Building technical training courses in Rise

Hi Diane,

Keeping things succinct is a good approach by focussing on the "need to know" and minimising the "nice to know". The latter can still be incorporated in a "side note" or "fun fact" element in the presentation, including this info in a FAQ section and/or providing access to additional resources that are optional, but not essential.

In a course I recently designed, my first decision was to select the instructional strategy for which I was going to base my structure, resources, interactions and activities around. This resource was provided for me in a training course I am doing, providing a comprehensive overview of different ones to choose from. 

https://outfindca.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/1530_hirumi_su303_0314_101429.pdf 

I designed my course using the guided experiential learning strategy. It introduced the goals/ objectives of the course, communicated its relevance and value to the participants, provided necessary demonstrations, knowledge and skills for success, and assessed participants in applications tasks. These tasks were where I added the more innovative, engaging elements, after first establishing the prerequisites.

I minimised the text in the "demonstration" resources, by keeping it to key points and supported it with multimedia e.g. video tutorials. It was structured in 3 modules, with an application task concluding each component, and subsequent modules building in the previous ones.

There wasn't an opportunity for an integration task, as that was the basis for the course - to develop transferrable knowledge and skills that could be used in their own contexts (this was communicated at the beginning).

Hope this helps

Greg

Hi there Diane, 

One of the tips I always suggest for making content more engaging is to use scenarios to bring the content to life and make learners learn from realistic situations. 

Find out things like... why do learners need to know this information? when will they use the information? how will they use the information? in what context or situation would they use the information? what would happen if they didnt know this information? Having all of this information will help you build realistic scenarios. Here's some articles I've written about creating scenarios:

• Tips for Writing Effective E-Learning Scenarios
• 4 Instructional Design Tips To Create Awesome E-Learning Scenarios
• Build 3-Step Scenarios Like a Pro With Storyline

You can create scenarios in either Storyline 360 or in Rise 360 depending on what tool you're using.

And if you have a peek in the E-Learning Examples hub, you'll find tons of examples of scenarios. Here's a few to get you started:

• Job Interview Scenario
• Rise 360: How to Process a Return
• Call center training template (Storyline 360)

Hope this helps! :) 

They're great examples of engaging application/integration tasks Nicole!!

Thank you!

I've just recently completed eLearning for a ServiceNow project, which is pretty in the weeds with technology. Here's what worked to keep learners engaged, most of it pretty basic, and very easy to do in Storyline or Rise (I don't have an example because it's inside their firewall, but...) 

• Scenarios as Nicole outlined so elegantly above. ServiceNow is part Service Desk / Support oriented, so we put in various scenarios to point out how the analysts might notate tickets. We had scenarios for the different types of 'states', different ways to manage lists of tickets, etc. They could explore in a non-linear fashion. 
• Short how-to videos incorporated into the elearning with follow-along quizzes to see if they remembered what they saw in the video. Videos less in the span of 1-3 minutes. Anything more and you lose them. Even though most technology is 'screen by screen based' we found videos work to help them 'see' the process in action. I also added the list of all videos at the end so if someone didn't want to go through everything, they could jump to those videos. 
• Hotspot screenshots where they explore the features of a particular screen. You can do this by recording the screen or just by doing layers. (I like doing layers more so than using the feature in Articulate because I feel like I have more control, but that's probably just me.) 
• Embedding the training site within Storyline where they can access within the system without having to jump out of Storyline. (This only works if the security of the site allows the in framing of the site.) 
• Using audio in as much as possible, with closed captioning or notes. Seeing a scenario and hearing someone read a script is less engaging than having John and Jane actually 'converse'. Because we had limited 'voice talent', we used the text to voice conversion feature which worked well, saved a ton of time, and made it more interesting for the learners that could hear audio. 
• Documentation added in the Resources tab of the Content Player, along with a Glossary. Many of the terms are very technical and some people are not at that level. Having Quick Reference guides, documentation and a glossary really helped those who weren't technical feel 'supported' by materials. With Storyline's ability to import a Glossary, it made it super simple and quick to add. 
• Showing them in a quick video where to find all these features in the Storyline player. Searching the slides is one of the best options with the player. We also used almost the same content to present live training and when someone asked, where's that wildcard feature, or you mentioned this an hour ago...having the content in Storyline as also the slide presentation first reinforced that this is a resource you can use and it's very easy to find the content just by searching. 
• Adding some form of interactivity about every third slide. Like with our scenarios we had one where the user clicked through how someone would request hardware or software and what would happen if the boss refused the request. They simply click the tabs as they go along. Making sure they weren't just 'listening' but interacting was very important, so I added that kind of interactivity. But I didn't add it just to add it for the sake of adding it! It had to fit with the topic. I LOVED the fact all the templates had a variety to choose from so it wasn't always the same type. For example I'd have them figure out the difference between an incident and a request by dragging things users ask for into two boxes, etc. stuff like that. 

Just some ideas that might help. You have this great canvas and tons of templates and examples in the Community to incorporate, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Technology training doesn't have to be boring or just point and click!

Thank you Cheryl for the great suggestions.