“So, this character that looked like a file folder with eyes, arms and legs starts talking to me about the insurance billing process, right? Then he starts asking me questions, but I didn’t know the answers. This folder-person told me it was okay, and where I should go to learn for more information. I went back, studied again, and the character let me go on to the next topic. Weird, right? Here let me show you…”

Water-cooler talk! It’s what you talk about, the day after the Super Bowl or when the iPhone was announced. It’s buzz, hype, or something of interest that just needs to be shared. As an online administrator, my aim was to have my students talking about online classes around their water-coolers.

Afterall, why should an ad for a new movie be more exciting than someone’s personal education or training? Consider that FOX wanted you to pay $10 for a ticket to see The Simpsons Movie (www.simpsonsmovie.com) this summer. FOX went all out with interactive websites, teasers, and promotional partnerships to promote the movie (not including cost of development). As an educator, your school may require someone to spend over $30,000 on a degree, and you’re putting together PowerPoint presentations with a few pictures you found on the Internet.

It may seem trivial, but both activities are vying for attention. Education is inevitably becoming more mobile and customizable which is great for the end-user. Going a step further, education must become more engaging and do a better job at reaching students at their teachable moments. MySpace, Yahoo!, and casual gaming feature simple activities that attract everyday people to spend hours on their sites. The average camera angle in a television show doesn’t last longer than a few seconds because our attention spans have become so short. For your material to really sink in with a student, the same approach should be taken.

Rapid eLearning tools such as Captivate (www.captivate.com), Articulate (www.articulate.com), and PresentationPro (www.presentationpro.com) are excellent for starters. I am cautious not to overuse these programs, though – too much of the same thing becomes static and plain in the context of your catalog of courses.

If you have your own graphic designers in house, work with them on developing activities around objectives and new, creative ways to deliver content.

Textbook publishers can also help with the development of custom online courses, but this may require you to commit to textbook adoption. If you’re going this route, remember that online course development will vary from publisher to publisher, and students should have a consistent look and feel from course to course.

All of my online courses are created completely in Flash (separated into smaller content items for quicker load times) with voice-overs, audio transcripts, and a pause/back/forward/ navigation bar to control the flow. Fail-forward interactivities are found after every few content items to keep the student engaged and actively participating with the curriculum. Mp3 and .PDF downloads of voice-overs are available for every section, giving the student the ability to take the content offline. Participation through threaded discussion (two posts weekly) is required weekly and attendance is closely monitored. Students who do not meet the participation requirements for one week are contacted via telephone. Two weeks without contact and students are blocked from class, and dropped from the program. The participation requirements, school monitoring, and engaging content blend to help over 90% of our students continue their education month to month, as opposed to dropping out.

One of my most rewarding experiences as an academic dean was hearing that my online classes were bringing families together. In an Environmental Earth Science class (a general education course of an Associate degree program), my student’s child would ask about the animations and activities she saw on her mother’s computer screen. This class included vivid colors and fun exercises to reinforce the learning objectives. Soon after, the child became genuinely interested in the environment, wanted to learn more, and started reading more about forests and pollution.

This moment was achieved by delivering friendly and engaging content that begged to be touched and discussed, rather than passively read. Most will agree that a combination of text, images, animations, and exercises are great ways to reach diverse learners. However, these tools should be carefully designed and administered to achieve the ‘water cooler’ talk we all strive for.

--If you’d like a demo of the course described or would like to discuss anything further, contact me at michael.lamendola@gmail.com