Media Richness Theory describes how and why particular media are selected to deliver a message.¹ In MRT, richness is operationalized in terms of a medium’s ability to accomplish four goals: sending multiple cues, supporting language variety, providing immediate feedback, and allowing personal nature to be communicated.

A rich medium, then, would allow for a variety of cues, both verbal and nonverbal, to be sent and received. It would also allow for the transmission of multiple language types, including the spoken and written word, and visual symbols and images. Rich communication media also permit feedback to be sent and received instantaneously and a high degree of personalization. Using these descriptions, a purely text-only, asynchronous element in an online course would be the least rich medium, whereas a synchronous videoconference or webinar would be the richest.

Studies show that a richer distance education environment, in terms of media-rich communication technologies available for instructor and student use, yields higher rates of student satisfaction and instructor-to-student, student-to-instructor, and student-to-student communication.² However, we do not always need a rich medium to accomplish a communication goal. A common predictor of media performance is one’s ability to select the proper medium for the task at hand. Typically a message or task that is high in ambiguity or uncertainty needs a richer medium in order to be successfully communicated. The opposite, then, is also true: a simple task or message, with little chance for confusion or misinterpretation, can be delivered via a less-rich medium.

Before selecting a medium to convey a message in your online class, it is helpful to do an evaluation of the tools that you have at your disposal. Depending on your personal technological efficacy, these tools may be limited to those that your institution licenses and supports or you may be able to venture out and use some freeware applications that are available online but often do not include user support. Use this sample chart (prefilled with a sampling of tools) to help you develop a media richness continuum of tools at your institution.

Once you’re aware of the media you may utilize in your online classes, you can start to select the proper medium based on the message you want to send. Note that you are not limited to one channel—you may select multiple media to communicate your message.

For example, in my introductory communication course, one of the competencies is public speaking. Of course, in an online environment this can pose a challenge. One way I address this learning objective is through having the students produce micro lectures via mediated speeches. Although I believe I write clear instructions, I realize that producing a mediated speech is probably a relatively new assignment for the students in my class, so the complicated nature of the task warrants more than just text-based instructions. For this task I chose two media to communicate my message: an assignment sheet and a mediated speech video.

In your online course, you may find it helpful to expand the media richness tools chart with an additional column, stating the purposes you intend to use specific media for. For example, if you have an assignment involving a complicated task or tasks, you might want to have a traditional text-based assignment sheet and supplement that sheet with an audio, audiovisual, or video message. Documenting these media decisions is a great way to begin a style guide for your class so you can readily identify which media are best to communicate any given piece of information, making interaction and delivering instruction in an online course environment a little less challenging and a richer and more rewarding experience.

References:
1 See Daft, R.L. and Lengel, R.H. (1984). Information richness: A new approach to managerial behavior and organization design. Research in Organizational Behavior, 6, pp 191-223.

2 See Shepherd, M.M. and Martz, W.B. (2006). Media richness theory and the distance education environment. The Journal of Computer Information Systems, 47, pp 114-122.

Jill Schiefelbein has taught and developed online courses at Arizona State University for the past six years. For more information on this topic, see Five Ways to Improve Interaction in Your Online Courses, an online seminar presented by Schiefelbein.

Reprinted from Online Classroom (March 2011): 1,2.

Selecting and Using Technologies in Online & Blended Courses

Just as smart phones, Twitter, Facebook and all of Web 2.0 are transforming communication, they’re also changing how teachers teach and students learn. These new technologies could encourage learner-centered teaching and help students learn skills they’ll need to succeed.

Like any tool, digital technologies must be used appropriately to realize their potential.

Discover how to maximize the effectiveness of 21st century teaching tools with Selecting and Using Technologies in Online & Blended Courses, a 60-minute audio online seminar with noted presenter Tony Bates.

During the seminar Bates shares a comprehensive framework for educational technology decisions. Known as the SECTIONS Model, this letter-by-letter approach includes instructional and administrative criteria as follows:

S Is the technology appropriate for students?
E Is it easy to use and reliable?
C What are its direct and indirect costs?
T How will it support teaching and learning?
I What kinds of interaction will it make possible?
O What organizational issues will be involved?
N How much of a novelty is this technology?
S Will it let us start courses and make changes with the speed we need? Is it secure?

Order the CD + Transcript

Starting with this framework, you’ll learn:

• When to use face-to-face, blended learning, or online learning
• When to use a learning management system
• When and how to create personal learning environments
• When to blend a learning management system and personal learning environments
• When to use Web 2.0 tools, and for what purposes
• How to design learner-centered teaching.

Who will benefit:
This is an advanced level seminar, perfect for universities, colleges, training organizations and people in the following positions:

• Curriculum developers
• Educational technologists
• Instructional designers
• Faculty
• Instructors
• Program directors

When you order the recording of this seminar on CD, you’ll also receive the complete transcript.

An optional Campus Access License is available for an additional $200. It allows the purchasing institution to upload the CD of the seminar onto the institution’s password-protected internal web site for unlimited access by members of the campus community.

Order the CD + Transcript

All seminars include a discussion guide for facilitators
Participating in a Magna Online Seminar as a team can help leverage unique insights, foster collaboration, and build momentum for change. Each seminar now includes a Discussion Guide for Facilitators which provides step-by-step instructions for generating productive discussions and thoughtful reflection. You’ll also get guidelines for continuing the conversation after the event, implementing the strategies discussed, and creating a feedback loop for sharing best practices and challenges.

Learning Styles: Theory and research confirm that students have preferred learning styles that can enhance their learning effectiveness. There are many instruments available to measure students’ learning styles from related literature. The Learning Style Survey developed by Diablo Valley College is a popular online instrument used for determining students’ learning styles, and won an award for “Best Use of Technology in Education for 1999.”

This survey provides immediate results on students’ learning style preferences, which I then use to gauge the amount and types of multimedia to include in PPT lectures. U.S. research suggest that typically, 30 percent of students prefer learning visually (e.g., images, charts, maps, videos, and notes), 34 percent auditorily (e.g., lecture tapes, sound bites, background music, and discussion) and 36 percent kinesthetically/tactilely (e.g., keyboarding quiz answers or comments, and manipulating learning material).

Using these findings as a multimedia gauge for a 30-slide PPT lecture, roughly 30 percent of the slides (9) will contain graphics, 34 percent (10 slides) audio or sound, and 36 percent (11 slides) interactive content (keyboarding, quiz in PPT, animations, and links to possible simulated exercises). I also include any detailed notes within the PPT “Click to Add Notes” feature for the particular slide, so students have all the information on the topic at hand. I would hasten to add that the latter is not absolute and other modalities can be used to present online course content.

Cultural/International Backgrounds: In addition to knowing students’ learning style preferences, I also ask my online students to share a little about themselves including their cultural/international backgrounds. In this way, the online learning community (students and instructor) can have a shared understanding and appreciation of its diversity. Using this information, I can choose graphics, audio, and interactive content that will accommodate for their cultural/international backgrounds in making learning more interesting and stimulating for students. For example, I would not place a black border or rim around pictures of persons as this symbolizes death for Chinese students. The color red can have both negative and positive meanings culturally so I use it sparingly.

Further, while Americans hold their dogs and cats in high esteem, other cultures do not. As such, I am culturally sensitive when using animal graphics. If I have Caribbean students, their infamous reggae, calypso, or steelpan music is included in the PPT audio. In addition, combat scenes are quite acceptable to U.S. students, who are reminded daily of the different wars being fought by U.S. troops around the globe. However, such scenes may appear abrasive to other international students, so I choose course content that will be generally acceptable to all students.

In being sensitive to online students’ learning style preferences and cultural/international backgrounds, I think we can enhance our online PPT lectures in making them easier for students to relate to and learn from effectively.

Debra Ferdinand, PhD, is a recent consulting distance education facilitator with Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, Trinidad.

References:
Diablo Valley College (1999). A learning style survey for college. Retrieved August 19, 2010 from http://www.metamath.com/multiple/multiple_choice_questions.html.

Miller, S. C. (2007). Learning styles. Retrieved August 19, 2010, from http://www.4faculty.org/includes/digdeeper/lesson4/learningstyles.htm.

Carlson-Pickering, J. (1999, November). MI & technology: A winning combination. Retrieved August 19, 2010, from http://www.ri.net/RITTI_Fellows/Carlson-Pickering/MI_Tech.htm#Learning%20and%20Our%20Emotions.

Sometimes content delivered in a traditional classroom setting can fall flat in an online course where your students don’t get to benefit of your voice inflections, gestures, etc. If you have material that you like to deliver face-to-face, but are concerned about presenting it in the online arena you can be creative when you include the material in your course and be assured that the content is delivered in a manner that you are comfortable with.

1. You can have your professional video team at your institution create videos for each segment of your lecture that is needed. This can be very time consuming and must be well planned. Each segment should be scripted in advance and must be kept to a minimum of five minutes. Each video must be interesting and must captivate the students’ attention. After a student views your first few videos he will decide if the content is worth his time or not. If not, he will stop viewing the video segments and all the time you put into this endeavor was for nothing.
2. Create a series of podcasts for each of your lectures. Podcasts are downloadable and students can listen to them on their mobile devices. Podcasts also need some planning, but are a little more flexible because you can record them in your office from your computer.
3. Desktop video can also be used to capture your lectures. Keep in mind that the quality will not be as good as if your video team recorded your segments. But if you create them from your desktop you again have the freedom from scheduling the time to record. You have to decide which is more important – time constraints, or quality of the video.

You can see that there is a pattern here and it is pretty easy to follow. So if you have guest lectures, demonstrations, places or things you want students to see or experience, you can include them in a number of different ways. Keep in mind that your students will only be interested in your course if they are interested in the delivery mode for the content. Keep it simple, but interesting!

Eileen Narozny is an instructional designer at the University of Central Florida.

1. Post complete text versions of the audio portion of the streamed presentations. My limited study suggests that student learning is most enhanced when students can study both streamed presentations and transcripts of the audio. You should encourage students to study both the presentations and the transcripts and advise them to avoid studying only the presentations.
2. Keep your presentations relatively short. I suggest keeping them under 15 minutes. If this is not sufficient to cover all the content for a given topic, then the content should be chunked at appropriate spots into several presentations. Each presentation should come with a table of contents that students can click on to navigate within the presentation.
3. Plan out the slide or video portion of the presentation first. This will allow you to focus on the main ideas that you want to emphasize, and it will provide you with an outline for developing the narration. You should make use of images to illustrate and represent ideas and arguments. This will allow you to present content in several modes.
4. Write out a script of the narration. Doing this will help you to organize your thoughts. It will also result in fewer audio mistakes, since you can add the narration by simply reading the script. Writing out the narration beforehand will also provide you with a text version of the narration that you can post to the course website.
5. Choose presentation software that allows you to easily edit the separate video and audio portions of the presentation and that in a few simple steps converts the presentation into a format for streaming over the Web.

Jerry Kapus is an associate professor in the Department of English and Philosophy at University of Wisconsin–Stout.

From Tips from the Pros – 5 Tips for Using Streaming Audio and/or Video, Online Classroom, May 2009.

And yet, despite all these criticisms, students today are not all that different than they were 10, 20 or 30 years ago in at least one very important way: They want to feel connected to their instructors and fellow students. Providing that sense of connection and building student engagement, whether in face-to-face, hybrid or fully online courses, increasingly requires the right combination of digital media tools and personal touch. And therein lies the challenge.

“If you do it right, digital media can really enhance a course and provide meaningful student-teacher connections,” said Kevin Reeve, head of marketing and communications for Information Technology at Utah State University. “When not implemented properly, it becomes a frustrating experience for everyone – students, instructors, IT and administration.”

In the recent online seminar Digital Media: The Latest Trends, Technology & Standards, Reeve explained a variety of digital media industry trends, the catalysts behind them, and the impact on higher education. These trends include the emergence of MPEG-4 as the new industry standard for video (overtaking Flash) and the proliferation of both desktop and enterprise-level screen capture solutions available for recording lectures.

To be sure, despite their many benefits, digital media tools and technologies place enormous strains on the bandwidth and resources of higher education institutions who often struggle to keep pace with the necessary infrastructure and tech support requirements.

Reeve recommends the following steps for a successful digital media deployment:

• Provide technical instructions to students.
• Provide a sample video so they can test things early on.
• Experiment with different data rates, and set some institutional standards.
• Use the lowest data rate possible but ensure video is of high quality.
• Provide adequate technical support for faculty.