New MOLE courses will have a new template for the forthcoming term - but how can you take this further and make your VLE course more engaging and even… beautiful?! This practical session will take elements of the MOLE Exemplary Course Programme to show what can be achieved in MOLE, using available tools and no specialist technical knowledge.

1. Building Exemplary MOLE
Courses
Danny Monaghan| TEL Team, CiCS
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2. Overview
▷ What makes a good course
▷ Creating content easily
▷ Structuring a course
▷ Rich Media
▷ Assessment
▷ Hands on course refresh

3. https://goo.gl/RkSvD7
A Bad Course?

4. https://goo.gl/wCxVfU
A Good Course?

5. 8 Ways to create rich media

6. 1. Word/PowerPoint
▷ Create simple banners using text tools in a package you
use every day (Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, etc…).
▷ Get a screengrab of your banner and use it in MOLE

7. 2. Video
▷ Record a short video to vary content, give “flipped”
material, or introduce a friendly face.
▷ Video can be recorded on a laptop, smartphone, tablet
PC, camcorder, stills camera…
▷ Don’t worry about production value! Just make sure it’s
clear and audible.
▷ Simple editing can be done on software you probably
already have, i.e. Windows MovieMaker or iMovie.
▷ Always make sure it’s streamed (via YouTube, uPlayer
etc.) rather than a download.

8. 3. Screencasts
▷ Recording what happens on your computer screen.
▷ Can be used to record presentations, software
demonstrations, or slideshows with narration.
▷ Free software (e.g. QuickTime on Mac) or free web tools
(Screencast-o-Matic). Also ExplainEverything on iPad
(cheap).
▷ MyEcho Personal Capture also available to staff
members.

9. 4. Audio
▷ Audio can be recorded on a number of devices, including
a smartphone, tablet PC, laptop, desktop computer, mp3
recorder, etc.
▷ Good free software includes Audacity, and the
Audioboom app.
▷ Again, make sure media is streamed, not downloads.

10. 5. Animation
▷ Difficult and time consuming to do from scratch!
▷ Luckily some great tools out there - e.g. PowToons on
the web, Adobe Spark for iPad or web.

11. 6. Curating Content
▷ There’s a wealth of content at your disposal out there that
can be used legally.
▷ Sites for videos include Khan Academy, TED-Ex, Box of
Broadcasts, etc.
▷ Vast resources of Creative Commons images (Flickr,
Pixabay, etc.)
▷ Remember to stay copyright compliant, and watch for
dead links.

12. 7. Infographics
▷ You need serious design skills to create effective
Infographics!
▷ Luckily plenty of websites out there that allow you to edit
existing templates, including Piktogram, easel.ly, etc.

13. 8. Think outside the box…
▷ Interactive Timelines - Dipity
▷ Photo Slideshows - e.g. via Flickr/Flickrslideshow
▷ Visual stories from Twitter conversations at Storify
▷ Maps - Google Maps
…and many, many more!

14. More Advanced
▷ Creative Media
creativemedia@sheffield.ac.uk
▷ Training, support, cameras, edit suites, etc…

15. Assessment

16. Hands On