Introducing our adorable mascot, ‘Jelly Jigglebean’! Give a big Hello 🙌🏻
Description: Watch as our lively mascot ‘Jelly Jigglebean’ bounces and sways to the rhythm, spreading joy with every wobble and jiggle!
“Slime Animation.” Stable Diffusion Online, stablediffusionweb.com. Accessed 10 Mar. 2024.
Overview
Welcome to the Slime-tastic World of DIY Fun! Here, you can find the tutorial video, safety caution infographics, a little science magic behind making slime, and fun activities to try. Let’s dive in and have fun!🧐
What is Slime?
Slime is a mixture of household items combined to form a polymer substance that can be both a solid and a liquid depending on how you play with it! It was first manufactured by the toy company Mattel in 1976, packaged in a container looking like a trash can (Gazette). Quite a long history, isn’t it?
DIY (Do-it-Yourself) Slime became a huge trend during the pandemic that started in 2019, as people were searching for fun activities to do at home at an affordable price! With the power of social media and influencers, slime-making was growing in popularity. The customizable nature and texture of slime have fostered the creativity and imagination of young children. Adding colouring, glitter, charms, foam beads, hydrated instant snow powder, and more allows endless possibilities in manipulating the texture!
In this module, we will be creating the most basic slime, with the option to add food colouring and glitter as you wish. Be creative and Enjoy!
Learning Objectives
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
Understand the safety precautions of making slime at home
Understand a simple chemical reaction behind the slime-making activity
Correctly identify needed ingredients and tools
Accurately put steps of slime making into a correct sequence
Successfully make slime at home and have fun!
Slime-Making Safety Precautions
Creating slime involves handling chemicals, so it is very important to be mindful of safety precautions. We have outlined four main safety measures for you to review carefully!
Description: Canva Infographics on the safety precautions for making slime
Slime Making Tutorial 😄
Description: Video Tutorial on How to Make Slime Video Transcript
Let’s dive in and see how well you understand the process and remember the safety tips ❓❔
The Science Behind Slime
Now, are you curious to know how the slime can be created with such a simple list of ingredients? Let’s dive into the magic behind it!
Chemical Reaction between Glue and the Borax and water mixture
When glue, water, and a borax mixture are combined, magic happens! The glue contains small molecules called ‘polymers’. When you add the water and borax mixture, it helps the polymers in the glue stick together even more tightly. This is what makes the slime stretchy! It is like the glue molecules are holding hands with the water and borax molecules called borate ions, creating a fun and squishy compound called slime (Helmenstine)!
If you are interested in learning more about the chemical reaction, here is the advanced explanation! Please watch the video below from 1:29 to 1:51.
Description: Video on the chemical reaction behind making slime created by American Chemical
Here are some fun activities for you to test your knowledge!
Let’s see if you can put each step into the correct sequence! How carefully did you watch the video? 🎥🔍
Matching Game! Let’s have fun matching ingredients to the pictures! 🎨
This summarized task list is provided to enhance your passive learning experience! Keep it nearby and refer back to it as you progress to the next step 🙆🏻
To-Do List
Thoroughly review the Safety Precautions before starting your slime-making adventure!☢️☣️
Check out the Accordion for the secret ingredients and steps – it’s like following a treasure map to slime success!🗺
Watch the DIY slime video!🎥
Challenge yourself with cool activities like Matching Game ✅, Multiple choice questions 🔢 and Single Choice Set 💯– can you beat them all?
Now, let’s get messy and make some awesome slime! 🎊🎉
I have experimented with Sketch AI and Stable Diffusion to explore the extended capabilities of AI. Transforming drawings into animations was particularly enjoyable. I believe this feature could be incredibly beneficial for parents seeking to animate their children’s drawings, enhancing their creativity and providing an engaging activity to do together. Additionally, as I delved deeper into the capabilities of AI, I was fascinated by its potential! While the images generated by AI are not perfect, the overall quality is remarkable. It almost felt like stepping into a time machine and seeing the advancements firsthand.
Prompt: Draw me a vision of the Hyundai Company in the year 2080, imagining that we are living in the sky.
Fig. 1. “Hyundai Company in the year 2080, imagining that we are living in the sky.” prompt, Stable Diffusion, version 2.1, OpenAI, 21 Mar. 2024, https://stablediffusionweb.com/
Fig. 2. “Hyundai Company in the year 2080, imagining that we are living in the sky.” prompt, Stable Diffusion, version 2.1, OpenAI, 21 Mar. 2024, https://stablediffusionweb.com/
Fig. 3. “Doraemon Animation” generated by Sketch AI, Version 2.1, OpenAI, 20 Mar. 2024, https://sketchai.app/ Fig. 4. “Doraemon Animation” generated by Sketch AI, Version 2.1, OpenAI, 20 Mar. 2024, https://sketchai.app/
What Generative AI applications have you found useful?
I have been actively using ChatGPT-3 for grammar checks and revising my work. As a business analyst, it has proven invaluable in helping me refine my wording to align with professional standards, especially as I navigate my first corporate role! Additionally, I rely on ChatGPT for conducting research efficiently during my work hours. It serves as an excellent initial resource for gathering surface-level information without the need to individually search for each topic.
What apps have you used that are not in the Explore section?
Other than those in the Explore section, I utilized Bard in Korea. It is a Generative AI developed by Google to compete with ChatGPT. During my exchange, it seemed that Korean students perceived Bard as more reliable. From my own experience, ChatGPT has more trained data and capabilities than Bard. I asked both Bard and ChatGPT a very simple question: ‘Who is the first Korean president?’ Bard replied, ‘I’m still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search,’ whereas ChatGPT replied, ‘The first President of South Korea was Syngman Rhee. He served as President from 1948 to 1960 when he resigned following widespread protests against his government.’ It was interesting to see how Bard recommended I use Google Search, given that Google creates Bard. I wonder if the integration has not been done properly. Bard also lacks the simple capability of grammar checking. Using Bard could be very helpful in conducting initial research on specific academic topics.
What guidelines do you think should be in place to guide the use of Generative AI in an educational institution?
As ChatGPT-3 becomes increasingly popular among students, there has been an ongoing controversial discussion surrounding its usage for quite some time. I’ve engaged in discussions about incorporating Generative AI tools in educational and professional settings. I believe that Generative AI tools are invaluable when used appropriately and they should be encouraged to use.
ChatGPT has revised this one paragraph below – Do you notice how the tone and choice of vocabulary (bolded) are much more professional than my writing?
Having utilized ChatGPT for approximately a year, I’ve observed certain limitations to its capabilities, particularly in educational and professional contexts. While it can offer assistance and generate content, there are constraints to its depth of understanding and ability to produce nuanced work. In terms of citing ChatGPT, I advocate for its recognition as a source of compiled information, similar to how one would cite information obtained from Google. Indeed, I don’t perceive a significant distinction between the two; both provide access to a wealth of information, albeit through different mediums. Ultimately, it’s crucial to approach the use of ChatGPT with the same level of critical thinking and responsibility as any other informational resource.
Considering the content of this paragraph, I strongly believe the use of Generative AI should be encouraged among students, given that there are clear guidelines for paraphrasing and citation to maintain the coherence of their work.
Concerns have been raised among educators regarding the potential stifling of innovative thinking by relying on generative AI. However, I disagree with the notion. Individuals have diverse learning styles, and there is room for every type of learner. While some students may lack creative skills, they excel in areas such as quantitative analysis or tasks with straightforward answers. Generative AI could serve as a valuable tool for students who struggle with creativity by offering initial guidelines for brainstorming. At the end of the day, how different is this from utilizing search engines like Google? It is crucial to emphasize that output generated by ChatGPT should never be directly copied and pasted. Leveraging Generative AI also requires skill, as detailed prompts are needed to get the desired results effectively.
What factors should be considered?
I believe the main controversy and ethical considerations surrounding generative AI involve security and data privacy. As mentioned in Module 5, there have been numerous cases where ChatGPT faced lawsuits for using content as training data without attribution or compensation. While it only takes a few seconds for users to input a prompt and receive results, the individuals who originally generated that content invested years of effort, time, money, and passion into its creation. Even if users cite Generative AI as a source of information, it does not acknowledge the efforts of those who generated the content provided by AI. I believe there needs to be more work put in on providing citations within ChatGPT itself.
Roleplaying Game prompts
It is truly fascinating how much Generative AI can achieve and how many more possibilities people can explore using these tools!
I tried out ‘Mafia Nicknames’ and ‘ChatGPT Password’. I believe the key to a successful experience with generative AI games lies in creative thinking. When selecting nicknames for the mafia, I had to be exceptionally creative to achieve my goal of receiving a perfect 10/10 for the nicknames I created. ChatGPT was a tough crowd. The highest score I received was sadly a 9. I do not typically play games, so I cannot compare it to anything else. However, in terms of creativity, I find ChatGPT to be quite subjective and lacking in providing criteria to support its decisions. It gave me scores but did not explain why – reasoning.
Additionally, ChatGPT often generates different responses with even the slightest modification. For instance, when I created the nickname ‘Tickling Finger,’ it initially scored a solid 7. When I tried ‘Tickling Fingers,’ it scored a solid 8, when the only difference was the addition of an ‘s’ at the end.
H5P interactivity using ChatGPT
Give it a try – select “sunshine” as your answer. It is incorrect. The correct answer is ‘rain’.
I wanted to assess ChatGPT’s capabilities, so I quickly created the H5P activity without thoroughly reviewing the question or the choices. Afterward, as I repeatedly clicked “sunshine” to test it, the response kept turning up as ‘red,’ indicating it was incorrect. I was so confused. I later realized upon reading the question that the answer provided by ChatGPT was wrong.
Through this exercise, I have concluded that ChatGPT does provide inaccurate information. As evidenced below, ChatGPT incorrectly states that sunshine is responsible for the formation of rainbows. It is significantly important to verify information provided by ChatGPT for accuracy!
SECTIONS analysis of Canva
Students:
Canva is perfect for students. It is a website-based tool that requires no download. Canva can be easily accessed using laptops, phones, iPads, or any type of electronic device connected to the internet and requires only a basic minimum wifi connection. The only barrier Canva might present is for students who are not very tech-savvy. However, Canva offers a great step-by-step guide to designing from scratch. Additionally, there are numerous YouTube videos available on creating cool content using Canva!
Ease of use:
Canva is super user-friendly! With its simple and intuitive user interface (UI), people can create professional-quality designs without too much effort. Its drag-and-drop functionality, huge selection of pre-designed templates, elements like icons and images, and customization ability make the designing experience easy, enjoyable, and accessible even for those without prior design experience.
Costs:
Canva has four tiers priced differently to suit various needs. Most features are free, making Canva a great tool for educational purposes. However, some icons, templates, images, etc., are available only in premium at CAD 149.99, which might seem expensive for students. Other than the pricing, from a pure cost perspective, using Canva does not require an excessive amount of time and effort to create content. It is very user-friendly!
Teaching:
Teachers can use Canva to create teaching materials tailored to their specific learning objectives. The wide range of features available enables educators to create engaging educational content. Also, Canva facilitates live collaboration, fostering interactive learning experiences where educators and learners can collaborate in real-time, promoting active learning. Lastly, as mentioned earlier, Canva’s user-friendly interface makes it accessible to teachers of varying skill levels, requiring minimal expertise or knowledge.
Interaction:
Canva’s real-time collaboration feature fosters active interaction between educators and learners. Observing progress in real-time, exchanging ideas, and receiving immediate feedback enhances the connection between educators and learners. This also fosters a collaborative learning environment where students can seamlessly work together on projects and share ideas.
Organization:
I am not 100% sure if this is relevant to the ‘Organization’ aspect, but I know that UVic DSC offers workshops on Canva. I have attended one and these workshops offer valuable skills that students can add to their toolkit, helping them become more proficient with the platform.
Networking:
One aspect that I could think of is its capability to invite people into your ‘Group’. For example, educators can invite a professor from the Marketing department to collaborate and teach students how to create powerful marketing campaigns using Canva. Or, the Co-op Program Director teaches how to create a resume using Canva. This feature enhances collaboration and allows for passive and active learning experiences, enriching the educational process.
Security and privacy:
While I am not quite familiar with the security and privacy measures around Canva at UVic, I am aware that Canva uses encryption and other tools like MFA to ensure that designs and data are securely stored and managed. When using Canva for creating PowerPoint slides or other school projects, it is important to consider the privacy settings. Users should be mindful of whether the content could be set as publicly available or accessible only via links or when added to designated ‘Groups’ to maintain control over who can access the materials.
What authentic problem would you use to design a lesson using Merrill’s principles?
Authentic Problem I am currently working as a junior business analyst at a startup SaaS company. Two current projects I am actively involved in include updating the customer health index. While updating the customer health index for February, I noticed an increasing number of unhealthy customers compared to January, resulting in higher churn rates. As a junior BA, I aim to analyze the factors contributing to this issue and develop actionable strategies to improve user engagement and reduce churn.
Activation and Demonstration All team members have access to and have prior knowledge of measuring healthy customers, commonly used in tech companies. These metrics include engagement rates, churn rates, expansion rates, NPS scores, and customer effort scores. Therefore, this information can be used to visualize to identify patterns and trends. This process enables me to formulate data-driven insights and recommendations. Once I draw meaningful insights, I can create an infographic of 3 – 4 main factors contributing to higher churn rates so that the audience can absorb new information more effectively.
Application & Integration Once I present new information/knowledge, I could provide opportunities for learners to apply their analytical skills and knowledge to the problem. This could involve analyzing real data sets from the company’s software platform and user surveys or interviews. To integrate into the ‘real world’, I could facilitate discussions and team activities where learners can integrate their findings and insights into a comprehensive action plan.
Here is the learning template! – simpler version than the above
What media or multimedia (interactive or not) would you create to support it?
I believe that creating an interactive video is most useful in this scenario as the problem requires active learning. I aim to create a safe learning environment where learners can practice analytical and data-compiling skills as they progress through my video. I could develop an interactive video where I demonstrate the analysis of a dataset, explaining how to transform datasets into various visualizations such as pivot tables, infographics, and real-time data visualizations. Throughout the video, I will incorporate elements like quizzes and Cornell notes to ensure that the audience absorbs the information effectively, gaining a thorough understanding of key concepts and enhancing their ability to apply analytical skills to real-world problems. At the end of the interactive video, I could incorporate features such as questionnaires and discussion forums to collect feedback on the video and address any questions or uncertainties that may arise.
How have you found the balance of passive and active learning in this course for your learning? How does it compare to your experience in other courses?
I find the balance between passive and active learning well-executed. Mary provides ample learning materials to achieve the objectives for each module, along with reflection questions and practical exercises for students to explore and ensure their understanding of the materials. As a BCOM student, many courses are primarily lecture-based. Unfortunately, the balance between active and passive learning is often overlooked. Courses tend to be more one-directional, with most ‘active’ learning occurring through bi-monthly group projects. While these projects encourage students to apply what they’ve learned in class, they are not as thoughtfully designed as this course.
What was your experience of trying out H5P? Which of the activities do you think you would make the most use of in your teaching context and what would you use them to do?
I am impressed with H5P. It offers numerous features that can be incorporated into creating teaching materials, making learning more interactive and enjoyable! I tried creating interactive videos using the video from Screencastify exercises, 360° virtual videos of Seoul, and a graph. Creating the interactive video was fairly straightforward and fun; adding quizzes, text, multiple-choice, etc., made the process enjoyable. I believed these elements could greatly enhance the learning experience and ensure that the audience absorbed new information well. However, creating the 360° virtual video was quite challenging, and I am not entirely satisfied with the outcome. I did my best to explore its features and see how far I could go. I thought the virtual video feature could be extremely useful in geography or international study courses, providing a sense of real imagery through essentially a virtual tour.
Here are some of the examples of H5P activities I tried!
360° virtual video
Population by countries (in millions)
Which ones do you think require the most resources to create?
From what I have observed, I believe that features such as Game Map, Timeline, Branching Scenario, and Impressive Presentation would require the most resources to create. Unlike interactive videos, quizzes, accordions, Cornell notes, etc., the four mentioned features often require gathering information and images from multiple sources, as well as complex and well-considered planning, scripting, and execution.
In the reading, Students Need to DO Something, do any of the author’s experiences with passive learning in K-12 classrooms resonate with your own?
I highly resonated with the entire article. Even though I am in my fourth year, I still experience many of the same issues with passive learning that the authors described in K-12 classrooms. Lectures heavily rely on PowerPoint slides, and students are expected to simply write notes. However, most PowerPoint slides are so condensed that I understand only 20% of the content. They are typically in bullet point format, and sometimes it takes professors a long time to explain them, even though they created the slides themselves. I strongly agree that transitioning directly from direct instruction to independent practice to assessment is ineffective; it often intimidates students and makes them feel like failures. This experience is still very relevant and evident at the university level as well.
Why do you think active learning is not more prevalent in K-12?
I think active learning is less prevalent in K-12 education due to the emphasis on achieving high grades and gaining admission to universities. Therefore, K-12 institutions often use traditional teaching styles and standardized testing, focusing on the memorization of facts over the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. As a result, teachers frequently concentrate on preparing students for these tests rather than implementing active learning strategies. Moreover, there could be a time constraint. With a fixed curriculum, it may be challenging to allocate enough time for practicing active learning, which typically demands a more extensive amount of time compared to passive learning.
Have you tried using any of these activities in a classroom? Which one looks most appealing to you?
One of my BCOM courses during my third year incorporated many mini-projects and weekly discussions, which greatly enhanced students’ ability to absorb, understand, and apply knowledge through collaboration. These mini-projects encompassed various types, such as research, visualization, and presentations. I found transforming system-thinking designs into visual drawings particularly enjoyable. This process not only allowed me to grasp the interconnectedness of each component but also enabled me to understand why a specific design was effective. The thoughtful design of the course and the interactive nature of the mini-projects made the learning experience engaging and memorable!
Hello everyone! Today, I’ll be sharing my quick recipe of Soft Tofu Egg Donburi! I hope you enjoy my recipe.
Scene 1 & 2:
So, these are all the Ingredients that you need which is quite simple.
A 1/4 of medium tofu or soft tofu, some green onions and if you don’t have any, you can skip this, one whole egg, some olive oil, and this is one tablespoon of oyster sauce and a half tablespoon of soy sauce. And for the equipment, all you need is a pan and something to mix all the ingredients with. And for today, I have a spatula.
Scene 3
Okay! Let’s get cooking going. So turn the heat onto medium-high, well let’s put it at 6 and then let your pan heat up. Once your pan is heated up, put a bit of oil. Once the oil is heated up, put the green onions in, and slightly stir it. And let it cook for about 10 seconds.
Scene 4
And then, you will add your tofu in the middle. Lightly smash it down. You want to turn your heat down to low to medium. And just keep mixing your tofu! So once the tofu has turned into yellowish-golden brown, that’s when you want to add the egg.
Scene 5 & 6
Okay, now we’re going to add the egg right in the middle, the center of the tofu! Let your egg sit for just a couple of seconds until the white part turns white. And then, we are going to mix everything together one more time! You don’t want to fully cook your egg because you still want the soft and like velvety texture.
So once you quickly mix your egg and tofu, you want to turn your heat off, completely off. Let it do the continuous cooking!
Scene 7
Okay! Now it’s time to add the sauce. So, half a tablespoon of soy sauce and one tablespoon of oyster sauce. And then, you’re going to mix everything up one last time. Remember, this recipe is for students who are on budget and time constraints, so this recipe is very simple and it only takes about less than 10 minutes to prepare and cook!
Scene 8 & 9:
And once you see the colour has turned into yellowish brown, then you know you are all good to go! This is all cooked, so now let’s plate it on the bed of rice. So for rice, you can choose anything of your choice, but today I have brown rice. But, you can sub it with white rice, oatmeal, or anything of your preference. So, now I’m going to plate my soft tofu egg mixture on top.
I’m going to garnish it with some more green onions on top to make it more colourful. but, this is again, you can skip it if you don’t have any green onion.
Scene 10:
And this is what it’s supposed to look like once it’s plated! Thank you for watching my cooking tutorial and I hope you enjoyed my recipe. Stay healthy and nutritious! Thank you!
7 Storytelling Techniques Used by the Most Inspiring TED Presenters
I enjoyed every single Ted Talk and was impressed by the speakers’ skills, stories, presentation designs, and their ability to captivate people’s attention. As I am not a confident public speaker and usually avoid it, these talks were particularly inspirational and motivating. Selecting a favourite presenter was challenging, but I have three top TED Talks by Richard Turere, Leslie Morgan Steiner, and Dananjaya Hettiarachchi.
Let’s discuss the commonalities among these three TED talks before delving into my favourite TED Talk!
The most noticeable similarity was the use of Mayer’s personalization principle. All three speakers used conversational language as if they were talking to friends and family. The language used was easy to follow, drawing the audience into their stories. Another commonality, especially evident in Leslie Morgan Steiner’s and Dananjaya Hettiarachchi’s talks, was the use of descriptive and sensory words to vividly portray feelings, sounds, air quality, weather, and more. This technique allowed me to imagine the situations and feel present with the speaker.
If I had to choose one favourite TED Talk presenter, it would be Dananjaya Hettiarachchi. His speech was truly remarkable, incorporating techniques I learned in modules 1-3, such as the strategic use of repetition and Mayer’s personalization principle. His speech style was interactive, fun, humorous, and engaging. The modulation of tone and volume was highly effective, particularly when emphasizing key phrases like, ‘I see something in you, but don’t know what it is!’ These emphasized moments were used as signals to the audience, highlighting the importance of specific aspects of his story. The audience knew when the phrase was coming. The effective use of pauses further enhanced the impact of his words. Watching his speech, I was deeply touched by his personal story and the motivational phrases he used.
As mentioned earlier, his use of personalization was impactful. Also, his entire presentation was very cohesive around one central theme: ‘Everyone is special. We all have something in us, but don’t know what it is.’ This theme aligned with Mayer’s coherence principle, as he effectively structured his story around this central concept. Finally, his introduction and conclusion mirrored each other, which made his talk so memorable and impactful.
A meaningful learning experience that started with a story that I heard
I used to never share my concerns with my dad. I did not want to make him worry about his daughter thousands of miles away. However, now, every time I have a concern, I tend to share it with my dad.
Two years ago, I was very stressed out about receiving a permanent residence invitation. It was amid COVID, and rumours and news were spreading among international students that Canada would be increasing the requirements for PR. Upon hearing this news, I cried for several days and went without eating.
To be fair, I tend to worry a lot even before things happen. During the time I was waiting for my PR invitation, I called my dad crying. He first listened to what was going on and simply said, ‘Why are you crying? What are you crying over? You have your family who loves you. Also, 99% of the things you worry about will never happen. The 1% that does happen will lead you to a better path.’
What made it impactful for me? What senses did it appeal to?
This phrase got stuck in my head because he said it so firmly and shared his personal story about the time when he made a huge mistake as a department head at Hyundai. He spent days worrying about the situation, and in the end, everything was solved naturally. Of course, there was much more to his story.
What made his story so impactful was that he usually never shares his personal stories, as he always wants to be seen as a strong dad. He rarely talks about his feelings. I still remember his eyes and his voice. His story came from the heart, using descriptive and sensory language to immerse me in his situation. He ended the call by repeating, ‘Remember, daughter, 99% of the things you worry about will never happen. The 1% that does happen will lead you to a better path. There is always a better path waiting for you.‘
Since that moment, I have overcome my habit of worrying about things before they happen. Even when challenges arise, I always maintain a positive mindset and remind myself, ‘There is a better path. Everything is meant to be.’
What learning experience does a branched narrative like Twine provide for learners?
A branched narrative tool like Twine empowers learners to exercise creativity and autonomy in crafting their own stories. It nurtures creativity, decision-making, and critical thinking skills, as learners can freely express their ideas while assessing the narrative branches’ coherence and connectivity. Moreover, engaging with a branched narrative prompts learners to consider character development, plot structure, and thematic elements, thereby enhancing their abilities to communicate ideas effectively.
I had so much fun creating my story on Twine! Although it may seem simple, mastering tasks like adding images, formatting their sizes, adjusting font colors and sizes, and more, took me quite a bit of effort to learn.
I couldn’t figure out how to upload my Twine story on GitHub, so instead, I recorded the screen while I went through my story and uploaded on my EDCI 337 YouTube channel 🙂
The WAVE accessibility report is a true game-changer. Honestly, I never considered accessibility or inclusivity when creating blog posts, and I feel a bit shy and ashamed about it now. This opportunity made me realize, referencing ‘inclusive principles,’ that designing for people with disabilities actually results in designs that benefit everyone universally. Referencing the video ‘How Captions Increase ROI and Audience for Media Creators,’ it was surprising yet made sense that a lot of people rely on captions even if they do not identify with disabilities. This proves that considering disabilities in mind actually does increase ROI and engagement.
My focus was primarily on amplifying the aesthetics of blog posts and ensuring high-quality content, rather than considering whether my blog posts would be accessible to a wider audience. To my surprise, the WAVE accessibility report revealed numerous errors, particularly around structural elements. I believe my blog posts were nicely organized and structured in a way that was easy to follow. I did anticipate having contrast errors, as I used a pink-coloured font for highlights, which may not contrast well with the background colours. However, I never realized this could potentially pose challenges for visually impaired readers or those who have a hard time absorbing lighter colours.
Moving forward, I will ensure to change the highlight colours and use headings and subheadings correctly to provide a smooth reading experience for all types of learners. When creating videos, my goal is to include captions and incorporate user controls, allowing learners to have control over the speed and sequence of their learning.
Text-to-Speech Tools Experience
I have never used Text-to-Speech tools before, but I find them very useful as I am an auditory learner. I tend to read out every single word when I study, write, or read books. This helps me understand the context better. I tried several voices to find the one that suited my learning style the most. I find that female voices are the most effective in absorbing information that is context-heavy, such as module posts or university textbooks. In contrast, my first introductory post was much easier to absorb and had just the right tone of voice when narrated by Ana, a child. I believe the choice of voice depends on the content, the audience, and the purpose of using the tool. For example, a fairytale book might be better with a child’s voice, whereas a mystery book would suit an adult’s voice.
Exploring the Impact of Media and Multimedia in UDL-Inspired Learning Environments: Aligning Promising Practices for Text, Images, and Video
Media and multimedia can play a significant role in a learning environment designed with UDL guidelines in mind. I believe every practice outlined in UDL is aligned to create an inclusive and effective learning environment. In terms of videos, it could be as simple as ensuring there are captions available on videos. As an example, I personally find transcripts (presentation guidelines) as a huge aspect of UDL, especially for someone with English as their second language. Sometimes, captions are not enough for me to fully grasp concepts. For example, Google Meeting provides this awesome feature where transcripts will be automatically generated when meetings are recorded! This has been helping me a lot to learn new skills and manage the intrinsic cognitive load.
Inclusive Design
Inclusive design means that regardless of your gender, religion, disability, skin colour, culture, etc., you can absorb and appreciate the content created, driving engagement and participation. When you start to narrow down your audience, biases, stereotypes, and specific images can emerge, leading to a situation where inclusivity is compromised. I believe that even when targeting a specific audience, content can be designed to be inclusive, provided it aligns with a specific topic.
Infographic on Canva Experience
When creating my infographic on Canva, I focused on utilizing principles such as hierarchy, proximity, colour palette, and alignment. According to my WAVE accessibility report, I noticed that I had been misusing the colour palette, which could have posed challenges for readers. This time, I made sure to include enough contrast between the background and font colour, as well as maintaining a cohesive colour theme of light yellow and orange.
In terms of hierarchy, I ensured uniformity by using one font and a larger size for subtitles, and another font with a smaller size for brief explanations. I made an effort to ensure that visuals had close-to-perfect proximity to give the infographic an organized appearance. Alignment refers to how I stayed focused on this narrow topic, providing well-aligned content.
Overall, I had fun creating it! Being a colour enthusiast, I could not resist incorporating vibrant and playful colours.
Here is my infographic on how to enhance the online learning environment
Enhancing Accessibility for Learners with Visual Impairments in an Online Environment
Every aspect of the ‘Design principle’ applies to this question, from colour choice and maintaining a consistent style to keeping fonts simple and limited, choosing the right size, and utilizing a hierarchy of information. Specifically, I selected blue as my primary colour and orange and yellow as secondary colours for my infographic. After researching colour-blind-friendly options, it was found that these three colours are the most suitable. I aimed to be as inclusive as possible by choosing the right colour palette.
I also aimed for a consistent visual style to enhance alignment and cohesiveness. Additionally, I made an effort to include the appropriate amount of text related to the topic, reducing the extraneous cognitive load to ensure the delivery of an effective infographic.
Unleash the Fun in Organization with Google Sheets!
Google Sheets is known as a replacement for Excel. Did you know Google Sheets has various features beyond Excel feature that help you stay organized? I created a short tutorial using Screencastify on how to use Google Sheets as a Travel planner. A travel planner is a fantastic tool for managing your travel itinerary and allows you to easily share it with your travel buddies! A travel planner has the positive effects of fostering creativity and engagement among others.
Mayer’s Principles and Challenges while creating Screencast
While creating my screencast, I conscientiously considered social cues, particularly the personalization principle and voice principle, as these cues help learners manage intrinsic cognitive load. Following Mayer’s principles, I made an effort to use conversational language and other expressions, such as ‘I,’ ‘It’s,’ ‘might like,’ ‘might prefer,’ and ‘we’ to cultivate a sense of comfort and politeness.
Moreover, since I am someone who pays close attention to details, sticking to the redundancy principle was quite challenging. I often find myself repeating things for emphasis, not realizing it could be a distraction for learners. It is fascinating how the choice of tools plays a crucial role in multimedia learning!
*******People learn better from graphics and narrationorgraphics and text than they do from graphics, narration and text!!!
Targeted Audience
When deciding on a topic for my screencasting exercise, I aimed for something I’m familiar with and consider myself an expert in. Given my inclination towards organization and planning, I envisioned my audience sharing a similar style. Being detail-oriented, I prefer working with pre-made templates that I can customize to suit my preferences. Additionally, I opted for Google Sheets as my medium of choice, considering accessibility—acknowledging that not everyone may have access to Microsoft but likely has a Google account. I considered the technical aspects to align with the needs of my audience.
I am Sohee-Katie Kwon, but please feel free to call me Katie! I am a fourth-year BCOM student at the University of Victoria.
I am thrilled about the opportunity to learn and collaborate with fellow students and our professor, Mary.
I am based in beautiful Victoria, BC. I am currently doing my last co-op as a Junior Business Analyst at a SaaS company – very interesting but also perfectly aligned with my future career aspirations.
Beyond this course, I have a passion for exploring new places, cooking up delicious meals, and staying active through workouts. If you know of any fantastic hiking spots in Victoria, please share—I am on the lookout for great hiking areas!
In my free time, you will most likely find me at the gym or a cafe, getting work done. One of my favourite cafes in Victoria is Hey Happy—such a beautiful cafe with a fantastic selection of food and coffee. I would love to hear about your favourite places too!
I initially enrolled in EDCI 337 to fulfill my graduate requirements. However, as I delved into the course concept and watched the introductory video by Mary, my interest was sparked in understanding various types of media and how each medium can cater to different types of learners. One of my childhood passions was teaching elementary students English in Korea, and I believe this course will offer valuable insights into how I can further pursue this profession if I choose to follow this path.
I look forward to this course and meeting other students!
Here is the attached Learning Pod Self Reflection 🙂
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