The two most prominent aspects for me from this course are the needs for consistent and clear presentation methods when designing support materials and to provide students equal access and opportunity to connect both with myself as course instructor and with fellow students even for students in an open learning, self directed course with continuous enrolment. Multi modal opportunities are good ways to enhance and reinforce course content, however I found the lesson segment of Clark and Mayer’s principles to be of greatest interest. I often tell students that ‘less is more’ when they are writing assignments yet I continue to complicate my lecture presentations with too much information and sometime confusing graphics.
On the other hand, when creating media to enhance social presence, and provide important information on academic supports, it helps to direct students towards useful resources and diminish potential stigma at the same time. I had not thought of it before, but making a short video about those supports, that students can view on their own, is a good way to create greater social presence.