Freelance Heroes

Aug 02, 2012

Hi, and welcome to the "Freelance Heroes" thread, a place where Articulate Freelancers help each other. Got a question about freelancing? Or perhaps you have an e-learning asset that may be valuable to those "doin' their own thing"? This is the place to share--to give.

To start things off, I'd like to share a short list of questions that help me figure out what kind of training a potential client wants. (So often they have no idea what they want.) The list is far from exhaustive, but may be of some help. Looking forward to meeting you. --Daniel  

1293 Replies
Bruce Graham

Chaps and Chapesses.....

I would think that if Articulate were ever looking at completely revamping the Community website, then that would be the ideal time to break this thread up into manageable chunks.

Perhaps:
Freelance Business Heroes

Freelance Resources Heroes

Freelance Legal Heroes

Freelance Instructional Design Heroes.

All we need to do it wait until the site rework is ready to go live...........

Bruce

Daniel Brigham

Hi, Bruce: I've been discussing this issue with the folks at Articulate. Unless I've misunderstood them, we will not be able to "section-out" this thread. Which raises the question, "Where do we go from here?"

We really do need a place to break discussions into manageable topics and a place to archive assets. Thoughts anyone?--Daniel

Daniel Brigham

Helene Sobelman said:

We have an oppening for a designer/developer in my office... while this is a full-time position.. and ideally we would fill it as such.. i i figured i'd share the posting here in case any of you freelancers happened to be looking for a full-time gig..

eLearning Instructional Designer/Developer – Capital Region, NY

This position is with the CUNY School of Professional Studies (SPS) and is located in the Albany-Rensselaer, New York area.

CUNY SPS is looking for a creative instructional designer/developer to join a dedicated and dynamic distance learning development team working in the human services industry. The team uses synchronous and asynchronous learning technologies to create change and efficiencies in human service agencies throughout New York State. Team members have a track record of creating cutting-edge learning experiences and integrating technologies into blended learning solutions.

For more information and to apply visit: https://www.rfcuny.org/hr/pvn/cgi-bin/show_job.asp?pvn=RIS-1592

Thanks for posting to Freelance Heroes, Helene. Many quality freelancers lurking in these waters. --Daniel
Barbara Hacker

I'm a beginner in Storyline.  Created a couple of test projects of 3 to 4 slides.  Having difficulty following the Storyline tutorial about Publishing to a company network shared drive.  I've tried Publishing to CD.  

Saw the file with Launch Story, but don't know how to create a file that someone can click an attachment in an email and the attachment opens to a course.

Don't know how to save the project to email to send to committee members to see the demo.  

Don't know how to place the published project file from Storyline to a file that can be copied into our new Training Library File on the network shared drive using SharePoint.

Don't know how to create Launch Story to a file that a student can open in a shared drive Training Library and begin the course.

I need help.  Any suggestions?

Thank you.

Barbara Ann

Caroline Turner

A sensitive question... i am using storyline for my personal training company but recently spent time with a charity and know I can make a big difference to the work they do - so I approached them and they are very excited at what I can do, They will approach a separate part of the charity for some funding - on the one hand I want to support the charity but I also need to work - pay the bills etc.

I'm interested in how people charge for creating courses - project rate based on number of courses / hourly rate

I appreciate its a very personal - sensitive question but I don't want to either under or over charge.

Thank you very much

Caroline

Daniel Brigham

Caroline Jaenicke said:

A sensitive question... i am using storyline for my personal training company but recently spent time with a charity and know I can make a big difference to the work they do - so I approached them and they are very excited at what I can do, They will approach a separate part of the charity for some funding - on the one hand I want to support the charity but I also need to work - pay the bills etc.

I'm interested in how people charge for creating courses - project rate based on number of courses / hourly rate

I appreciate its a very personal - sensitive question but I don't want to either under or over charge.

Thank you very much

Caroline


Hi, Caroline and welcome: More important, in my view, than hourly rate and overall cost is properly scoping the project (i.e., figuring out what type of training would be best and what it's going to take (hours, personnel) to build it). Most new freelancers undercharge.

Show them projects on the Articulate Showcase (or projects you've done) to set their expectations around interactivity and quality of graphics and voiceover. Once you are on the same page regarding look and feel, you should have a pretty good idea of what it'll take to build it. Charge what you are comfortable charging and then add 20% for issues that will arise.

Some projects are impossible to scope until you are knee-deep in it. For these, I charge a flat fee for just figuring out what they want and what might work. (I learned this one from Sheila Cole and Holly McDonald who are active on this thread and a wonderful resource.) I present my plan to them, and if they like me and think I'm good, they'll usually hire me to develop it. Hope that helps a bit. Post back with questions, if you like. --Daniel

Daniel Brigham

Barbara Hacker said:

I'm a beginner in Storyline.  Created a couple of test projects of 3 to 4 slides.  Having difficulty following the Storyline tutorial about Publishing to a company network shared drive.  I've tried Publishing to CD.  

Saw the file with Launch Story, but don't know how to create a file that someone can click an attachment in an email and the attachment opens to a course.

Don't know how to save the project to email to send to committee members to see the demo.  

Don't know how to place the published project file from Storyline to a file that can be copied into our new Training Library File on the network shared drive using SharePoint.

Don't know how to create Launch Story to a file that a student can open in a shared drive Training Library and begin the course.

I need help.  Any suggestions?

Thank you.

Barbara Ann

Hi, Barbara: You'll get more responses if you post this query to the "Creating Better Courses" section of the forum (left side). This thread deals with issues related to elearning freelancing.
Carol Johnson

Such a great thread! I'm excited to start interacting with all of you and taking advantage of your knowledge and experience!

My husband Mike and I moved to Hawaii in 2011 for his job and are now looking to work in the e-learning training development field.

Mike's 35 year military career included a lot of training development and my background in graphic design and desktop publishing should be a great fit in this arena. We are already working on writing and developing our own courses on various topics and are anxious to get rolling with outside work as well.

Any advice or resources you can provide would be great. I'm a fantastic networker and marketer but if anyone has specific advice regarding e-learning freelancing, that would be awesome!

Mahalo!

P.S. Tom - if you're ever out in Hawaii again, let me know! I saw your posting from last year. I wish I would have known!!

Ann Evans

Hi everyone,

I'm developing some courses in Storyline which I want to sell "off the shelf" via my website. I wondered whether anyone on this thread has done this and whether they have any advice about potential pitfalls or marketing/selling ideas. Are there any online marketplaces  for selling courses (I can't see anything like this on Amazon)?

Ann

Andrew Sellon

Hello, Ann--I haven't sold standalone courses myself, but you may hear from others in this group who have.  One such marketplace for selling that I've seen advertising a lot at the eLearning conferences is a company called Open Sesame: https://www.opensesame.com 

The catch is that they want 40% of your profits from anything you post to their site, which seems rather steep.

Other folks may know of other sites with better pricing models, but at least you could check out that site to get a feel for how they operate.

Regards,

Andrew

Robert Stewart

Is this a job bank forum?

If so, then any company looking for storyline developer in Ontario Canada.

Have done storyline production for big companies in auto manufacturing and sales.

emailrobstewart@yahoo.ca

That's all one word emailrobstewart

If this is not a job bank forum for storyline then Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!

Daniel Brigham

Robert Stewart said:

Why does this forum not display latest posts first?

I had to click twenty times to read my post.

Thanks for the posting to Freelance Heroes, Robert. I'm sure you'll get contacted by a few Storyline pros. Sorry for the inconvenience in finding your post, but this is just one thread in the forum. Best, Daniel
Daniel Brigham

Hi, everyone: In preparation to archive the information and assets shared on this thread, I've just completed reading every post in this thread and its predecessor (Freelancers where do you find your gigs?) All told, 930 posts. Took about seven hours, including reading the articles and documents that were posted. I heartily recommend this practice to new elearning freelancers.

I want to thank you to all who have posted, and especially to Holly McDonald, Sheila Cole Bulthuis, Belen CasadoBruce Graham. I've learned so much from you.

I'm talking with Articulate about what we might do to better organize this thread. I'll let you know when I know something concrete. I'll be in touch. Thanks again for being a part of Freelance Heroes. 

Jerson  Campos

Something I've been wanting to do is go through this post and breaking them out into some kind of flowchart/diagram/spreadsheet/infographic document with links to all the great documents people have shared.  Put each different topic into their own category such as contracts, time estimation, dealing with customers, etc...  It'll be a huge undertaking, anybody wanna help?

Daniel Brigham

Hi, Jerson and PJ: Thanks for the offer. That's what I've done: gone through the thread, captured the main topics (and salient points within those topics), and archived the shared documents and links. At this point, it's looking like the recap will take the form of four articles to appear in the community blog section of the forum. Of course, I'll let the thread know when the first one comes out.

Thanks, Jerson and PJ, for making the thread a success. I'll be contacting you (if that's ok) as we re-invision the thread. --Daniel

Bruce Graham

Caroline Jaenicke said:

Quick question

have built a quiz that totals scores - looks great. I want audio on the result pages in each layer - it LOOK right, BUT when i preview all 4 audios are playing at once - what have I missed?

Thank you

Caroline


Hi Caroline,

Are you able to (re)post this over on the "Product Support" pages with an uploaded example?

I think you might get a much faster answer that way.

Hope you get this sorted.

Bruce

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