The document discusses various types of teaching and learning materials that can be used for distance education, including e-books, study guides, graphics, semantic maps, mind maps, and visual analogies. E-books offer many advantages over printed books such as being portable, searchable, updatable, and accessible for those with disabilities. Study guides and interactive study guides provide structure and organization to course content. Effective visual design is important for graphics to clearly convey information through elements such as line, shape, size, color, and principles such as balance, emphasis, and contrast. Semantic maps and mind maps use visual diagrams to show relationships between ideas. Visual analogies make unfamiliar concepts more understandable by comparing them to familiar ideas.

1. Handouts, Study
Guides, and Visuals
BY
DECARDO DAY

2. PRINTED
MATERIAL
E-BOOKS
E-books promote reading. People are spending more time in front of screens and less time in front of printed books. s
E-books are faster and cheaper to produce than paper books and are often cheaper to buy.
E-books are easily updateable.
E-books are searchable.
E-books are portable. The reader can carry an entire library.
E-books defy time: they can be delivered almost instantly.
E-books can be annotated without harming the original work.
E-books make reading accessible to persons with disabilities. Text can be resized for the visually impaired. Screens can be lit for reading in the dark.
E-books can be hyper-linked, for easier access to additional information.
E-books can read aloud to you.
E-books defeat attempts at censorship.

3. DISTANCE
EDUCATION
SYLLABUS
Possesses specificity and completeness
compared with a more traditional one.
Course Logistics
Course Policies
Instructional Activities
Assessment Information
Additional Information

4. THE INTERACTIVE
STUDY GUIDE
Tom Cyrs and Al Kent
(Credited)
The interactive study guide is a structured
note-taking system that leads the learner
through a series of concepts, and that
requires some active and interactive
involvement by the student.

5. GRAPHIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES
The size, font, color and contrast, alignment, and use of uppercase and lowercase in written graphics are
critical to successful design.

6. Elements
of Design
The elements of design:
◦ Line is generally considered to be one-dimensional. Line has length
but not width. Line portrays direction, presents objects, and defines
the outer shape of something.
◦ Shape is used to symbolize objects or to show large or small spaces.
Shapes have two dimensions, height and width.
◦ Space is either positive or negative. The outline of an object in a
visual signifies its positive space. The most common negative shape
of something is its background.
◦ Texture is the perceived or actual roughness or smoothness of a
surface. Texture is used to help define shape or space.
◦ Value is the degree of lightness or darkness of a surface. Value is
accomplished through shading. Value shows changes in space and is
often used to create the illusion of volume or solidity in a graphic
object.
◦ Color is related to value and is used to visualize an object realistically
or to differentiate an object from another object.

7. Principles
of Design
Balance is the sense of
equilibrium in a visual (formal
and informal)
The center of interest is the
visual focal point of the
graphic and should relate to
its purpose.
Emphasis is closely related to
the center of interest. The key
object should be emphasized
so it is apparent to the viewer
what is most important.
Unity means that a visual
holds together to convey its
purpose.
Contrast refers to the
characteristics of an object
that cause it to stand out.
Rhythm comes from
repetition through variety
and is used to draw a viewer
through the various objects in
a visual.

8. WORD
PICTURES
Semantic maps are two-dimensional diagrams that use arrangements of
nodes and links to communicate ideas and to show the relationships
among ideas.
Mind maps use key words or phrases organized in a design that is
nonlinear.
◦ The main ideas are clearly defined and placed in the center of the graphic.
◦ The relative importance of a subidea is indicated by its proximity to the main
idea.
◦ Links between ideas are clearly indicated.
◦ New information is easily added to a mind map because of its nonlinear
structure.
Cognitive maps are organized around the relationship between ideas, and they
provide a graphic expression of the structure of a body of knowledge.
Structured overviews use graphics and hierarchical structures showing the
relationship of key ideas, concepts, and other information.
Outlines are visual displays that are useful in presenting concurrent ideas.

9. VISUAL
ANALOGIES
An analogy is a way to describe something that is
unfamiliar by comparing it to something familiar.
Analogies have four parts
◦ The new subject is the topic that is unfamiliar.
◦ The analog is familiar and is something that has been
experienced by the learner.
◦ The connector shows the relationship between the two
concepts: the new subject and the familiar idea, or analog.
◦ Connectors
(Functional relationships describe what concepts do or how
they work)
(Structural relationships show the similarity in appearance
and design of the two concepts)
◦ The ground relates to the specific set of similarities and
differences between the unfamiliar and the familiar.

10. SUMMARY
Printed handouts and teaching and learning materials are critically
important to the effective practice of distance education. Distance
education has its roots in print-based correspondence study.