looking for a mentor

Jan 07, 2016

Hey Everyone, I'm a fresh out of college, young, new to elearning designer. 

I have a job with a very established school who has decided to create elearning courses and have hired little ole me to do it all ... I had never worked with storyline before and I am figuring it all out on my own reading up on everything I can, trolling heroes and soaking in everything possible...

The only problem is that I live in Jerusalem, Israel and I have tried to reach out to other companies asking if they use storyline and if they have a designer I could reach out to and collaborate with in any way.  There is no one!! Israel is big on marketing and startups and no one is interested in me and my elearning passion so i'm here to call on anyone at all who is interested in being an email pal ..to share with me cool links and ideas, to guide me , to give me constructive criticism and teach me their ways, Mr Miyagi style... it's been 4 months of me struggling on my own and I'm desperate for guidance !

I look forward to hearing from.. anyone :)

nicky@lookstein.org

 

8 Replies
Linda Lorenzetti

Hi Nicky, one way to quickly improve your skills would be to enter the weekly elearning challenges.  Another is to use the forum to ask questions (like you currently do).  You can also go to the free downloads section and deconstruct someone else's work and reproduce it yourself.  If you have specific questions, you can always ask me.

Walt Hamilton

If you had someone right there physically where you are, it would be ideal. If you can't have that, I can't imagine a better option that daily visits to this forum. For example, a "How do I do this?" question will usually result in several ways to do it within a couple of hours.

That said, I have lots of experience with ed, tech, and SL, and I would be glad to have you contact me.

Maybe to most important piece of advice I can give you is to learn to break your courses into digestible chunks. If your user loads a segment that lasts longer than about 12 - 15 minutes, expect them to start it playing, and then go clean the house, or play games with their friends. If they know they have to set aside an entire hour, they may be reluctant to start a single a 60 minute segment. One the other hand, 6 segments that last 12 minutes each will attract them, and they may even watch them all at once.

Secondly, if you create a series of segments in one course, reuse everything. Work very hard to get the first segment exactly the way you want it, then save as ... and name it segment 2. Delete only the content and keep the player, the design, the layout, the navigation, the introduction, the credits, and everything else. It will cut 25 - 30% or more off your development time.

Good luck and welcome to elearning design.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Nicky,

Congrats on your job and welcome to the E-Learning Heroes forums! I couldn't agree more with the recommendations above, but I've also passed this along to our Community team who may know of users to connect you up with. 

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to reach out and I'd look at bookmarking the pages for Storyline tutorials, KB/Support Articles, and the direct link to our Support engineers. They're around 24/7 for technical support issues but feel free to ask them anything, and they may be able to point you in the right direction for other questions too. 

Christie Pollick

Hi, Nicky -- Welcome to the wonderful world of E-Learning Heroes! In addition to the awesome advice and suggestions you have already received, I wanted to share the following links that you may find useful!

Beginner's Guide To E-Learning

What You Need to Know to Create Amazing E-Learning

The Insider’s Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro

Go from Zero to E-Learning Hero with Our New E-Book for Beginners

Hope that helps, and you are always welcome to share your projects here by using the ADD ATTACHMENT button in the bottom left of the reply box. Or, you may certainly post over in our Building Better Courses forum for lots of design tips, tricks, and input from fellow community members! :)

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.