© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

Anthony A. Piña, Ed.D.Jane E. Peller, M.A.

Northeastern Illinois University

From Simple to Sophisticated: Enhancing Online Instruction

with Lectora

www.neiu.edu/~ctl/about.html

www.neiu.edu/~aapina

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

Challenges

• LMSs (Bb, WebCT, D2L, Moodle, etc.) lack tools for robust instruction– Poor handling of graphics– Uploading and display of

multimedia “clunky”– Most faculty upload Word,

PDF, or Powerpoint documents

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

Visual (un-) appeal

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

PowerPoint

• Advantages– Popular with many faculty– Easy to learn & use

• Disadvantages– Most are linear slide shows– Bulleted text w/o elaboration,

discussion or interaction– Minimal media (usually still graphics)– No practice, feedback or assessment

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

Faculty want the “next level”

• More sophisticated strategies– Interaction– Branching

• Better multimedia integration

• Quick to learn

• Easy to use

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

High-end authoring tools…

…have high-end learning curves!

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

Low-end authoring systems

• HyperCard– Ahead of its time– Died before realizing its

potential

• HyperStudio– Is all but dead– Never realized its potential

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

One solution: Lectora

• Build interactive instructional modules

• Gentle learning curve

• Drag & drop media integration

• Familiar book, chapter & page metaphor

• Professional templates

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

One solution: Lectora

• Integrates into Blackboard & WebCT Vista LMS

• Test creator– Results sent to e-mail or LMS

grade book

• Lectora Professional Suite– Image editor, audio editor, video

editor, screen capture, screen recorder

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

Publishing options

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

Lectora interface

Toolbars/buttons

Task pane

Drawing tools User-defined navigationDrag & drop content

Hyperlinks

Multimedia

Publishing options

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

Let’s look at an example

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

Let’s look at an example

© 2006 by Bruce R. Harris and Anthony A. Piña

Anthony A. Piña, Ed.D.Jane E. Peller, M.A.

Northeastern Illinois University

www.neiu.edu/~ctl/about.html

www.neiu.edu/~aapina

From Simple to Sophisticated: Enhancing Online Instruction

with Lectora