Emergency Triage - PPT File to Course Under Deadline
Jan 31, 2011
Hi!
This is sort of related to this thread: http://community.articulate.com/forums/t/674.aspx . A "triage"challenge.
Say, you are given a 30-50 slide PPT to convert into a Articulate Presenter course. You have a week to try and turn it into "gold" if you can. The course must be out to the target audience by then. No room for negotiation there. The PPT is mostly endless bulleted slides with no graphics.
You have a busy schedule and you know you cannot spent all your time on the course during the week. For sake of argument, say 40-60% of your time at best.
The content for the course has been approved by your legal department or some other compliance/regulatory body. So you can't make a lot of text revisions without everything being re-approved--and there's no time for that.
So what do you do? What do you concentrate on to try and make the PPT more a course and more "engaging."
2 Replies
Hi Gerry - A week? They gave you a full week?
Without knowing any more than you shared - 30 to 50 slides - here are some quick thoughts:
Pacing and variety: Very important since the content and bullet-point structure won't vary. I would consider designing a theme with 3-5 distinct child themes. The visual variety will help the audience perceive the content fresher - even though it's not. Looking in the Downloads area, you could use one of the notebook or folder templates and create variations on those - anything to freshen the screen every 10 slides.
Bookend the chapters: You have 3 days to build the course. Assemble the course as quickly as you can (1 day?) and spend the follow day enhancing the first and last slides of each chapter. Rewrite content, create a scenario, begin with an activity or add some visual surprise to liven up upcoming slides. The idea here is that users will remember the first and last things they see, so you don't have to make it all great. Kind of like people on their death beds who only remember life's better days. Maybe that's your theme
I would focus on what applicable resources I do have that I can make work with the project. Is there an existing PowerPoint Template that I could use? Do I have images that I can incorporate?
The template would have to be visually dynamic. Include space for text, image and other media. But layered like the desktop theme.
I would then cut and paste the text into PowerPoint notes area. This allows me to break up the material into manageable chunks and identify different areas of the presentation. Perhaps I can insert 0 value quiz questions at various points.
To freshen up the text I would use a free font that is fun and engaging. Even If I have to have a text heavy presentation I can at least use something else besides Arial Font.
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