Designing Immersive Phone Conversations in Storyline
Ever have two characters talk in a training module, but it still feels flat; even with speech bubbles, audio, and triggers? This (FREE) Storyline phone conversation template changes that. Whether you're designing for sales, compliance, healthcare, or support, it creates real, layered convos that feel like you're eavesdropping on a call. Animated phone effects Realistic voiceover dialogue Transparent APNG waveforms (way better than GIFs!) Custom triggers for pick-up/end call Clean, modern layout with animated text Watch how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMpUcYJRNnE Preview the demo: https://www.redesignedminds.com/Discuss/story.html Download it free: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19AvmE7q3PAUbXoNKIViQtPNqCwUoFDQW/view?usp=sharing If your training includes a conversation, this is how you bring it to life.Expert Insight Needed!
Hi Everyone! I am a graduate student in an Instructional Design and Performance Technology program. In my Distance Learning Policy and Planning course, we are conducting an informal research investigation on current use of technology in our field. We are tasked with finding out what practitioners are using out in the real world, and how they feel about those technologies. Can you please share the platforms you use and your own personal feelings about these technologies (what works well, what is challenging, etc.) for purposes such as: Delivering instruction or training (such as an LMS) Communication and collaboration Assessments or testing Analytics Thank you so much for helping me learn from your experience!❓What Is an LMS… Really? And How Do LRS and LCMS Fit In?
I’ve noticed a surprising lack of consensus around this in the industry so I thought it might be useful to do deep dive and ask: 🕵️What is a Learning Management System (LMS)? Is there an official checklist that a piece of software has to meet to earn that title? And what about a Learning Record Store (LRS)? Or a Learning Content Management System (LCMS)? The answer? There isn’t actually a universal, enforceable definition that says, “This is an LMS!” Instead, the industry’s largely settled into a “call it what we want” model, where marketing often defines classification more than behavior. 🤷 But from a practical engineering and standards-based perspective, I think we can be a little more precise—especially because specs like AICC, SCORM, xAPI, and cmi5 clearly define the roles and responsibilities of LMSs compared to other components. 💡Here’s how I define an LMS at the functional level If a piece of software does all three of the following, I consider it an LMS: Hosts eLearning content built to a standard (like AICC, SCORM, xAPI, or cmi5) and makes it accessible via a portal or interface Provides user/learner management (logins, assignments, access controls, etc.) Records user/learner data and makes that data available for analysis or reporting Why those three? Because every major eLearning specification includes a section titled “LMS Responsibilities”—and when you distill that down to a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), these are the pieces that remain consistent. All other features—dashboards, UX bells and whistles, analytics layers—are useful but not required for a system to be an LMS by role. Many elements of an LMS are actually outside the scope of eLearning specifications! 🔍What About an LRS? A Learning Record Store (LRS) is similar in some ways, but with a few key differences: It doesn’t need to host the content (though it can) It can treat events or content as "experiences" tracked through xAPI It identifies users, but doesn’t typically manage roles or course permissions It records structured learning data, but doesn’t always offer built-in analytics In essence, LRSs are structured databases designed for learning data. Because of their database-like nature, they’re often paired with LMSs in what I’d call "LMS/LRS hybrids"—systems that handle frontend access and user roles while leveraging xAPI data for deeper analysis. Fun fact: cmi5 itself is a kind of an LMS/LRS hybrid by design. It was created specifically to fill the gap left by xAPI’s lack of LMS-like mechanisms, such as content launching and attempt tracking. 📚And an LCMS? An LCMS (Learning Content Management System) is the fusion of two worlds: A content authoring tool An LMS While it’s not a spec-defined term, it’s useful for describing platforms that allow you to both create and deploy learning content in one place. These systems can really streamline workflows and help teams consolidate tools. There are a few LCMSs out there on the market—and depending on your use case, some may even straddle the LRS category too! 🤔Is that all there is to it? Maybe! But it's a huge world out there and the number of LMS and LRS platforms grows and shrinks almost daily. Each one brings its own nuances and minor differences, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a type of system out there I haven't encountered yet! Your turn: Which platform(s) do you use and how would you classify them—LMS, LRS, LCMS, or a hybrid? Or, are there other criteria you’d add to the list when deciding what qualifies as an LMS? It's a big world out there, and I can't explore all of it alone, so I look forward to hearing others' thoughts and ideas!PowerPoint Meets AI: Testing 5 Motion Models
When it comes to adding AI motion, many designers bounce from one model to the next, often frustrated by strange results. Some eLearning apps don’t give the motion we want natively, and others take too long to configure, making it hard to know where to start. So, I tested 5 AI models on the same slide with the same prompt to see how each performed. The results were surprising: one nailed the physics, another went off into odd morphs, and a few missed the mark entirely. The lesson? Every model has strengths, but the right fit depends on your design goals and willingness to experiment. Watch the full tutorial: https://youtu.be/Udtg1X81mow Download the AI Models for Motion – Comparisons chart: [AI Models for Motion - Comparisons.pdf - Google Drive]Who here has an e-learning portfolio?
Hey all—as I've been chatting with community members lately, something that's coming up a lot is e-learning portfolios. I thought it might be interesting to start a thread and have folks share your portfolios in the comments. Bonus points if you add a couple of notes to your comment about what you see as best practices for portfolio creation—if I get a bunch of comments here I can create a summary of best practices for folks who don't have portfolios yet to read! Really looking forward to seeing some of these 🙌Organising project phases
Hi there! I'm curious to learn how others organise the workflow when creating E-Learning content. I personally find kind of challenging the final revision, in which I need to check that everything in the content is well and adjusted. I was thinking in creating a checklist that could be used as a support but I don't really know what kind of format could really be useful... any idea? How do you usually check that everything is perfect right before delivering?Large Sim Projects
A question came up on the community chat about large simulator projects. Just my way of doing this. In the past I was asked to create a course on a computer program that had 5 main functions with over 25 different sub-functions. I divided the 5 functions into separate projects. This made it easier to keep track of slides and information. The subfunctions were divided into scenes. This made it easier to review and send to stakeholders to review and approve. Once the scenes were done and approved, I made a scene to bring it all together with some intro information, objectives, and anything else that was needed to start that function section. This can be used as one course or imported into a master all-inclusive course. Just my thoughts.E-Learning for Beginners
New to e-learning? Our in-depth e-book will tell you everything you need to know. You’ll be creating great courses in no time! Grab this free e-book to learn: What e-learning is all about How e-learning can benefit your organization and learners The step-by-step process for creating courses How to get the right content from subject matter experts What technology and tools you’ll need in your toolkit How to design e-learning that really works5 Ways to Use Animated GIFs in Your E-Learning
Animated GIFs—or image files that act like a short video that loops endlessly—are everywhere these days, on social media, in blogs, and even in e-learning courses! That’s right, instructional designers are using these eye-catching multimedia assets to grab their learners’ attention—and you can too. Check out these ideas to get inspiration on how to incorporate animated GIFs in your courses. 1. As Course Header Images If your learners have a ton of courses in their dashboard and you want yours to stand out, try using an animated GIF in the course header, like in this example: Mars Curiosity Rover. It’s a surefire way to get your course noticed. 2. As Attention Getters GIFs are eye-catching. Have you noticed how hard it is to look away even when you’ve already seen the same animation loop 10 times over? That’s what’s so great about them. Their movement naturally draws your learners in and incites them to pay attention. Not convinced? Take a look at this Rise 360 course: Space Travel–Themed Interactive Infographic See how the GIFs draw you in and make you want to click on the interactive parts? I thought so. 3. To Illustrate Key Messages But GIFs can do more than just catch your learners’ eye. They can actually help learners better understand the concepts you’re teaching them. Check out the GIFs in this course, for example: An American’s Guide to Driving in France. See how the GIFs support the key messages? 4. To Lay Out the Steps in a Process If you’re creating a how-to course, you might be tempted to make a video. And that’s definitely one way of doing it! But if people need to replicate the steps one by one, they might need to rewind each step and watch it over and over again. What a pain! Instead of creating a lengthy video or screencast, why not create a GIF of each step, making it easy for people to rewatch the steps as needed, like in this article on how to make coffee? 5. For Comic Relief If the topic of your course is particularly dry, it might be a good idea to work in some humor to make sure your learners don’t fall asleep. GIFs are a great way to do that! However, be careful to not overdo it. A humorous GIF here and there is one thing; peppering every section of your course with them is another. Here's an example that uses humorous GIFs effectively. Another thing to keep in mind with humor is that it’s subjective. Test your course out on a trusted coworker or two and make sure they find the GIFs to be both work-appropriate and funny. The Bottom Line As with anything, it’s important to keep in mind that too much of a good thing is bad. When using animated GIFs, make sure they’re helping and not hindering the learning process. After all, the goal is to get your learners to focus on the content and retain the key messages. If you’re sold on using animated GIFs in your courses but aren’t sure how to go about creating your own, check out this tutorial. Like this article? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (Formerly Twitter).Your Handy E-Learning Course Review Checklist
Remember taking tests back in elementary school when your teacher told you to always check your answers before turning it in? Same for an e-learning course. Before you deliver a course to learners, you want to look over your course to make sure it’s the very best it can be. But when you’re reviewing your course, what should you look out for? Every e-learning project is different, so no one checklist will work for everyone; however, here are some of the main things you’ll want to watch out for in your review. Review the Course Content No surprise here. The content is the most important part of your course, so you want to make sure you’re hitting the mark. If you’re not a subject matter expert, you should find one to help you with this part. Here are some questions to ask as you look through your course: Are the learning objectives measurable? Does all the content support the learning objectives? Is there any content that could be taken out? Is there any content missing? Have all the facts been checked and referenced appropriately? Does the course follow a logical order? Do the images accurately represent the course material? Do the examples and/or scenarios accurately portray the real-life context? Will the learners find the characters relatable? Does the quiz focus on the course objectives? Are the quiz questions clearly stated? Are all the quiz options believable (even the wrong answers)? Do you clearly state what learners need to do to pass the course? Here are some additional resources to help you fine-tune your content: How to Write Good E-Learning Objectives for Your Online Course The Dos and Don’ts of Separating Need-to-Know from Nice-to-Know What to Do When Your Course Has Too Much Content How to Create a Successful E-Learning Knowledge Check Copyedit the Text If your course is like most, text is a key part of the learning experience. Grammar and spelling errors are not only distracting, they actually skew your key messages. Here are some things to keep in mind to make sure you’re getting your point across: Are there any grammatical or spelling errors? Are you using punctuation and capitalization appropriately? Are there any run-on sentences that you could split up into shorter, more concise sentences? Are you using the active voice? Are you using the same voice throughout (for example, “I” or “you”?) Can you replace any adverbs (for example, running rapidly) with more precise verbs (for example, sprinting)? Are there any superlatives like "high-quality" or "excellence" that you could take out? Is there any jargon you should take out or explain? Is the voice-over script written in a conversational tone? Does the voice-over script provide notes to the voice talent on pronunciation? If writing isn’t your strong suit, check out these articles for more tips: Top Writing Tips for E-Learning 5 Tips to Improve Your Technical Writing Skills More Than a Dozen Tips for Writing Awesome Audio Narration Scripts Listen Closely to the Audio If your course has any voice-over audio, make sure to listen to it with these questions in mind: Is the audio used meaningfully? Or is the narrator just reading the on-screen text to learners? Does the voice-over follow the script word for word? If not, do any of the slight changes make a difference? If not, edit the script to match the audio. If there are changes that affect the meaning, ask the person to re-record that section. Are there any distracting background noises that need to be taken out? Is the audio volume at a good level (not too loud, nor too soft)? Is the volume and quality consistent throughout the course? Does the tone and inflection sound natural? Never worked with audio before? This article will help you get started: Audio Basics for Online Course Design. Assess the Design While people say not to judge a book by its cover, the reality is that we all do it. The course design is the first thing your learners will notice. If you want them to pay attention, it’s important their first impression be a good one. Here are some questions to ask yourself to make sure you’re on the right track: Does the design respect the brand guidelines (if applicable)? Does the design complement the subject matter? Is the design cohesive throughout the course? Are the objects aligned as they should be? Are all the images of similar style and quality? Are images and illustrations meaningful? Or are they merely decorative? Are fonts used consistently throughout (type and size)? Are all screenshots free of personal information? Do all buttons and hyperlinks look and behave the same (for example, if one button has a hover state, do they all?) so learners understand they’re clickable? If your design skills need a little work, check out these helpful resources: Visual Design How-Tos for E-Learning Developers User Interface Design: 3 Things E-Learning Designers Need to Know Test the Functionality Building a course from scratch using a tool like Storyline that allows you to personalize everything (the player, menu, navigation, quiz options, etc.) lets you create your course exactly how you imagine it. But with all this freedom comes responsibility: it’s your job to make sure everything is working the way you intended. Here are some items to add to your review checklist: Buttons and Hyperlinks If you’ve personalized the navigation of your course in any way (by adding buttons, changing the branching options, etc), check and make sure everything’s working as expected. Here are the steps I recommend going through: Make sure there’s no Previous button on the first slide. Go through the course from start to finish, click on all the Next buttons. Make sure there’s no Next button on the last slide. Go backward through the course, clicking on all the Previous buttons. Now go through the course again, starting from the beginning. Click on any other buttons (that open a layer, for example) or hyperlinks and make sure they’re working as expected. Menu Can you access all the sections of your course from the menu? Are all the titles correct? Is everything in the right order? Player Is there a seekbar on all slides with audio or video? Does the seekbar end at the end of the audio or video? Or does it extend far beyond it? If your course has audio, did you include an audio button so learners can turn the audio off or adjust the volume? Animations Are the animations synchronized with the audio (if applicable)? Do all the animations appear and disappear as expected? Videos Does the video play all the way through? Is the audio high quality? Quiz Questions Go through the quiz, making sure to select the correct answers and review the feedback. Make sure the score correctly shows you’ve gotten 100% at the end and that the correct amount of points is shown (if applicable). Go through the quiz again, this time selecting the incorrect answers and reviewing the feedback. Make sure the score correctly shows you’ve gotten 0% at the end and that the correct amount of points is shown (if applicable). Go through the quiz a third time. Alternate right and wrong answers. Check the score again and make sure it’s correct. Go through the quiz a final time, alternating right and wrong answers again but in the opposite order as the time before. Make sure the score is reporting correctly. Note that if you’re using a tool like Rise, you can skip this part of the review since all the functionality is prebuilt and it works perfectly every time. Check for User-Friendliness Once you’ve tested your course and you’re sure the content, design, and functionality are as expected, ask a potential learner to test it. They’ll be able to give you some great feedback about the course content and usability that you, as the course creator, are too close to the project to see. Here are some questions you should ask them when they’re done viewing the course: Content Was the course helpful and relevant to your job? What are the three most relevant things you learned? How confident are you that you can apply the new skill(s) you learned on the job? Is there anything you didn’t understand? Do you think the quiz accurately assessed your understanding of the course materials? Were the questions too easy, too hard, or just right? Was the feedback too detailed, not detailed enough, or just right? Usability Were the navigational instructions provided explicit enough? Did you always know where to click, or did you sometimes feel lost and unsure where to click? Armed with this checklist, you can deliver your course to learners knowing you did everything you could to make sure it fits their needs, works properly, and looks professional. Remember: if it’s not perfect (and no course ever is) you can always go back and make changes later on, after you get learner feedback. And while we’re on the topic of course review, here are some other great resources you should check out: Why We Love Articulate Review (and You Will, Too) Speed Collaboration with Articulate Review 3 Ways Articulate Review Is a Big Gift for Course Developers 5 Steps to an Easier E-Learning Course Review Process Follow These 3 Tips to Put the “Pro” Back In Your Review Process Rise Example: A Course for Stakeholders on the Review Process What do you think of this checklist? Is there anything on your review checklist that I missed? If so, please share in the comments section below! 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