Wall of text - Just plain text in rows on the screen. This is the type of content that good instructional designers avoid.
List of items - An unnumbered or numbered lists of items. Even small lists break up a wall of text and engage the student.
Definition lists - list with labels and text descriptions
Tables - structured lists with multiple columns and column headers to describe the data in each column
Charts - graphical displays of data including time-series charts, bar charts and line graphs
Toggle Charts - The ability to toggle between data views (table/chart) including linear and logarithmic views
Simple Diagram - shapes in groups such as layers, circles or triangle including simple block diagrams.
Static Workflow - shapes connected by lines and arrows. The lines and arrows may also have labels.
Animated Workflows - shapes connected by animation of arrows showing the movement of data or other information. Ideally animations can be toggled on and off. Gif outputs can be generated.
Infographic - shapes with static callout descriptions. The descriptive text is positioned so it is visible next to the shapes.
Interactive Infographic - An infographic drawings where
the user can hover or click on shapes to get additional information. Users can hover their pointer over a region or shape on the diagram.
Basic Animation - repeated shape movement without user controls such as running a small simulation of a ball moving around a canvas and bouncing off the sides.
Interactive Animation - an animation where the user can participate in the animation such as controlling the speed of the ball, the number of balls or the gravity of the objects.
MicroSim - a simulation of some aspect of the world that the user can interact with. MicroSims use both real-world models and interactive controls to change the simulations. MicroSims often have start/pause and reset buttons in a controls area below the drawing canvas. MicroSims usually use a 2D rendering engine such as p5.js.
MicroSim with logging - A MicroSim that leverages the ability to log what controls are being used by a student to change an animation or simulation. The event logs are stored so that the authors can gain feedback on how the MicroSim is being used.
Personalized MicroSim - A MicroSim where the experience that the user has is modified for their needs. For example, students that have a calculus background might have integral equations shown during the simulation.
Full 3D World Simulation - A program that simulates a full three dimensional representation of the world and allows the user to interact with this simulation. These simulations are much more compute intensive and may require local GPUs to gain reasonable performance.