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E-Learning Challenges
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Storyboard Templates for E-Learning #48

DavidAnderson's avatar
DavidAnderson
Staff
11 years ago

Storyboard Templates for E-Learning #48: Challenge | Recap

Challenge of the week

This week your challenge is to share an example of your preferred e-learning storyboard, blueprint, or scripting template. We want to see what you use and learn how you use it!

Tools

You can use Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio, or PowerPoint to create your e-learning storyboard examples.

Resources

Here are a few resources to get you thinking about storyboards.

Storyboard templates:

Blog posts:

Forum discussions:

Share your e-learning work

  • Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your e-learning storyboard and blog post.
  • Forums: Create your own thread in our E-Learning Heroes forums and share a link to your e-learning storyboard.
  • Personal blog:  If you have a blog, please consider writing about your e-learning storyboard process. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. 
  • Twitter: If you share your e-learning storyboards on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness.
  • Facebook: Reply to this Facebook post with a screenshot of your e-learning storyboard and a link to your template or blog post.

Last week’s challenge

Before you storyboard this  week’s challenge, take a moment to check out the e-learning call center demos your fellow community members shared in last week’s challenge:

E-Learning Challenge #47: Call Center Training in Online Learning

More about the e-learning challenges:

The weekly 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.

Even if you’re using a trial version of Studio ’13 or Storyline, you can absolutely publish your challenge files. Just sign up for a fully functional, free 30-day trial, and have at it. And remember to post your questions and comments in the forums; we're here to help.

Published 11 years ago
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E-Learning Challenge
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Storyboarding
  • JackieVanNice's avatar
    JackieVanNice
    Super Hero
    11 years ago
    @Gerard: I didn't mean to skip you! I love your approach to storyboarding and appreciate that you explained it via your blog post. Your scenario builder looks like a clean, clear way to plan and communicate branching interactions, too. Thank you for sharing it!
  • RebeccaMcGee's avatar
    RebeccaMcGee
    Community Member
    11 years ago
    Like many of you, I've been mashing together a few different tools and techniques to create a storyboard that would work for e-learning. I had a hard time finding not only an appropriate storyboard, but also project plans and quality assurance testing for my e-leaning courses.

    I finally created my own and am sharing it with all of you. Follow this link and download a storyboard created specifically for e-learning!

    http://www.elearningstoreboards.com/articulate48/

    I get so many terrific ideas from the E-Learning Heroes blogs, newsletters, and community. I'm grateful to all of you for your contributions!

    Rebecca
    http://elearningstorEboards.com
  • JohnCurran's avatar
    JohnCurran
    Community Member
    11 years ago
    I'm always so curious about how IDs go about storyboarding. Whenever I see a great e-learning module I always want to see the original storyboard. Sometimes the two look pretty similar - sometimes it's hard to imagine how one resulted from the other!

    I hate Word storyboards with a passion (some clients insist on using them but they always end up being too 'texty' - with too much focus on words and descriptions of visuals). For me I need the layout and creative freedom that comes with PowerPoint. I've searched for other storyboarding tools but never found anything that really works for e-learning.

    However I do use word for the Storyboard Outline. This is my initial scoping document with the key topics and learning outcomes plus rough timings. Once this is signed off I use a PowerPoint template for the storyboard.

    Three templates attached. One of the Storyboard Outlines encourages use of a simple ID framework (see 'A Simple Learning Design Framework' http://www.designedforlearning.co.uk/a-really-simple-learning-design-framework/)

    Templates
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10143311/Storyboard%20Templates.zip
    • DavidAnderson's avatar
      DavidAnderson
      Staff
      10 years ago
      Awesome! Thanks, Linda! I'll get your storyboard added to the recap today.
  • MaggieCowan's avatar
    MaggieCowan
    Community Member
    8 years ago
    Late entry, I know! I'm going back through challenges to re-energize my creativity.

    This is a storyboard template that I created for a specific client. The client had very clear branding and ideas about 508 compliance. I started with their presentation template, took out things that didn't apply to e-learning, added e-learning specific stuff like the course introduction section and developer notes, and then created a slide for every activity we could use (and variants of them!). This worked well for the project because we had hundreds of courses that had to follow the same rules and include the same components. Additionally, the team member who wrote the storyboard may or may not have been the person who developed the Storyline file. So, developing activity styles and components up front saved us a ton of time. There is a corresponding Storyline template and instructions for converting storyboards into WBTs using the template. This method wouldn't work for every project, but made this one very efficient.

    http://s3.amazonaws.com/ElearningChallenges/048/TEMPLATE_Storyboard.potx

    Personally, I like using PowerPoint to storyboard. My clients are visual, non-technical people, so it works well. That being said I don't hand over a PPT file. In my experience that's a recipe for disaster. I print the Notes view as a PDF and provide that.

    For interactivity, I include developer notes. What will happen when the user hovers, clicks, drags, etc. What will the result be? What's the intention?

    Here are my top three storyboard tips for new course creators:

    1) Know your audience. In the case of storyboards, that's your SME or client. Are they visual or technical? Develop your storyboard in a format that allows your audience to focus on what they need to review.

    2) Consistency in visuals, specifically if you are using PowerPoint. Graphically, you want a consistent look and feel. But you also want the visuals in the storyboard to be as close to the final product as possible.

    3) Not every word in the audio has to be represented on screen. Not every on screen element needs to be address in the audio. The audio and visual elements should complement each other.