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.Your One-Stop Shop for Storyline 360 Quiz-Building Tips
If there’s one thing most e-learning courses have in common, it’s that they have a quiz. Whether there are knowledge checks peppered throughout or an evaluation at the end, it’s rare to see a course without a quiz question or two. We’ve rounded up our most helpful quiz-related content on E-Learning Heroes so you can easily get up to speed on creating quizzes in Storyline 360, as well as learn more about designing effective quizzes. And how about getting off to a running start with some free downloads? Tutorials If you’re new to creating quizzes in Storyline, first things first! Start by taking a look at these helpful tutorials: Creating Quizzes with Form-Based Questions Creating Quizzes with Freeform Interactions Adding Quiz Result Slides Instructional Design Tips Once you’ve got the technical side of things down, check out these articles for tips on designing meaningful quizzes: How to Write Good E-Learning Quiz Questions Do’s and Don’ts of Writing Effective Multiple Choice Questions 20+ Tips for Writing Great Quiz Questions and Response Options 6 Common Quizzing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them How to Quiz Your Learners at the Right Time How to Write Effective Quiz Feedback How to Match Question Types with the Skills You’re Testing Creating Quizzes: Choose a Passing Score How to Write Plausible Incorrect Answer Options for Quiz Questions Downloads Whether you’re short on time or just looking for inspiration, these downloads are just the thing: Countdown Quiz Game Movie Trivia Game Question Bank Template Italian Drag and Drop Quiz Multiple Choice Quiz with Badge Awards Color Gradient Quiz Process Interaction Quiz Combination Lock Quiz Dog-Themed Jeopardy Template Wrap-Up These tutorials, articles, and downloads should be more than enough to get you ready to build your next quiz. But if you get stuck somewhere along the way, we’re always here to help! Feel free to reach out to us in the discussion forums with any technical- or design-related questions you may have. Did you find these resources helpful? 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).Do’s and Don’ts of Writing Effective Multiple Choice Questions
Multiple choice questions (MCQ) are a commonly used and super-versatile question type. They can be used to assess various types of learning, from testing knowledge of basic facts and concepts to crafting thoughtful scenario-based questions. There are many possibilities with multiple choice questions, but it’s important to remember that with multiple choice questions, learners are choosing from a set of potential answers. This means the correct answer is given away in the choices. If you need a learner to recall information without any prompting or guidance, then MCQs might not be the right choice for you. Let’s take a closer look at the two parts of an MCQ: Stem: This states the problem or the question. Alternatives: This is a list of suggested choices. There are two kinds of alternatives: key: the correct or best alternative; the right answer. distractors: incorrect or inferior alternatives; incorrect choices. Whether it’s your first time writing quiz questions or you’ve been doing it for years, following are tips and guidelines you can follow to craft effective multiple choice questions: Do use plausible distractors Plausible distractors are one of the keys to writing effective MCQs. You want your incorrect choices to pose a challenge to your learners, causing them to pause and think about which answer is correct. Obviously incorrect or outrageous distractors defeat the entire purpose of your quiz, because they don’t make learners think. In fact, using them means you’re just giving away the correct answer. Coming up with plausible distractors can be quite challenging, so it might be helpful to talk with a Subject Matter Expert (SME), employee, or stakeholder who can provide crucial insights into the content. It can be helpful to identify common errors or mistakes and then incorporate that information into the distractors. It’s also a best practice to avoid “none of the above” and “all of the above” as distractors. They tend to be easy fallbacks that people use instead of crafting more meaningful, authentic distractors. The same goes for “true or false” questions; these are best avoided if you want to truly test knowledge and challenge your learner. Don’t give clues In order to make an MCQ fair and challenging, it’s best to refrain from including clues about which alternative is the correct one. Sophisticated learners may be on guard for inadvertent clues to the correct answer, such as differences in length or formatting of the alternatives. It’s therefore important that your alternatives are similar in both length and language. It’s also smart to avoid unintentionally giving away an answer to a question in another part of the quiz. Another clue learners may be on the lookout for is the use of extremes. Try to avoid using the words “never,” “always,” and “only” in your distractors. It’s also wise to steer clear of outlandish or unreasonable statements; that’s a dead giveaway of a distractor. Do balance placement of correct alternatives Correct answers (also known as “the key”) tend to be placed as the second and third option in a list of choices. Keep this in mind when you randomize your question choices. Have a mix of key placement, as first, second, and third choice. If you’re using an authoring tool that lets you randomize the order of choices (such as Articulate Storyline 360), you should go ahead and enable that feature. Don’t use negative questions The negative question asks learners to choose the answer that is incorrect; it’s one way that test designers try to challenge or “trip up” the learners. I personally think it’s best to avoid questions that are intentionally (or unintentionally!) misleading. Here’s an example of a negative question: Which of the following is not a company policy? Eating in your workspace Using the computer for personal use Taking a monthlong sabbatical Isn’t that confusing? Negative questions often lead to situations where learners have to work hard simply to decipher complicated choices and understand the question before they can even begin looking for the right answer. Do use other question types! Let’s face it: multiple choice questions tend to be overused. They are a crutch that instructional designers fall back on time and time again. Next time you’re considering using an MCQ, ask yourself: Is there a different or more original way of presenting this question? Would a matching drag-and-drop activity be more appropriate? Would a hot-spot interaction work instead? Try to think outside the box and be creative with the types of quiz questions you use. Mixing it up will also make your content more varied and interesting for your learners. Here’s a great article about Matching Question Types with the Skills You’re Testing. By following this list of do’s and don’ts, you’ll be well on your way to crafting engaging multiple choice questions with thoughtful choices that challenge your learners. 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.How to Add a Timer to Your Storyline 360 Quiz
Sometimes it makes sense to limit the amount of time learners have to complete a quiz or survey. Perhaps you’re assessing time-critical tasks, or you want to create a sense of urgency similar to what they might experience on the job. In these cases and many more, a time limit can help keep learners accountable and ensure they complete an e-learning quiz or survey in a controlled amount of time. If you decide to add a timer, the good news is that it’s easy to add a time limit to your Storyline 360 projects. Let’s take a look! Step 1: Insert a Results slide The first thing you need to do is insert a Results slide into your project. Once you’ve added a Results slide, go to that slide, click the Design tab at the top, and then select Quiz Settings. Step 2: Add a time limit In the Quiz Settings window, look for the Quiz Timer. Select the checkbox and enter the total number of minutes you want to allow for the quiz. Step 3: Select Your Preferences Next, select the clock drop-down arrow and choose your preferences for starting and displaying the timer. Keep in mind, if you select Do Not Show Time, the timer will still function, it just won’t be visible to the learner. When you’re happy with your selection, click OK to close the Quiz Settings window. That’s all there is to it! When you publish your project, you’ll see the timer in the top right corner of the course player. What happens when time runs out? If a learner doesn’t finish the quiz in time, they’ll get a message telling them they’ve exceeded the time limit. Once they click OK, they’ll automatically be directed to the Results slide. Any unanswered questions will be marked Incorrect. Things to Consider Whenever you include a quiz timer, it’s only fair to prepare your learners. Add clear instructions so they know how the quiz will work and how much time they have to finish it. Keep in mind that while timers may be an effective motivational tool for some learners, for others they can cause stress and get in the way of learning. To be inclusive of all learners, it's a good idea to give them the possibility to opt-out. Summary Adding a timer to your Storyline course is super easy and can enhance the learning experience. Using a timer to assess time-critical tasks or to create a sense of urgency are just a few ways to use time in e-learning. Looking for some more quizzing tips and tricks? Check out these articles: How to Write Good E-Learning Quiz Questions Improve Your Quizzes with These Do’s And Don’ts How to Write Plausible Incorrect Answer Options for Quiz Questions What ways have you used a timer in your e-learning projects? Leave a comment and share your experience! Want to try something you learned here, 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.Everything You Need to Know About Image Usage Rights
It’s tricky to find appropriate, usable images for e-learning projects. And sometimes after you’ve found the right photo, it’s unclear whether you can legally use it. Images are protected by copyright. So you can’t add any photo you find online to your e-learning project. But trying to do the right thing can raise more questions than answers: What if I just link to their website? Should I reach out to this person? Wait, I don’t see who owns this image! Usually images you’ll find on photo sites fall into one of a few categories. Here are some of the different usage terms you’ll find. Copyright Copyright law protects original works, including images. In most cases, you can’t copy or distribute a copyrighted image without permission from the person who created it. You should assume that any image you find online is protected by copyright. If possible, contact the copyright holder for permission to use their work. When you buy a stock photo, you’re buying the right to use that copyrighted image. Depending on which site you use, the image may be royalty-free or rights-managed. Royalty-free means that you’re not responsible for royalty payments. You’re usually able to use the image as you’d like. Rights-managed means there are restrictions on how you can use the image—so be sure to read your license agreement closely! Fair Use The fair use doctrine provides opportunities for using copyrighted images without permission. For instance, you can legally use a copyrighted image for personal and educational use, or for the public good. Most e-learning is commercial. As a course creator, you should assume that using copyrighted images in your work doesn’t qualify as fair use. But fair use also allows you to transform copyrighted images into something new. If you turn a copyrighted image into a completely new work, you can use that image freely. Creative Commons The Creative Commons non-profit provides free copyright licenses for creators. The copyright holder can determine several things with these licenses: Whether you need to credit them for their image Whether you can use their image for commercial purposes Whether you can modify their image What license you must use if you modify their image When using Creative Commons images, be sure to read the license carefully and use the image appropriately. Pro tip: Some photo sharing sites, such as Flickr, allow you to filter search results by specific Creative Commons licenses. Public Domain Typically an image becomes part of the public domain in one of two ways. The creator either gives up copyright willingly, or the copyright expires. These images aren’t protected by copyright, so you’re free to use them any way you’d like. Pro tip: WikiMedia Commons has a large database of images in the public domain. A Helpful Alternative Of course, the easiest way to source freely available images is by finding e-learning solutions that provide stock assets. Articulate 360 includes Content Library 360, an ever-growing library of visual assets that you can access right from within Rise and Storyline 360. These assets are made available through third parties, including Unsplash, Noun Project, Pexels, and Pixabay, and you can use them in your content without additional charge. However, as noted in our Terms of Service, the use of these images, including any attribution requirements, is subject to these third parties’ terms. See what’s available in Content Library 360 when you start a free, 30-day trial of Articulate 360. You’ll also get access to award-winning authoring apps Storyline 360 and Rise, a project review app, and access to live online training led by industry experts. New to e-learning? Sign up for our E-Learning 101 email course, a series of expertly-curated articles that'll get you up to speed with course development.The Difference between Screencasts and Software Simulations
If you’re new to creating software training—and even if you’re not!—you might use the terms screencast and software simulation interchangeably. But did you know they’re actually two different things? It can be easy to get these terms confused, so let’s walk through the nuances that differentiate these two methods and explore the use cases for each. Screencasts Screencasts are videos that show a recording of your computer screen. They’re often used to demonstrate the use of an application or software. They include all of your mouse movements and typically have audio narration that gives learners more contextual information about the process they’re seeing—such as the names of various software features or steps. Because screencasts are simply videos, they’re not interactive. When to use a screencast Screencasts are great for creating simple “how-to” videos. This kind of visual walkthrough is beneficial when you’re trying to explain a process that’s too complicated to explain with written text alone. And if the process isn’t something learners will be doing frequently, screencasts can be a helpful performance support resource that learners can easily reference in the future. How to create a screencast If you have Articulate 360, you already have access to not just one but TWO apps that are specifically designed for screencasts: Peek 360 and Replay 360. Learn more about when to use each app in this article: How to Decide Which Articulate 360 App to Use for Screen Recording. Want to see an example? Watch the “How to Add Comments in Review 360” screencast I created with Peek 360 below. This screencast provides a short overview of how to provide feedback on courses in the Review 360 web application. It’s perfect for an audience who may be comfortable with web-based technology and already have familiarity with Review 360. The screencast focuses on a simple process. It’s clear, concise, and to the point. So, how does a software simulation differ? Well, I’m glad you asked. Software Simulations While you also have to record your screen to create a software simulation, the major difference is that instead of simply showing the learners what to do, you give them the opportunity to try it out for themselves. They’re called simulations because you simulate the software’s interface by recording it and turning that recording into an interactive practice environment for learners. They can go through and click on all the buttons—like you did when you recorded it. It’s almost as if they’re using the software themselves. The advantage of doing it this way—versus simply having them use the actual software—is that you can build in on-screen explanations and feedback to guide them as they practice. Software simulations are usually the go-to for creating software training because they provide learners with a risk-free environment to help them learn a new app or process. Another thing that sets simulations apart from screencasts is that you can test your learners’ understanding by creating a simulation that’s graded. For every click in the right spot, learners can earn points. And for clicks in the wrong spots, points can be taken away. It’s a great way to ensure learners have understood how to complete specific processes within an app or software. When to use a software simulation Interactive software simulations are ideal when you want learners to physically practice using the software themselves—including entering data, interacting with drop-down menus, and identifying multiple steps in a more complex process. Software simulations give learners an opportunity to practice using the proper click-path of a specific process or software without fear of impacting the actual production environment or ruining any real-life data. With software simulations, you can put your learners in the driver’s seat so they can deepen their knowledge of a process, gain experience, and build confidence in using an app or piece of software. How to create a software simulation Articulate 360 subscribers can use Storyline 360 to create software simulations quickly and easily. Want to learn how? Here’s a tutorial that’ll help you get started: Creating Software Simulations in Storyline 360. Want to see an example? Explore the software simulation created with Storyline 360 below. In this example, users learn how to get started using the Review 360 web application. This simulation walks through four basic steps that you need to know how to do if you’ll be using Review 360. You’ll notice that because learners actually click through the software themselves, they must pay closer attention to each step in the process. This simulation is perfect for an audience who might not be as familiar with web-based technology or for users who are brand new to navigating Review 360. With simulations, learners can confidently navigate a new application because they’re practicing in the safety of a learning environment. View example More Resources Now you’re well on your way to identifying the nuances between screencasts and software simulations and you should be able to use these terms confidently when tackling your next project! To help you keep everything straight, I’ve outlined the differences in the handy table below. Screencasts Software Simulations Use case Demonstrate a simple, straightforward process. Train learners on a complex process through interactive practice and/or assessment opportunities. Interactive No Yes On-Screen Hints & Feedback No Yes Looking for more best practices around creating screencasts and software simulations? Check out these resources! And let us know in the comments what screencasts and software simulations you’ll be creating next. Follow This Process to Create Software Simulations and Systems Training Like a Pro 3 Methods for Recording Screencasts 4 Tips on Creating Software Tutorials in Rise 360 Tips for Using the Storyline 360 Screen Recorder Like a Pro 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.8 Business Use Cases for Microlearning
Are you excited to try out microlearning, but unsure when to use it? Below, we outline eight common workplace situations that benefit from a short-form course. Each situation includes a sample microlearning. At the end, learn how you can customize these templates for your own company and training needs. 1. Create Organizational Alignment To hit a business target, everyone needs to be moving in the same direction. Creating that alignment starts with clear, frequent communication of the shared mission, vision, and values. Microlearning can help. The following editable template shows how you can align employees through regular executive “micro” updates: Executive Update 2. Highlight HR Information, Notices, or Reminders Educating employees about annual events like open enrollment, tax season, and compliance training is a critical function of HR teams. The problem? Important announcements often get missed when they’re embedded in long paragraphs or endless emails. Grab the following templates to see how microlearning makes HR communications more digestible and engaging: A Quick Guide To Open Enrollment Internal Company Newsletter 3. Strengthen Company Culture and DEI Initiatives Fostering an inclusive company culture is a continuous process—not a one-time effort. A series of microlearnings can support your larger culture-building and DEI efforts. Check out the following examples for ideas on how to get started: Are You an Ally? Try Taking on These 5 Roles How To Identify and Stop Using Ableist Language Gossip-Proof Your Workplace 4. Streamline Business Processes You can also use microlearning to document and streamline business processes or workflows—such as employee onboarding or performance management. Notice how the following examples make it easy for employees to work through the steps of a process independently: New Hire Pre-Hire Checklist Performance Review and Feedback 5. Increase Security Awareness Most successful data breaches, phishing attacks, and other cybersecurity incidents are caused by human error. Adding refresher microlearnings throughout the year can fortify your defenses. See an example for safeguarding against phishing attacks below: Spot the Phish 6. Enhance Employee Wellness A successful business needs thriving employees. But employee wellness training often ends up buried under competing priorities. Microlearning makes it easy for employees to fit in short breaks for self-care throughout the workday. Check out these two wellness-related microlearning examples: 3 Desk Stretches to Instantly Improve Your Day 5 Tips for Better Naps 7. Provide Quick-Reference Guides Microlearning is the perfect resource for one-off training questions: Employees can quickly find the answers they need—when they need them. Below, we’ve created templates for product and software training. But you could easily create quick-reference guides for sales, customer service, and other teams. Get To Know [Name of Product] Software Training 8. Reinforce and Assess Key Takeaways Finally, who says you have to choose between a more sizable course and microlearning? Repetition aids retention. Consider following up longer training sessions with a microlearning quiz, scenario, or summary. The examples listed below demonstrate how you might do this: Can You Recover From a Workplace Mistake? Training Refresher Wrap-Up There’s no shortage of creative ways you can use microlearning to achieve your business training objectives. The examples above are just a starter list. You might also check out submissions to one of our weekly community challenges, 40+ Microlearning Examples Created in Rise 360 #407. Interested in customizing one of these examples for your team? If you’re an Articulate 360 subscriber or trialer, you can edit all of the examples linked throughout this post by choosing the course from our Rise 360 microlearning content templates. Here’s a short video showing how to do that: What’s the latest microlearning course you’ve created? Tell us about it in the comments—and feel free to ask any questions you might have! 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 Twitter.Cloud-Based
Cloud-based refers to content, data, or resources stored in a virtual environment, like a remote server. You can access content, data, or resources in this virtual “cloud” environment from different types of web-enabled devices, like computers, smartphones, and tablets. E-learning can be hosted in the cloud or on your organization’s servers, or it can be downloaded to your device. Learn more: Part 1: What Do You Need to Know About “the Cloud”? Part 2: Articulate 360, the Cloud, and YouCreate Compliance Training Like a Pro with Rise 360
Many businesses, including financial institutions and publicly regulated companies, are required by law to make sure their employees are properly educated in specific areas pertaining to their industry. This kind of training is often referred to as compliance training. If you’re an e-learning developer, you’ve likely had to create these types of courses. They typically cover topics such as workplace discrimination, ethics training, bribery prevention, and data security—crucial information that employees need to know to do their jobs correctly and avoid breaking laws. I love to use Rise 360, the web-based authoring tool available in Articulate 360, to create compliance training. Why? Because Rise 360 courses are easy to create and update, and they can be built collaboratively. Rise 360 also allows you to require learners to view all the content, which is important with compliance training since you need to be able to demonstrate to regulators that learners have been exposed to all the required information. And, of course, the responsive output from Rise 360 looks beautiful across all devices employees use to access courses. Here’s a sample compliance course built in Rise 360 that covers how to avoid common workplace injuries. Click on the image, or the link below it, to check it out. View Compliance Training Example Now that you’ve seen an example course, let’s walk through some key considerations for compliance training and some Rise 360 features you can use to address them. Use the Continue Block As I mentioned earlier, one important consideration for e-learning developers creating compliance training is making sure learners can’t skip any content. This can be accomplished easily using the continue block. The continue block can be set up to prevent a learner from moving on until they’ve seen all of the previous content. Quickly insert a continue block by clicking Continue on the blocks shortcut bar. You can also find the continue block in the block library by selecting the Divider option. A continue block can work in different ways, depending on which completion type you choose under the completion type drop-down menu. These options include: None (Always Show Button): The Continue button is always visible. Learners can click on it anytime to move to the next block. Complete All Blocks Above: The Continue button is disabled until learners complete all blocks above the continue block. Complete Block Directly Above: The Continue button is disabled until learners complete the block directly above the continue block. The safety course example above uses a continue block at the end of each lesson with the “Complete All Blocks Above” setting. But what if you added custom interactivity created with Storyline 360 to your Rise 360 lesson? Is there a way to make sure learners complete a Storyline 360 block? No problem. Simply follow these steps to configure your custom interaction in Storyline 360. Then, in Rise 360, add a Storyline 360 block followed by a continue block to your lesson. You can also use a Storyline 360 block to track the completion of a Rise 360 course in your LMS. You can choose to track completion based on a trigger, quiz result, or the number of slides viewed in your Storyline 360 block. Enable Restricted Navigation When you’re creating a compliance course with Rise 360, you might consider using restricted navigation in conjunction with your continue block. Restricting navigation means your learner must click through each lesson in lesson order. For example, the learner would have to take lessons sequentially and wouldn’t be able to click ahead to the final lesson without viewing each lesson before it. You can find the settings for controlling course navigation under the settings menu. Under the navigation mode drop-down, choose Restricted. On top of restricting your course navigation, you might want to restrict navigation on any videos you’ve included so that learners can’t skip ahead through video content with the seekbar. To restrict navigation in a video, simply go to the settings tab for the video in question and disable Allow Forward Seeking. Now your learners will no longer be able to use the seekbar to skip over important video content! Require a Passing Score on the Quiz Quizzing is another important aspect of your compliance courses. You want to make sure learners fully understand all the quiz questions and their correct answers. There are a few tips you can follow to make sure that your quizzes are as compliant as possible. First of all, you can control course navigation by requiring learners to pass a quiz before moving on to the next lesson. Just open up your quiz, click the Settings option, and switch “Require Passing Score to Continue” to the on position. When this setting is enabled, learners must achieve the passing score you define to advance to the next lesson in the course. Another way to make sure your compliance courses are as effective as possible is to require that learners score 100 percent on the final quiz, and give them unlimited attempts. This will force learners to repeat the quiz until they answer the questions correctly, which is about as certain as you can be that learners have understood the correct information. To change the passing score, open up the quiz, click Settings in the top right corner, and adjust the passing score. Here’s one last animted .GIF to show you where to find this setting. And there you have it! Creating compliance training is a snap with Rise 360. Have any tips of your own for creating compliance courses with Rise 360? Please add them in the comments below! Want to try something you learned here, 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.4 Quick Tips to Make Your E-Learning Stick
Effective e-learning needs to be engaging enough that learners will want to take the time for it, and yet substantial enough for learners to recall and apply later. As such, e-learning pros are challenged to use a little creativity to persuade busy learners to pay attention to what we’re teaching them and then apply it to their jobs. That means making the information easy for them to remember later on. But how do we do that? I’ve got a few ideas to share with you, so keep on reading! 1. Make It Useful One surefire way to make something memorable is to make it useful and relevant. This means designing content that’s helpful and concise. Here are some tips to try: Start by asking questions. Instead of a tedious setup (opening titles followed by navigation, objectives, an introduction, etc.), drop your learners right into the action by asking them a thought-provoking question or giving them an engrossing scenario. If you think about it when people ask you a question, it’s pretty attention-grabbing, isn’t it? The same applies to your learners. Get them intellectually and emotionally stimulated and you’ll have them engaged right from the start. Demonstrate the value early. People are more apt to focus on information when they see that it has value in their everyday life. Try using a pre-test, a self-assessment survey, or a compare and contrast exercise to challenge your learner’s assumptions about your topic and grab their attention right away. Give them practice. It might seem obvious, but demonstrating steps with a short how-to video or a screencast is helpful, but what works even better to get people thinking and applying new knowledge is to follow it up with practice. Let learners hear from their peers. Most people pride themselves on doing good work and contributing to their teams. Hearing from folks who’ve successfully applied what they’ve learned in your training can signal that the content you’re sharing is relevant and helpful—and foster a healthy sense of competition among peers. 2. Get to the Point Sometimes the key to making your e-learning more memorable is knowing which information to emphasize first. There are many ways to approach organizing your content for learning, but one go-to is to put the most critical information front and center, followed by progressively less critical information. Structuring content in an “inverse pyramid” is an approach journalists use. It looks like this: This structure helps prioritize information and minimizes the nice-to-know details that can add unnecessary bulk to your course. Particularly for longer courses, where learners might lose steam, this approach helps you be sure that the essential information is communicated right from the start. 3. Use Analogies Analogies are great for helping learners connect new ideas with the information they already have. Making these connections, in turn, increases the chances they’ll remember what you’re sharing with them. For example, if you were trying to teach someone about how a tornado forms, you might compare it to the way water spins as it goes down the drain of a sink. Water spinning down a drain is a simple, relatable concept and a good starting point for talking about the forces of nature at work. 4. Use Visuals When it’s time to design your e-learning, think about ways you can visually present information other than a bulleted list of text. For instance, can you morph that new product info into a series of labeled graphic interactions that’s both eye-catching and inviting for learners to explore? Can you turn those dos and don’ts into an interactive scenario with realistic characters and an immersive background? If you’ve enjoyed these tips and want to learn more about how people absorb information, don’t miss this fascinating interview with Julie Dirksen, founder of Usable Learning and author of Design for How People Learn. What are your tried-and-true tips for making e-learning that sticks? Share your thoughts with me in a comment below. I’d love to hear what’s been working for you! New to e-learning? Sign up for our E-Learning 101 email course, a series of expertly curated articles that'll get you up to speed with course development.
