After our last class I had a few questions dashing through my head. Does making online content look good really matter? How did they do that? How many hours did that take? Why can’t I do that? What is the connection between visual appeal and learning?

I, as well as many others, were in awe of the creative and talented creations of many of our classmates work on display this week and in weeks past . The beautiful fonts, stunning graphics, authentically creative videos, and clean design of lessons, presentations and assessments were truly at a high level. I am old enough and wise enough to not hold a pity party when I realize I have a deficiency in an area that others have strength. That is what makes the world great; however, it did make me question what I could do differently in my own prototype course to increase the visual appeal as well as dig a little deeper into the actual benefits of visually appealing content on learning, because in the end that is what really matters. Isn’t it?

I started my journey by reading an blog post called 12 Must-Have Visuals in an Online Course. The post starts out by indicating the vast difference of accessing information online as opposed to a classroom and how incorporating plenty of visuals and eye catching graphics is key to attract attention and increase comprehension. The post highlights the need for the following:

1. Videos – keep short, include voice over and animations, and also include written versions for those that prefer to read
2. Screen shots – eliminate unnecessary text (a picture is worth 1000 words)
   

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3. Charts, graphs, stock photos, and infographics – provides supplemental information and can break up long amounts of text
4. Progress bars and timelines – enables students to see progress and how much time commitment may be needed for each task
5. Characters and Animations – helps lighten the mood and can help students pay attention and focus on key material (who doesn’t like a good animation?)

At no point did this blog post suggest that strong visual appeal directly impacts student learning, but it does suggest that a well designed and visually stimulating composition can increase attention and focus. Another interesting fact found in a report by HubSpot states that posts, tweets, documents, and pages containing colored images increase viewers’ willingness to read by a whopping 80 percent! It also indicates that readers remember 65 percent of the information several days after viewing when visually appealing text and graphics are combined compared to 10 percent when text is isolated.

Well none of this directly guarantees learning, it does make a bold statement that viewers will be attracted to and likely remember more of what you are sharing when effort has been put into creating visually creative and well designed content.

Target Audience

As we viewed the different online courses on Tuesday night I couldn’t help but think of the importance of target audience. The first course from Athabasca was quite boring, but was neat, organized and fully functional. It’s target is adult learners who aren’t necessarily requiring or seeking the same amount of frills and have a defined purpose and need from the content being accessed. The Coursera course did a better job of incorporating videos, had less text, and was built in short bits with timelines attached. I think they did a good job of attracting a broader audience which could run from high school students to young or old adult learners. The final code.org site that we looked at was designed for younger students and the high visual appeal with limited text, many videos, pictures, pop culture games and celebrities made this evident. As I consider my own course whose target audience is grade 6 students, I must consider the value of a visually appealing and age appropriate design.

 

I asked the question earlier, does looking good matter? Is it worth the time required? From what I have read and viewed so far it appears that it does. I realize I don’t have the creative strengths of others, but the value in aesthetics is high and I must find ways to stretch myself. Copyblogger outlines several suggestions on creative content creation when you don’t have a clue. Stealing and using what is already out there is where someone like myself needs to start. Over time and through learning from others, the ease of which visually appealing content and design streams easily from my fingers is likely to grow despite my deficiencies. In the end I think we all must remember that there is no substitution for a quality teacher/student relationship and this should always trump pretty looking things. If everything looks pretty but we can’t connect with our students then learning benefits likely won’t be seen.