Creative Contribution

50 Shades of Achromatic Grey

50 Shades of Achromatic Grey is an instructional website that I created for my creative contribution. I understand that is may be “different”, however, this project stems from my blog “Weaving Technology with Education”. Before we jump to it, let us cover a little background.

Distance Learning

Instructional technology is a blend between education, psychology, and technology. It is used to solve problems in education or at least provide more efficient ways to enhance the education of the students. Distance learning is becoming more and more popular as students are seeking non-traditional paths, states Richard Smith from Almeda University. Many people are looking for the flexibility that online courses provide. Learning a topic or course over the internet has its challenges and any course is only as good as the content being presented. Instructional designers step in to help the organization providing the course to develop content that would be beneficial to the organization and the students.

Demographics

Developing course content can be a difficult task, but you must have an idea of how the students taking this course learn. Do they learn best by watching videos? If so, include a few videos in the content. Do they learn best by “doing”? If so, give them a hands-on task or even a quiz to complete. Demographics would tell you lot about the students and would provide the designer a place to start. The age and average reading level of the students will make a big difference as it will determine the simplicity or complexity of how the subject is presented. The audience must always be considered when creating course content.

Websites

There may be websites that are relevant to the course and to your audience. Take those websites into consideration and getting permission to use some of the content may prove to be beneficial. In the digital age, people are turning to websites and videos to teach them a skill or solve a problem; therefore, more people are learning how to create websites for that purpose. Knowing a little about HTML and CSS will take people further in this digital age. In “Writing for Digital Media”, Brian Carroll states, “[c]omputer programming codes like HTML… and CSS are the principal languages of the Web” (44) and I agree. Many websites are not created by instructional designers, however, the main concept that a designer focuses on is learning. Therefore, if the average Joe creates a website or a video that teaches a concept to the audience, then he reached the same goals as the designer.

The Importance of Shading

As I mentioned, people are using the internet to learn and teach all sorts of things from anywhere in the world and I want to jump on the bandwagon. For my creative contribution I wanted to embody an instructional designer and create an instructional website.  Carroll mentions that “web writers should know the basics of creating websites in order to ensure what the writers see on the screen” (44) so I tried my hand at writing for the web on my own website. There are so many people looking to the internet to learn with distance learning, online libraries, instructional websites, and videos. I figured I would add one more to the bunch.

50 Shadesof Achromatic Grey was designed as if it is a working website for a company that teaches people the importance of shading in drawing. The company would accept feedback and requests from their fans about what to add to the website such as tutorials. I have also included a quiz to get you involved, but you will need your own pen and paper.