Developing Course Material: Interactive Media

When most people think of online learning, they think of the fun, interactive tools people use: animations, interactive videos, Webinars. But how do we use interactive components to actually encourage learning?

We first need to look at what we would consider interactive media. Interactive media can include: content development tools, animation, or video development tools. They can include mobile apps that let you create or watch videos, presentations, live chat and more. You can also throw in online gaming tools into this category as well as Webinar tools like Google Meet.

To understand how to get the most out of our interactive components we need to understand how we process information. Cognitive Load Theory basically states that our memories can reach an overload when presented with too much material at one single time, especially with complex materials. The brain needs time to process the individual pieces before it is stored into our long-term memory. This can also help us to understand that the more processors we are using to get that information, like audio and visual, the more likely that learning is going to actually occur. Unnecessary materials need to be left out because our brain can only process so much information at one single time.

So to improve the overall learning of our students, we need to try to create connections between items and make sense of them. This is how the brain operates and stores information from short-term memory to long-term memory. For the online educator, this means many things.

• First, it means that our interactive media needs to be focused and not filled with useless materials. 
• Second, interactive media needs to combine visual, auditory and kinesthetic stimulation in order to encourage learning and again, taking that information to our long-term memory. 
• Finally, the media needs to demonstrate the relationship between items, so again, we can store that information permanently. 

Interactive tools, like Kahoot! can give students the opportunity demonstrate their knowledge in the form of a timed multiple choice quiz, while Mentimeter can gauge student participation by helping you to create and deploy polls easily. These tools can be used either asynchronously, by providing students the link to complete at their own page, or synchronously by providing students the information to join during  a live lecture using a tool like Google Meet.

This YouTube video will show you how to create and deploy a Kahoot! review game.
This YouTube video will show you how to create and deploy Mentimeter polls with your students.
Although you'll need to cretae a login to use either tool, no logins are required by students for either of these tools!