilise the appropriate software. Graphics should help to convey information and not salutary be decorative each page should have a clear title and includes headers and footers (Tobin & Kesselman, 1999). Pictures can be scanned using a scanner to convert into images in jpg, gif, png or bmp format. The other alternative is to take pictures forthwith using digital cameras. Video clips can be created using digital cameras with video streaming, or using other digital video rec regularises. Images can be edited using either paint, Microsoft photo editor or more complex image editing tools such as Adobe Photoshop.Interactive applets can be generated using Java Dev elopment Kit which can be loosely downloaded from the web. In order to be able to flow java applets the user PC should have Java Runtime Environment to run java applets, again this can be downloaded for free from the web. Video clips can be prepared using Windows Movie Maker. Animated gifs can be prepared using a number of software free or commercial. These are then integrated into the html file using an html document editor such Microsoft Front Page or HTMLKit. We also need the appropriate sound card and speakers to mind to the audio materials included in the presentation. A summary of all the hardware needed to create instructional materials mentioned above are listed belowPC with Linux or Windows Operating SystemScanner to digitize printed pictures and imagesdigital CameraDigital Video recordersPrintersFlash Disk or Pen DrivesSound Card and loudspeaker systemMounting the Material into the Web The html files can then be uploaded into the website using either FTP upload or si mply using the available upload managers normally provided by web hosting companies. Documents can be linked directly to the directories of the linking page.One of the main aspects when mounting materials into the web is to keep material sizing to minimum. This would help in the uploading process and also in the loading process of the users. We had to think in terms of kilobyte file sizes, not megabytes because delivery over the Web is too slow to expect users to watch around at your web site for large graphics to appear on their screens (Clay, Harlan & Swanson, 1997). This is because we have to consider that there are still a number of users who are using modems as slow as 28.8 kbps.Providing Feedback Portals Feedback portals, or any form or method that would allow users to provide feedback is a very master(prenominal) part of a web-based instruction material. This will provide an easy way to evaluate, test or change using feedback from users.Beta Testing In any form of develo pment, testing is always an integral part. By going through all the possible course of instructions of the web-based instruction material and testing every possible path is essential to insure proper operation of the instruction material. This may also include testing on various web browser tools. Different web browser tools may cause some leg of difference in the presentation of html files. This step also includes proofreading of the entire material. Any bugs, errors or unwished-for features shall be recorder for modification or correction.Final Modification based on Testing, Retest and ReleaseAfter the beta testing, the errors shall be corrected and retested until no errors persist. Finally, it shall then be released with a proper version control.ReferencesClay, S. Harlan, S. and Swanson, J. (1997). continue Web Education. Retrieved from the USCB Library website http//www.library.ucsb.edu/universe/clay.html, on January 16, 2007Tobin, T. and Kesselman, M, (1999). Quantitative a nd Qualitative Approaches to Research. Retrieved from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions website http//www.ifla.org/IV/ifla65/papers/102-163e.htmJanuary 17, 2007