7 Things About Building a Growth Mindset
About the Project It’s been a while since I created something in Rise, so this was a nice chance to revisit it. I still love Storyline more for the flexibility and creativity it allows, but Rise made it easy to build a clean, fast microlearning experience. In this project, I used a brain-themed interaction where learners select different parts to discover simple, positive mindset shifts. Quick, encouraging, and easy to navigate! Implementation I designed this using the "7 Things" framework to keep the flow clear and focused. Each tip is revealed through a labeled graphic interaction, paired with warm, conversational voiceover lines to make the experience feel personal. The goal was to keep the visuals light and the messaging actionable, reminding learners that growth happens one small choice at a time. Try the Demo 7 Things About Building a Growth Mindset About Me Jayashree Ravi Learning designer passionate about creating thoughtful, engaging learning experiences. Feel free to connect with me here or on LinkedIn! Always happy to exchange ideas and inspiration.Converting Classroom Activities to Interactive E-Learning #465
This week, your challenge is to either rework an everyday classroom activity into an e-learning interaction, convert static content into an engaging e-learning experience, or share a tip or technique to help teachers transition from traditional classrooms to e-learning.20+ Examples of Interactive Comparisons in E-Learning #1
Interactive Comparisons RECAP #1: Challenge | Recap This week’s e-learning challenge asked course designers to build interactive graphics to demonstrate the relative size differences in the world’s largest aircraft. Ose Ndebbio Example | Ose Ndebbio | Website Emma Sajben Example | Emma Sajben Sharon Gan Example | Sharon Gan Paul Alders View project | Download | Paul Alders | Website | @paulalders Anuradha Gopu View project | Anuradha Gopu | Website | @AnuradhaGopu Alex Colburn View project | Alex Colburn Montse Anderson View demo | Montse Anderson | Learn more | @mLearning Jackie Van Nice View Demo | Learn more | Jackie Van Nice | @jackietrains Matt Guyan View demo | Matt Guyan | Website | @MattGuyan Dana Dutiel View demo | Learn more | Dana Dutiel | Website | @danadutiel Deanna Brigman View demo | Deanna Brigman | Website | @DMBrigman Johar Singh View project | Johar Singh | Website | @joharsinghs Maxwell Dziku View project | Maxwell Dziku Alexander Salas View project | Alexander Salas | Website | @stylelearn 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 the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Share Your Interactive Comparisons! The e-learning comparisons challenge is still open! If you have one or more ideas you'd like to share, please jump over to the original challenge and post your links in the comments section. I'll update this recap page to include your examples.Planning Your Localized E-Learning Projects
In this age of globalization and multinational organizations, companies want to deliver online training that will reach worldwide audiences. The result is e-learning content that needs to be tailored specifically for each cultural group. If you’ve ever had to design or develop a multilingual e-learning course, you know firsthand that developing content for multiple languages can be a heavy lift. This is especially true if you haven’t put in place early the proper planning measures to make the process smooth and effective. This article will identify what you need to know up front (long before any development begins!) to effectively localize or tailor e-learning content for a variety of cultural audiences. Understand the concept of localization When it comes to getting a course out in multiple languages, it’s a common misconception that all you need to do is translate the written content. There’s often confusion about the differences between translation and localization. Translation is the process of translating text and words from one language to another without making any adaptations. Localization is the process of translating and adapting content for a specific culture. It often involves making changes not only to the text but also to imagery, tone, colors, currencies, and more, to account for cultural and regional differences. In many situations, simply translating the text in a course is not enough; you need to adapt the content in order for it to make sense for learners across cultural barriers. For example, let’s say you’re developing an e-learning course for a multinational delivery service. The course is for delivery staff based in the US and India on how to safely deliver packages on time. In addition to translating the text from English to Hindi, you need to adapt the content itself to take into account local driving and workplace safety laws. You should also consider updating the imagery to more accurately reflect the learner's home environment. For example, the American version of the course might show background images of busy streets in New York City. For the Indian version of the course, those could be swapped out with images of the streets of Mumbai. The two cities look very different and each have distinct architectural styles, roadways, and vehicles. Additionally, an image of a delivery vehicle in the American course might show a cube van or bicycle; the Indian version might be a tuk-tuk or a rickshaw. These changes in imagery make the course more meaningful and relevant to the learner. Plan for localization up front The key to a successful localized project is to plan every step of the localization process from the get-go. You want to keep your multicultural audience in mind from the beginning to avoid quality issues, save time, and ensure a smooth localization process. Things to consider when you’re in the project planning phase include: Identify the target markets and languages you want to localize for You need to determine early on which languages you’ll be localizing for. Keep in mind that even though your learners may speak the same language, you may need to create multiple courses to take into account regional differences. For example, a course developed in Spanish might not work for both Mexico and Spain. Why not? In addition to the many linguistic differences between Mexican and Iberic Spanish, there are regional differences that need to be considered, for example: different products, procedures, laws, technical standards, and currencies. Plan to build in one language first It’s a good idea to plan to design, develop, and deliver the course in one language BEFORE localizing the course into other languages. If you develop all of your courses in tandem, you’ll find yourself doing a lot of re-work. To illustrate: imagine a Subject Matter Expert asks you to change two paragraphs in your course. It’s a lot easier (and more cost effective!) to do it in one language than in five different languages. Once the first course is complete, you can save time by localizing your course into the other languages at the same time. Plan extra time for development and testing It might seem obvious, but you’re going to need more development time when you’re building a course in multiple languages. In addition to developing the course in the first language, you’ll need time to adapt it to every other language, which will include development, testing, and review steps. It’s a good idea to plan for the localization process by adding in extra development and testing time to your project plans and timelines. Find the right localization resources Having the right resources in place can make the translation and localization process run more efficiently and smoothly. Resources include the tools and the people you’ll bring on board for your localization process. Authoring tool When you’re going to be translating an e-learning course into multiple languages, it’s a good idea to investigate ahead of time what translation features and multilingual options are available within the authoring tool you’re using. For example, Articulate Storyline 360 offers the ability to export text for translation and then re-import it, saving lots of development time. This is good to know up front, so you can plan your project and allocate time and resources accordingly. Translators The quality and experience of your translation team will have a huge impact on the caliber of the final localized output. When it comes to working with translators, it helps to find translation professionals who have experience with your industry or subject matter. When the translation team has even a basic understanding of the content they are working with, it makes a huge difference in helping them ensure it all makes sense and works. In terms of hiring translators, your options are generally a professional agency or a single contractor or freelancer. They each come with their own set of pros and cons. Professional Agency Pros Cons They will handle all the project management for all the languages. They often offer voice-over professionals for all languages. They sometimes offer to do the translation directly in your tool of choice. The quality is often not as high. Because at a large agency the translators do not know you personally and are not that invested in your project. Also, you work with a variety of translators who may each have a slightly different style, which could be reflected in the final output. Freelancer/Contractor Pros Cons The quality tends to be higher, as usually freelancers need to provide a good service in order to maintain a good reputation, stay in business, and ensure repeated business and future contracts. It’s often cheaper to work directly with a translator because they don’t have high overhead costs to cover. Takes more time to find, hire, and manage freelancers than it does to work with an agency. They may not offer project management, voice-over services, and more. Voice-Over or Narration Professionals If your project includes narration, you’re going to need resources to narrate in a variety of languages. If you’re working with a localization agency, as noted above, they may offer narration or voice-over services. If not, you’ll need to recruit voice actors for each language. Keep in mind when you’re on the hunt for a voice actor that differences in local dialects and accents can make a huge difference to your learners. For example, Australian and New Zealand accents may sound similar to an outsider, but to the locals they are completely different! Finding the right voice for your project can take time, so account for this in your project plans, as well as the time required to record in multiple languages. QA Testers Testing and quality assurance review is an important part of creating an effective and high-quality multilingual course. During the project planning phase, identify resources for the testing and quality assurance phase of your course development. What should you look for in your testers? They should be proficient in both the original course language as well as the language they are testing, so they can compare both versions and ensure the message is consistent. The tester also needs to be a good writer, with strong spelling, punctuation, and grammar skills, so they can spot mistakes in the written content. These are just some of the things to consider when planning a localized e-learning project. Remember that up-front planning will eliminate a lot of headaches and help ensure a smoother process and better end result. What tips of your own do you have about planning for localized projects? Let me know in the comments! Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.5 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).How I Became an E-Learning Instructional Designer #469
What Instructional Designers Do #469: Challenge | Recap Have you ever tried explaining your job to friends or family, and all you get are those confused looks? Even though our industry is booming, titles like “Instructional Designer” or “E-Learning Designer” are still pretty much a mystery to most folks. It usually leads to a bunch of questions: What kind of education did you need? What exactly do you do? What technologies do you use? Do you build those compliance courses I have to take? And, of course, what do you love about your job? Now, explaining all that can be a bit of a challenge, but it’s also a great way to show off the wide range of skills we bring to the table. And demystifying our profession is what this week’s challenge is all about. 🏆 Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share an example that explains what you do as an e-learning or instructional designer. Your example can be anything from a simple static graphic to a complex interaction. ✨ Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post. Forums: Start a new 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 to your posts so your great work gets even more exposure. Social media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can follow your e-learning coolness. 🙌 Last Week’s Challenge: Before you share your e-learning origin story, check out the drag-and-drop interactions your fellow challengers shared: Drag-and-Drop in E-Learning RECAP #468: 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.
