Ideas for Engagement with Bullet Points

Jan 26, 2014

Hello Heroes, this is my first post and technically will be only my second online course I have ever produced. Any links to previous discussions or resources would be greatly appreciated. My issue is a client wants me to convert a course on travel safety from a manual to online. The format of the manual is simple. Each section begins with a few paragraphs on the topic, followed by bullet points. For example here is one section on travel risks:

Before traveling abroad take the time to know where you are going and what the essential risks are in that region of the world.  You will want to ask yourself what types of risks (YOU) may be facing. Here is a partial list of questions (and answers) you will need to know.

- Where is the country located? 

- Is the area to which I am going subject to political upheavals, terrorism, major crimes, natural disasters (fires, earthquakes, mud slides, etc.) or major outbreaks of illnesses?

- What medications will I need to bring and how good/efficient is the local medical system?

- What foods should I avoid while there?

- How safe is the drinking water?

- If close to an ocean, what ocean precautions do I need to consider, such as undertows, shark attacks, shifting currents, etc.

- In what physical activities may I be participating and do I need special equipment or preparation for these activities?

Every section is a similar format. Now, if I was creating the course from scratch I would design it chronologically, take the student through a simulated trip and have little fun exercises along the way. But, that is not an option. I have to please the client, which means the basic order of the sections and material needs to remain the same. 

Any creative ideas on how to make this engaging?

Thanks - Richard

5 Replies
Bruce Graham

I created one of these courses last year. We dealt with the bullet points issue by:

1. Realising that these are not bullet points - they are complete sentences in their own right, and they can be turned into questions.

2. "Do you know how to check the safety of the drinking water?", (or similar). Had a page of images and you clicked on each one to explore the topic and find the recommended answer.

Whilst you DO have to please the client, as an Instructional Designer you also have the responsibility to give them advice, and explain to them that there are better ways if you think they are wrong.

Hope that helps.

Rebecca Fleisch Cordeiro

Hi Richard,

Welcome to the community and to elearning with Storyline.

In addition to Bruce's right on tip, I thought I'd point out a couple threads and posts that might be helpful:

This is a great blog post by Connie Malamed (all her posts are great) 6 alternatives to bullet lists

I've used Connie's ideas and extrapolated on them many any times.

Another one with great posts (like all the rest of the Articulate staff) is David Anderson. Check out

Reducing bullet points and on-screen text

VP of the community - be sure to subscribe to his post - Tom Kuhlmann's thread here is entitled

Convert your bullet points to interactive e-learning with video

Other staff member may also have writtten about this...if so, hopefully they'll post here.

And in this screencast, I've used Markers instead of bullet points to itemize information that in the "old days" would (or at least could) have come in as bullet points.

Richard Feenstra

Bruce, just the single concept, "Do you know how to make sure the drinking water is safe?" gets me back on track and headed in the right direction. I can envision ways to keep the current structure of the manual intact yet still make the content interactive and that is what I was struggling with. For some reason I had fixated on wanting to restructure the content to simulate a trip chronologically, providing interactions regarding travel safety along the way.

Rebecca, thanks for all the resources and welcoming me to the community. I will definitely check them out to get some more ideas.

Thanks again - Richard 

Chris Warren

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