Storyboard Templates for E-Learning #48
Storyboard Templates for E-Learning#48: Challenge|Recap Challenge of the week This week your challenge is to share an example of your preferred e-learning storyboard, blueprint, or scripting template. We want to see what you use and learn how you use it! Tools You can use Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio, or PowerPoint to create your e-learning storyboard examples. Resources Here are a few resources to get you thinking about storyboards. Storyboard templates: Check out the free templates in our downloads gallery Blog posts: Elearning Storyboarding 101 6 Tips for Managing & Developing Your E-Learning Projects Forum discussions: Storyboarding vs. rapid prototyping e-learning projects Storyboarding e-learning courses in Storyline E-Learning Storyboards and Examples Time-Lapse Demo: A Very Basic Storyboard Template Word vs. PowerPoint: Which do you use to storyboard your courses? Storyboarding a serious comic Using Storyline to storyboard projects Estimating storyboard development times Tips for working with e-learning storyboards Share your e-learning work Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your e-learning storyboard and blog post. Forums: Create your ownthread in our E-Learning Heroes forumsand share a link to youre-learning storyboard. Personal blog:If you have a blog, please consider writing about youre-learning storyboard process. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. Twitter:If you share youre-learning storyboardson Twitter, try using#ELHChallengeso your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. Facebook:Reply tothis Facebook postwith a screenshot of youre-learning storyboardand a link to your template or blog post. Last week’s challenge Before you storyboard this week’s challenge, take a moment to check out the e-learning call center demos your fellow community members shared inlast week’s challenge: E-Learning Challenge #47: Call Center Training in Online Learning More about the e-learning challenges: The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of theprevious challengesanytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Even if you’re using a trial version of Studio ’13 or Storyline, you can absolutely publish your challenge files. Just sign up for a fully functional,free 30-day trial, and have at it. And remember to post your questions and comments in the forums; we're here to help.97Views0likes39CommentsCreate a Simple E-Learning Game #24
E-Learning Games#24:Challenge|Recap I know there are a lot of folks in the community who are looking to build games in Storyline, or who just want to know more about using games in e-learning. If either sounds like you, then you’ll love this week’s challenge. This week we’re going to look at transforming a quiz into a simple e-learning game. View the E-Learning Game|Download |Video Tutorials In reality, these types of games are more like glorified progress meters than high-production games. But they’re fun for learners to take, and just as much for course designers to build. Choose a Gamified Theme What type of game do you want? One option for game themes is to align the game to the rest of your course content. Think of a new hire course where the objective is to collect important documents from different departments. Maybe you browse the aisles of your company “store” and fill your cart with your departmental items. Another option is to choose something more off-the-wall like an adventure game or a treasure hunting scenario. Backgrounds Create Context Once you’ve found a theme, the next step is to head over to your favorite stock photo site for some background graphics that match your theme. Because the background graphic is the largest slide object, it sets the context for your e-learning game. Select the Style of Game How do you want your learners to move through the game? Two common ways include: Linear: Learners follow a path of challenge questions. Each time the learner answers correctly, the learner moves forward along the path. Markers along the path are updated visually to indicate correct and incorrect choices. Non-linear: Learners move through the game by choosing one of the markers or buttons placed around the game board. Clicking a marker loads a new challenge question. After answering the question, the learner is returned to the game board and the marker is updated visually to reflect a correct or incorrect answer. Building the Quiz As with most interactions in Storyline, you have multiple options for how you structure your game. Depending on your goals, you’ll find one method fits better than the other. You essentially have two ways to build your file: Single Slide Everything is built on a single slide. This is an efficient way to structure your file because it enables you to easily share your final game template. Because all quiz questions are built on slide layers, Storyline’s built-in quiz results options won’t be available to track and report the game scores. Separate Slides The other option is to build your questions as separate slides. Using your game board as your home slide, each marker loads a quiz question either as a lightbox slide or jumps the learner to the new slide. After completing the question, the learner is returned to the home slide where the marker is updated to reflect the learner’s correct or incorrect answer. This Week’s Challenge This week your challenge is to build a simple e-learning game. Tools You can use Articulate Storyline or Articulate Quizmaker to create your e-learning game. To get you started, take a look at thise-learning gamefrom our downloads gallery. Last Week’s E-Learning Challenge To help you find a game plan for this week’s challenge, take a look at the highlights from last week’s branching scenarios challenge: Jackie Van Nice kicked off this week’s challenge with an elegant example of smooth animations and creative type design. Be sure to check out Jackie’s blog post to learn more about her design process. Awesome demo, Jackie! Kimberly Bourque followed up with a creative example that asks learners to guess their leadership style before beginning the simulation. Well done, Kimberly! Gemma Henderson put together an illustrated example that features a creative rollovers for the question choices. Amazing example, Gem! El Burgaluva shared a creative, character-driven example that features photo characters and chat boxes for each scenario. Great demo, Leslie! How to Build a Simple E-Learning Game Learn how to build an e-learning game in this video tutorial series. New to the E-Learning Challenges? Theweekly e-learning challengesare ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build youre-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of theprevious challengesanytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.52Views0likes154CommentsRebuild This Interactive Timeline #13
Interactive Timelines #13: Challenge|Recap This week’s challenge idea comes from community member David Baker who shared a really cool timeline example in the E-Learning Heroes forums. There’s a lot going on in this interactive timeline. The timeline is a menu slide that branches to different events. It features colorful rollovers and menu items that shift and expand when clicked. View the interactive timeline Challenge of the week This week, your challenge is to rebuild Big History Project’s interactive timeline. This is our first challenge where everyone is working from the same source project. The tool you use to recreate this project will impact your design considerations. For example, the dynamic menu effect is not possible with most tools. You’ll want to capture the essence of the effect, whichever tool you choose. Recreating existing projects is a great way to practice your course design and technical skills. Discussion questions Along with your project, share some insights about how you approached your project. How long did it take you to build your demo? How did you approach your design and development? Did you sketch out the project? Or did you jump right in and start building? What was the biggest challenge you encountered? Would you do anything differently? Provide feedback This is a good opportunity to practice evaluating and critiquing projects. Because everyone’s working from the same starting point, it’s easier to spot differences between projects and provide constructive feedback on another user’s project.Here are a few ideas to get you started: What do you like about the demo? What did they do really well? Is there a tip or suggestion you would offer the designer? What did you learn from the demo? Tools You can use Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio ’09, or Articulate Studio ’13, to show and share your interactive timeline. Last week's challenge Before jumping into this week’s timeline challenge, check out the timeless examples your fellow community members shared in last week’s interactive infographic challenge: Jeff Kortenbosch kicked off the infographic challenge using both Storyline and Studio ‘13 to create a character-driven interaction. What’s cool about building the same demo in Storyline and Studio is the ability to compare production workflows and outputs from each tool. Paul Alders shared a custom puzzle interaction that helps users “get the picture” on why Storyline’s custom states are so powerful. I love how the puzzle pieces rotate when dragged. Ana Lucia Barguil shared an interactive map example that show percentages of Portuguese across the world. I really like how Ana used Storyline’s slide layers to simulate the zoom in effect for the countries. Ana always shares her source files so be sure to take a look at how she put her project together. Thanks, Ana! Mark Woolwine leveraged his clip art and flat design challenge demos for this week’s challenge. I really like vertical layout and the way he separated the interactivity from content sections. I could see this making a very nice template <wink>. Kelly Prince shareda demo that you won't forget. Great use of color and layout in this interactive markers demo. David Lindenberg posted a healthy example of creativity in this timeline makeover. Raymond M shared an interactive sample showing how The Wall compares to other large structures. Have an great timeline this week, E-Learning Heroes! Even if you’re using a trial version of Studio '13 or Storyline, you can absolutely publish your challenge files. Just sign up for a fully functional, free trial, and have at it. And remember to post your questions and comments in the forums; we're here to help. For more e-learning tips, examples, and downloads, follow us on Twitter.27Views0likes31CommentsInteractive Org Charts in Online Training #43
E-Learning Challenge #43: Challenge|Recap Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to design an interactive graphic to introduce an organization’s team members or key players. Tools You can use Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio, or PowerPoint to build your interactive who’s who or org chart. Resources Here are a few resources to get you started. If you know of any good interactions that would support this week's challenge, please include them in the comments section. Blog posts: Interactive Scenarios: Snapshot Focus Effect Here’s a Simple Way to Convert Your Course to an Interactive Story Horsing Around with Articulate Storyline Templates: Interactive Story (PowerPoint) Tabs Interaction: Meet the Team (Storyline) Customizable Drag-and-Drop (Storyline) Interactive Images: Snapshot Focus Version 1 | Version 2 (Storyline) Last Week’s Challenge Before you introduce yourself in this week’s meet-and-greet, take a look at the smartphone videos your fellow community members shared in last week’s challenge. Share YourOrg Chart Examples! We have a new org chart challengefor 2019. Head over to thecurrent challengeto share your work.26Views0likes144CommentsShow Us Your Best Folder Tabs Interactions #2
E-Learning Challenge #2:Challenge|Recap Tabs interactions Working with a lot of related content on a single slide can be challenging. Our instinct directs us to space content across multiple slides to avoid overloading our learners with too much information. Tabs interactions are a great way to chunk content into meaningful sections—or tabs—so learners can remain focused in the moment without jumping out to new slides. Challenge of the Week Tabs interactions come in all shapes and sizes. Show and share your best, out-of-the-box ideas for an innovative tabs interaction: Objective: Design a 5-tab interaction. Tabs should be on the left or the right and need to be persistent over slides or layers. PowerPoint and Storyline users should take a look at using slide layouts to maintain tab states over multiple slides. Storyline users have a few more design tools including states, slide layers, and variables. Tools: You can use Storyline or PowerPoint to create your interaction or infographic. And no, using the pre-built Engage tabs interaction doesn’t count <grin>. Resources: Check out Tom’s inspirational post this week. He shared a bunch of free tabs templates in both Storyline and PowerPoint. We also have some free templates for Storyline and PowerPoint in the downloads section. Common E-Learning Interactions: Tabs Navigation (2018) #199 Share yourtabs interaction examples in ourcurrent challenge.22Views0likes159CommentsEducation Podcasts in Online Training #39
Education Podcasts in E-Learning(#39): Challenge|Recap I've always been a big fan of audio podcasts for everything from learning to entertainment. One of my favorite audio projects comes from StoryCorps. Specializing in capturing oral history, StoryCorps travels around the country setting up MobileBooths—recording studios housed in Airstream trailers. They invite pairs of people to interview each other for 40 minutes about the most important moments in their lives. StoryCorps keeps a copy and provides participants a CD copy of the interview.They even offer a freeDo-It-Yourself Instruction Guidefor capturing and recording your own interviews. While their focus is on storytelling and oral history, there’s plenty of interviewing techniques course designers can apply to their own training projects. So I thought it’d be interesting in our challenge this week to switch gears from a visual focus, and instead play with our audio sense to design a podcast. Challenge of the week This week your challenge is to record your answers to the following 10 interview questions: E-Learning Podcast Interview Questions: Tell us a little about yourself and the types of e-learning projects you most enjoy. How did you become an e-learning or instructional designer? What are the essentials of good e-learning design? Tell me about your most successful e-learning project. What are the most important criteria in evaluating e-learning? What are some common mistakes new course designers make and how can they avoid them? How is designing mobile learning different than designing for the desktop? How do you evaluate whether your course was effective? How do you keep up your skills and stay current in the industry? What is the future of e-learning? Save each audio clip as its own file. Use a naming convention that makes it easy to identify each audio file to the corresponding question. You can use numbers (1-10) or any format that works best for you. In the comments section or on your own blog, link to each of your 10 audio clips. I’ll compile each of your questions into an interactive audio project. Tools You can use Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio, Audacity, or any other audio recording program to record your podcast. Last week’s challenge Before you sound off in this week’s challenge, check out the amazing game templates your fellow community membersshared inlast week’s template challenge: Melissa Milloway joined the weekly challenges with a creative menu-themed game board. Melissa later jumped into the challenge with a gamified tribute to Game of Thrones. Terrific examples, Melissa! Jackie Van Nice adapted her game template for a sales training project with a tropical theme and Mai Tai progress meter. You can read all about Jackie’s project over at her blog. Jackie also shared a PowerPoint version of her game template. Mary Cropp shared a really awesome demo that takes learners on a hospital tour to learn about potential donors while restoring sight to blind people. Great concept, Mary! Richard Watson took learners on a culture quest with his creative adaptation of the template. Thanks, Richard! Scott Truelove hit a homerun in his baseball-themed game that puts learners in the championship game with the option to choose type of pitch. Great concept, Scott! Nick Russell shared another creative demo with this corporate game that takes learners on an ethical journey while trapping demons in a cookie jar. You heard me. Check out the demo and the Storyline template he shared. Awesome, Nick! Dan Sweigert rocked out with this e-learning hit that teaches learners what it takes to break into the music business. You can read more about Dan’s rock star project over at his blog. Great job, Dan! Julia B joined the community with her first e-learning challenge that teaches learners all about good dog training. Lots of treats in this demo, Julia! Dana Dutiel shared a bellissimo game idea that teaches the science of baking. Mark aced his demo with this above par sales game. Great demo, Mark! Daniel Brigham asked learners to help Johnny overcome his fear of writing research papers in this hand-drawn game template. Nicely done, Daniel! Share Your E-Learning Podcast Interview! View the current podcast challengeand share your own answers to the interview questions.21Views0likes103CommentsHow Are Course Designers Using Characters in E-Learning? #18
Characters in E-Learning#18:Challenge|Recap One of the most active topics in our community is around using characters in online courses. Whether they’re photographic, illustrated, or animated, and whether you call them avatars, talking heads, on-screen coaches, or pedagogical agents, instructional characters can help connect your learners to the content. Examplesof characters in e-learning Presenter character A popular way to use characters in courses is as a virtual host or presenter that guides your learners through the e-learning course. View the character host example Interactive Characters Usinginteractive markers and labels you can introduce your learners to a cast of real or fictitious characters. View the interactive character example Challenge of the week This week your challenge is to show us how to use characters in e-learning. You can create static slides that show character-based ideas, or build something more dynamic to show the interaction between characters. Tools You can use Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio ’09, Articulate Studio ’13, or PowerPoint to show your character-inspired interactions. Resources You May Already Own the Tools to Create Simple E-Learning Avatars 7 Tips for Better E-Learning Scenarios Forum discussions Using photos of real company people in your courses Advantages of using characters in e-learning courses What do you think of animated avatars in e-learning? Customized characters with movements and expressions Changing a character's expression on a timeline How to choose your course avatar Case study using avatars Fun with avatars Is it possible to have characters talk? Getting characters to change state along the timeline Building characters with cartoons Tutorials Using custom states to bundle your most-used character poses How to create character packs with your own photos and illustrations Create your own characters and sets using the PowerPoint drawing tools Change state of character in Storyline when dragged over another shape How to use the Storyline characters & triggers to build interactive elearning & feedback Additional resources Jeff Goldman has a helpful character chart Last week’s e-learning job aids challenge You guys sure dragged out some amazing examples for our last weekly challenge. One of the things I love about these challenges is the way you all bring your own individual touch to each one. To help stay in character this week, check out the inspirational examples your fellow community members shared in the last challenge: David Lindenberg shared a great example of giving learners a choice between taking the formal course or getting the facts from a job aid. Ari Avivi shared a blended example that demonstrates one way to incorporate handouts with the online course. Nice work, Ari. Joseph Ramanui shared an elegant language training example that features course-based activities and quick reference guides. Jenise Cook demonstrated how job aids and resources can support online new hire orientation training with organization charts, office maps, and security policies. Great ideas, Jenise! Jeff Kortenbosch created an interactive demo for software training. This is also a great example of how you can mock up ideas for these challenges without having to build out the entire demo. Be sure to download Jeff’s source file that he shared. Using Characters in E-Learning#247 Share yourcharcterexamples in ourcurrent challenge.20Views0likes95CommentsShow Us Your E-Learning Portfolio #46
ShareYour E-Learning Portfolio (#46): Challenge|Recap Challenge of the week This week’s challenge is all about your e-learning portfolios. We already know you do awesome work, and we want to help others find your awesome work. Last week’s e-learning challenge E-Learning Audio Tips & Tricks Share Your E-Learning Portfolios This challenge is closed, but you can share your e-learning portfolios in the following challenges: Audio Interviews: Share Your Tips for Creating Effective E-Learning Portfolios #138 Share Your E-Learning Portfolios with Rise 360 #254 Share Your E-Learning and Instructional Design Portfolios #33318Views0likes157CommentsBring This Medical Training Course Back To Life #6
E-Learning Challenge:Challenge|Recap Medical Design Template I received some questions from users asking if they can submit ideas for the weekly challenges. Absolutely, yes! Just send me your challenges, makeover candidates, or even your existing courses and presentations, and we’ll work them into a community challenge. Now, on to this week’s challenge. Shift your creativity to resuscitate an actual project that needs a little doctoring: E-Learning Hero Karyn Campbell shared the basic project requirements in this forum thread. Take a look before you jump into the challenge, and feel free to post any follow up questions in Karyn’s thread. Challenge of the Week Show and share your re-design ideas for a medical e-learning course template: Objective: Using the source files provided, create a clean, flat, medical design theme. Try to work within the provided color requirements (included in the forum thread and the source files) and comp out 2-3 slides for this design. Tools: You can use Storyline, Studio, or PowerPoint to create your static or interactive examples. Source files: Download Resources: Take a look at Tom’s post on finding brainstorming ideas for your e-learning courses. And then use this post on common layouts in e-learning templates to guide your theme design. We have a couple good discussions on creative ideas for medical courses and ideas for making medical courses more engaging. Medical design themes for inspiration: Template Monster 55+ Best Health Medical WordPress Theme 12 of the Best Health & Medical WordPress Themes Last week’s challenge One of the things I like most about these challenges is the inspiring level of creativity that comes from sharing your own ideas and projects. I feel like I’m already a better course designer following each of your great demos. To prep you for this week’s course dissection, check out the lab results from your fellow community member’s contributions in the desktop and office theme challenge: Mariann Toth kicked things off with an office-themed exploration activity. Not only is this a great idea for a new hire course or spot-the-red-flags type activity, but she also built every graphic element in Storyline… and, shared the source file. Adrienne Tange put together a winning desktop theme replete with sticky notes, notepads, pencils, and tablet. Gabi Cahalon shared a notebook theme template featuring labeled graphics and sticky tabs navigation. Rachel Ingram threw things in a different direction in her Cubicle Basics demo where learners throw a crumpled paper ball to navigate slides. Have a healthyweek, E-Learning Heroes! Medical Course Starter Templates Share your e-learning examples in the current medical course starter challenge.16Views0likes26CommentsShowing Meaningful Comparisons in E-Learning #1
E-Learning Challenge #1:Challenge|Recap This week I worked with an Articulate Storyline user who needed to build some interactive feature comparisons for their products. The interactions needed to simplify product data (specs, costs) and show meaningful comparisons between their products and their competitors’ products (size, weight, proportion). It made me aware that you can also apply comparisons beyond technical training. For example, you can feature comparisons between behavior (legal vs. illegal), decision-making (ethical vs. unethical), choices (good vs. poor), and more. You could build comparisons on almost anything. The key is to show them, so they’re meaningful to learners. And that's what this week's challenge is all about. Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to use the provided source files to create an interactive demo to compare the different sizes of aircraft. Objective:Design an interactive graphic to show relative sizes for a series of airplanes. Check out this Wikipedia entry on giant aircraft for inspiration. Assets:Download the airplane graphics. They’re available in .png (transparent) and .pptx (PowerPoint) formats. Tools: You can use Storyline, Articulate Studio, or PowerPoint to create your interaction or infographic. Share Your E-Learning Challenge Demos This is a great way to practice your visual communication skills while building youre-learningportfolio. To share your files, do one of the following: Comments:Use the comments section below to share a link to your published project. The comments section allows links but not attachments. You should use the forums if you have a question or want to share your source files. Forums:Create a newthread in the forumsand share a link to your published source file. You can also attach your project files if you want help or feedback. Personal blog:Post your published example on your blog or website. Examples Here are a few examples to get you started: Scale of the Universe Powers of Ten Planet size comparison What You Can Do in 25 Square Meters Cell Size and Scale The Size of Our World Kingdom of the Blue Whale Great whales Tapuiassauro, the new dinosaur from Brazil What are the E-Learning Challenges? Theweekly e-learning challengesare ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of theprevious challengesanytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in thisQ&A postand why and how to participate in thishelpful article.16Views0likes154Comments