What is the best practice for building slides in an elearning course? Should the slides be animated, or should all of the bullets appear at once? Please explain the rationale behind your answer. Thank you.
Kimberley - first of all, a warm welcome to the Heroes community.
Secondly.................
"Oh - were it that simple....."
eLearning tools are only the tools we use to make the learning work. That is why some Instructional Designers (like me) seldom, if ever, discuss this sort of thing with clients.
Here's a thing.......
There are no "rules", (keep that a secret....).
Have a look on Google at something like "Gagne's 9 events of Instruction". That's what makes eLearning "tick". If you are concentrating on, for example, animations and bullets, you are saying (pretty much...) that one needs to be sighted to learn. What about sight-impaired or blind people? They learn too!
So....
"Best practice" in designing eLearning is not about the mechanics, it's about the end-product. What do people need to "DO" differently? How do you get to that point?
"Nothing to do with animations or bullets, effective learning has. All about how much behavioural change the learning generates, it is. Hmmmmmm."
Sorry to get all "Yoda" on you for your first post, but effective training has nothing to do with animations or bullets.
All the answers you need to know are here, but the answer is not one that has anything to do with the question as posed.
It is a 30-45 minute elearning enhancement session on HIPAA. I have 3 videos to show as examples and as fun. There is narration throughout the presentation.
I try to avoid bullet points (both in real life and when I'm developing courses).
One of the things I've found is that we (as instructional designers) need to manage cognitive load, redundant audio and text will tend to overload the brain. If you want to use bullet points of text, I would suggest that you bring in each bullet point separately but the text should be minimal. By minimal I mean a couple of words or a phrase. I also tend to shy away from having the slides themselves from flying in, unless I'm going for a specific look.
I try to avoid bullet points (both in real life and when I'm developing courses).
One of the things I've found is that we (as instructional designers) need to manage cognitive load, redundant audio and text will tend to overload the brain. If you want to use bullet points of text, I would suggest that you bring in each bullet point separately but the text should be minimal. By minimal I mean a couple of words or a phrase. I also tend to shy away from having the slides themselves from flying in, unless I'm going for a specific look.
I'm going to echo sentiments of Bruce and Cary, as well as recommend the book "e-Learning and the Science of Instruction" for research-based design principles for use of multimedia for instruction. The results of some educational technology experiments are published for consideration in this book. Many of test results provide insights to things like when to use audio, ideal timing / synchronization of animations with audio, images, etc. Just some helpful guidelines.
There are two tests I use when I'm testing a design.
1. How quickly do I get sick of putting content into the same structure
2. How do my non learning colleagues and/or my 13 yr old daughter respond to it.
let me elaboarte.
1. If I am constantly excited about the design, it means I've most likely put in so many different features that the end learner is spending more time enjoying the style than the substance. As a developer I'm looking at the slides hundreds of times. It should be boring to me because I'm now focueesed on the content not the delivery.
2. Fresh eyes are always important. If i can engage the 13 yr old, most likely I can hold the attention of an adult. A non learning colleague isn't looking at anything other than the comfort factor. if they are comfortable with the design, then they are more likely to be engaged ( or in the case of compliance training, less annoyed about doing it)
Just another perspective.
The other question I have is about timelines. Does it really need to be 45 minutes? Unlike classroom learning where the learner can drift off and have other areas of the brain stimulated, in elearing it is intense and personal. Just a thought, but you might want to look at soemthing smaller in scope that would give you a higher level of actual transferrence.
Regarding the initial question... If you're building a passive, training-VHS-like course, then please don't use animations. Your learners will most likely not take away anything, but you can at least spare a few minutes of their life by removing animations, transitions and allowing to skip slides.
If you're building an interactive course that offers learners to DO something (e.g. make a decision, make a choice, provide an answer, imagine a scenario, see consequences etc etc), you will quickly find yourself NOT using bulletpoints because they don't fit this kind of design at all.
10 Replies
Hi Kimberly, it depends. Will there be narration?
Kimberley - first of all, a warm welcome to the Heroes community.
Secondly.................
"Oh - were it that simple....."
eLearning tools are only the tools we use to make the learning work. That is why some Instructional Designers (like me) seldom, if ever, discuss this sort of thing with clients.
Here's a thing.......
There are no "rules", (keep that a secret....).
Have a look on Google at something like "Gagne's 9 events of Instruction". That's what makes eLearning "tick". If you are concentrating on, for example, animations and bullets, you are saying (pretty much...) that one needs to be sighted to learn. What about sight-impaired or blind people? They learn too!
So....
"Best practice" in designing eLearning is not about the mechanics, it's about the end-product. What do people need to "DO" differently? How do you get to that point?
"Nothing to do with animations or bullets, effective learning has. All about how much behavioural change the learning generates, it is. Hmmmmmm."
Sorry to get all "Yoda" on you for your first post, but effective training has nothing to do with animations or bullets.
All the answers you need to know are here, but the answer is not one that has anything to do with the question as posed.
See you around the boards.
It is a 30-45 minute elearning enhancement session on HIPAA. I have 3 videos to show as examples and as fun. There is narration throughout the presentation.
Bruce, thank you for your reply. I completely agree with you, however, you didn't answer my questions for my sighted learners. Please advise.
I try to avoid bullet points (both in real life and when I'm developing courses).
One of the things I've found is that we (as instructional designers) need to manage cognitive load, redundant audio and text will tend to overload the brain. If you want to use bullet points of text, I would suggest that you bring in each bullet point separately but the text should be minimal. By minimal I mean a couple of words or a phrase. I also tend to shy away from having the slides themselves from flying in, unless I'm going for a specific look.
Sorry - it is the same answer. I'm not sure what else I can say.
I'm going to echo sentiments of Bruce and Cary, as well as recommend the book "e-Learning and the Science of Instruction" for research-based design principles for use of multimedia for instruction. The results of some educational technology experiments are published for consideration in this book. Many of test results provide insights to things like when to use audio, ideal timing / synchronization of animations with audio, images, etc. Just some helpful guidelines.
Kimberly,
There are two tests I use when I'm testing a design.
1. How quickly do I get sick of putting content into the same structure
2. How do my non learning colleagues and/or my 13 yr old daughter respond to it.
let me elaboarte.
1. If I am constantly excited about the design, it means I've most likely put in so many different features that the end learner is spending more time enjoying the style than the substance. As a developer I'm looking at the slides hundreds of times. It should be boring to me because I'm now focueesed on the content not the delivery.
2. Fresh eyes are always important. If i can engage the 13 yr old, most likely I can hold the attention of an adult. A non learning colleague isn't looking at anything other than the comfort factor. if they are comfortable with the design, then they are more likely to be engaged ( or in the case of compliance training, less annoyed about doing it)
Just another perspective.
The other question I have is about timelines. Does it really need to be 45 minutes? Unlike classroom learning where the learner can drift off and have other areas of the brain stimulated, in elearing it is intense and personal. Just a thought, but you might want to look at soemthing smaller in scope that would give you a higher level of actual transferrence.
r.e.
Since everyone's recommending books, I thought I'd mention "Design For How People Learn" by Julie Dirksen.
If you want something more lighthearted and concise, look at Cathy Moore's blog. Start here: http://www.slideshare.net/CathyMoore/dump-the-drone-easy-steps-to-livelier-elearning
Regarding the initial question... If you're building a passive, training-VHS-like course, then please don't use animations. Your learners will most likely not take away anything, but you can at least spare a few minutes of their life by removing animations, transitions and allowing to skip slides.
If you're building an interactive course that offers learners to DO something (e.g. make a decision, make a choice, provide an answer, imagine a scenario, see consequences etc etc), you will quickly find yourself NOT using bulletpoints because they don't fit this kind of design at all.
Supershort version: Bruce is right.
Looks like Tom read this thread!
http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/five-sure-fire-ways-to-get-rid-of-bullet-points/
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