13 New and Enhanced Features That Will Help You Get the Most From Articulate 360
There’s so much we’ve been working on lately that we’re thrilled to share with you. If you want to expand the e-learning experiences you can create, streamline your development processes, and get great training out fast, check out these new and upcoming features that will help you do all that and more. Create exciting and engaging e-learning Rise 360: Linked Padding Speed up your Rise 360 layout formatting with this new option to link the padding on the top and bottom of a block together. When this feature is on, you can quickly change their values at the same time. Need to adjust the top and bottom padding independently? Simply click the Unlink Padding icon. To learn more about all your block padding options, check out this post. Rise 360: Random Block Images Automatically liven up your Rise 360 designs with this enhancement. Instead of seeing the exact same photo every time you insert a block with a background image, Rise 360 now randomly selects background images on a block-by-block basis. Rise 360: Team Folders Enhancements Now working with large numbers of Rise 360 courses is even easier thanks to this set of new Team Folders features. You can quickly view just the courses you created with the Owned by Me filter. Accessing courses that have been shared with you is faster too, as they’re now automatically added to the Shared with Me folder. And if you want to fully reorganize your folders, Move Dialog allows you to move both source files and shortcuts in a jiffy. Want to know more? Check out this post. Rise 360: Women’s History Month Course Celebrate the broad spectrum of ways women have contributed to history, society, and culture with this Rise 360 real-content template. This fully built course covers the history of women’s rights in America and strategies for continuing to move gender equity and equality forward. Share it with learners right away or customize it as much as you like! For more information about this course, give this post a read Storyline 360: Emphasis Animations Grab your learners’ attention with this new selection of Storyline 360 emphasis animations. You can now add effects like pulsing, shaking, and teetering to shapes, images, buttons, characters, markers, textboxes, videos, and more. Learn more in this post. Storyline 360: Global Notes Formatting Adjusting the font color, size, style, or paragraph spacing in the Storyline 360 Notes panel is easier than ever! With this feature, you can now customize the Notes panel formatting across the entire project in one fell swoop. What a timesaver! If you’re excited to know more, check out this post. Storyline 360: Player Tooltips Help learners get to know the modern player controls in Storyline 360 with these accessible tooltips. If someone isn’t sure what a particular player button or control does, all they have to do is mouse or tab over to it to display a bite-size pop-up with more information. Find out more here. Storyline 360: Background Audio Volume Variable Fine-tune your course’s audio with this new Storyline 360 variable. With it, you can raise or drop a slide’s background audio by whatever percentage you choose—adding more precision and customization to an already helpful feature. Collaborate with team members and stakeholders Review 360: Manage Integrated Comments Seeing Review 360 comments directly in Storyline 360 and Rise 360 is a real timesaver. But what about when you need to have separate, independent reviews of the same course? Thanks to this new feature, that’s easy! With it, you’re able to see the comments for multiple Review 360 items in your authoring app workflow. That means you can create multiple copies of your course in Review 360—one for each reviewer segment—but still see everyone’s comments in your original Rise 360 or Storyline 360 file. Curious to know more? Check out our feature posts for both Storyline 360 and Rise 360. Distribute courses to all your learners Reach 360: Starter Plan If you have an Articulate 360 Teams subscription, distributing and tracking training just got easier. That’s because you can now use Reach 360 Starter to share courses with up to 300 learners per year at no additional cost. This new Reach 360 Starter access makes it easy for everyone to try out all the features of our fast, flexible, and frictionless LMS. Check out the details here. Reach 360: Manager Role Give people just the Reach 360 access they need with the new Manager role, which can invite and remove learners, assign training, and view reports for any group assigned to them. It’s perfect for when someone needs more administrative powers than with the Reporter role—but just for one or more specific groups. Need help determining which Reach 360 role is right for a particular user? This article compares the permissions for each role, making it easy to narrow down the option that best meets your needs. Wrap-Up There’s a lot here to be excited about! And since all of these new features are available right now, trying them out is as simple as opening up your Articulate 360 apps. Not only that, but there are lots more exciting features coming this year—including AI capabilities. So keep an eye on our roadmap and E-Learning Heroes to stay in the loop about all the other cool functionality we’ll be adding soon. Feeling left out because you don’t currently have an Articulate 360 subscription? Not to worry—just start a 30-day free trial to try out all these helpful features and more. You can also subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.Expand Your Possibilities With These New Articulate 360 Features
Articulate 360 is constantly evolving to better meet your needs. Our latest collection of features is full of exciting new ways for you to design, develop, and share your e-learning courses. From new resources to enhance the learning experiences you build, expanded options for distributing courses, and one of our most requested enhancements to Storyline 360, there’s so much that can make your work easier and more effective! Check out this video for some of the highlights. And keep reading to dig in to the details. Create exciting and engaging e-learning 64-bit Storyline If you create large, media-rich courses, you’ll experience a noticeably speedier authoring experience with this release. The new 64-bit Storyline 360 takes full advantage of the power of modern computers, giving you increased stability and faster performance—even with your most complex projects. Learn more about this highly requested feature here: Storyline 360: 64-bit App. Improved Text-to-Speech Voice Quality The more natural text-to-speech voices sound, the less likely they are to distract from your course content. That’s why we’ve upgraded many of the voices included in Storyline 360 using new neural voice technology. They sound better than ever, and they’re still incredibly easy to use! Check out this link for the current list of neural voices in Storyline 360. Background Audio Triggers Building on the Storyline 360 background audio feature from earlier this year, this update gives you even more options for controlling the experience. With it, you can use triggers to play, pause, or stop the playlist on each slide. So you and your learners have more ways to customize course audio. Find out more here. Trans-inclusivity Microlearning Need to get much-needed training out fast, but don’t have the time research, write, and build it yourself? Our library of Rise 360 real content templates has you covered! Our latest addition—4 Ways To Build a Trans-inclusive Workplace—helps define key terms and gives learners concrete steps they can take to make their organization more inclusive. We’ve taken care of the hard work of researching and building the experience. You can either launch it to your learners exactly as written or tweak it to fit your company’s needs. It’s your call! New Illustrated Characters Finding just the right character can help your courses connect with learners and make scenarios ring true. That’s why we’re excited to add three new illustrated characters wearing casual outfits to Content Library 360: Shanae, Wren, and Don. Template Accessibility Updates We’re always looking for ways to make it easier to build accessible e-learning—and this latest update is a real timesaver! We’ve reworked many of our Storyline 360 and Rise 360 templates so they’re even more accessible right out of the box. The former now has updates to the focus order and video controls. And the most popular templates for the latter feature the removal of italicized content, as well as broader improvements to their content and design. With the templates taking on more work for you, it’s faster than ever to create courses that all learners can access. Collaborate with team members and stakeholders Share Link Permissions Want more control over who can and can’t see an item in Review 360? You’ll love this new feature. With it, you’ll be able to make a Review 360 item invitation-only—so it’s only visible to the specific reviewers you’ve chosen. Distribute courses to all your learners Custom Certificates From branding your course completion certificates to including important accreditation requirements on them, this feature is here to help. With our simple certificate editor, you can include company information like logos and learner performance details like course duration, quiz scores, and more. Plus, you can save time by creating a library of certificate templates to use in any course in Reach 360. SSO for Learners Make taking training in Reach 360 even simpler with Single Sign-On (SSO). Since this method allows people to securely access multiple applications with just one set of log-in credentials, your learners don’t have to remember yet another password to check out all the training you share with them in Reach 360. Learn more about how to use this feature to manage groups and users here. Microsoft Teams Integration - COMING SOON Weave training into the flow of work with this upcoming Reach 360 integration. With it, learners can get due date and enrollment notifications and also see previews of training right in Microsoft Teams. And by including that information in a tool they already use for work all the time, you’ll make it easier for them to stay on top of training deadlines and explore what courses you’re offering. Reporter Role Want to streamline reporting for different groups in Reach 360? Try assigning users to the new reporting role. With this feature, you can grant someone access to the analytics from just one or more specific groups, so they don’t have to wade through the training data for all your learners to get access to the targeted information they’re looking for. Wrap-Up If you want to get your hands on everything these new features have to offer, you’ll be glad to know most of them are available right now! Just log in to your account, make sure you’re running the latest version of Storyline 360, and you’ll be all set. And keep an eye out for the features labeled “coming soon”; they’ll be available to you in no time at all. But not to worry if you don’t currently have an Articulate 360 subscription. Just start a 30-day free trial to try out all these helpful features and more. And you can also subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.6 Things to Consider When Using Audio in E-Learning
Adding audio to e-learning—like ambient noise, narration, or sound effects—can be a fun way to create a more immersive learning experience, add context, or provide helpful cues to learners. But there’s a fine line between effectively using audio and misusing it. If misused, audio can be a nuisance, overwhelming, or cause important pieces of information to be lost. For example, if you play background music loudly throughout a compliance course, it might distract people from the course content. The key to effectively using audio is to determine whether it will truly add value. And although trying to figure out if you should use audio might seem a little overwhelming at first, don’t worry! By considering these six things, you can quickly determine if audio is a good fit for your course. 1. The Kind of Course You’re Creating Think about the type of project you’re developing. By considering the context of what you’re designing, you can quickly decide what type of audio—if any—best fits the situation. To illustrate this, let’s take a look at some concrete examples: Course Type Type of Audio Value Add? Software simulation Sound effects that play when learners complete certain actions. Yes. It could provide learners with a sense of satisfaction. Gamified course Subtle background music. Yes. It could create a fun atmosphere. Course on communication Audio clips of conversations. Yes. It could help make the content feel more realistic. Technical training Voice-over narration. Yes. It could reduce on-screen text and make complex topics easier to understand. Compliance course Background music. No. It could distract from the main course content. Anti-harassment training Sound effects that play when learners complete certain actions. No. It could clash with the tone of the course topic. Task simulation Voice-over narration. No. It could distract learners from what’s on screen and make it difficult for them to perform the simulation. 2. The Timing of Audio Usage Just because you’ve decided that a certain type of audio could add value to your course doesn’t mean you should use it throughout the entire project. When it comes to audio in e-learning, in most cases less is more. To make sure audio doesn’t interfere with learning, take care not to include it at times when learners really need to focus. For example, background music that plays throughout an entire project is rarely a good fit because it tends to distract learners as they’re trying to absorb the content. However, it might make sense to use background music on the introductory slide to set the tone for the course. Since typically this isn’t a place where learners are processing key information, it shouldn’t take away from the learning experience. 3. The Audio Control Features Your Learners Need Even though the device your learners are using to take the course will likely have system volume controls, if you decide to include audio it’s helpful to give learners the option to adjust the course volume independently. You’ll also want to make sure your course has controls that allow learners to rewind or replay audio in case they need to revisit important pieces of information. This allows learners to adapt the learning experience to best suit their needs. If your course can’t or won’t include these controls, it’s best to avoid including audio. 4. The Speed of Your Learners’ Internet Connection Although many of us have access to speedy wi-fi, not all learners do! Adding large audio files to a project can cause a course to load slowly, especially for learners accessing it over a slow or spotty connection. If there’s a chance your learners will be located in rural settings or areas with slower internet speeds, be mindful of the amount of audio you add and the file size of each clip. You might be better off minimizing or skipping the use of audio so it doesn’t delay the time it takes to launch or move through the course—which can frustrate learners or cause them to tune out. 5. Your Learners’ Environment This one might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s often overlooked: think about the setting learners are likely to be in when taking the course. If they’re going to be accessing the course on a noisy job site or with clients, audio likely isn’t a good fit because it will be challenging for learners to hear it. If you know learners are going to take the course in a quiet and controlled environment and have access to speakers or a headset, then audio could be a more viable option. 6. The Accessibility Features Learners Need Many of the points we’ve already discussed are related to accessibility—like having proper controls in place—but there’s another consideration that’s important to keep in mind to ensure all learners can benefit from the course content, regardless of ability: text versions of your audio content. Whenever you include audio (or video for that matter!) you should also include closed captions and a transcript so no one misses out. Captions and transcripts benefit learners with permanent disabilities—like hearing loss—and situational disabilities—like those taking the course in a noisy cafe. It’s definitely something you won’t want to skip! Wrap-Up Now that you know what to consider when adding audio, you’ll be able to decide when it makes sense to use it in your course. For the projects that could benefit from it, explore some creative types of audio you can use in your next e-learning course by reading this article: 5 Ways to Use Audio in E-Learning. And to learn even more about using audio in e-learning, take a look at these helpful articles: Audio Basics for Online Course Design E-Learning Audio Tips from an Expert Tips for Using Sound Effects in E-Learning 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).The Secret to Simplifying Your Video Training Workflow
When it comes to creating engaging, relevant e-learning, video is a great way to capture content and your learners’ attention. Whether it’s an instructional video on how to use your company’s new time-tracking software or converting an instructor-led training session into a video-based training gives you an impactful way to share ideas with learners. And it’s an easy-to-consume format. Articulate 360 has everything you need to create e-learning videos—including an easy way to share them with stakeholders for review and export them to your LMS. Wondering how it works? Let me walk you through the steps below. Step 1: Publish or upload your video to Review 360 If you created your video using Replay 360 or Peek 360, you can seamlessly publish your video to Review 360. Just navigate to Publish and choose the Review 360 option. If you created your video outside of Articulate 360 apps, don’t worry! From the Review 360 dashboard, you can simply upload the video file using the blue Upload a File hyperlink. Step 2: Gather feedback and approval With your video uploaded to Review 360, it’s time to send it to your stakeholders for feedback. Simply click Share and then copy the link into an email. Anyone with the link can view and comment on your video—even if they don’t have an Articulate 360 subscription. All they need is an email address and they’re all set! One great thing about Review 360 is how it simplifies the video review and approval process. That’s because it timestamps all feedback—which means you’ll know exactly what part of the video your reviewers were watching when they started commenting. Not only does this make your life easier, but it also streamlines the review process for your stakeholders! Step 3: Export your video for LMS distribution Once you’ve made any necessary changes and re-published your video to Review 360—or uploaded a new version—it’s time to export! Open your project in Review 360 and click on the More ellipsis (...) in the upper right corner and choose Export to LMS. From there, select the output standard used by your LMS and choose a completion percentage. Then, click Export. And that’s all there is to it! You’ll get a .zip file that includes the video and any LMS-required files that you can upload to your LMS, just as you would any other course. If you’re looking for an even faster way to do this, simply find your project on your Review 360 dashboard, choose the More ellipsis (...), and follow the same steps. Wrap-Up Now that you know how to upload, share, and export your videos using Review 360, you’re well on your way to optimizing your video creation process. If you’re looking for more resources on creating video-based courses, check out these articles: A Complete Guide to Creating Videos for E-Learning 6 Types of Video You Can Include in E-Learning Record and Edit Videos Like a Pro with Peek 360 and Replay 360 New in Storyline 360: Publish to Video Want to try using Review 360 for your video training, 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. Do you have any other little-known tips or tricks for using Review 360? Share them below!4 Examples of Foreign Language Training That Will Get Your Learners Talking
Learning a foreign language on your own can be challenging. Foreign language e-learning helps create a dynamic experience for learners that’s both interactive and engaging. Course developers can include a variety of e-learning interactions like scenarios, games, audio, interviews, and quizzes to create projects that enhance the language learning experience. But don’t take our word for it—take a look at these four foreign language examples created by the always inspiring members of the E-Learning Heroes community. Check ’em out! This simple but effective course by Nancy Woinoski teaches learners basic German phrases using images and audio. Creatively combine images and audio to design a language learner course that’s truly memorable. This artsy Latin language course by Helen Greetham is a great example. The best way to help learners absorb a new language is to quiz them! Take a cue from this course by Annabelle Grew; it includes a knowledge check that gives learners immediate feedback. This Spanish language course by Anastasia Laur uses clean and modern flashcards to help learners quickly pick up helpful phrases with no distractions. Ready to try your hand at creating a foreign language e-learning project of your own? Join the E-Learning Challenge and submit your work—we’d love to see it. And if you’re craving more course design inspiration, go visit the Building Better Courses forum; it’s a lovely community full of talented e-learning pros.4 Easy Tips for Writing Great Training Video Scripts
When you think about your favorite movies or TV shows, they likely have one thing in common: a great script. A solid script sets up the story and characters, clarifies the setting and tone, and contains all the character dialogue. Moreover, it’s the blueprint for all the creative work that goes into every form of filmmaking, from the budget, location, and visual design to the costumes, makeup, and special effects. But don’t take my word for it … “To make a great film you need three things – the script, the script and the script.” – Alfred Hitchcock But what does filmmaking have to do with training? Most training teams don’t have access to a multimillion-dollar budget, nor to a multiyear production timeline, but that shouldn’t lead to scrimping on the quality of the training video script. In fact, you should take a cue from filmmaking pros and focus on nailing down a good script first and foremost, since a good script is absolutely essential for creating an effective training video. After all, a training video needs to do more than just entertain people; it actually needs to influence their behavior. So, how can you add “Hollywood-Level Screenwriting Pro” to your training skill set? I’ve pulled together the following four tips to get you started. 1. Identify the type of training video you need Training videos come in many different flavors, from purely demonstrative with short screencasts walking users through an app or highlighting product features to sweeping cinematic experiences with storylines and richly drawn characters. Sometimes training videos feature a narrator who tells learners what’s most important, while other times they follow characters as they navigate situations similar to what learners face on the job, allowing learners to draw their own conclusions about the key messages. There are almost endless ways to mix and match all the different flavors of training videos. But before you sit down to write anything, think about the best way to use video to achieve the outcomes you’re looking for. I find that searching YouTube for examples of different types of training videos can be a helpful way to get inspired if I’m feeling overwhelmed or just unsure where to start. 2. Draft a video treatment before the script Just as you would write a quick design brief for an e-learning course to flesh out ideas with stakeholders, writing a video treatment is a great way to present your ideas to the team before you start writing a full-blown script. A video treatment can be a simple one-page document that provides a high-level summary of the characters and key events in the story. An effective video treatment should be high-level enough for stakeholders to quickly read and comprehend, but detailed enough to paint a picture of the story and setting of the video. To break it down further, an effective video treatment should: Clarify the desired learning outcomes of the training video Provide the structure and key plot points of the story Highlight the characters and their roles in the story Help you pinpoint potential plot holes or areas of confusion before you start writing the script For these reasons and more, taking a few minutes to sit with the objectives of the training video and pull together a short treatment is not only a valuable creative exercise but also a smart strategy for avoiding time-consuming rework. If you’re not quite sure how to structure a video treatment or what to include, download this free template to get started. 3. Keep your videos short and sweet Whether you’re writing an e-learning course or a training video (or both!), it’s always best to keep content succinct. Just as lengthy courses can wear down your learner’s attention, lengthy videos—no matter how well written—can do the same. I like to aim for videos that range from 3 to 8 minutes. Sometimes, however, a longer video is needed to support the learning objectives for the project; in those cases, try writing short scenes and transitions into the script. Doing so will make it easier to edit down a big video into smaller videos in post-production—and ensures your story doesn’t feel too choppy. 4.Keep it real One easy way to spot a poorly written video script is by dialogue that sounds robotic and forced. That’s not what you want! (Side note: there’s a terrible/delightful example of stilted dialogue in this classic example of a cheesy training video.) Avoid this error by writing content that’s meant to be heard and seen. Not sure what I mean? Here are some more scripting tips that can help: Write in a conversational tone. Read your dialogue aloud as you write it. As you hear the words, try swapping out formal language for informal language and phrasing (e.g., use “can’t” instead of “cannot”). Speak to the viewer. When your audience is watching your video, ready to learn, they expect to be spoken to rather than spoken at. That means writing in ways that are engaging and personal. For instance, avoid wordy third-person phrasing like, “Before we get started, viewers should note that the audio volume can be adjusted by clicking on the + or - icons” and try something more personal and direct, such as “You can adjust the volume of this video by clicking the + or - icons.” Use the active voice. Passive voice, particularly when spoken, sounds incredibly awkward. For instance, try reading the following sentence aloud: “The car was started by Tom.” Painful, right? Now read this rewrite aloud: “Tom started the car.” Aah! That’s so much better, isn’t it? Not only is the active voice version much clearer and easier to understand—it’s also shorter! Don’t use dialogue to describe things viewers can see for themselves. For example, avoid having the protagonist say things like, “The customer walked in looking angry” just as the actor playing the role of the customer walks in glaring. Not only is that painfully obvious and far-from-compelling dialogue, but it’s also an acting direction for the person playing the role of the customer! Burying that direction in another character’s dialogue is confusing and may cause cast members to struggle to decipher their character’s moods and motivations. Summing It Up It can be challenging to write a video script that’s engaging and effective for learners and easy to follow for the video’s cast and crew—but it’s a challenge you’re sure to embrace with a little practice. By using the tips I’ve shared here, you’ll be cranking out a training blockbuster in no time! Liked these writing tips? You’ll find loads more on E-Learning Heroes. Here are a few of my favorites: More Than a Dozen Tips for Writing Awesome Audio Narration Scripts Top Writing Tips for E-Learning 4 Impactful Ways to Boost Your E-Learning Writing Skills What are your top writing tips and tricks? How do you keep things conversational when you’re writing dialogue? Share your ideas and experiences with me and the rest of the E-Learning Heroes community by leaving a comment below. 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.5 Reasons You Might Want to Start Using Text-to-Speech
Audio narration is a big part of e-learning. It works well with on-screen visuals to engage learners and help them retain information. But recording, updating, and capturing narration can be time-consuming and costly. Thankfully, text-to-speech—a feature you can find in apps like Storyline 360—makes it easier than ever to speed up course development and save money, even for those who hire professional voiceover talent. Take a look at five reasons you might want to start using text-to-speech. 1. You have a limited budget Course designers wear many hats—which may include recording your own voiceover for your e-learning courses. Since hiring voiceover talent can be costly, you might be expected to record your own narration when a project is on a budget. But if recording engaging high-quality voiceover isn’t in your wheelhouse, that’s okay! With text-to-speech, you have more options to add audio narration to your courses at no extra cost. 2. You don’t have a lot of time If you’re on a time crunch and don’t have a voice actor to record audio before the launch date, text-to-speech can be a quick and easy alternative so you can meet your deadline. And if you want to add your own narration or professional voiceover talent but won’t have those files before your launch date, you can use text-to-speech narration as a stop-gap solution. 3. You need to localize narration in different languages If you need to create a course in multiple languages, finding fluent voice talent for each one may prove challenging—and costly. But a text-to-speech voiceover tool that supports various languages—like Storyline 360—can make localizing courses fast and easy. 4. You need the SMEs to see how it will all look together As the course designer, what makes sense to you might not be entirely clear to someone else. Including voiceover in early drafts helps reviewers—such as subject matter experts (SMEs)—get a clearer picture of what the final course will look like. But if you’re planning on hiring professional voiceover talent, the time and cost of recording and refining multiple iterations of a script are often prohibitive. Text-to-speech provides a useful temporary solution because it gives your SME a version of the course that’s closer to the final product. This makes it easier to identify changes to the script early on, which also saves time because edits to text-to-speech narration can be done in minutes. When the script is fully approved, you and the SME can feel confident knowing you’ve taken steps to avoid costly retakes. 5. You want to simplify content maintenance You likely already have a lot on your plate, so streamlining content maintenance might be what you need to stay afloat! Whether you have a course that needs regular revisions or you anticipate future changes, you might consider using text-to-speech. If you use your own voice recording, a minor word change could mean recording an entire audio clip. Matching recording quality for clips recorded at a different time can be a time sink. If you use a professional voiceover artist, you have to track them down and hope they have time to re-record the changes. If they’re unavailable, you’ll have to pay a new narrator to re-record the entire course so the voice is consistent throughout. A lot to think about! With text-to-speech, there’s no need to re-record. You can simply update the text and republish your course. That’s it! Content maintenance never looked so easy! In Summary There are many reasons to use text-to-speech in your e-learning projects. Ultimately, it can speed up course development, giving you more time to focus on creating meaningful content. If you haven’t been using it, it’s never too late to start! We also want to hear from you. If you’re already including text-to-speech in your courses, how has it improved your process? Let me know in the comments below! Want to learn more about using text-to-speech in your projects? Check out the following resources: Storyline 360: Converting Text to Speech Top Tips for Using Text-to-Speech (TTS) in Storyline 360 3 Examples That Showcase Text-to-Speech in E-Learning 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.4 Ways to Use Videos in E-Learning
As instructional designers, we’re always looking to incorporate different types of multimedia in our courses. Presenting content in a variety of methods keeps it interesting and engaging for the learner, and videos are a great way to capture attention and render information visually. There are lots of different ways you can use videos in your e-learning. Let’s look at a few examples to spark your imagination! 1. Demonstrate a Task Since videos are visual, they are perfect for demonstrating how to do a process or task. In most cases, it’s easier to learn by simply watching someone actually do a task than to try to visualize something we’ve never seen before while reading steps on a screen. Demonstrating how to do something is a classic teaching method. Here’s an example of a video that shows how to use an espresso machine: View Example This next video demonstrates a medical procedure and also incorporates engaging pop-up questions throughout: View Example 2. Share a Screen Recording or Simulation Videos are not only a useful way to demonstrate a physical task or activity, but they are also great for teaching employees how to use a website, application, or software system. Next time you’re building training for a system, create a screen recording or capture a software simulation. Your learners can use this to familiarize themselves with the new system or website. Here’s an example of a software simulation that lets learners click through the steps themselves: View Example 3. Let Learners Explore an Environment or Object Another interesting use of video is to let learners explore an object or a location. This can be a meaningful way to familiarize learners with the layout of an office or their workspace. It can also be a useful method for learners to explore and learn about tools or hardware. Check out this example that lets you learn more about a piece of heavy equipment machinery: View Example 4. Use Stock Assets to Create Custom Videos Creating your own custom video does not have to be difficult. In fact, you can create something really cool just by using stock images with an audio track recorded over top. For example, here’s an example of a stock video that was customized by adding a few elements on screen and an audio track: View Example Video has never been easier to record, and there are endless options available in Content Library 360. Hopefully you’re feeling inspired by these four simple ways you can include video in your next course. Give it a try and leave us a comment to share how it went! 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.Top Tips for Using Text-to-Speech (TTS) in Storyline 360
Adding voiceover to your courses can help bring content to life and make your e-learning materials more engaging. In an ideal world, we could all use professional, high-quality, natural-voice talent. But let’s face it: sometimes that’s unrealistic, in which case you’re going to find Text-to-Speech (TTS) to be a really helpful feature for adding some oomph to your courses. Even if you’re using professional narration, TTS is useful during the up-front storyboarding, to help you nail down the final script and to allow stakeholders to get a better feel for the final content. Another benefit: TTS can make your courses more accessible if you use it to provide audio information for low- or non-sighted learners. There are quite a few advantages to using TTS for your narration. Got changes to your script? Need to tweak a word or term used throughout your audio? With TTS, there’s no need to re-record. Simply pop into the text window to makes script changes. With a few clicks, you’ve updated the audio. Translation is also quick and easy with TTS, because you won’t need to record audio in multiple languages. It’s as simple as copying over the translated text, assigning a voice for that language, and clicking Insert. Writing for TTS voices does come with its own challenges: TTS voices don’t have intonation or tone, and they always pronounce words the same way. Let’s look at some tips you can follow to improve your script and make sure your TTS audio sounds as good as possible. Don’t use abbreviations Spell out words to make sure they're pronounced correctly. Double-check spelling The TTS voice will read the script text exactly as it is written, errors and all, so make sure to double-check your script for spelling mistakes and typos. Adjust the spelling If a correctly spelled word isn't pronounced the way you want, try spelling it phonetically or adding hyphens between syllables. For example, Articulate vs. Articu-late. Use punctuation Make sure to use a generous amount of periods and commas. TTS writing tends to use commas for “breathing room” and clarity. If you would pause momentarily while speaking, insert a comma. If you need longer pauses, convert your text to speech, then open the clip in the built-in audio editor and insert silence where it's needed. Preview audio clips One of the most important things you can do is preview each and every audio clip. Listen carefully to how each one sounds. You might then want to make some tweaks to get a specific sound. These are a few simple tips you can follow to make sure your audio sounds great. Want to learn more about TTS and see examples? Have a look at these resources and articles: 3 Examples That Showcase Text-to-Speech in E-Learning Add Polished Narration to Your Courses with the Text-to-Speech Feature in Storyline Storyline 360: Converting Text to Speech Do you have any tips of your own that you use to improve your TTS? Let me know 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.Create Interactive Videos with These Storyline 360 Features
Videos are a commonly used learning tool in e-learning because they easily demonstrate how to do physical or web-based tasks. Since Articulate 360 Content Library gives you access to thousands of videos, it’s never been easier to find the one you need for your e-learning project. Here’s the best part: Storyline 360 makes it super-easy to take your videos a step further and make them interactive using a few key features. Let's take a closer look. Cue Points Cue points are useful when it comes to creating interactive videos in Storyline. They are bookmarks you can place anywhere on the timeline to trigger events. Cue points are useful when it comes to creating interactive videos because they can be used to pause the video at certain points on the timeline. Here’s an example of an interactive video that uses cue points to pause the video at key moments to display a question the learner must answer. Medical Training: Interactive Video | Download Learn more about cue points: Get to Know Storyline Cue Points How to Work with Cue Points Layers Layers are another powerful feature e-learning designers frequently use to create interactive video. You can use layers to display additional information appearing on the screen while the video is playing or when it’s paused. Here’s an example of an interactive video that uses layers to display additional pop-up information for each step of the process. Barista Training: Interactive Video | Download Learn more about layers and how to use them: Storyline 360 and Storyline 3: Understanding States, Layers, and Triggers Storyline 360: Working with Layers Hotspots Hotspots allow you to create a clickable area on the screen. They can be used on top of videos to encourage learners to click on parts of the scene. Here’s an example of an interactive video that uses clickable hotspots to display additional information about this piece of heavy equipment. Heavy Equipment Training: Interactive Video | Download Learn more here: Working with Hotspots in Storyline 360 In Sum Hopefully these features and examples get you thinking about ways you can turn your video into something more engaging and interactive. What features do you use to create interactive videos? Let me know 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.
