Articulate presentations designed for kids?

Jul 18, 2011

Christen Clark
By Christen Clark

Hello all,

The organization I work for is making our first foray into e-learning, after 40+ years teaching elementary-age children in classroom settings. We're still at the stage of selecting authoring software and, in fact, deciding whether we'll even go the rapid authoring route. 

I've spent the past few weeks researching rapid authoring tools and I have not yet seen a single example of an e-learning presentation designed for children with one of these tools. Articulate is currently our front-runner, because it's so user-friendly for non-programmers, but we have concerns about whether we'll be able to customize it enough to make presentations both engaging to children and able to be done independently by kids as young as 7 or 8. Does anyone know of any examples of content for children created in Articulate? 

Thanks! 

Chris

17 Replies
Bob S
almost 13 years ago07/18/11 at 10:06 am (UTC)

Hi Christen,

Wish I had more details but maybe one of the folks here can fill in the blanks...

Several years ago at Training Magazine's Expo in Orlando FLA, one of the big show winners was an e-learning designed for middle schoolers as I recall it.  Kind of monochromatic with a goldish background and line art-type illustrations. The interactivity was great.

Anyone remember or have a lead on who did that?

Zara Ogden
almost 13 years ago07/18/11 at 11:30 am (UTC)

Well I am not at liberty to share yet but my Guru idea is a kid program. I am having fun with it.

I think that Articulate is perfect. It is simple and interactive it really come down to you and your skills. In my recent pet project i am using my newly found PPT graphic skills to create interactive mapping that will teach the use a skill at their own pace and in their own order.

I believe that some of this is created with Articulate

http://www.e-learningforkids.org/

This is my main menu screen. Exclusively created in PPT.

Kim Statom
almost 13 years ago07/18/11 at 12:59 pm (UTC)

Jefferson County Public Schools uses a combination of Articulate and Lectora for their eSchool program.  They won an award in 2007 for some of their work with the older version of Articulate.  Although a good deal of their work is geared toward high school students, they do some middle school and and possibly some elementary school.  I'm sure at the least they could offer advice on the elementary aged students.  

A couple good contacts there would be:

Artie Dietz artie.dietz@jefferson.kyschools.us

Judy Reeves judy.reeves@jefferson.kyschools.us

Kayla Burtch
almost 13 years ago07/19/11 at 8:16 am (UTC)

This is a quick demo I did of a children's course on crocodiles.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25523292/Fun%20Facts/player.html

I think articulate is a GREAT resource for creating kids courses. The biggest challenge would be making buttons intuitive. Making them larger than usual is probably a good idea.

If I were to finish this course I would probably add voice, and have buttons flash when they are supposed to press on them. (To make the choice more obvious)

Kayla Burtch
almost 13 years ago07/19/11 at 8:37 am (UTC)

It's Kristen ITC.

Honestly not sure where it came from, I just scrolled through the fonts on my computer till I found one I like, it might just come with powerpoint/windows, or I may have "inherited" it from a previous owner of my work computer. It is my favourite "hand printed" font, because it is really easy to read.

Melissa Korzun
almost 13 years ago07/19/11 at 9:16 am (UTC)

Hi Christen --

I am an Articulate Advocate through and through. I have worked with a number of other platforms that are great at what they do, but for developing training that is based on concepts, theories or other abstract ideas, hands down Articulate is the best. Its abilitiy to interface so intimately with PowerPoint while at the same time offering so much customization is amazing. I don't have an example of a course that I can share right now for confidentiality reasons, but I have used, and continue to use Articulate to build all sorts of game-based learning, which is wonderful for children. Children now are so inundated with technology that my 2 year knows his way around my iPad better than my husband. Whichever platform you choose, it needs to give you the flexibility to make it look bright and inviting, function with seemless navigation and the creative freedom to build your course any way you choose. Articulate can certainly do that.

What an exciting place for your organization to be in. Best of luck! hopefully soon you will be on here sharing some of the amazing courses that you built!

CHRISTINE OMALLEY
over 12 years ago07/25/11 at 5:04 pm (UTC)

Hi Christen - I may be the lone ranger here because my specialty is e-Learning in Lectora - with that said - I couldn't live without PowerPoint and have a great respect for some of the creative courses I have seen developed in Articulate. My comment is in direct response to something you said... "we have concerns about whether we'll be able to customize it enough to make presentations both engaging to children and able to be done independently by kids as young as 7 or 8."

In my experience, unless you program using variables which allows you to respond directly to a learner's specific action your level of engagement with them is going to be limited. Regarding e-Learning that appeals to children, I think that graphics play a big role in this.

Best,

Christine

Hillary Hughes
over 3 years ago11/17/20 at 11:39 am (UTC)

Hi!

Hoping someone might have a template they could share?? The content at Energy kids is great! I work at a utility company and we provide community safety training for the Grade 6 electrical safety program. It's something the company has done for the community for 20+ years.

We used to have presenters go into the classroom with an electrical display model to show kids about electricity, the dangers, and how to keep safe. Now, because of COVID - and since the presenters (typically retired powerline technicians) can't go into schools anymore; we have to create and design a free website/ e-learning course for the grade 6 strudents that teachers can access from our homepage. Our budget was also cut, so we have to design something in-house.

I'm looking to take a physical display and turn it into an online course. Has to be engaging, easy, bright and fun. Help!!

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