The Search for MAC’s Camtasia Equivalent

Using screen-recording software has been a godsend to me over the years. As an instructional designer, who spends a lot of time creating technology tutorials and other online learning materials, it’s great to be able to record my on-screen activities, my voice, and even webcam video to create dynamic web-based video presentations. (It sure beats explaining everything with text and screenshots.) Camtasia Studio has been my product of choice for creating screen-capture videos since 2003. My college may soon become a MAC institution, though, so I am currently attempting to find a Camtasia equivalent for the MAC. (Unfortunately, Camtasia Studio is only compatible with PCs.)

My discussion below will start with an overview of how I use Camtasia and what features have been most beneficial in my work. I’ll then provide some resources and commentary related to some applications that may serve as counterparts for the MAC.

Camtasia
Most of my Camtasia projects have been focused on teaching people how to use software tools like Moodle, WebCT, Elluminate, and (yes) even Camtasia itself. Here are a few examples of projects I’ve created in recent years using Camtasia 4.0:

Camtasia Fast-Track Training
Using Windows Movie Maker and a Webcam to Create a Video
E-Learning System: Grading

As evidenced by these examples, my own preference when using Camtasia is to capture a portion of my computer screen that is 640 x 480 pixels (or in some cases 720 x 480 pixels). I then make edits and changes to my video and use the Flash export option to create a web page with an embedded video presentation. I prefer the Flash (.swf) format because of the excellent visual quality, the small file size, and the fact that 99% of Internet-enabled desktops in mature markets already have Flash Player installed. (See “Flash Player Penetration” for more details.) In many cases, I’ll also use Camtasia Theater (a sister program included with Camtasia Studio) to combine a variety of screen-based recordings into a single project and include a left-hand navigation bar to give users easy access to portions of the presentation.

Another one of my typical uses of Camtasia is to convert a narrated PowerPoint presentation into a Flash-based video for online delivery. For example, our college often calls upon experts from around the world to be one-time presenters. Rather than have these presenters learn Camtasia, it’s usually easier to have them record narrated PowerPoint presentations and then deliver their work via FTP or CD. Once I receive a narrated PowerPoint file, I use Camtasia to record the presentation and convert it to the Flash format for online delivery. Here is one such example:

Medication Therapy in the Management of Hyperlipidemia

One of the most powerful features of Camtasia (especially when it comes to these types of lengthy presentations) is its ability to automatically break up a large video into a series of smaller files. Once you record a PowerPoint presentation, Camtasia dumps the recording onto a timeline and creates a “marker” where each slide transition takes place. Marker names are based on the slide titles from the PowerPoint presentation itself. When exporting the presentation to the Flash format, Camtasia gives you the option to add a table of contents by creating “multiple files based on my markers.” The beauty of this option is that it not only creates a navigation bar based on the markers, but it also makes the online playback of the presentation much more manageable. Rather than dealing with one extremely large file, the end user ends up watching several small files that play in succession. The other hurdle that this option helps to overcome is the fact that SWF files have a limit of 16,000 frames. For example, a Flash movie rendered at 10 frames per second would reach its limit at a little over 26 minutes. (This would be a problem if the presentation were 60 minutes.) Breaking up the project based on the markers within the presentation provides greater flexibility in terms of producing the final Flash-based video.

ScreenFlick
The first piece of software I investigated as a possible Camtasia equivalent for the MAC was ScreenFlick. While this software is very intuitive and produces nice-looking screen-capture videos, it falls short of my needs in a few areas.

When I first launched ScreenFlick, I was encouraged by how easy it was to set up my screen recording. I was able to establish a recording area of 640 x 480 pixels on the screen and adjust the frame rate of the capture to 15 frames per second (the software actually allows a maximum capture rate of 60 frames per second). ScreenFlick also immediately recognized my USB headset microphone. From there, I clicked the large record button and was off and running.

However, once I completed my test recording, I discovered the shortcomings of the software. First, ScreenFlick does not let you edit your videos. Therefore, if you make any mistakes, you will need to start from scratch (or use another program for editing purposes). Second, while ScreenFlick does provide a variety of compression formats for both audio and video, ultimately you are only permitted to export to the QuickTime Movie format. It does not include the Flash format (or other formats like .avi or .wmv).

Overall, this software is rather limiting in terms of the types of projects you can produce. It is basically a product for recording screen-based presentations and creating QuickTime Movies. I think this software would be most appropriate in cases when you just need a simple screen-recording program to make a quick “flick” to demonstrate (for example) the steps for how to complete a computer-related task.

However, if I ever needed to make this type of quick screen recording on the fly, I would most likely use TechSmith’s Jing instead. Unlike the full-blown version of Camtasia Studio (also made by TechSmith), Jing is cross-platform and free. With Jing, the recording process is very easy and the program automatically converts your movie to the Flash (.swf) format. The real benefit to Jing, however, is how easy it is to share your work. Jing provides integrated controls for uploading your work to your own server or Screencast.com (TechSmith’s free hosting service). Once you upload your work, the URL of your video is automatically placed on your clipboard. This makes it very easy to paste the URL into an email, a text chat, a web page, etc. My only complaint with Jing is that the quality of the audio is not quite as clean as I would like. However, the software’s ease of use and powerful sharing features trump this very minor issue.

ScreenFlow
Winner of two 2008 Apple Design Awards (Best Mac OS X Leopard Application and Best Mac OS X Leopard Graphics and Media Application), ScreenFlow is much more on par with Camtasia Studio. With ScreenFlow, you can capture your computer screen, your voice, and webcam video. You can also edit your media on a timeline before exporting to a sharable format. The following tutorials/reviews provide more detailed information related to the features of this software:

ScreenFlow: Screencasting on Steroids
ScreenFlow, creating great looking screen casts

While this software is head and shoulders above ScreenFlick, I was still a bit disappointed by the absence of a few features that I really appreciate in Camtasia.

First, with ScreenFlow, you cannot establish a specific capture area at the beginning of your recording process. For example, when creating videos in Camtasia, I specify a recording area of 640 (or 720) x 480 pixels and indicate exactly where I want that recording area to exist on my screen. These screen dimensions assure that when I create my final exported product, the presentation will be viewable on any computer screen (even those set to 800 x 600 pixels). Furthermore, because I created a video with the exact dimensions I wanted from the start, this prevents me from having to shrink down the video and risk degrading the visual quality. With ScreenFlow, you are forced to record your entire computer screen as step one of the process. After you have captured the whole screen, you can then crop the video display to certain pixel dimensions and drag this window to a new location on the screen. The problem with establishing your preferred display dimensions after the fact is that the on-screen content you captured may not fit within this new window.

ScreenFlow’s audio editing tools are also a far cry from what Camtasia offers. For example, with Camtasia, I can use an “Audio Enhancement” menu to even out volume levels, remove background noise, and even filter out pops and clicks. ScreenFlow, on the other hand, only lets you make adjustments to volume.

Like ScreenFlick, ScreenFlow only allows you to export your projects as QuickTime Movies (there is no Flash option). My hesitation with using the QuickTime Movie format is that it cannot compete with Flash in terms of creating very small files with excellent visual quality. QuickTime Player is also only present on 65.5% of Internet-enabled desktops in mature markets. (See “Flash Player Penetration” for more details.)

ScreenFlow also does not have the ability to “create multiple files based on markers” like Camtasia. ScreenFlow does allow you to place markers on the timeline of your video. However, these markers only create a dropdown menu of “chapters” in QuickTime Player. Therefore, a lengthy PowerPoint presentation recorded with ScreenFlow would ultimately end up as one large QuickTime Movie file. Using chapters would allow the user to jump to various places within the video, but the large file size of such a video would likely make it difficult to open on some networks.

Based on the reviews and rewards it has received, ScreenFlow appears to be my best bet for doing screen-recording on a MAC. I can foresee myself using this software to capture my footage on a MAC. From there, I will likely need to convert the QuickTime Movies to a format that will work in Camtasia, so that I can then export to the preferred Flash format and include a left-hand navigation bar. My hope is that ScreenFlow will eventually add to its feature set to be more like Camtasia (or better than Camtasia).

Audacity and GarageBand: Audio Production Made Easy

As part of my department’s growing interest in podcasting as a means for delivering educational content, my dean, Dr. Bill Riffee, recently asked me to investigate both Audacity and GarageBand, two popular pieces of audio production software. Both of these programs provide a relatively easy way to create audio files that can, in turn, be used for podcasting purposes. NOTE: This article does not provide instructions on how to "podcast" but gives an overview of each tool's feature set as it relates to audio production.

Audacity
As far as free audio production tools go, Audacity is the best I’ve seen on the market. I listen to a lot of educational technology podcasts, and it’s often the case that people use Audacity to create their programs. The fact that Audacity works on both PCs and MACs and is very intuitive makes it extremely popular. The record and play buttons are very large, the timeline is easy to navigate, and the audio is easy to edit.

Audacity also includes a variety of more advanced features for users wanting to go beyond simple recording and production strategies. Audacity allows you to work with a seemingly limitless number of tracks. You can record sound with a microphone or import audio files, such as music or sound effects. Audacity also includes a variety of audio effects to increase production value (noise removal, normalization, equalizer, click removal, echo, bass boost, etc.).

The one aspect of Audacity that is a bit bothersome is that you cannot export to the MP3 format without first installing the LAME MP3 Encoder (“LAME” is the name of an organization by the way, not an adjective). It would be nice if you could just download/install Audacity and not have to worry about an additional plug-in to create MP3 files, which is the one thing most people want to do with Audacity. To avoid confusion or frustration, training materials related to Audacity would just need to include the steps for downloading/installing the LAME MP3 Encoder.

In terms of using Audacity on a MAC, I found that it worked great. I did struggle with some aspects of the installation, however. The process of installing the software on a MAC was different (and a little more confusing) than the process for installing it on a PC. I found that I needed to refer back the instructions on the Audacity download site a couple times just to get the software loaded onto the machine properly. I also had some trouble at first with getting Audacity to recognize my audio input source. Once I overcame these minor hurdles, though, I was off and running. These “issues” could be easily addressed in training materials.

Once I became oriented to the software, I was able to quickly produce my audio and export a quality MP3 file. Here is what I created.

Download audio (Right click --> "Save Target As")

The above example is a three-track production. The first track is me reading the first couple of paragraphs of Phil Kegler’s (2008) article, “Gator’s offense puts up ridiculous number in wins.” The second track is the UF Marching Band playing “The Orange and the Blue” (retrieved from FightMusic.com). The third track includes football sound effects that I downloaded from SoundSnap, which is a great resource for free music loops and sound effects.

Ultimately, I created this short project with a few simple steps. First I recorded my narration using a Logitech USB headset microphone. Then I added the music and sound effects on separate tracks. Next, I arranged the items on the timeline. Then I mixed the volume levels for the three tracks. Finally, I exported the project as a high quality MP3 file (320 kbps, stereo, 44 kHz).

Given that it’s free, intuitive, and rich in features, I would recommend Audacity to anyone wanting to create audio productions on a PC or MAC.

GarageBand
As part of Apple’s iLife Suite, GarageBand is an audio production tool that comes standard on MAC computers. Think of GarageBand as being like Audacity on steroids. Like Audacity, GarageBand lets you record sound with an external microphone, work with multiple tracks, add music and sound effects, edit/mix audio, and export projects to shareable formats (such as MP3). However, GarageBand gives users much more flexibility and many more options overall.

For example, GarageBand gives you a huge number of audio effects for enhancing a track. Once you record a track or add a pre-existing audio file to a track, you can easily assign preset audio effects such as Male Radio, Female Radio, Megaphone, Gospel Choir, Ambient Vocals, and so on (the list is extremely exhaustive). Within each of these preset effects, you can also make manual adjustments to achieve the exact sound you want.

GarageBand also comes pre-loaded with a variety of jingles and sound effects to enhance your audio production. Simply navigate through the dozens of choices, click a file to preview it, and then drag the file onto the timeline.

Mixing audio is a breeze as well. You can either adjust the volume of the track overall, make fine-tune adjustments to volume within a track, or use the "ducking feature." If a track is set to "duck," its volume will automatically decrease when a non-ducked track begins to play. For example, maybe you record your voice on one track and put music on another track. You want the music to play first, but then you want the volume of the music to decrease when the speaking section begins. By setting the music track to "duck," this will cause its volume to decrease automatically when the speaking section starts. This is a quick and easy way to create a dynamic mix without having to manually make adjustments to the volume within tracks.

One of the other neat things about GarageBand is that producing media for a podcast, in particular, is made very easy. When you launch GarageBand, one of the choices you are given is “Create a Podcast.” This takes you to a timeline that is preconfigured to create this type of production. For example, by default you are given four tracks: Male Voice, Female Voice, Jingles, and Podcast. This last track is for adding pictures, URLs, and chapter markers which would appear in an “enhanced podcast.”

Once I became oriented to the interface, I was able to create an “enhanced podcast” file, which includes audio and pictures, with ease. The fact that GarageBand points new users to online video tutorials also makes the learning this software very easy. Here is what I created. NOTE: You will need QuickTime Player to view this short clip.

Download File (Right click --> "Save Target As")

This production is comprised of four tracks. The first track is me reading a couple of paragraphs I threw together about the Phillies winning the World Series. The second track is one of the jingles that comes with GarageBand. The third track is a “crowd cheering” sound effect I found at SoundSnap. The final track includes pictures of the Phillies, the city of Philadelphia, and other Philly sports teams.

Producing this short project was very straightforward. I recorded my voice using a headset microphone. I navigated through the various jingle choices and dragged my favorite one onto the timeline. I added the “crowd cheering” sound effect to its own track and dragged it to the end of the timeline. Then I used the overall volume controls to achieve a good mix. Next I added the Male Radio effect to my voice and made some fine-tune adjustments to the bass and reverb to create a more booming sound. Then I added a series of pictures to the Podcast track, and finally I exported using the AAC encoder, which is necessary for producing enhanced podcasts. This ultimately produced a high quality M4A file.

GarageBand is a great piece of software, and my above comments are really only scratching the surface of what this program can do. For those using MACs and looking to be a bit more adventurous with their audio productions, I would definitely recommend investing some time to learn this software (especially for creating media for podcasts).

References

Kegler, P. (2008, October 28). Gators' offense puts up ridiculous numbers in wins. The Independent Florida Alligator, pp. 14-15.

Curriculum Mapping Software: Finding Harmony in Education

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Duration: 24:06

Transcript:

If you’re a music lover like I am, you know that there’s nothing better than hearing a music group that really clicks. You listen to this group perform and you think, “Wow, these people were just born to create music together.” Their instrumentation is really tight. Their vocals blend together really well. They’re just this unified, musical force. And because they’re so together, they become something greater than the sum of their parts.

What I’ve always found interesting (and even frustrating) about music is that when a part is off (even by just a little bit), it can really ruin a song. For instance, right now I have some background music playing, and the instruments sound really good together. But, what happens if the drummer starts to lag behind the rest of the group? What happens if the bass player forgot to tune his guitar? And, what happens if the guitar player just up and starts playing the wrong song? The results are very different, aren’t they?

The reason this song went from being harmonious to inharmonious is because the musicians stopped paying attention to each other. They lost what musicians refer to as “the groove,” that sweet spot where all of the elements connect and work together.

Well, you’re probably thinking at this point: “Ok, this is all well and good, but what does this have to do with curriculum, education, teaching, learning, and all that sort of fun stuff?” Well, curriculum is a lot like music. It takes careful planning. It takes a lot of practice to get it right. It requires effective execution or implementation. And, it functions best when all parties are working together to create a unified experience for the audience.

As educators, we’re all responsible for delivering our own small segment of a curriculum. I know from my own experience in the classroom, it’s often the case that each of us gets into an individual groove, and we lose sight of what our peers are doing in their courses. The end result of this scenario is that collectively we end up implementing a curriculum that is not as good as it could be. There might be a great deal of unnecessary redundancy in the curriculum. Maybe the order of the educational experiences we’re putting forth is not optimal for students. Perhaps some important areas in the curriculum are not being covered with enough frequency. And in a worst-case scenario, there may even be some important material that is not being included at all.

Now on the flip side, imagine a scenario, in which each course in a curriculum draws on students’ past curricular experiences, reinforces learning from other courses, facilitates new learning, and then sets the stage for future educational experiences. This type of tight orchestration amongst the courses in a program of study is the goal of something called “curriculum mapping.”

Basically, curriculum mapping is a strategy that aims to harmonize the educational experiences within a curriculum and ultimately create a more effective program overall. Heidi Hayes Jacobs (2004), who is a renowned expert in curriculum mapping, describes it this way: “Curriculum mapping is a procedure for collecting data about the operational curriculum in a school…referenced directly to the calendar. Mapping provides the basis for authentic examination of that database in conjunction with assessment information about learners” (pp. 1—2). Janet Hale (2004), another noteworthy curriculum mapping expert, further explains that “[d]uring the initial learning-to-map-phase the most commonly recorded data includes content, skills, assessments, resources, and their alignment to one another…and…standards. In subsequent and more advanced phases of mapping, additional data such as evaluation processes, attachments of best-practice lesson plans and activities, essential questions, and other curricular information are often included.” So essentially, curriculum mapping is a way for a team of educators to get on the same page, to sing from the same sheet of music, to create a consistent, coherent, and standards-based program that will maximize student learning.

Well, gosh, that sounds great, but that seems like a mammoth undertaking. How would an institution facilitate this type of information gathering and how would they organize all of this data for purposes of reflection and curricular improvement?

Well, the good news is that there is software on the market designed specifically to help facilitate the process of curriculum mapping. TechPaths, Rubicon, and Collaborative Learning, Inc. are just a few of the software companies out there that offer curriculum mapping products. Basically these products offer a way to organize information about a curriculum and make that information accessible to all educators in a particular department or program. For instance, maybe you’re a pharmacy professor, and you’re planning to increase your focus on teaching patient safety in one of your courses. If you’re in a department that has used one of the aforementioned software products to create a curriculum map, you would be able to search a database and uncover who else is teaching patient safety in your department, when they are teaching this topic, and how they are teaching it.

The benefits of having this information at your fingertips would be numerous. You would gain insights into the curriculum as a whole, and you would likely form collaborative relationships with your peers. These things would have a significant and positive impact on your approach to teaching this topic.

So what institutions are engaging in curriculum mapping and what has their experience been with this strategy? Well, the truth is that curriculum mapping is most prevalent at the K12 level of education. Because of No Child Left Behind, many school districts have undertaken curriculum mapping initiatives to improve their educational programs and align their curricular activities to state and national standards. In the world of higher education, curriculum mapping is only now beginning to take root.

To shed some light on the benefits and challenges of curriculum mapping within higher education, I recently interviewed Dr. Cynthia Naughton of North Dakota State’s College of Pharmacy. She revealed that her program has been curriculum mapping for several years and that they recently augmented their process with the use of Rubicon’s Atlas Curriculum Mapping System.

BLADES:
I’m here with Dr. Cynthia Naughton from North Dakota State’s College of Pharmacy, and she’s going to be discussing her program’s use of the Atlas Curriculum Mapping System. Would you mind telling the listening audience a little bit about yourself?

NAUGHTON:
Well, I am an assistant professor at the College of Pharmacy at North Dakota State University and most recently named Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. And, I am currently now in the Pharmacy Practice section and I teach Renal Pharmacotherapy to P3 students. And, I have a clinical practice at the family healthcare center.

BLADES:
Well, I’m definitely excited to learn from you today. I definitely appreciate you taking the time to meet. I guess my first question is “Why curriculum mapping software?” Your program existed for years without it. Why did your college determine that you needed this type of platform?

NAUGHTON:
With the new standards in Pharmacy education, we decided that we really wanted to take a look and assess our curriculum. We got engaged in curriculum mapping actually several years before that looking to see if we have any gaps in our curriculum, duplications, and just as a point to determine if we needed to revise the curriculum. And so, as we were researching the topic, we recognized that any efforts with curriculum mapping would have to be digital just because of the immense work involved to keep it up-to-date and also to be able to run reports to show data that support if we have gaps or duplications or that type of thing.

BLADES:
All right. In doing my own research of curriculum mapping software, I was frankly a little bit surprised that most of the clientele with curriculum mapping software seems to be at the K12 level, and your college was one of the few institutions that I found that was actually doing this. So I guess my question is “Was there any resistance within your college to the idea of using this type of software to organize your program?”

NAUGHTON:
Not really. I explained as we started the project that there wasn’t any software out there, but we did need to use some type of software. And, I also explained that this current software from Atlas isn’t perfect, and it was designed for the K12 system. But, it would do what we needed it to do and that’s in terms of its reporting capability and to be able to help us analyze the curriculum. And, I also emphasized that if we waited until curriculum mapping software was made available to us for postsecondary education that we could be waiting for another five or ten years. And so, we needed to start now and work with what we have, and we could always modify. We pay a licensing fee yearly, and so if something better comes along that would suit our needs, then we can always change at that time.

BLADES:
Now with these reports that you’re mentioning, could you describe what those look like? Specifically, what are the types of things that you’re looking for when you generate those types of reports?

NAUGHTON:
Well, to be honest, we aren’t even at that spot yet….The first step that you have to do is all instructors have to input their diary maps into this software, and that diary map is just a map of what they teach: actual content, objectives, assessment. That has to go into the curriculum map before you can generate any reports. And so, it took us about a year to do that, to get everybody on board and to get their curriculum maps into this software. We’re just now at the point where we can take a look and analyze the software and the reporting capability. I haven’t even…really taken the time to generate reports yet just because that’s our next step. But, it is able to generate reports across the curriculum. We can look at, say for instance, if I wanted to know how many places in the curriculum that we discuss ACE inhibitors. I can type in that search, “ACE inhibitors,” and it will pick up all places in the curriculum where that is discussed. And, it will generate a report showing what year, what course, what instructor, if it occurred in the content section or assessment section. So that’s able to at least tell us…where it’s being taught.

BLADES:
Ok, now did you have to train professors to input the information in a certain format? For example, with objectives, there is a number of formats that a professor could use to write an objective or a lesson plan or a unit plan. Was there any of those types of requirements in place, or is it a type of system that will find the information no matter what type of format is used to input the information?

NAUGHTON:
Oh, yes. It’s a Google search. It’s a Google search engine, so you don’t have to have any particular format of the objectives…for searching capabilities. But, in terms of writing good objectives, we did have some recommendations that we wanted to follow Bloom’s Taxonomy to do that. But, for searching, no.

BLADES:
Ok, so in terms of rolling out this system, what did that look like? Was there some type of orientation or some type of series of training events?

NAUGHTON:
Yes, we had a representative from the company come and train us on the software….We blocked off a day to do that, and then faculty, at that time, were able to input their diary maps with the trainer here. And so, if they had any questions, then the person was right here. And so, we got a good start on it that day, but not everybody’s map got completed. So, it took us a couple false starts and encouragement and downright nagging to get this done, but our administration (our dean of the College of Pharmacy) was very much supportive of the project and so basically stated, “This is something we will be doing.” And, we set a deadline, and that was the final impetus to get everybody to have their maps done.

BLADES:
Now in terms of a time investment for your professors, what was the average amount of time that it took a professor to create his or her individual map? Was it a week? Was it a day? Was it a month?

NAUGHTON:
Well, I think they were very surprised at how easy it was. I think they were thinking up front that this is going to be very time consuming, but in all actuality, it’s not because you already have your objectives written out for the students. In our College of Pharmacy, we do have student outline packets for them, so that’s already out there. And so basically, there were two methods to do it. You can cut and paste into the particular sections in the software or you can type freehand into it. And so, once they realized that they already had the information there, it didn’t take much time. And, for one course, I suppose it took less than a week to put it in. What you do is you just need maybe a one-hour block of time (two-hour block of time) to work on it, and within a week’s time period, everybody had it done.

BLADES:
Ok, and was that sort of focused effort maybe over the summer where it was determined that this will be the week where we all get this done or was it more fluid?

NAUGHTON:
Yes, towards the end, when the deadline came up (toward the end it was), we had a faculty retreat, and we discussed it in the morning and then we broke out and went and either finished up the diary maps or we did another activity related to curriculum mapping.

BLADES:
In terms of the professors, who have participated, are there any “All-Stars” (in other words, people, who have really stood out, who have done a really great job with their maps)? And, if so, what do their maps look like?

NAUGHTON:
Yes, in fact, there were several, and we called those “exemplary maps.” And, what I would do is send out an email, encouraging people to get their maps done, and then I would highlight those particular professors and say, “These are exemplary maps. They have the information that we want and the different characteristics that we were looking for.” And so, we put those out there as examples for people to look at.

BLADES:
Now in looking at those curriculum maps, did you guys have some type of rubric in place that professors could look at and say, “Ok well, here’s sort of where I fall in the grand scheme of things in terms of the excellence of my curriculum map”? Was there anything like that in place?

NAUGHTON:
Yes…I did generate a rubric that we used, and we did meet with the instructors. I met with them face-to-face, and we looked at their maps and pointed out areas that were very good and pointed out areas that may have needed a little bit more work. And so, they were instructed to go back and take a look at their maps again and do some revisions and then submit a final curriculum map.

BLADES:
All right. Well, based on some of the lessons you’ve learned with using curriculum maps, what would be some of your advice for an institution like the University of Florida, College of Pharmacy, who is looking to potentially use this type of software? What are some of the lessons that you’ve learned and some of the general themes or even specifics that you would be willing to pass on?

NAUGHTON:
Well, first and foremost, you have to have administrative support. If you don’t have administrative support, you’re not going to get very far with it. And secondly, I would do due diligence…up front and really research into curriculum mapping. Have a plan and a strategy…[for] when you introduce the concept to faculty. Of course, now it’s becoming more common, whereas when I did it several years ago, I had a couple raised eyebrows when I mentioned that this is being done in the K12 arena. And so I know what they were thinking. Why are we doing it? But, to really explain to them and show them some examples of what can be done with the software in terms of search capability and reporting mechanisms. And then also just to allay instructors’ fears that this is not an evaluation tool to be used to put in their files or an evaluation tool against them and that the main goal of the whole project is to improve our curriculum and also to improve collegiality between departments and communication and collaboration.

BLADES:
What are some of the strengths that you’ve really seen come about as a result of using the curriculum mapping software? You mentioned things like filling gaps in the curriculum, better communication. How have you seen that manifested in particular classes or even across the board?

NAUGHTON:
I think what we’re just starting to see some of the effects of it. We have two departments in our college: the Department of Pharmacy Science and the Department of Pharmacy Practice. And up until the curriculum mapping project, we pretty much practiced independently of one another. And, I think at times there was some distrust between the departments thinking…they’re not doing their job teaching the students these things or Pharmacy Science might be thinking about Pharmacy Practice that we don’t appreciate their efforts in the curriculum. And, what had happened is that we came together and individuals from both departments, who teach like material, got together and shared their curriculum maps with one another. And I think we learned from each other (from the different departments) and really gained a respect for what each individual faculty member was actually teaching in their course. And,…Pharmacy Practice was able to give examples to Pharmacy Science, real-life patient examples, that they could use in their courses to enhance their material….It was a good learning experience for all of us, and I think it really increased collegiality and that was just the first step. Now we’re going to go forward since obviously…we haven’t gotten to the point where we’ve actually generated reports for the rest of the faculty to look at and then make curriculum revisions based on those reports. But, I think the groundwork has been laid…for all faculty combined, that when we come out with these decisions or talk about…areas that need revision that I think it will be better accepted because it had a process. They participated in the process and recognize that we are doing this just to improve our curriculum.

References:

Hale, J. (2004). Curriculum mapping. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from
http://www.curriculummapping101.com/Curriculum_Mapping.html

Jacobs, H. H. (2004). Getting results with curriculum mapping. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Additional Resources:

Example Curriculum Map (courtesy of Dr. Cynthia Naughton of North Dakota State's College of Pharmacy)
http://media.cop.ufl.edu/podcasts/exemplary_maps.pdf

Atlas Curriculum Mapping System (Rubicon) http://www.rubicon.com/AtlasCurriculumMapping.html

Curriculum Designers
http://www.curriculumdesigners.com/

Curriculum Mapper (Collaborative Learning, Inc.)
http://www.clihome.com/cm/

Education World (Virtual Workshop): Curriculum Mapping
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/virtualwkshp/virtualwkshp004.shtml

TechPaths: A Curriculum Mapping System
http://www.perfpathways.com/techpaths.asp

Vanderbilt School of Medicine: KnowledgeMap Research Page
http://knowledgemap.mc.vanderbilt.edu/research/

Instructional Design: The Journey of Education Needs a Roadmap

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Duration: 6:16

Transcript:

Imagine for a moment that you’re driving your car down an open road. It’s a beautiful day, and you’re heading to the beach for week of fun in the sun. You’re a half hour into your trip when it strikes you that you forgot your map on the kitchen table. Your mood is so bright, though, you figure things will just work out. “How hard can it be to find this place?” you think to yourself. Unfortunately, your attitude darkens as you notice the sky turning an ominous gray. Within moments, you begin to hear the pitter patter of raindrops on your roof. You strain to see the road through your waterfall of a windshield. You flick on the wipers expecting to get the typical squeak-plunk-squeak-plunk, but instead your wipers let out a guttural moan and refuse to leap into action.

“Man, I forgot to get those fixed.” You slow down and lean closer to the windshield.

There’s just enough visibility for you to notice a “Welcome to Georgia” sign. You realize you’ve gone too far and missed the exit to pick up your good friend, Sam. The rain must have prevented you from seeing where you were going. But before you can even attempt to do a U-turn, you notice your gaslight beaming at you.

“Ahh man, I wonder how long that’s been on.” The car satisfies your curiosity by dying in the middle of the road. And as you veer onto the shoulder, you wonder if you’ll ever get to the beach.

This story is a metaphor for teaching. If education is a journey, then instructional design is the roadmapping that goes into making the trip as good as possible. In the expedition of educating, it’s important to know where we’re going. It’s essential for us to connect with our students, so they can come along for the ride. And, it’s paramount that we maintain the various components of an effective “transportation system” that will get us and our students to the destination. Overall, we educators need to be thoughtful and systematic in our approach to creating learning experiences. Otherwise, courses turn into the equivalent of the poorly planned excursion I just illustrated.

When considering instructional design, it’s important to recognize that any well-designed educational experience is systematic in nature. A system is a grouping of units that forms a whole and operates in unison. A car, for instance, is a system because it has various parts that work together to make it function properly. With this in mind, it’s important for the vehicle’s owner to maintain the car’s various parts to keep the automobile in good working order. Similarly, as educators, we have to consider the various components that go into good teaching to allow our systems to run smoothly and effectively for the purpose of maximizing learning.

To produce meaningful and positive course experiences for students, we should work to remain faithful to all of the following steps.

1. Know your audience. It’s important to analyze your learners to uncover their strengths, their shortcomings, their learning styles, etc.

2. Establish reachable goals. These are the broad mission statements of your course. In a general manner, they answer the question, “What do I want my students to be able to do as a result of taking my course?".

3. Specify observable learning objectives. Objectives are like goals but they are much more specific. They outline the specific behaviors that you want students to demonstrate as a result of your instruction. Think of objectives as being like specific targets that you want your students to hit.

4. Design effective teaching and assessment strategies. How can I get my students to achieve what I’ve outlined in my objectives? And, more importantly, how can I measure their success?

5. Gather and/or produce quality resources. These are the assets that will support learning in your course. These can be textbooks, articles, presentations, videos, web-based resources, etc.

6. Implement course materials via effective communication and management.

7. Review student performance and course feedback to evaluate the strengths and shortcomings of your course.

As a systematic approach for creating successful instruction, these steps allow us to connect with learners’ needs, establish a clear roadmap for learning, engage learners in meaningful activities, assess learners’ skills appropriately, maximize learning and productivity, and reflect on our own effectiveness in facilitating learning.

This podcasting series will be dedicated to the exploration of resources and strategies related to this type of systematic approach to teaching and learning. If you’re listening to this podcast now, you’ve already embarked on a journey. My hope is that you’ll continue to take this trip with me and that we will all improve our practice as a result of this process.