1. FAROOK AL-SHAMALI AND MARTIN CONNORS ATHABASCA UNIVERSITY, ALBERTA, CANADA Avatars and Open Courseware in Distance Education Freshman Physics 2012 AAPT Winter Meeting Ontario, California, February 4–8, 2012

2. Education – Any Questions? Face-to-face or Distance Education? Synchronous or Asynchronous Instruction? In-Class Lecture or Video Broadcasting? Campus lab or Home lab? Instruction or Learning? Tool or content?

3. Education in Transition Conventional Classroom Conventional Distance Education Evolving technology o Instant world-wide communication o Global collaboration and sharing o Tools to enhance quality and reduce cost of learning objects

4. Learning is not Changing People still learn the same old way Our understanding of how people learn is changing  Constructivism  Cognitive Load Theory  Theory of Multimedia Leaning

5. Instruction is Changing Information delivery Knowledge construction Facilitating learning Information age World wide flea market

6. Open Courseware – Challenges and Concerns The Learner View  Quantity?  Quality?  Suitability? The Instructor View  Compatibility?  Availability?  Legality?

7. Multimedia Learning Professional multimedia is expensive! Amateur multimedia is cheap! More options and new possibilities are added! The question of effectiveness. The answer should be research-based. The goal is increased Learning Efficiency

8. The Video Options Grab a video from the web. Record your own amateur video Videotape a regular lecture Shoot a documentary style video Make an animation video

9. PHYS 204 (Physics for Scientists and Engineers) An online course with a standard textbook Includes a video component  Video clips customized from MIT Open Courseware lectures by Dr. Walter Lewin  3D video animations using text-to-speech technology

10. Xtranormal 3D Animations Text-to-speech technology One-person show Cost effective Editable Less voice and accent concerns Technology is improving www.xtranormal.com

11. Sample Videos

12. Thank you very much! Farook & Martin