How To

Creating your own digital content can be as easy as aiming your smartphone at a subject and pressing the record button. Creating digital content for educational purposes requires a little more planning and clarity about your goals.

This section provides resources to guide your creation of digital content for your courses.

Before getting started, consider the following:

Why am I making this digital content?

Consider your objectives carefully and make sure they are in line with what's important for learning. What will students learn? How will I know when they've learned it? How does the learning relate to the overall learning objectives for the course.

Who is it for?

For example, recent research demonstrates that novices may benefit more from learning through video than more experienced students (Muller, D.).

How will learners use what they learn?

Will they participate in online or in-class discussion or problem solving, or will they self assess their understanding to better monitor their own learning?

What kind of digital content will help me convey what I need to convey?

Animations or whiteboard illustrations in combination with dialogue may suit purposes where you want to explain detail not easily seen by a camera or the naked eye. Video interviews are important when you want to capture an individuals story or experience in their own words. Screen capture allows you to capture action on your screen as you are interacting with it to show people how to search a database or use a software application - for example.

Questions?

If you need additional support, or want to try one of these how to's with the support of one of our team members, we are happy to help. Please contact:
dcconnect@durhamcollege.ca

References

Content on this page is adapted from UBC DIY Media under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International License.