Typography for Attentive E-Learning
Erik Bean
American Public University
U.S.A.
Abstract:Drawn from a variety of educational sources and from empiricalbest online platform classroom use, topography for attentive E-learning demonstrates how student engagement may be more effectively stimulated based on careful selection of font type, position, prominence, and style complementing various assignments from the humanities such as English composition, psychology, and social studies to history and philosophy as well as a variety of scientific based classes adopted to all major learning platforms such as Moodle, Blackboard, Sakai, to name a few. Idiosyncratic and personal experience provides practical topography use demonstrations as well as a brief history of fonts and style and several recommended designusage strategies including setting up quadrants in the classroom. The overarching premise is to use the right choice of fonts, style, and placement, to set the mood and for readability and attentiveness. Also discussed is online classroom first impressions and font placement and uses.
Introduction
Many of life’s greatest experiences seem to go better when pairs complement one another. For example, great marriages, company mergers, and tasty food like peanut butter and jelly. The same can be said for what helps make E-Learning more engaging: E-Learning and active faculty, E-Learning and the software modality, E-Learning and interactive activities. One type of pairing that appears to receive little accolades is E-Learning and topography. But not anymore. Join this session to learn about best practices associated with the proper use of typography, layout, and typesetting to more effectively engage your online students. Learn how to deconstruct how the proper use of fonts, colors, size, and positioning, can act like fengshui enticing students to feel more comfortable, partake more, engage more, and more actively feel connected to class requirements.
History
To understand how to best use topography in the online setting deserves a quick historical look at the variety of type styles, the advent of typesetting, word processing packages and first versions inspired by Steve Jobs to include updated styles, and the enormous power of internet browsers and online educational platforms that carried the font torch into infamy. The contemporary use of fonts in advertising, posters, textbooks, compact discs, television commercials, and signage owes its flexibility to the foundations of topography itself which has had a considerable impact on communication for centuries. Dating back to the ancient Greeks and largely accredited to the first individual to have stylized fonts, Johannes Gutenberg (1394-1468), the art of modern calligraphy was a much sought-after artifact throughout the early 20th century as the printing press stylized newspapers and magazines (Tselentis, et al., 2012). Typesetting, the art of pressing letters strewn with ink was a revolution in making newsletters, newspapers, and magazines appear professional, authoritative, and inviting to read. According to Morris (2012):
Until about 150 years ago most people wrote out documents by hand. Since the advent of typewriters (from John J. Pratt’s prototype in the 1860s to word processors in the 1980s), few people write by hand anymore, and we now have a fast array of typefaces available to us (para 37).
However, Morris provides a question that many in communications and marketing for that matter have pondered considerably. “Can we separate the form of writing from the content? Usually it is difficult if not impossible…”(para 38). Much the same way many argue the message is more important than the content in which it is delivered or the medium in which it contained. While true, this does not indicate the degree to whether the content is attractive enough to hold the audiences’ attention long enough to read.Statistician and famous graphic designer William Tufte would agree.
Many of the modern principles of good layout since the advent of software programs like PowerPoint and the millions of Websites vying for attentionhe espoused in several books includingVisual Explanations, Envisioning Information, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and Beautiful Evidence. Indeed, Tufte focuses on quantitative data, but he focuses on how it should be presented which can impact the design of any rigorous online course. He proudly claims that the first statistic graphic was published in 1644 by Michael Florent van Langren, an astronomer. The visual scale showed the distance between Toledo and Rome(Tufte, 2010).
Tufte revealed that PowerPoint slide shows were too complicated, overly visual, and generally ill conceived due to poor typography, layout, and overblown animations. This view carries over too many poorly designed websites and online classes. Perhaps we could agree that less is more. Over use of bullet points were common among the many presentations he sampled prepared by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the early 2000s. This debacle some claim led to a major shuttle disaster (Tufte, 2010). “The bullet lists tend somewhat to be base-touching grunts, which show effects without causes, actions without actors, verbs without subjects, and nouns without predicates” (para 45). Tufte further hones his criticism down to the typography. “The typography is poor, with odd hierarchies (underlined bold italic in parentheses at one point). Is ‘O2’ the proper way for NASA contractors and NASA to write the oxygen molecule (even Wikipedia uses a subscript)?” (para para 47).
The history of topography would not be complete without how the placement of the words, their position, have a bearing and perception of importance on the audience. The location of such is known as prominence (Budd, 1964).Budd conducted one of the first studies to survey a portion of the journalism profession to develop a device, the Budd Index, to measure newspaper reader attention score. Budd developed five criteria, and eight randomly selected editors rated the criteria in terms of importance. The five criteria included (a) multicolumn heads as opposed to one-column heads; (b) a story placed at the top of any page, or above the fold; (c) stories that run three-fourths of a column; (d) stories with an accompanying photograph; and (e) stories prominently published on the front page or principal department page.
Budd (1964) removed the fourth criterion because it was not as relevant as the others, and the editors selected the fifth, second, and first criteria as the most important. The measurement device was an improvement on an earlier version developed by Teh-Chi Yu in 1949 (as cited in Budd, 1964). According to Budd, “The attention score, in its present form, is thought to be well suited for use in comparisons of publications similar in physical size” (p. 260). Thus prominence can be readily carried over to the exact location of topography, wording, and headers. Where they are visually located can affect their attention score.
The history of topography teaches that consistency is key and that agreed standards are a prudent approach. No matter what you and your curriculum development team agree upon, consistency in the online platform is a non-negotiable, but that does not mean that creativity cannot abound, it can. To that end, there are methods of proper topography usages which can make assignments more inviting, sort of the feng shui of the online classroom. After all, if feng shui according to Tchi (2018), is the art of balancing energies within a space, to maintain happiness, and health, then this edict should make its way into the modern online educational platforms. All along curriculum developers will immerse the use of topography along side of knowing how prominence can make any assignment more readily viewable not to mention which assignments should be delivered in a particular order based on the discipline.
Discussion
This session mostly drawn from idiosyncratic and empirical experience shows several recommended typography strategies to help in student attentiveness and create feng shui in the online classroom environment. The overarching premise is to use the right choice of fonts to set the mood and for readability. Learn about online classroom first impressions and uses a hyperlinked demonstration that show how different fonts can be used to match different images such as the personas of various professionals, models, and business people or to attract millennials or baby boomers who may be taking your online class. The examples shared are striking.
A review of a New York Times study shows how fonts help to achieve discussion credibility, a trait that most E-Learn instructors hope to instill (Morris, 2012). Certain fonts Kinder (2015) maintains are better matched for certain course disciplines. “Let’s say you’re creating a course on financial security. You’ll probably want your typeface to convey a sense of security and protection. In other words, you don’t want to use a fun, silly font such as Taco Modern” (p. 11).Immediately following this otherwise little-known enigma is an explanation between the definitions of typeface and font, Serif and Sans Serif. Contrary to most, the terms are distinctively different.
Other critical constructs to be followed include the Rule of Three, choosing typeface that your students may already be familiar, the aperture setting of the words and the importance of utilizing the best tracking otherwise known as kerning. The session also discusses why size matters, the proper usage of lines to compartmentalize information, and how leading (the space between sentences) can add much to best placement of lessons. By the end, most participants will be drawn to the many useful tips and reminders about how to create a visual hierarchy, and planning layout using grids and a hyperlink to a professional grid website. Typography decisions can elicit more student attentiveness, that can make E-Learning more attractive.
Consider the big picture. The online classroom, like a magazine, newspaper, website, PowerPoint slideshow or TV show for that matter can be divided into quadrants that help topography, pictures, and overall design take center stage. In the West people naturally read from left to right. Think about less scrolling and more eyes that will naturally gravitate to the upper left portion of the classroom. Information here is more prominent than perhaps any other online classroom real estate. Figure 1: Quadrant of Prominence shows that while not every page of every online platform can and should be design as such, but that the most attentive viewing can occur in cell 1 as opposed to cell 4.
Figure 1: Quadrant of Prominence
When all is said and done these quadrants are used to better understand the visual field on any given online platform page. How you use the fonts you select and the placement of images that accompany any particular lesson will vary and it may be nearly impossible to build an online class with no scrolling. Finally, bear in mind that screen resolution can affect the popularity of these quadrants in that quadrant four may wash out on lower resolution computer screens where as quadrant one will always remain.
Before making a descent into the realm of font usage, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with typesetting in general. When we discuss how to best use fonts and typography much of what is shared is what we can see. However, the spaces between the letters, or kerning, has considerations too. Spaces between cell and tables, and overall positioning of images. Bear in mind that every browser will display aspects such as kerning, cell padding, justification differently. The only way one can assure the spacing is exact is to post certain words or paragraphs as pictures, but that is not always practical and adds to the overall platform download time as students enter the electronic classroom.
See Figure 2: Title Text Picture. Note that the title shown as “Course Objectives” is actually an image. Using such images sparingly is a good way to freeze the font style and kerning and adds little to download times. So many schools, use pictures for lesson headings that better freeze their position and font choice.
Figure 2: Title Text Picture
The figures shown here are not meant to be the most “prominent” tips provided in this best practice session, but as simple foundations that will help enable more complex tricks and tips work proficiently. While its been said, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” it can be argued that font selection, placement, kerning, color, and typesetting can be worth a thousand attentive students.
Summary
To that end, most should agree this session is chockfull of tips and tricks that if employed can help add much value to any online course. Ultimately the advice can help to achieve more student engagement and that in of itself is worth participating. No matter your level K-12, higher education, all course developers,regardless of the discipline, and faculty can discover how these typography tips can help enrich the student experience lesson after lesson and week after week. Remember that typography depends on a variety of methods to assure it is seen best. Pictures can be used lock in the words, for example. Position includes the use of prominence and where along the visual quadrant field may yield the most attentiveness. The history of typesetting demonstrates that fonts elicit various forms of authoritative voices that can match the assignment topic and theme appropriately.
References
Budd, R. W. (1964). Attention score: A device for measuring news ‘play.’ Journalism Quarterly,41(2), 259-262.
Kinder, H. and Articulate. (2015). How to use typography to improve your E-Learning.
Morris, E. (2012). Hear, all ye people; Hearken, O Earth (Part 1). Retrieved from
Tchi, R. (2018). Some basic principles of Feng Shui. Retrieved from
Tselentis, J., et al. (2012). Typography, referenced: A comprehensive visual guide to the language, history, and practice of typography, Rockport Publishers
Tufte, W. (2010). First known statistical graphic. Retrieved from
Tufte, W. (2010). The cognitive style of PowerPoint: Pitching out corrupts within. Retrieved from