Blurred Backgrounds in E-Learning Course Design #366
Blurred Backgrounds Effects in E-Learning #366: Challenge | Recap Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share an e-learning slide, demo, or design comp that features blurred backgrounds. Try to include before-and-after examples to show how your background graphics transformed your original slides. Bonus: Share your backgrounds as a separate asset or download. We'll post a blurred backgrounds round-up to share your bundles of blurred goodness in a few weeks. Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post. Forums: Start your own thread and share a link to your published example.. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. Social Media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge or #ElearningChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. Last Week’s Challenge: Before you dive into this week's challenge, take some time to check out the interactive video examples your fellow challengers shared over the past week: Interactive Video in E-Learning #365: Challenge | RecapUsing Vector Graphics to Design E-Learning Courses #545
As course designers, you know that coming up with new design ideas can be a challenge. With so many free stock photos, videos, and AI-generated images out there, you'd think things would be easier, right? But the real challenge isn’t finding design assets. It’s using them in a way that doesn’t look like every other cookie-cutter course out there. This is where setting some creative limits or constraints can actually help. For example, you could use a single vector illustration as the foundation for your entire course. It might sound impossible, but it can lead to some surprisingly creative results. Let me show you an example so you can see how it works. How to Become a Good Leader Andrzej's example is one of my favorite examples of this technique. Using a stock illustration, he built a six-slide course template from the individual elements. Take a look at the following example to see how his final project turned out. View project | Download | Andrzej Jabłoński Ex Uno Plura At first glance, you might see just one image, not the many smaller pieces that make up the illustration. To work with these parts, open the file in a graphics program like PowerPoint or Illustrator. Open the vector file (.ai, .eps, or .svg) and ungroup it to select the individual shapes you want to use. Depending on how complex the illustration is, you might see a lot of layers. I like starting with the smaller elements since they’re easier to select. You can then select, group, and export these elements to use in your course design. Now you have everything you need to create the visual elements for your e-learning template. 🏆 Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to build a simple interaction or course starter template in Rise or Storyline using just one illustration. Be sure to include a screenshot or a link to the stock graphic you used, so others can learn from your example. 🙌 Share Your E-Learning Work You put in the effort, now make sure your work gets seen: Personal blog: If you have a blog, please write about your example from this week’s challenge and share the link with your submission. Social media: Please share your examples on LinkedIn and mention both David & Articulate using the #ElearningChallenge tags so we can help promote your work. Support your peers: With the new submission format, you can comment directly on each example. Try leaving helpful feedback on at least three projects this week. Community forums: Feel free to cross-post in the forums to give your work even more visibility. 🙌 Last Week’s Challenge: Before you break apart this week’s challenge, check out the accordion examples your fellow challengers shared over the past week: Accordion Interactions for FAQs in E-Learning #544: Challenge | Recap 👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article.Creating E-Learning Templates from Vector Graphics #376
E-Learning Templates from Illustrations #367: Challenge | Recap Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to build a simple interaction or course starter template using a single illustration. Please include a screenshot or a link to the stock graphic you used to help others learn from your example. Resources How to Edit SVG Graphics in PowerPoint How to Edit Free Vector Images in PowerPoint 36 Mixing Photo and Illustration Examples in E-Learning Design #312 Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post. Forums: Start your own thread and share a link to your published example.. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. Social Media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. Last Week’s Challenge: Before you break apart this week’s challenge, check out the xAPI examples your fellow challengers shared over the past week: xAPI Examples from E-Learning Designers #375: Challenge | Recap New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article.Using Accordion Interactions in E-Learning (2023) #403
Using Accordion Interactions in E-Learning #403: Challenge | Recap Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share an example that shows how accordion interactions can be used to group and organize content in e-learning. Can I see some examples of accordion interactions? Sure you can. We've hosted three accordion challenges over the past 10 years and the results are always amazing. Here are some recent challenges, recaps, and community roundups to help you get started. Using Accordion Interactions in E-Learning #350: Challenge | Recap Accordion Interactions in E-Learning #227: Challenge | Recap 4 Accordion Examples to Inspire Your Next E-Learning Project Make E-Learning That Sings with these 6 Accordion Interaction Downloads 9 Accordion Interaction Downloads for Arranging Courses Awesomely Basic Accordion This accordion from Montse is a good one to build when you’re first getting started with Storyline. The expanding panels are manually repositioned on slide layers to reveal each panel’s content. View the example | Download Semi-Animated Accordions In this example from Jonathan, motion paths are used to open and close the accordion’s panels. I like this example because it’s an excellent way to simulate advanced accordions without using variables. In addition, because there aren’t multiple panels, there’s no need for variables and multiple motion paths to track each panel’s position. View the example Animated Accordion In this accordion example, multiple motion paths combined with variables are used to expand and contract each panel. You can download the source file and view a video tutorial to learn more about the project and how it was built. View the example | Download the source | Learn how it was built More Examples of Accordion Interactions Using Accordion Interactions in E-Learning #350: Challenge | Recap Accordion Interactions in E-Learning #227: Challenge | Recap 4 Accordion Examples to Inspire Your Next E-Learning Project Make E-Learning That Sings with these 6 Accordion Interaction Downloads 9 Accordion Interaction Downloads for Arranging Courses Awesomely Require Learners to Click All Panels Before Continuing Functionally, accordions are similar to tabs in how they group and chunk related content. But unlike tabs interactions, accordions expand, collapse, and move around the slide. This requires designers to duplicate interactive objects across multiple layers. The good news is if you know how to do it with tabs, you can do it with accordions. Let me show you how it works. View on YouTube Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post. Forums: Start your own thread and share a link to your published example.. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. Social Media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. Last Week’s Challenge: To help ensure your challenge demo goes "accordion" to plan, check out the creative ways course designers use subtle patterns and textures in e-learning: Patterns and Textures in E-Learning RECAP #402: Challenge | Recap New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. Next Week’s Challenge I'm hosting a how-to webinar next week on building accordion interactions in Storyline 360. I'll reference this week's challenge in the session and share any examples you've shared before the session. Next week's challenge (2/10/23): Creating E-Learning Interactions Inspired by Google Doodles << Thanks to Tom and Elizabeth for the idea! Upcoming how-to webinar (2/7/23): How To: Build Accordion Interactions in Storyline 360 It’s been a while since I’ve done the accordion webinar, so your latest accordion examples will help the session feel fresh and current.How are Escape Room Games Used in E-Learning #432
Using Escape Room Techniques in E-Learning #432: Challenge | Recap Escape rooms are adventure games where a group of players are locked in a room (real world or digital) and tasked with solving a series of puzzles and challenges to unlock a door leading to their escape. Popular escape techniques include: Locks and Keys: Locks and keys are foundational technqiues for unlocking new clues, items, or levels of the game. Sequence Puzzles: Players complete tasks or steps by clicking, sliding, dragging, or turning objects in a specific order. Hidden Objects: Players search the room for concealed items for solving other puzzles—a good opportunity for drag-to-reveal interactions. Even if you'd never consider using an escape room-type game in your own courses, they're still a fantastic way to practice advanced techniques. And that's what this week's challenge is all about! ✨ Example of an Escape Room Game Here’s a fantastic example from Karlis Sprogis of an escape room created in Storyline 360. View the example | Learn more about the project Last Week’s Challenge: Before you reveal your example, check out the creative ways course designers reduce on-screen text and boring bullets in e-learning: Bullet Point Makeovers RECAP #431: Challenge | Recap 🏆 Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share an example using escape room techniques. You can choose any theme you like for your demo. The thing with escape room games is that they can go from tricky to frustrating quickly. Try to find ways to integrate hints, clues, and even cheats into your example. 👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. 📅 Next Week’s Challenge & Webinar Next week's challenge #433 (9/19): Using Lightbox Slides in Storyline 360 Upcoming webinar (9/22): Using Lightbox Slides in Storyline 360 Got an idea for a challenge? Are you interested in doing a webinar showcasing how you made one or more challenge demos? Or do you have some comments for your humble challenge host? Use this anonymous form to share your feedback: https://bit.ly/ElearningChallengeForm.
