Applied Ethics for Digital Imagery

Graphical images have much power to evoke and represent realities, convey experiences, and share information. They may be used to share history. They may be used to discover realities and truths. In terms of the social uses of images, they may persuade individuals or whole populaces of people to take courses of action. With the growing technological affordances of image capture and creation, those who would build e-learning with imagery need to be aware of ethical guidelines in capturing, creating, handling and using digital imagery in a learning environment. The sources of these ethical guidelines include cultural values, laws, professional educational practices, professional journalistic practices, and personal ethics.

Designing Informational Graphics for a Global Multi-Cultural Context

With many e-learning courses, modules, and artifacts being created for global delivery, those who design informational graphics need to be aware of the global environment for which they are building. They need to be more aware of the diverse cultural milieu and learning needs of the global learners. Visual imagery contains embedded meanings that may have different cultural implications in different milieu. This chapter will explore strategies to create digital images that are culturally neutral or at least culturally non-offensive. Building a layer of self-explanatory depth will also be helpful—for digital imagery with higher transferability and global utility.

Procedures for Creating Quality Imagery for E-Learning

What features describe a quality digital image for e-learning? From concept to actualization, what steps will likely lead to more effective results? This chapter examines the various aspects of successful digital imagery in various e-learning contexts, and it includes strategies for how to identify quality objectives and to execute to achieve these. This includes ideas on how to make the digital imagery for more identifiable, transferable and usable as a visual object in a digital repository.

Types of Graphics in E-Learning

Digital graphics commonly used in e-learning come in various image types and dimensions, each of which enables different types of information communications. The concept of dimensionality builds on how images work on the x, y, and z axes. This also builds on the affordances of digital imagery with live updates, movements, interactivity, emotionality, and other features that may be overlaid or imbued into visuals. This chapter addresses still images to dynamic ones. Considering the types of graphics and the informational value of each category should enhance their development and use in e-learning.

Building Interactive and Immersive Imagery

The influence of immersive gaming and simulations on e-learning cannot be understated. While there has been some successful harnessing of interactivity and immersive spaces for e-learning, more awareness of related fundamentals may enhance e-learning. This chapter discusses the role of graphics in interactivity (live and automated) and immersion and strategies for creating effective interfaces, virtual spaces, contexts, agents, and 3D digital learning objects.

Collaborative Image Creation

With multi-institution multi-state collaborative funding grants and consortium-based e-learning endeavors, the occurrence of collaborative image creation has become much more common-place. Even within an institution, cross-departmental or cross-college endeavors exist. This chapter addresses collaboration around digital imagery creation for e-learning, both via face-to-face (F2F) and virtual teaming. This captures some workflow practices and highlights ideas for encouraging quality builds and innovation.

The Applied Roles of Graphics in E-Learning

In today’s modern and networked generation, sophisticated graphics are expected for learning. These digital graphics fulfill a number of learning purposes: to direct attention, to provide examples, to offer evidentiary proofs, to set a context, to introduce a personage or character, to offer an affective jolt to increase memory retention, to entertain, and others. Digital graphics work on both subconscious and conscious levels, and these effects will be examined. This chapter will enhance reader awareness of these rich and varied roles and potentially evoke a variety of creative graphical solutions.

Effectively Integrating Graphics into E-Learning

Pedagogical theories and practices inform the effective integration of digital graphics in e-learning. This chapter examines how digital images may enhance e-learning at critical junctures, based on the learning context, learning objectives and learner needs. This also offers some insights on the procurement and / or creation of existing digital imagery to fit the learning context. This offers strategies for updating e-learning graphics for continuing applicability to a learning situation. Diana Marrs addresses how to maximize digital content quality in live interactive television and video conference courses, in a sidebar.

Visual Literacy in E-Learning Instructional Design

Visual literacy refers to a deeper knowledge of what images convey, where the visual data comes from, how it is captured, how it may be manipulated, and how it may be deployed for the most effective conveyance of information. It may clarify nuanced messages embedded in imagery. This chapter addresses the principles of visual literacy in the context of e-learning. It will introduce some foundational terminology and visual phenomena. This will help readers evaluate the veracity of digital images and have a better understanding of digital visual effects. A sidebar by Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson shows the need for accessibility and how building this feature into an image is a part of visual literacy.

Pedagogical Theories and Research

Some pedagogical theories and research have direct application to the use of digital imagery in electronic learning (e-learning). Applied perceptional research forms a foundational understanding of how humans see through their eyes. Cognitive theories address how the mind handles visual information. Pedagogical theories provide understandings of how individuals process information and learn effectively. These concepts lead to applied uses of digital imagery in e-learning contexts. These principles and practices will be introduced, analyzed, and evaluated in the context of the creation and use of digital imageries in e-learning. Then, strategies for how to apply theory to the selection, creation, and deployment of digital imagery in e-learning will be proposed.