Blog Post

E-Learning Challenges
2 MIN READ

Creating Step-by-Step Tutorials for Your Favorite Apps #479

DavidAnderson's avatar
DavidAnderson
Staff
2 months ago

Step-by-Step Tutorials in E-Learning #479: Challenge | Recap

Most apps today are pretty easy to use, right?

You can sign up for something like Trello or Notion and start working right away without reading the user guide or taking or watching hours of video tutorials.

But here's the catch: while today's apps make it easy to get started, there's usually a world of features under the hood that can help you work efficiently if you take the time to learn them. I'm looking at you, Notion.

🏆 Challenge of the Week

This week, your challenge is to teach one or more tips for using your favorite app. You can choose any format that works for you, whether it’s an interactive tutorial, a screencast, a written guide, or even an interactive video. Just make sure it’s a step-by-step walk-through that helps someone pick up the app.

✨ Share Your E-Learning Work

  • Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post.
  • Forums: Start a new thread and share a link to your published example.
  • Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We'll link to your posts, so your great work gets even more exposure.
  • Social media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can follow your e-learning coolness.

🙌 Last Week’s Challenge:

Before you show us how to use your favorite app, check out last week’s portfolios for inspiration on showcasing your e-learning work:

E-Learning Portfolio Examples RECAP #478: Challenge | Recap

👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges?

The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.

Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. 

📆 Upcoming Challenges

  • E-Learning Challenge #480 (10.25): Halloween-inspired examples.

  • E-Learning Challenge #481 (11.01): E-learning style guide(ance). Keep it simple with colors and typography, or go further to include writing, multimedia, and more.

  • E-Learning Challenge #482 (11.08): Using asymmetrical layouts. Think course starters with an emphasis on breaking the grid for intentional imbalance.
Updated 2 months ago
Version 3.0
    • SheilaMansolill's avatar
      SheilaMansolill
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      Jodi, this tutorial of AllTrails is great - so clean and easy to use! I also love the content! I'm in AZ and Sedona has the best hikes!

      • JodiSansone's avatar
        JodiSansone
        Community Member
        2 months ago

        We have so many trails here! And you would think I don't need the app after all these years, but I occasionally start daydreaming on a trail and find myself lost. It just happened last week. :)

    • CydWalker_mwhc's avatar
      CydWalker_mwhc
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      Thanks for helping me learn about this app and how it works. What a great tool Jodi! I liked how you showed it tracks where you are at so you know if you are off the trail.

      • JodiSansone's avatar
        JodiSansone
        Community Member
        2 months ago

        It has been fun to see how this app has evolved and improved over the years. It has gotten so good! If you do on a hiking trip, it is super helpful, especially if you are alone.

    • DanSweigert's avatar
      DanSweigert
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      Hi Jodi,

      I loved all the zooming and scrolling and other animations you created in the iPhone screen. Is there some feature on the phone you used to capture all that or did you have to create all that movement some other way?

      • JodiSansone's avatar
        JodiSansone
        Community Member
        2 months ago

        Hi Dan, I used a screen recording program that was on my phone. I started recording and then scrolled the AllTrails app and recorded my wanderings. I have a Samsung Galaxy. I had never used the recorder before and it was a good option for this.

    • Mina's avatar
      Mina
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      I am confused Jonathon.  Many people in my country use X as a vital source of information. 

      • Jonathan_Hill's avatar
        Jonathan_Hill
        Super Hero
        2 months ago

        Just my personal view, but one shared by many, is that Twitter has become unusable since Musk took it over.

        I used Twitter to great effect professionally, and my feed reflected my interests in learning tech and education. Now, my feed is full of angry people, conspiracy theorists, and so-called influencers, none of whom I follow. But the algorithm prioritises their content over the content of those I do follow.

        It's still a great place for breaking news stories, but too often this descends into culture wars and bickering. I unistalled the app last month and feel much better for it.

        If you still find X valuable, great. It's no longer for me, though.

         

  • Jayashree_Ravi's avatar
    Jayashree_Ravi
    Community Member
    2 months ago

    Here's my submission for the challenge: an interactive how-to guide on creating quote posters in Canva. It features step-by-step videos for both using templates and designing from scratch.

     View it here:  Link

    • JodiSansone's avatar
      JodiSansone
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      You made me want to create a quote poster now. Thanks for showing the two ways to do it.

    • CydWalker_mwhc's avatar
      CydWalker_mwhc
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      Helpful to see how others use Canva features. Always learning something new!

      • Jayashree_Ravi's avatar
        Jayashree_Ravi
        Community Member
        2 months ago

        Thanks, Cyd! Yes, I am always learning something new here in this community. 

    • ThierryEMMANUEL's avatar
      ThierryEMMANUEL
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      That's a pretty effective demo, Jayashree. About your example, it reminds me of something I once read on the web. “Beware of quotes on the internet, they're often wrong.” Oscar Wilde.

    • MarinaNuzhina's avatar
      MarinaNuzhina
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      That's a great tool, thanks for providing details about the features available with the paid account! I love a blindness simulator. Do you use the desktop application as well?

      • CydWalker_mwhc's avatar
        CydWalker_mwhc
        Community Member
        2 months ago

        Hey Marina, I use the web version. The cool thing is there are many features with a free account, but I appreciate saving my palettes to use the copy feature.

    • DanSweigert's avatar
      DanSweigert
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      Hi Cyd, I really loved your presentation. These color palette creators are awesome. A lot of times I will start with a few colors from the client's logo, and then use the color generating tool to select a palette. It's also great that you can lock a color and then go through some different palettes that way. The contrast tool is also great for making your colors compliant for people with vision issues. Really great!

      • CydWalker_mwhc's avatar
        CydWalker_mwhc
        Community Member
        2 months ago

        Thanks Dan, I've found this tool so useful! I like your idea to start with a few colors from client's branding and build a palette.

    • ThierryEMMANUEL's avatar
      ThierryEMMANUEL
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      Very interesting demonstration about Coolors, Cyd. I've added it to my favourites. The fascinating world of graphic design is mysterious to me. The problem is that I can hesitate for hours to choose ONE color and never be sure of my choice. So a palette of 6... 

  • Ron_Katz's avatar
    Ron_Katz
    Community Member
    2 months ago

    Hey Heroes,

    If you didn't sign up yet for Articulate AI you can still get some quality sound effects.  All you need is a YouTube account.

    Demo: https://360.articulate.com/review/content/0338bcd0-e970-4f38-91b2-e29511804a4d/review

    This is also a demo of a little used feature for Storyline.  Screen recording.  I used the screen recording feature and then let Storyline create the slides.

    Once you complete a screen recording you have options of how you want to present it in your Storyline slide.  Storyline did most of the work when I selected as above.  I only needed to add the instructions at the bottom of the screen for each slide, delete a few slides that were repetitive, and move one text entry box because it appeared in the wrong place.  Most of us have probably forgotten about this really cool Storyline feature.

    • DanSweigert's avatar
      DanSweigert
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      Hi Ron, That's really neat. I imagine a lot of content creators on YouTube use this, but it's also cool that we can use it for building eLearning courses.

  • JesseWu's avatar
    JesseWu
    Community Member
    2 months ago

    Recently I got reassigned to a QA role. Among the tons of new knowledge to learn, my biggest regret is that I didn't come across faker.JS earlier. Lots of fun to create realistic but fake stuff. 

    And now, I import it into SL as a web object. Hope you enjoy :)

    [AD blocker will disable the last slide, so you know.]

    Project faker.JS to SL

    JS Code Used

    https://fakerjs.dev/

    • CydWalker_mwhc's avatar
      CydWalker_mwhc
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      This is so cool Jesse! Your tutorial is easy to understand and I'm intrigued.

    • DanSweigert's avatar
      DanSweigert
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      Very nice Marina, I liked all the little cat imagery in the background. Also, the little iPhone video was neat with all the animated graphics.

    • CydWalker_mwhc's avatar
      CydWalker_mwhc
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      Can't wait to try this app! And LOVE the cat imagery...especially the cat in incognito mode. And the PAW...😎

    • CydWalker_mwhc's avatar
      CydWalker_mwhc
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      Nice tip Dan, I haven't used the snap feature yet...look forward to trying that out.

    • ThierryEMMANUEL's avatar
      ThierryEMMANUEL
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      Hi Dan. In my opinion, you've put your finger on a really time-saving improvement that's missing in Storyline: having the ability to enter the height and width of the crop numerically, rather than moving the handles, left AND right AND up AND down AND again, which isn't always easy to do to pixel accuracy. And be able to move the cropping area around the image (as the zoom area does, for example). Don't you think? 🤔

      • DanSweigert's avatar
        DanSweigert
        Community Member
        2 months ago

        Hi Thierry, Actually, you can enter the number manually if you want by unchecking the "lock aspect ratio" button and typing in the numbers, but you still need a visual to know how much you're cutting off on each side. That's why I like to line the picture I'm cropping up first so I can see how it's going to look. And the snapping feature makes that infinitely easier.

    • DanSweigert's avatar
      DanSweigert
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      I liked the menu graphic you created, very nice!

       

    • CydWalker_mwhc's avatar
      CydWalker_mwhc
      Community Member
      2 months ago

      Agree with Dan, the menu is super cool. Zotero sounds like a great tool, thanks for sharing!