Using Dials and Sliders to Select E-Learning Characters #311
Using Sliders with E-Learning Characters #311: Challenge | Recap Using characters in e-learning courses is one of the easiest ways designers can personalize the learning experience. In a previous challenge, we looked at different ways learners can choose their avatars. Character selection techniques shared include text entry, drag-and-drop, click-to-select, surveys, dials, and sliders. Regardless of the technique, you’ll need to work with variables to track the learner’s choice and display the correct character throughout the course. Selecting Characters Using Sliders in Storyline 360 If you haven't worked with variables, dials and sliders make the process a little easier to get started. When you insert a dial or slider, Storyline automatically creates a number variable for you. Thanks, Storyline! As you drag the slider, the variable's value is adjusted based on the range you define. Based on the number variable's value, you can perform any number of actions such as jumping to slides, personalizing feedback, and identifying which character to use throughout the course. I put together a simple demo and source file to help you get started. View example | Download Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share an example that lets learners choose their avatar using either a dial or slider. You don't have to create two examples. Choose either a dial or slider to use in your demo. If you have time, you're welcome to create two versions of your example using one of each. Please consider sharing your source file this week. Resources Webinars: Getting Started with Variables in Storyline 360 Using Number Variables in Storyline 360 Using Text Variables in Storyline 360 Using True/False Variables in Storyline 360 5 Ways to Personalize E-Learning Courses User Guide: Storyline 360: Working with Variables Storyline 360: Adding Variable References E-Learning Challenges: Use Learner's Name in E-Learning Course #222: Challenge | Recap Using True/False Variables in E-Learning #271: Challenge | Recap Using Variables to Compare Learner's Answers #292: Challenge | Recap Random Number Variables in E-Learning #278: Challenge | Recap 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 dial into this week’s challenge, check out the creative ways the glassmorphism design style can be used in e-learning: Glassmorphism Design in E-Learning #310: Challenge | Recap Wishing you a great week, E-Learning Heroes! 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.Introduction to JavaScript for E-Learning
Have you heard e-learning developers talking about JavaScript? Are you wondering what all the fuss is about? Good news! This is the intro you need to understand what JavaScript is, why it’s relevant to e-learning, and how you can get started using it to create dynamic e-learning with Articulate Storyline. What’s JavaScript and Why Is It Useful for E-Learning? JavaScript is a computer programming language developers use to make websites interactive. How does that help your e-learning courses? Well, let’s imagine for a second that Mr. JavaScript is applying for a position at Storyline Corp. The hiring manager and Mr. Player are eager to learn if Mr. JavaScript is the right choice: If Storyline Corp. hires Mr. JavaScript, they’ll be able to use his expertise to help Mr. Player do even more. Let’s take a closer look. Why Would You Use JavaScript? Storyline lets you create dynamic interactions with the combination of triggers, actions, conditions and variables. That’s all available for you, out of the box, without JavaScript. Why would you use JavaScript then? JavaScript lets you do things to extend the power of the built-in tools in Storyline. For example, augmenting Storyline with JavaScript lets you create math functions such as generating random numbers, rounding numbers up or down, working with dates and time, and more. String functions are also powerful in JavaScript. String functions are things like splitting text to count the number of words, searching and replacing text, or checking text for keywords. Storyline's three variable types (number, text, and true/false) require different triggers to execute the actions. This means that when you're building very complex, highly interactive courses you may end up with dozens of triggers in the triggers panel. Using JavaScript allows you to group a bunch of variables together. This can speed up the course development process and streamline the number of triggers in the triggers panel. In other words, you can accomplish more with fewer lines of code. Where to Start with JavaScript Think of JavaScript as an ally that you can use to strengthen your Storyline power. I would suggest learning the basics of JavaScript before you integrate it into Storyline. It makes debugging easier. Here are some great ways to really get started with JavaScript: JavaScript Road Trip Part 1 on CodeSchool JavaScript Tutorial on W3schools Fundamentals of JavaScript on Codecademy E-Learning Challenge #132: Using JavaScript and Storyline Keep coming back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any comments, please share them below.Make Over Your Rise 360 Course in 4 Easy Steps With Themes
Rise 360 has always been a fantastic tool for creating courses fast. And with the templates and other flexible options, even people without graphic design experience can feel confident that their Rise 360 projects will always look polished and professional. That’s why we’re so excited about Rise 360 themes. Themes give you even more ways to put your unique spin on the look and feel of your Rise 360 courses. And just like everything else about Rise 360, the themes feature makes creating beautifully designed courses easy—no graphic design skills needed. So let’s take a closer look at four easy steps you can follow to refresh your overall course design with a new theme, pique your learners’ interest with cover pages and lesson headers, reinforce your branding, and customize the course navigation experience. Step 1: Update the Overall Course Design With a New Theme The easiest way to give your course’s visual design a little facelift is to choose from the three prebuilt themes included in Rise 360. These themes are great for setting the overall look and feel of your project in one fell swoop. Let’s look at how to choose a theme and the available theme options, below. Choosing a Theme Start by opening any existing Rise 360 course on your Rise 360 dashboard. Select Theme in the upper right corner, and then click Change Theme. Rise 360 includes three professionally designed, ultra-stylish themes—Rise, the classic theme you’ve come to know (but with a few more customization options), plus two brand-new ones: Apex and Horizon. Following is a quick overview of each theme. Rise Our original theme, Rise, always looks modern and clean—a tried-and-true design choice that never goes out of style. Apex For a bold, contemporary, and striking design with angular finishes, choose Apex. Horizon When you want to give your course an elegant, sharp, and stylish makeover—complete with understated flourishes—Horizon is a great choice. They’re all so beautiful, right? Not sure which theme works best for your content? We’ve got you covered! Check out 3 Ways to Use Themes to Tailor Your Rise 360 Projects for some pro pointers. Once you’ve decided on a theme for your project, click to select it and you’ll see it applied to your project in the adjacent preview pane. Being able to preview your theme choice is handy because if you’re not in love with it, you can simply click another one. And if it’s love at first sight, click Save to apply it to your project. While you can use each theme as is, you also have loads of options for customizing key theme elements such as the cover page, lesson headers, and other features of the user interface, like colors, fonts, and navigation. We’ll explore some of these customization options in the next few steps. Step 2: Grab Learners’ Attention With a Custom Cover Page and Lesson Headers A cover page is your first opportunity to grab a learner’s attention, so why not customize it to fit the course topic or your company branding and really make it count? Select Cover Page from the menu and pick a stylish layout. If you’re opting to add a course image to your cover page, you can upload your own image or browse the wide selection images available in Content Library 360, which is built right into Rise 360. Pro Tip: You can also crop images directly in Rise 360. That means no hassling with a separate image editing app to tailor your course images to your project. To make your theme branded, upload your logo too. Customizing the Lesson Header option is another nice way to draw learners in and direct their attention to your content. You can choose from a variety of header designs or customize them with your own color or image. You can even adjust lesson headers to make them taller or shorter to create more or less white space, as you can see in the GIF above. Step 3: Reinforce Your Brand Identity With Custom Colors and Fonts The design choices we’ve walked through so far are quick but powerful ways to transform your course, but they’re really just the tip of the creative iceberg! You can also brand your course with custom colors and fonts to make sure it more fully aligns with your brand guidelines. Colors You can choose the Colors option to customize course accents like the menu and progress bar. Rise 360 makes picking eye-catching colors easy with curated options you can apply with a single click. But what if you need to bring in your official brand shades? No problem. Choose the Custom feature and select any color you’d like. Fonts Another easy way to brand your Rise 360 projects is to customize the fonts. Choose the Fonts option to find the perfect typeface for your project. Not sure where to start? Try the Recommended pairings—a fast way to make sure your headings and body fonts go together perfectly. For even more flexibility, click More to browse a selection of pre-installed options. And if you want to use your official brand fonts, just click Manage Custom Fonts to upload the ones you need and use them throughout your course. Step 4: Complete the Transformation With Custom Navigation and Button Styles You’ve got the cover page, lesson headers, colors and fonts fine-tuned. The final step in making over your Rise 360 course is to customize course navigation and button styles. Navigation In Rise 360, you’ve always had the option to show, hide, or disable the sidebar navigation. And now we’ve added more ways to customize course navigation so you can create the perfect experience for your learners. To start exploring your options, choose Navigation. Both Compact and Overlay navigation are great for making your content the star of the show. Choose Compact navigation to tuck your lesson menu away in a corner, where it can be quickly expanded with a click when learners need it. Another great option is Overlay navigation. When learners need to view the menu, they simply click the ☰ (hamburger) icon and the menu overlays the lesson, filling the screen. Love keeping things familiar? The always reliable Sidebar menu is a great choice with more options to choose from. Don’t want to include a navigation menu at all? No problem. You can remove it entirely—just as you’ve always been able to do in Rise 360. Buttons Want to continue customizing your course? Don’t forget about button options! Pick the button color that’s right for your course or branding. You can even refine your Previous and Next buttons by making them full width or floating—or you can remove them entirely. It’s totally up to you! Want to see how themes and custom settings can be combined for different effects? Check out the following example course. We present the same content three different ways and with minimal customizations so you can see for yourself. Explore Horizon Explore Apex Explore Rise Customizations: compact navigation, large header height Customizations: overlay navigation, small header height, custom color Customizations: sidebar navigation, medium header height, custom color Wrap-Up Not only does the themes feature give you a host of new ways to express yourself, wow your learners, and brand your Rise 360 content, it’s also streamlined the course creation process by consolidating theme settings all in one place—right at the top of the authoring environment in Rise 360. With so many options to customize your project's look and feel, you can rest assured knowing that whichever professionally designed theme you choose, your course will look fantastic on any device. And all of these thoughtful features and enhancements mean Rise 360 just keeps making it easier to create stunningly unique and stylish courses your learners will love. For more tips and inspiration on how you can start using themes in your e-learning, check out these helpful resources: Quickly Create Uniquely Stunning Courses with Rise 360 Themes 3 Ways to Use Rise 360 Themes to Tailor Your Projects How to Brand Your Rise 360 Course Want to try the new Rise 360 themes but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial! 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.Let the Knuffle Bunny Help You Combine Photos and Illustrations in E-Learning #312
Mixing Photos and Illustrations in E-Learning #312: Challenge | Recap “Aggle flaggle klabble!” If you're familiar with the Knuffle Bunny series, you'll know the anxiety Trixie felt when she realized she'd lost her favorite stuffed animal. For course designers, coming up with a new design style for an important client can be equally frustrating. The good news for Trixie is she gets her favorite toy back. But the even better news for e-learning designers is they can pull a page from this creative children's series to design a custom look and feel for their course. The Knuffle Bunny Visual Design Style The book's visual style answers age-old questions in e-learning, such as: "Can I mix different types of images in my course?" and "Should my character styles match my background graphics?" Short answer: When designed with intentionality, this mixed medium approach works well. Consider how the book's visual theme uses real-life scenery with hand-drawn illustrated characters. This is a fantastic example of how bitmap and vector graphics can be combined to tell a story. The author uses photos he took around New York City. Great idea for shooting your custom e-learning graphics. The images are then digitally modified to reduce their color and contrast to create dull, monochromatic images with varying shades of brown. The characters are drawn in bright colors and make an interesting focal point when layered above the photos. We may be too old for the Knuffle Bunny, but the unique mix of black-and-white photos and custom illustrations create a timeless design style. And that's what this week's challenge is all about! Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share an example that mixes photographs and illustrations. You don’t have to follow the Knuffle Bunny design style strictly. Just be intentional about your design choices and show how your theme carries across multiple content slides. Knuffle Bunny Book Series You don’t need to buy a book for this week’s challenge. If you search for phrases like “knuffle bunny images” you’ll find enough inspiration to kickstart your design ideas. For those of you who are interested in the series, you can find the books below. Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale (original) Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion Related Challenges We’ve hosted a few challenges that tie in nicely with this week’s topic. Feel free to cross-post your entry if you incorporate one or more of the following challenge elements into this week’s demos. Shoot Your Own E-Learning Background Graphics #10 E-Learning Noir: Using Only Black and White in Course Design #172 Using the Paper Cutout Effect to Design E-Learning Graphics #235 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 dive into this week's challenge, check out the creative ways interactive sliders can be used to let learners choose their e-learning characters: Using Sliders with E-Learning Characters #311: 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.Personalization Principle: Speaking to Instead of at Your Learners
We’ve all been there: the moment you realize you’ve stopped paying attention and have no idea what you just read or heard. So you go back and reread or retake or review, but it keeps happening. Maybe you’re just distracted ... or maybe there’s another explanation. The vast majority of nonfiction texts and informational materials, including e-learning courses, are written in a formal style. Why? Because that’s how we’re taught to write in school. In their book E-Learning and the Science of Instruction, Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer suggest that people try harder to understand something when they’re engaged in a conversation. It seems our brains are hardwired to pay closer attention when there’s a social element in the mix. They call this the personalization principle. In sum, it states that favoring a conversational writing style and incorporating virtual coaches in e-learning courses can get learners to pay closer attention and retain more of what they learn. Let’s look at a couple of the quick and easy ways Clark and Mayer suggest for applying the personalization principle to e-learning courses. Use First and Second Person (“We” and “You”) An easy way to take your writing from informal to formal is by replacing the article “the” with the personal pronouns “we” or “you,” like in the following example: Formal: When exercising, the heart rate increases to supply more food and oxygen to the muscles. Informal: When we exercise, our heart rate increases to supply more food and oxygen to our muscles. Can you believe what a difference that small change makes? The first example sounds dry and academic, while the second feels more relatable. Ask Questions and Direct Comments to Learners Another way you can make your course sound more conversational is by addressing your learner personally. For example, instead of jumping right into an explanation, start with something like: “Did you know that …?” or “Now let’s take a look at …” Favor Polite Language over Direct Language The results of one study showed that when you use polite language instead of direct language, learners perform better. This was found to be especially true of learners whose prior knowledge of the subject matter was low. You might want to keep that in mind next time you’re writing feedback for questions in your next e-learning course. Instead of saying “Sorry, that’s incorrect. Try again!” you might encourage with “Sorry, that’s incorrect. Would you like to give it another try?” Use Human Voices for Narration You might be tempted to use a text-to-speech application to create voice-over audio for your course. I get it! Text-to-speech makes it super fast and easy to create and maintain voice-over audio. However, Clark and Mayer’s research shows that people learn better when listening to a human voice instead of a machine-generated voice. So next time you consider using text-to-speech narration, be sure to think about how it might impact your course’s effectiveness. Include a Visual Narrator Clark and Mayer also suggest that adding a visual narrator can simulate a person-to-person interaction and increase learner engagement. The idea is that learners who can visualize the person speaking feel more connected, as if they’re having a conversation with someone. They might even see the narrator as a guide of sorts, so they feel less isolated and more comfortable in the learning process. Wrap-Up Although personalization is a highly effective technique for increasing learner engagement, be careful not to overdo it. As they say in their book, “Good instructional design involves adding just the right amount of social cues to prime a sense of social presence in the learner, without adding so much that the learner is distracted.” Want to learn more about Clark and Mayer’s principles? Check out these articles: Multimedia Principle: Adding Graphics to Words Improves Learning Contiguity Principle: Keep Graphics & Related Text Together Redundancy Principle: Should You Duplicate Narrated Text On Screen? Coherence Principle: Less Material for Better Learning If you enjoyed this article, remember to 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). And if you have questions, please share them in the comments.Using Learning Journals to Keep Learners Focused & Engaged #425
Using Learning Journals in E-Learning #425: Challenge | Recap Looking for a way to practice working with variables and keep your learners focused and engaged? Try adding a learning journal option to your next project. Learning journals can be a great tool to help learners record their thoughts, insights, and questions about the course. They’re also a fantastic way to learn to work with text variables and references in Storyline 360. Check out the following examples to get an idea of how learning journals can work in e-learning. Watch. Explore. Reflect. I like this example because it features YouTube videos that give learners a big-picture overview of the topic, followed by a drag-and-explore activity, all before asking the student to jot down their ideas about life from outer space. Example | Ron Katz | Website Just-In-Time Journals This example features a learning journal icon that’s available on every slide in the course. Giving learners a persistent means to track their thoughts and enhance their learning experience. Example | Thierry EMMANUEL Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share an interactive example that shows how learning journals and note-taking can be used to encourage learners to reflect on the material. If you’re new to variables or need assistance with your example, let us know in either the comments section or in the Build Better Courses forums so we can help. Resources Here are some resources for Storyline users. If you’re using another authoring tool or even a tool that doesn’t support variables (like PowerPoint) you can still share your ideas. User Guide: Storyline 360: Working with Variables. Use variables to remember information—such as a learner's name or a numeric value Storyline 360: Adding Variable References. Variable references let you display that information anywhere in your course. Storyline 360: Print Slide Trigger. Let learners print individual slides, such as certificates, with a single trigger—no coding required. More resources: Learning Journal Examples in E-Learning #344: Challenge | Recap Use Learner's Name in E-Learning Course #222: Challenge | Recap Storyline: Printable Goal-Setting Journal Template 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 reflect on this weeks challenge, check out the practical ways course designers transform static content into interactive e-learning: Converting Static Slides Into Interactive E-Learning #424: 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. 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.Using Variables to Personalize E-Learning Courses #441
Personalizing E-Learning #441: Challenge | Recap Why Should I Learn to Use Variables? Great question. Articulate Storyline's core authoring features (states, layers, and triggers) are the building blocks that make it easy for virtually anyone to create interactive e-learning. But when you want to create more personalized learning experiences, you’ll need to know how to use variables. Using Storyline’s variables, you can present dynamic content based on your learner’s activity and other defined conditions. Variables can store learner input and use the information to present personalized content based on specific criteria. 3 Ways to Personalize E-Learning To get an idea of common ways designers personalize the e-learning experience, check out the following challenges. You're welcome to cross-post your entries this week if your demo fits in a previous challenge. Use Learner's Name in E-Learning Course #222: Challenge | Recap Choose Your Own E-Learning Characters #195: Challenge | Recap Adaptive Path Branching in E-Learning #196: Challenge | Recap 🏆 Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share an example that shows how learners can personalize their learning experience. If you’re new to e-learning or working with variables, don’t sweat this one. We’re here to help. If you get stuck or want us to look at your project, post a question in the forums, and we’ll be happy to take a look. 🧰 Resources Webinar: 5 Ways to Personalize E-Learning Courses Storyline 360: Working with Variables Storyline 360: Adding Variable References ✨ 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 get started personalizing this week’s challenge, check out the interactive fashion advice your fellow challengers shared over the past week: Interactive Fashion Tips and How Tos RECAP 440: 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 challengesanytime 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 #441 (Nov 24, 2023): Using background audio to establish a scene or location, set the mood, and add context to your course. Upcoming webinar (Nov 21, 2023): Introduction to Variables 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.5 Creative Ideas for Revamping New Hire Onboarding
New hire onboarding programs exist to not only orient a new employee with the organization’s resources, structures, and policies, but also with its culture and values. Typically, such programs are required to accomplish these goals within fairly tight time constraints and budgets—all while balancing the needs of the employee and their individual perspectives with the needs of the organization to quickly equip newbies with the knowledge and tools they need to be productive contributors. That’s a pretty tall order for a training program, isn’t it? So, what are some pro ideas for revamping a new hire onboarding program? That was the fundamental question recently posed by self-described e-learning newbie, Shannon Marshall. Thankfully the E-Learning Heroes community jumped in with some creative ideas to get Shannon pointed in the right direction. I’ve grouped their ideas into 5 common themes, below. Idea #1: Engage Learners with Scenarios One common complaint about many onboarding programs is that learners spend too much time reading bulleted lists of company policies and procedures. Not only is reading a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo uninspiring, it’s also not an effective way to learn about the nuances behind the policies and procedures. Instead of lecture, E-Learning Hero, Daniel Brigham, had a few ideas for some more engaging approaches. “Create a few characters who perhaps go through the training together. What I'll often do is have two characters converse about a subject (in particular the questions they have about it/where they are confused), and then spring into content that answers those questions. …[or] set up a situation based on the content ("Clara is an employee who...") and then ask, "Given this situation, what should Clara do?" Idea #2: Encourage Exploratory Learning People love the freedom to learn by exploring, but when you’re brand new to an organization free-reign exploration can be a little intimidating. That’s where you can provide some structure to guide their exploration and help them learn in a safe, productive way. Daniel Brigham had this suggestion for providing some navigation assistance: “You often see in new hire training a sort of ‘geographical’ navigation...the learner takes the elevator to various floors for various parts of the training. Or makes progress by hitting various checkpoints on a map.” Another community member, Alicia Blitz, chimed in with a few more creative navigation examples: “A couple onboarding themes I have seen were quest-based: a passport activity where they collected stamps for each section of content, another was a cruise ship exploration activity.” Idea #3: Focus on Performance Support Another common criticism of onboarding training is that the information can be overwhelming to newbies. As you’re designing an onboarding program, try to keep this challenge in mind and consider other options for helping learners adapt to their new environment over time. Community member, Bob S., suggests focusing more on performance support, rather than training. “...make liberal use of reference-type materials, checklists, etc that they can access beyond the course itself. For example... don't expect them to remember who to call for what, instead create a reference for that information then teach them how to use it…” Daniel Brigham concurred with Bob and added, “Do your best to place the material in bite-sized chunks so as not to overwhelm. The job aids, checklists, etc. will also help to this end. You might even state a few times...'We don't expect you to remember all of this, so we've placed the crucial information in the X location.'" Idea #4: Use Short Videos They say showing is more powerful than telling, and it’s tough to beat the power of video in communicating the true essence of an organization’s culture and values. If your organization’s spirit isn’t quite coming across, community member Rita Garcia suggests adding some short videos to the mix. “For topics like presenting the company's story, mission and values a good, short video can go a long way as an alternative to text or PowerPoint presentation. You can make very cool and funny videos using tools like PowToon and GoAnimate.” Idea #5: Incorporate a Webinar In today’s world of remote workers and widely dispersed teams, not everyone can be face to face for onboarding. That’s where a blended approach incorporating some virtual interaction (or some face time) can be helpful in building connections. Alicia Blitz shared her organization’s approach to this challenge: “Our corporate New Hire program is a 2 hour webinar, and it seems to work well providing the basics all employees need to know. We follow up with resources and check in at certain time intervals. Additionally, most of our Business Units have their own ‘Orientation’ to onboard their employees as well.” Summary & Resources New hire onboarding gives you a unique opportunity to earn the trust, engagement, and commitment of new employees, right from the start. So whether you’re undertaking the design of a new program, or just looking for more ideas to revamp your current one, look no further than the free advice and resources available on E-Learning Heroes to get you pointed in the right direction. Need to acquaint learners with the roles of different departments within your organization? Snag this free PowerPoint template or this free Articulate Storyline template from Tom Kuhlmann. Want to help learners get to know their new colleagues? Check out these beautiful, free “meet the team” templates: Storyline: “Meet the Team” Interaction by Matthew Guyan Storyline 2: “Meet the Team” Interaction by Allison LaMotte Storyline: Folio Template by Tom Kuhlmann Powerpoint: A Day in The Life Template by yours truly Looking to build buy-in for trying something new or different with your onboarding program? Check out these helpful ideas and articles: E-Learning Challenge #43: Interactive Org Charts in E-Learning Making the Case for E-Learning First Minutes Are Critical in New Employee Orientation What are your creative ideas for new hire onboarding? Weigh in with your thoughts or ask us your questions by leaving a comment below. Enjoyed this article? If so, we’ve got even more ideas and free resources to share. Follow us on Twitter, where we post the latest and greatest news about everything e-learning.Quickly Create Stunning Courses With Rise 360 Themes
If you need to quickly create beautiful, responsive e-learning, Rise 360 is the authoring app for you. With stunning prebuilt themes and countless options for personalization, it’s never been easier to create unique, cohesive learning experiences. In this article, we’ll walk you through how to make your online courses look gorgeous and professional. 1. Choose a Theme In Rise 360, you’ll find three beautiful, prebuilt themes created by award-winning designers that you can apply to your courses in just a few clicks. Let’s take a look at each option. Rise Live Preview of Rise Our original theme—Rise—is modern and clean. It’s extremely versatile and works for all subject matters. Apex Live Preview of Apex If you’re looking for a bold, contemporary theme, Apex is a great option. Your learners will love its striking, angular finishes. Horizon Live Preview of Horizon For something a little more elegant, look no further than the Horizon theme. Its sharp and stylish feel with understated flourishes can set the right tone. To apply one of these themes to your next project, simply open a Rise 360 course, go to the Theme menu, and select the style you want. 2. Select Customization Options Once you’ve chosen a theme, you can further customize the look and feel of your Rise 360 courses to ensure they’re on brand. Let’s take a closer look at some of the options available. Cover Page Layouts Each theme includes a variety of stunning cover page layouts to make a strong first impression on your learners. You can use the same one for every course, or switch it up to keep things fresh for your learners. Here’s a peek at the different cover layouts you’ll find for each theme. Rise Apex Horizon As you can see, there are tons of possibilities! So you’re sure to find one that works well for your project. Navigation Types Another thing you can customize is the course navigation type. Let’s take a peek at each option. Sidebar The sidebar navigation option is tried and true. It allows learners to access the course menu and content simultaneously, while also giving them the option to hide it when they want to focus on learning. This versatility makes it a great option for any course. Compact Like the sidebar, compact navigation lets your learners decide to either view both the menu and content or minimize the menu for fewer distractions. The main difference here is that even when learners hide the menu, they can still see where they’re at in the flow of the course—allowing them to continue monitoring their progress. Overlay If you want to give your learners a more immersive experience, where they’re only focusing on one thing at a time, overlay navigation is a good option. When they open the menu, they’ll be able to give your course outline their full attention. And when they close it, the content will be the sole focal point. Button Styles You can also customize the look and feel of the buttons that guide learners from one lesson to the next. In addition to a few different color options, you can choose whether you want them to be full width like in this screenshot … … or floating, like in this one … Or you can remove them entirely. It’s up to you! Lesson Headers There are also a number of options for personalizing the lesson headers. For starters, you can choose whether or not you want one. If you decide you do, you can customize the background color or image. Then you can select the height option you prefer: low, medium, or high. And finally, you can opt to show or hide the lesson number and author avatar. Colors When it comes to colors, you can choose one of our default theme colors or select your own by using the color browser or inputting a Hex code. Once you’ve selected your theme color, it’ll be applied throughout your course automatically. Font Pairings Rise 360 gives you a variety of professionally selected font pairings, so your course text looks polished. Of course, you also have the option to create your own by mixing and matching default fonts or uploading your own for a truly personalized look. And that’s just the beginning! With all these customization options—and more—the possibilities are truly endless. Wrap-Up With Rise 360, it's easy to create cohesive, professional-looking learning experiences—even with no prior training or design experience. Ready to try it out for yourself? Simply head to your Rise 360 dashboard, create a new course—or open an existing one—and click on the Theme tab to check out the customization options. It’s that easy! Don’t have Rise 360? Start your free 30-day trial of Articulate 360 now. For tips and inspiration on how to use themes to create beautiful, branded e-learning, check out these helpful resources: Make Over Your Rise 360 Courses in 4 Easy Steps with Themes 3 Ways to Use Rise 360 Themes to Tailor Your Projects How to Brand Your Rise 360 Course And if you found this article helpful, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice directly in your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.
