Revisiting my very first module

Jan 21, 2014

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Hi my fellow e-Learning heroes,

A few months ago I posted 3 of my very first modules created with Storyline 18 months ago, after getting lots of feedback from the community and lots more experience working as freelancer, I decided to revisit module1.1 and see how much I could improve it.

So here is the link to my new and improved module

http://cardio-rhythms-online.articulate-online.com/4813942976

 

and here the first version

http://cardio-rhythms-online.articulate-online.com/4813929501

As always any feedback is appreciated,

Oscar.

 

 

 

A cloud of mystical dust appears, shrouding Oscar in its magic. You roll a six. The cloud dissipates and Oscar is gone...

16 Replies
Nick n/a

@Oscar,

I did enjoy the fact that your 'new and improved module' came up in a full screen.

The first version had empty space and I didn't really like seeing the menu on the side either. Seeing a website address was annoying as was the same logo on each slide.

I would be interested to know who this module is directed at. Having a personal teaching philosophy is a good thing but in my experience in the classroom and other training areas telling students 'this is my teaching philisophy...a) b) c)' doesn't always work.

Also if I want to repeat the module again then I re-read your teaching philosophy. I don't mind it once I guess but I'd love to be able to skip it and sink my teeth into the main content.

I can see the arrow keys at the top but a 'click here to skip' would be a nice thing.

When you introduce the magnifying glass I want to use it straight away. Having that control taken away from me as a learner is annoying. I guess it depends on the age and type of learner you have. I  just want to try  it out first to learn out to use it. Being told 'this is what this is for and how to try it' and then having no opportunity to do it makes me think twice about using it..

It also vanishes later in the slides. Makes me feel like a tool I can use has been taken away from me.

The voiceover makes it very refreshing IMO. A calm, clear voice to guide you through the slides is nice.

I'm not sure why your voiceover at the end stops and then the character has a bubble saying open the door. Feels a little disjointed.

But overall I like it.

Nicholas

Oscar Guillen

Hi Nicholas,

Nice hearing from you again, it has been a while and thanks for your feedback.

  • The teaching philosophy is the way my wife teaches during her live seminars and on the modules, is kind of a mission statement and something she aims in every teaching session.
  • I could have added a "Click here to skip" button but wanted to keep the layout very clean, plus like you say you can always use the right arrow to skip.
  • I almost created a tutorial slide where you have to drop the magnifying glass into a check box to be able to continue to the next slide, but didn't want to look too patronizing, also the magnifying glass is only available in some slides, the ones that need it.
  • Will pass your nice comments to my wife, she does have a nice voice even if I say so myself.
  • I didn't include the voiceover for the speech bubble because I thought it wasn't needed but on second thoughts it may look neat.

Anyway, thanks again for your feedback and glad you liked it.

Oscar.


A cloud of mystical dust appears, shrouding Oscar in its magic. You roll a six. The cloud dissipates and Oscar is gone...

Nick n/a

Your second version is a big improvement on the first.

I can understand that your wife uses a teaching philosophy during live seminars.

You always a few minutes opening to people in f2f training and adults have a great deal of patience and will sit there and normally take it. (Not meant to mean I dislike the teaching philiosophy.)

My point was that in an online elearning course could you find another way to build it into the course instead without being a visible slide based list of objectives that 'we are aiming for'.

Like an invisible hand.

Bruce Graham

Hi Oscar,

Not sure this is going to read very well - but here goes...... 

While a personal teaching philosophy is a great thing, is it perhaps more suited to the pre-course "sell" phase?

Ask yourself - at this point, do the learners care?

That section talks about "the students..." in the 3rd person, yet it is one of your paying students that is watching the course! That all seems just a little condescending to me.

I think this could be a small module on it's own, perhaps a link off a "How do we build our courses" section of a website or something, however, it really seems a little irrelevant and perhaps-self indulgent to put it into a course, when (presumably) all the student cares about is The Basics of Cardiology, (or whatever)?

Oscar Guillen

Hi Nicholas and Bruce,

Sorry guys forgot to hit the "Subscribe to replies"  button.

@ Nicholas, as you very well point out she is the one with the teaching degree, so she does the script for the modules and I do the work in Storyline and so far we are still married

@ Bruce, I do appreciate your comments and I think Maxine will be the right person to answer to your reply, after all she is the one with the  PGCE in teaching and learning.

Maxine Guillen

Hi everyone

thanks for your constructive comments. Thanks Oscar for revisiting the module, the design is much improved from my first attempts at Storyline, I'm very happy with how this has worked out, and have had many nice comments from the cardiology community.  Interesting discussion re: my including my "teaching philosophy". Basically it's just something I do at the beginning of live seminars (thought I would include it in the elearning modules also), as a way of saying that the subject matter involved really requires the students to be more actively involved in the learning process, rather than just learning facts for exam purposes. I didn't mean it to sound condescending or self indulgent, rather that the learner, in this subject matter, needs to take further responsibility for expanding their own knowledge, and to continually build on that through clinical practice. That said, having listened to replays of my own voice in our joint office, this particular slide could be condensed! Anyone else have trouble listening to their own voice overs?...would love to hear from you x

Nick n/a

@Maxine

I think in eLearning you can't suddenly adust your style of teaching or change content according to the needs of the learner immediately.

Live f2f seminars allow for more freedom and you'll always have to adust slightly to different learners.

Thanks for the post.

Any feedback I'm providing is an opinion. I also have a strong background in education. I haven't tried voiceovers yet.

Nicholas

Nick n/a

@Maxine

''My point was that in an online elearning course could you find another way to build it into the course instead without being a visible slide based list of objectives that 'we are aiming for'.''

I was putting forward a question asking if course objectives could be in-built in the course to guide learners along without being visible.

Like in the form of links or colours etc.

Other then that I'm sure the 'Teaching Philosophy' works well in a live seminar. I've done the same previously with '3 Simple Rules.'

1. Respect

2. Learn

3. Enjoy!

Nicholas

Nick n/a

@Maxine

This thread has material on adjusting eLearning to individual learners:

http://community.articulate.com/forums/t/43491.aspx

To borrow from what Cary said:

''This is one of the weird and difficult parts of designing eLearning. The learners may be novices or experts, they may be interested in the subject or look at it as a waste of time. Yet we have to design learning that meets their needs. As a classroom instructor I can tailor information on the fly depending on the audience; this is much more difficult with eLearning.

I'm thinking one way to do this would be to have separate scenes that could provide more information or links so that people could explore the field to gather a greater depth of knowledge. It would also be possible to build a separate test for experts where they would have to research some of the information themselves. ''

I'm looking for the gradual evolution of electronic-Learning to that point.

Nicholas

Nick n/a

@Maxine

Happy to know you liked my post on Human Lifetime Learning.

I'm not really sure if living 200-300 years would make a bigger difference to be honest from a learning viewpoint.

Maybe trying out more jobs and roles and then even more training.

But to make it fun here's an interview with a 2000 year old man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnLqLHWDg5E

Around 4.20 he describes one of his jos back then. Not sure of the training he needed for it.

Nicholas

Phil Mayor

Hi Oscar

I have had a look at this, it looks nice.  I would agree with Bruce on the philosophy I just don't think it fits here, if you want to put it in have it as a n optional section (e.g. Click here to view out philosophy).

Your terms and conditions could do with formatting correctly, looks like they have been cut and pasted from word and then not corrected.

I don't like the watermark on the images it although it says your name and i understand why you use it but it looks like you have stolen it from a stock photography site.

I would avoid using the slider that isn't a slider on the quizzes as to me it is wrong from a UI point of view. I also don't like the change of interface change when you enter the quiz, I would always stick with one UI in a course.

You have good production values, the audio sometimes feels a bit rushed, but it does work.

Finally your colour palate I am not sure if you changed the default but if you have the palate you chose is so close to the Microsoft/Articulate default palate, I would always advise any client to create their own branding guidelines and for any developer to step away from the defaults to differentiate your work.  You have made your course not look like a storyline course but the use of the built in characters and the default palate makes it obvious what tool you used.

Overall though a nice high quality build, I am just being picky.

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