EVO Week 3: linear or non-linear? (Part 2)

That is the big question.
Whether ’tis better for the class to suffer
Pages and pages in outrageous fonts,
Or to take arms against a sea of apps…

Well, it depends. I’ve tried to imagine a series of different situations:

SLOW, UNSTABLE CONNECTION	Linearity is immaterial, everything must be downloadable
CONTENT-FOCUSED GOALS	Blended, with a mainly linear output
COMPETENCE-FOCUSED GOALS	Mainly non-linear, including a variety of problem-solving activities
MIXED-TYPE GOALS	man, don’t lose too much sleep! And rearrange your goals
MOTIVATED, CURIOUS CLASS	Non-linear, they’ll love it
VERY POOR CLASS	Non-linear, you and they have nothing to lose!
AVERAGE CLASS, WITH A HISTORY OF GOOD-TO-EXCELLENT MARKS	Beware of your students! Go for a linear or at most mildly blended course: at your first mistake (at their first slip) you’ll have a line of angry parents in front of the school’s Director Room

MUST HAVEs

What I’m going to select from Steve Katz’s list (A Digital Textbook Should Be More Than a Textbook) is the following:

• Colourful
• Video
• Active links
• Intuitive navigation (web-like)
• Printable pages
• Question and answer section

 

MY ADDITIONS:

• Both online and downloadable instructions
• Easy navigation between pages (via thumbnails/breadcrumbs/ever-present Table of Contents)
• Clear organization of material (next step always easy to identify)
• Comprehensiveness (the student coming back from a bout of flu must find absolutely everything there)

 

Not so important but appreciated:

• Rollover of terms to see the definition
• Zoomable

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