Media fluency

How do you use multimedia effectively and economically to educate and communicate? How must media for e-learning differ from media for advertising, sales, or documentation? Can’t you just dump the slides and handouts online? How do you evaluate a media-producer’s portfolio?

In this workshop you will learn to:

• Use media
• Words(displayed, recorded, synthesized)
• Graphics (drawings, photographs, diagrams, icons)
• Sound
• Music
• Voice
• Animation
• Video
• Select the best media to communicate a particular idea.
• Combine media for maximum effect.
• Design for slow network connections.

NOTE: For each medium we will discuss:

• When and when not to use
• Good and bad examples
• Principals of good design
• Tools for producing the medium
• Estimating production costs
• Estimating storage requirements
• Techniques for producing this medium

Length: 2 days

Developed by: William Horton. Taught by William or Katherine Horton

Base price: For 25 students, inside North America : $9000. Plus instructor's travel costs. Outside North America, add $2000 plus travel costs for a second instructor. Also add $100 for each student above 25.

To schedule this course: Call Kit at +1.303.545.6964 or e-mail kit@horton.com.

• Who should attend?
• How will I learn?
• Variants and customization
• What else will I receive?
• Audiovisual requirement

Who should attend?

This course is for real people with real projects: instructional designers, technical writers, Web site designers, and graphic artists. It is for everyone who wants to go beyond static text and graphics and incorporate rich media into their electronic documents.

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How will I learn?

This is a fast-paced, yet structured, workshop, heavy on examples and light on academic theory. It is brains-on rather than merely hands-on. Rather than operating a particular brand of software, you will engage concepts and procedures directly. You will examine and critique dozens of live real-world examples, view animated presentations of crucial concepts, discuss design approaches with fellow students, and practice applying your skills in realistic design activities.

Variants and customizations

We can adapt the basic workshop to better fit your specific needs:

• Base major activities on your materials (+ $1000 USD).
• Use your materials as examples throughout (Call for price).
• Critique your current work (adds 1 day, $2000 USD).
• Base workshop on a critique of your work (+ $4000 USD).
• Redesign your current work (adds 1 day, $2000 USD).
• Video-recording for replay by other members of your department (+ $4000 USD).
• Follow-up Webinars (+ $1000 USD per 90-minute Webinar).
• Hands-on computer exercises using laptop computers or a computer lab. (Call for pricing and requirements).

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What else will I receive?

Besides the knowledge and skills you acquire, you will receive:

• Extensive course notes, including pictures of the slides, design forms, and job-aids.
• Web access to many of the examples shown in class.
• Membership in horton.COMmunity for further online discussions on the subject of this course.

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Audiovisual requirements

To successfully present this course at your location, we will need the following:

• Computer screen projector with 1024 x 768 NATIVE resolution. Some projectors can project 1024 x 768, but only by stretching or shrinking the output to a different scale. These projectors will not work.
• Speaker and amplifier for computer sounds. Must be able to take output from the computer's stereo-mini plug.

It would be nice to also have high-speed Internet access for showing live examples. We will need to get through your routers and around your firewall.

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