Instructional Design and Content Development Workshop

Chunking Information& Storyboarding

Chunking defined Why We Chunk Content Chunking Information for e-content Four Steps to Chunking Information What if you have lots of unrelated

information? What is an eLearning storyboard? Is storyboarding important? How do you go about creating a storyboard? What do you put into the storyboard template? How do you fill in the template? Producing a storyboard for a lesson.

Topics

Chunking Defined

Chunking refers to the strategy of breaking down information into bite-sized pieces so the brain can more easily digest new information. The reason the brain needs this assistance is because working memory, which is where we manipulate information, holds a limited amount of information at one time.

Why We Chunk Content

Cognitive researchers now know that the capacity of working memory depends on the type of information, the features of the information and the abilities of the person under experimentation.The pearl of wisdom here is that if a learner’s working memory is full, the excess information will just drop out—as in disappear. That’s a big challenge for a course designer. It means that if you are explaining something complex and the learner must hold several factors in mind to understand it, you’ll need to chunk information into bite-sized pieces.

Chunking Information for eLearning

Chunking information is particularly important for online learning.

Without an instructor to answer questions and to guide the learning process, eLearning content has to be organized in a logical and progressive way through chunking.

Chunking doesn’t only work for your typical linear instruction, it also works for learning objects, for non-linear approaches to learning as well as discovery learning, because it groups together conceptually related information. Content that is conceptually related is meaningful, making it easier to understand.

Four Steps to Chunking Information Step 1: Start at the highest level.

what strategies can eLearning designers implement to overcome this?Step 1: Start at the highest level.Use a chunking strategy while determining the content hierarchy of a course. Determine how modules, lessons and topics will be organized into a logical and progressive order.Start with large chunks of conceptually related content and use these as your modules. There are numerous organizational strategies, such as simple to complex, cause and effect, sequential, etc.

Four Steps to Chunking Information Step 2: Modules into lessons into topics.

what strategies can eLearning designers implement to overcome this?

Step 2: Modules into lessons into topics.Divide modules into smaller related chunks and these will become your lessons. Continue with this process until content is broken down to the topic level. As you become more familiar with the content, fine tune the internal structure.

Four Steps to Chunking Information Step 3: Chunk at the screen level.

what strategies can eLearning designers implement to overcome this?

Step 3: Chunk at the screen level.When you have a solid module-lesson-topic structure, organize the content so each screen consists of one chunk of related information. Depending on how you design, this could be at the topic level, at the detailed learning objective level or at the concept level. As a guiding rule, avoid introducing multiple topics, learning objectives or concepts at one time.

Four Steps to Chunking Information Step 4: Do a working memory check.

what strategies can eLearning designers implement to overcome this?

Step 4: Do a working memory check.Throughout the process, think in terms of working memory. Do you really need to include all the content you have in front of you? If not, get rid of extraneous content. Less is more.Will the chunk of content require the learner to hold more than a few things in memory at one time in order to understand it? If so, break it down again. Fortunately, the visuals and text in multimedia courses can lessen the demands on working memory.

What if you have lots of unrelated information?

•Turn Bits into Chunks. If you have lots of unrelated facts, it’s possible that this is extraneous content and you don’t need it. If you are certain these unrelated facts need to be included, find some way that they relate to each other and connect them.

•In this situation, you have to chunk information in the opposite direction. Use a strategy that turns individual bits of information into meaningful chunks.

•By finding ways to group together small bits of information into a chunk and you’ll help learners process more at one time.

Storyboarding

What is an eLearning storyboard?

A storyboard for eLearning is a document that specifies the visual elements, text elements, audio elements, interactions and branching (where the system or user will go next) of every screen in an online course. Many people also add the learning objectives to the storyboard.

Is storyboarding important?

The storyboard specifies what the graphic designer will create, what the illustrator will draw, what the narrator will say and the interactions that the programmer will produce. The storyboard is usually reviewed by the subject matter expert. It’s the central document of eLearning development.

How do you go about creating a storyboard?

Storyboard could be in a visual approach or in text approach, which be quicker but may not be as informative.

You can think of four main ways to go about creating a visual storyboard.• Create a template in Word and let each

page represent one screen.• Create a template in PowerPoint and let

each slide represent one screen.• Create a template in a commercial

storyboarding application.

What do you put into the storyboard template?

Create an area for the storyboard title. Then create the following labeled boxes or regions in your template: 1) A box to represent the screen number in

your numbering scheme.2) A box to represent the screen itself,

meaning the visual components of the course.

3) An area for the on-screen text.4) An area for the audio.5) An area for the interactions.6) An area to describe branching. 7) An area for miscellaneous notes, learning

objectives and also for reviewer comments.

How do you fill in the template?

Title Area: Add the unit, module, lesson or topic name.

Screen Number Area: Enter a unique identifier for each screen. Something like “m1l2s3″ for module 1, lesson 2, screen3.

Visual Area: Describe in words, sketch or show the visual, such as the graphic, video clip, etc. You can include the text that will be on the screen or make another area for text.

Audio Area: Write out the script, the name of a music file and the sound effects that will play on each screen. If you want to be really cool, use the acronym SFX for sound effects.

Continue>> Then how do you fill in the template?

Interaction Area: Describe the interactions that occur on each screen. Take advantage of the medium and provide lots of activities. Specifying these can be tricky and it often helps to write it out in the logic of programming. For example, “If button 1 is clicked, go to screen m1l24″ or “If choice 1 is dragged to correct target, display this response.”

Branching Area: Define all the system branching that might occur. Branching differs from interactions, as it refers to navigating the whole system. There are standard navigation events, such as Next and Back, as well as more complex branching, such as what happens as a result of a user interaction. For example, you will need to define what happens when a user fails a self-check, clicks on a hyperlinked term or opts to retake a test.

Storyboard

Activity

By using the “Storyboard Form”, make a storyboard for the first lesson screens of your course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEcjw9gm7JQ&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go6HG3Xwo-o&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCXSwWyTOyw&feature=plcp

Introduction to storyboard http://elearn.unisim.edu.sg/etp_11/Introdu

ction%20to%20Storyboarding/

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