Week 8

A majority of my testing will be focused on the media fidelity because of the media that I will utilize to deliver the course content. I am developing instructional videos that can be streamed or downloaded and I want to optimize the accessibility without sacrificing quality. I plan to develop these videos with the purpose of achieving the instructional goals that I have set for my students and myself.

The first stage of testing will most likely occur within the development and delivery of the content. I will create outlines for each procedure to be covered and assess the effectiveness of the dialogue used. I will do this by presenting the instructions to test subjects with a variety of experience levels and technical abilities. Once I make the necessary adjustments based on feedback gathered, I will find a format that works best for all situations. From here I will structure the remaining presentations in a similar format to keep the continuity from module to module.

Once the quality of the information is affirmed, I will begin to develop the videos based on the outlines. I have researched the methods used in similar courses and have selected the tools that I will use to produce the videos based on reviews from actual developers. I will capture the video procedures in a high-resolution format and then begin the editing process. Once the videos have been edited and all of the visual/instructional aids have been added, I will record the voiceovers.  I can then sync the audio with the video and do any final edits.

Next I can begin my second level of fidelity testing. I will need to compress the video to a size and format that is both accessible and viewable on many different devices/workstations. I’ll start with fairly large dimensions and work my way down as needed. I had originally planned to offer different versions of the same videos, but have since decided against it, as it may confuse the students. Upon placing the first video on the server, I will access it from different workstations that I typically use to test websites. Some of these include: An old Mac G4, a new iMac, an old Mac Powerbook laptop, a new Macbook Pro laptop, an old Gateway PC laptop, a newer IBM laptop, and finally and old PC workstation with dial-up internet. I will be mainly checking to see if the image is cropped or distorted and if there is any lag in the stream. If for instance there were significant lag on more than one workstation, I would re-compress the video to accommodate for lesser bandwidths. I already plan to have a text equivalent to each video, so this could be a last resort for a user that was unable to view the videos. I will also need to be cognizant of the software required to view these videos. I have decided to use the new features available in Adobe Acrobat, which will allow me to embed video and web content within a PDF file. This way each user could access them using the Adobe Reader freeware. I hope to be able to offer the complete course on CD format for users that have unreliable internet or lesser bandwidths.

The actual course as it is constructed within the CMS will need to be tested as well. I plan to use the internet evaluation tools used by our compliance experts here on campus to ensure that my course is ADA compliant. A majority of these are available at http://acm.csusb.edu/forms/evaluationTools.aspx

This will guarantee that my course is audible for the seeing impaired via text readers and viewable for the hearing-impaired via captioning and text equivalents (though it would be very difficult to design a music production course for a hearing impaired user).

Once the instructional quality and media fidelity for the module are affirmed, I will use this as a template to build the remaining content. I will distribute the syllabus and class requirements immediately (during the first week) and ask that the students complete an introductory module and submit confirmation that their primary means of accessing the course is sufficient. All hardware, software, and accessibility issues should be addressed within the first week. I will have hard copies of the course and text versions of the content available as a precautionary measure.

I have borrowed many of my methods and materials from similar online courses developed by institutes that are well respected in the music industry so I expect that the results will be no different. I had very little experience when I began and most of my formal training was completed online. In this sense, I have an insight to how a student will view my course and the best practices desired to achieve my course objectives. However, there are so many components and sophisticated procedures in the course that I don’t expect it to be perfect the first time through. I’m sure that it will require a fair amount of modification during the fist year and will need to be constantly updated to accommodate student needs and parallel the ever-evolving technology that it communicates.