Showing Meaningful Comparisons in E-Learning #1
E-Learning Challenge #1:Challenge|Recap This week I worked with an Articulate Storyline user who needed to build some interactive feature comparisons for their products. The interactions needed to simplify product data (specs, costs) and show meaningful comparisons between their products and their competitors’ products (size, weight, proportion). It made me aware that you can also apply comparisons beyond technical training. For example, you can feature comparisons between behavior (legal vs. illegal), decision-making (ethical vs. unethical), choices (good vs. poor), and more. You could build comparisons on almost anything. The key is to show them, so they’re meaningful to learners. And that's what this week's challenge is all about. Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to use the provided source files to create an interactive demo to compare the different sizes of aircraft. Objective:Design an interactive graphic to show relative sizes for a series of airplanes. Check out this Wikipedia entry on giant aircraft for inspiration. Assets:Download the airplane graphics. They’re available in .png (transparent) and .pptx (PowerPoint) formats. Tools: You can use Storyline, Articulate Studio, or PowerPoint to create your interaction or infographic. Share Your E-Learning Challenge Demos This is a great way to practice your visual communication skills while building youre-learningportfolio. To share your files, do one of the following: Comments:Use the comments section below to share a link to your published project. The comments section allows links but not attachments. You should use the forums if you have a question or want to share your source files. Forums:Create a newthread in the forumsand share a link to your published source file. You can also attach your project files if you want help or feedback. Personal blog:Post your published example on your blog or website. Examples Here are a few examples to get you started: Scale of the Universe Powers of Ten Planet size comparison What You Can Do in 25 Square Meters Cell Size and Scale The Size of Our World Kingdom of the Blue Whale Great whales Tapuiassauro, the new dinosaur from Brazil What are the E-Learning Challenges? Theweekly e-learning challengesare ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of theprevious challengesanytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in thisQ&A postand why and how to participate in thishelpful article.Steal This E-Learning Template #38
E-Learning Challenge #38: Challenge|Recap E-learning Conundrum: Modifying Templates You’ve Googled, Bing’d, and even asked Jeeves, but still haven’t found the right template for your project. It’s not like there aren’t enough options. If only this game weren’t a western theme. This one might work if the menu were on the left. I like this one but the colors aren’t in season. Pfft, this one is too outdated for my learners. And who creates pirate training? We hear this all the time and it’s totally valid. I mean, it’s not like you open a template and press the Convert Template to Match My Course Design button and voilà, your template is ready to go. Basic customizations like changing the template’s colors and swapping placeholder graphics are easy. For most course designers, the real challenge is seeing the template for more than its intended purpose. A Quest for the Perfect E-Learning Template A few weeks ago, community member Jackie Van Nice shared a really fun game template for Storyline. The template was based on a custom project Jackie created for an earlier e-learning challenge. What’s really helpful is to compare the before-after (or is it after-before?) examples: You can read all about both projects on Jackie’s blog. She even recorded some video tutorials to help you get started with the template. Seeing both the template and custom versions reminded me of the importance of leveraging existing course assets for one's own e-learning projects. And that's what this week's challenge is all about! Challenge of the Week This week your challenge is to repurpose the Create Your Own Quest template into something of your own. “Wait! The Quest template is only available in Storyline so I guess I can’t participate this week. Thanks a lot, David.” You can totally participate! In fact, not having the same software is exactly the type of constraint this challenge is all about. The objective here is to leverage the essence of the template into something for your own needs. Update: Jackie shared a PowerPoint version of her templatein a recent discussion. Tools You can use Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio, or PowerPoint to create your template makeover. Resources Here are some articles that will help you think through your template design. If you get stuck on ideas, just ask in the comments below and we’ll share some more ideas. How to Create an E-Learning Template That Works Here’s How to Build an E-Learning Template That Will Rock Your World Here’s How to Create Your Own E-Learning Template in PowerPoint Design Better Quizzes Using Custom Background Images More about the e-learning challenges: The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. We’ll feature your work and provide feedback if you request it. Wishing you a customized week, E-Learning Heroes! Even if you’re using a trial version of Studio ’13 or Storyline, you can absolutely publish your challenge files. Just sign up for a fully functional, free trial, and have at it. And remember to post your questions and comments in the forums; we're here to help. For more e-learning tips, examples, and downloads, follow us on Twitter.Show Us Your E-Learning Portfolio #46
ShareYour E-Learning Portfolio (#46): Challenge|Recap Challenge of the week This week’s challenge is all about your e-learning portfolios. We already know you do awesome work, and we want to help others find your awesome work. Last week’s e-learning challenge E-Learning Audio Tips & Tricks Share Your E-Learning Portfolios This challenge is closed, but you can share your e-learning portfolios in the following challenges: Audio Interviews: Share Your Tips for Creating Effective E-Learning Portfolios #138 Share Your E-Learning Portfolios with Rise 360 #254 Share Your E-Learning and Instructional Design Portfolios #333Create a Simple E-Learning Game #24
E-Learning Games#24:Challenge|Recap I know there are a lot of folks in the community who are looking to build games in Storyline, or who just want to know more about using games in e-learning. If either sounds like you, then you’ll love this week’s challenge. This week we’re going to look at transforming a quiz into a simple e-learning game. View the E-Learning Game|Download |Video Tutorials In reality, these types of games are more like glorified progress meters than high-production games. But they’re fun for learners to take, and just as much for course designers to build. Choose a Gamified Theme What type of game do you want? One option for game themes is to align the game to the rest of your course content. Think of a new hire course where the objective is to collect important documents from different departments. Maybe you browse the aisles of your company “store” and fill your cart with your departmental items. Another option is to choose something more off-the-wall like an adventure game or a treasure hunting scenario. Backgrounds Create Context Once you’ve found a theme, the next step is to head over to your favorite stock photo site for some background graphics that match your theme. Because the background graphic is the largest slide object, it sets the context for your e-learning game. Select the Style of Game How do you want your learners to move through the game? Two common ways include: Linear: Learners follow a path of challenge questions. Each time the learner answers correctly, the learner moves forward along the path. Markers along the path are updated visually to indicate correct and incorrect choices. Non-linear: Learners move through the game by choosing one of the markers or buttons placed around the game board. Clicking a marker loads a new challenge question. After answering the question, the learner is returned to the game board and the marker is updated visually to reflect a correct or incorrect answer. Building the Quiz As with most interactions in Storyline, you have multiple options for how you structure your game. Depending on your goals, you’ll find one method fits better than the other. You essentially have two ways to build your file: Single Slide Everything is built on a single slide. This is an efficient way to structure your file because it enables you to easily share your final game template. Because all quiz questions are built on slide layers, Storyline’s built-in quiz results options won’t be available to track and report the game scores. Separate Slides The other option is to build your questions as separate slides. Using your game board as your home slide, each marker loads a quiz question either as a lightbox slide or jumps the learner to the new slide. After completing the question, the learner is returned to the home slide where the marker is updated to reflect the learner’s correct or incorrect answer. This Week’s Challenge This week your challenge is to build a simple e-learning game. Tools You can use Articulate Storyline or Articulate Quizmaker to create your e-learning game. To get you started, take a look at thise-learning gamefrom our downloads gallery. Last Week’s E-Learning Challenge To help you find a game plan for this week’s challenge, take a look at the highlights from last week’s branching scenarios challenge: Jackie Van Nice kicked off this week’s challenge with an elegant example of smooth animations and creative type design. Be sure to check out Jackie’s blog post to learn more about her design process. Awesome demo, Jackie! Kimberly Bourque followed up with a creative example that asks learners to guess their leadership style before beginning the simulation. Well done, Kimberly! Gemma Henderson put together an illustrated example that features a creative rollovers for the question choices. Amazing example, Gem! El Burgaluva shared a creative, character-driven example that features photo characters and chat boxes for each scenario. Great demo, Leslie! How to Build a Simple E-Learning Game Learn how to build an e-learning game in this video tutorial series. New to the E-Learning Challenges? Theweekly e-learning challengesare ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build youre-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of theprevious challengesanytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.Design a Comic Book Theme for Your E-Learning Course #11
Comic Book Designs#11: Challenge|Recap Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to design your own comic book e-learning template. Try to include multiple slides so you can show how the template will carry through your content. Tools You can use Google Drive, Dropbox, PowerPoint, Word, Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio ’09, or Articulate Studio ’13, to show and share your e-learning template. Resources For more information on using comic designs, check out the following posts: Examples of comics in e-learning: PwP in Action by Kevin Thorn Connect with Haji Kamal by Cathy Moore Posts and discussions from the Articulate community: 3 Ways to Make Your E-Learning Course Look Like a Comic Book Let Others Inspire Your Interactive E-Learning. Here’s How A Simple Way to Create Custom Callouts for Your Courses Be Inspired: Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work Storyboarding a Serious Comic - Developed in Storyline Online comic creation sites: Make Your Own Graphix Strip Generator Marvel Kids: Create Your Own Comic Pixton MakeBeliefsComics Comic Life (Mac-only) Additional resources: Resources and Tools for Teaching Using Comic Strips Sharing your examples Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published project. The comments section allows links but not attachments. If you have a question or want to share your source files, you should use the forums. Forums: Create your own thread in our forums, and share a link to your published source file. You can also attach your project files if you’d like some help or feedback. Personal blog: Post your published example on your own blog. Last week’s challenge Remember, there is no deadline for examples, so you can always post your examples to any of the previous challenges, anytime! Take a look at the following examples shared in this week’s challenge: Alicia Durham shared a great example of DIY office and desktop graphics in this Personal and Professional Development course. Awesome example, Alicia! Montse Anderson shared a library-themed demo along with 100 free background graphics. Jeff Kortenbosch shared a set of awesome office backgrounds along with a Replay overview of his design process. Have a Super-Power week, E-Learning Heroes! Share Your Comic Book Theme Templates Please share your comic-themed examples in our current comic book challenge.Shoot Your Own E-Learning Background Graphics #10
E-Learning Challenge#10:Challenge|Recap In our workshops, people frequently ask how to create more meaningful slide designs. There are a lot of ways to answer this—but one of the easiest places to begin is with your slide background. Creating Awesome Background Graphics You don’t need to be a professional photographer to shoot decent-quality background photos. Most phones have a built-in camera that is good enough to capture a shot for your course. The secret, though, is in the post-production process where you apply photo filters and effects. Free mobile apps like Instagram, Aviary, and others offer unlimited opportunities to transform bland office pics into pro-looking e-learning graphics. Going From Blah to Booyah! To illustrate how simple this is, take a look at a warehouse photo I shot at night with an iPhone 4S: This is hardly an award-winning photo, right? The lighting wasn’t great and the phone/camera was a year old. The first thing I did to clean up the image was crop and straighten the image. I also removed the floor grates but that’s probably more than I needed to do. Next I applied an Instagram-style filter to my photo and blurred it to create a depth of field effect: TIP: Another idea is to use images that are wider than your actual slide so you can make subtle changes to your backgrounds. Add the slide text, graphics, and people to create the perfect background graphic for your e-learning course: What an improvement, right? So whenever you need a custom photo background, I suggest this simple three-step process here: Create a shot list of things you want to include. You don’t have to shoot everything on your shot list, but you should list out things you might want to shoot. Look at some office stock photos on iStockPhoto or Shutterstock and note the different scene locations and angles. Shot lists can be a simple two- or three-column word documents like this free template. Shoot your photos. Shoot as many photos as you like. Try different settings on your phone or camera to experiment. Edit your photos. The final step is to edit your photos so they work for your project. Your original photos will likely not look as pro as you’d like. This is where filters and effects come in. Try different combinations of filters and effects until you find the results you’re after. Challenge of the Week Create a shot list of possible images and shoot your own background graphics using your office or work area as the primary location. When you share your photos, please include your shot list and at least one original photo so we can compare the before and after. Tools Share just a few photos, or as many as you like. You can use Google Drive, Dropbox, PowerPoint, Word, Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio ’09, or Articulate Studio ’13, to share your photos. You can even zip up the photos into a bundled archive that we can download. Note: It’s easier to show and share your examples in highlight posts if you publish in Studio or Storyline. Resources For more information on using backgrounds, shot lists, and photo filter sites, check out the following posts: Using backgrounds in e-learning: Design Better Quizzes Using Custom Background Images Using PowerPoint to Create Labeled Graphic Backgrounds How to create blurred backgrounds in PowerPoint Articles on using shot lists: Using Shot Lists Will Make You a Better Photographer Making a Shot List Download: Simple shot list template for e-learning Online photo tools: Picful: Free online photo editing Rollip: Quick & easy online photo effects Photogramio: Filters and effects Sharing your examples Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published project. The comments section allows links but not attachments. If you have a question or want to share your source files, you should use the forums. Forums: Create your own thread in our forums, and share a link to your published source file. You can also attach your project files if you’d like some help or feedback. Personal blog: Post your published example on your own blog. Last week’s challenge I can’t tell you enough how much we appreciate the time you take to share your creative ideas and examples with the community. You guys are awesome! To keep you shutterbugs focused on this week’s challenge, check out the last week’s portfolio of clip art demos shared by your fellow community members: Jeff Kortenbosch did a great job reworking and coloring clip art graphics in this scenario-based ethics demo. Lara Sebastian demonstrated a novel approach to character dialog by including off-stage characters in this sweet-toothed ethics demo. Dawn Mahoney celebrated clip art week with a cheerful combination of ethical reminders for office employees. Have a picture-perfect week, E-Learning Heroes! Post written byDavid Anderson _______________________________________ Get more e-learning tips byfollowing us on Twitter.Design an Ethics Course Template with Clipart #9
E-Learning Challenge #9: Challenge|Recap I think last week’s challenge is one of my favorites so far. The design constraints of working with clip art brought out truly innovative ideas. It reminds me, once again, of the amazing creativity in this community. This week we’re tightening the design constraints even more. Everyone will work from the same clip art style to design a corporate-friendly template. Challenge of the Week Using clip art Style 1368, design a course template for a corporate ethics e-learning course. Include at least three content slides and two quizzing slides. Your slides can be static or built out as working interactions. We just want to see how your template carries across your project. To help keep you focused on the template design, you can pull content from this Ethics Training for Special Government Employees course. Tools You can use PowerPoint, Word, Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio ’09, or Articulate Studio ’13, to design your ethics template. Note: It’s easier to show and share your examples in highlight posts if you publish in Studio or Storyline. Resources Refer to last week’s clip art challenge for articles about using clip art in e-learning. Sharing your examples Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published project. The comments section allows links but not attachments. If you have a question or want to share your source files, you should use the forums. Forums: Create your own thread in our forums, and share a link to your published source file. You can also attach your project files if you’d like some help or feedback. Personal blog: Post your published example on your own blog. Last week's challenge If you haven’t looked over the previous demos shared by your fellow community members, please make the time to do so! What I like most about these challenges is that I see new ideas in even the most basic examples. To keep you honest for this week’s ethics challenge, check out the clip art solutions these amazing designers shared over the past week: Tricia Ransom offered a healthy serving of creativity in her Farm Fresh Vegetable template. Destery Hildenbrand proved that clip art doesn’t have to be scary in his Halloween-themed demo. Jackie Van Nice found a way to relieve the pain from clip art by putting them to good use in this sales demo. Be sure to read her post where she describes how she put the demo together. Heather Steckley reminds us that breaking clip art is better than breaking office romance policies. Mark Woolwine went back to school to educate us on college basics in this creative demo. Be sure to check out Mark’s blog post on how he created his project. Rachel Ingram shared a wonderful demo that will get you up out of your seat. David Lindenberg shared another great demo and revealed his design process in a related blog post. Veronica Budnikas negotiated a winning concept with this creative demo. The file cabinet menu rocks! Have a great week, E-Learning Heroes! Post written byDavid AndersonConverting Static Content to Interactive Knowledge Checks #7
Interactive Knowledge Checks #7:Challenge |Recap “How do I make my e-learning more interactive?” Now that your course designs cleared their medical check-ups, it’s time to get them active—as in interactive. One of the easiest ways to move your static content to something more interactive is to reframe your existing content into the form of a question. This is a great way to create informal, interactive knowledge checks without extending your project’s timeline. Articulate Storyline’s Convert to Freeform option makes this process really easy. We posted an article Thursday that goes into more detail on using this technique. You may want to reference it for this week’s challenge: Transform Static Content Into Interactive Knowledge Checks. Challenge of the Week Show and share your interactive makeovers using an existing slide from one of your projects: Objective: Convert an existing content slide and convert it to an interaction using one of the Storyline’s six free-form questions. Tools: You can use Storyline, Articulate Studio, Word, or PowerPoint to create your before and after examples. You don’t need Storyline to participate in this week’s challenge. What we care about most is seeing your before and after slides. Storyboard the before-after examples in PowerPoint or Word to communicate how you’d rework the static content. NOTE: This is not a visual design activity! You shouldn’t re-design your slide; you should only re-work the existing content into an interaction. Both slides should look the same except for the presentation of the content. Resources How to Transform Static Content into Interactive Knowledge Checks (Overview of how this technique works) Converting an Existing Slide to a Free-form Interaction (Storyline tutorial) Converting a static list into a drag-and-drop sorting activity (Screencast) Converting a text-heavy slide into fill-in-the-blank activity (Screencast) Additional resources on interactivity: 3 Things to Consider When Building Interactive E-Learning How to Create Interactive E-Learning A Simple Approach to Interactive E-Learning Sharing your examples: Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published project. The comments section allows links but not attachments. If you have a question or want to share your source files, you should use the forums. Forums: Create your own thread in our forums and share a link to your published source file. You can also attach your project files if you’d like some help or feedback. Personal blog: Post your published example on your own blog and add a link in the comments below. Last week’s challenge I have to tell you how much I enjoy seeing what you come up with every week. The ideas and creativity are amazing, and I appreciate you taking time to share your work with the Articulate community. Thank you. Older challenges: If you have a demo or example for an older challenge, you can still post it in the comments. The previous challenge threads will always be open. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your e-learning skills, build your e-learning portfolio, and connect with fellow community members. To get help get you moving for this week’s interactive makeovers, check out the healthy serving of creativity your fellow community members shared in last week’s challenge: Sarah Redmond introduced herself to E-Learning Heroes by sharing her minimalist design that features creative navigation, lightboxes, and medical disclaimers. Mariann Toth really captured the medical theme in her template makeover. From the characters, to the colors and medical imagery, she totally captured the medical feel in this template. Curtis Pembrook also introduced himself to E-Learning Heroes with his medical makeover template. Really like the creative navigation, Ask the Expert, and Tips sub-navigation technique. This would make a great course template. Have an interACTIVE week, E-Learning Heroes! Post written byDavid AndersonFlatten Up Your Course Design Skills #4
E-Learning Challenge #4:Challenge|Recap Flat Design If you’re like most e-learning designers, you’re always trying to grow your skills and improve what you create. Yet practicing your craft can be a challenge if you work for a company that’s comfortable in your comfort zone, and doesn’t always embrace your stretch opportunities. So you may have plenty of work, but when you do too much of the same thing, your skills and creativity can start to feel flat. Well, this week’s challenge is around flat—flat design, that is. Flat design is hot right now, and I’m guessing a lot of your clients haven’t embraced this trendy style. So here’s your chance to rev your design engines from flat-line to phlat-tastic! Challenge of the week Show and share your best flat design template ideas for e-learning: Objective: Create a flat design course template. Include at least three different content slides, and more if you’d like. Your slides can be static or built out as working interactions. The objective is to show how your flat design will carry across your project. Tools: You can use Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio, or PowerPoint to create your examples. Resources Tom has some great posts on finding design inspiration, creating starter templates and using websites to get started. If you read only one post, I’d check out the post on creating an e-learning template. It outlines the most common slide designs found in courses. Flat design examples: Flat and Thin Are In fltdsgn The Ultimate Guide to Flat Design Last week’s challenge You guys are amazing! The ideas shared in last week’s gate screen challenge were superb. Examples included a variety of use cases from scenarios, reviews, and even social media. To flatten you up for this week’s challenge, check out the creative examples your fellow community members shared last week: Montse Anderson shared a course-review gate screen that presented the learner with options to review resources, collaborate in discussion threads, or continue to the next chapter. Tracy Parish shared an out-of-this-world gate idea that featured a summary gate with options to dig deeper into the topic or return to the navigation slide. Great idea, Tracy! Lucia Salters shared a decision-making gate that asked learners to confirm their scenario choices or return to make a different selection. This is a practical approach for a lot of the courses we design in corporate e-learning. Blair Parkin took things in a creatively different direction by overlaying ribbon-styled gates over the in-slide video. While this approach is more subtle than the others, it’s an ideal solution that keeps the learner in the moment.Blair also shared his source files in thisforum thread. Thanks, Blair! Joe Deegan added a playful admonition into his shark-infested gate example. Be sure to view the minimum number of videos or Snuffy gets it! Have a flatastic week, E-Learning Heroes! Post written byDavid AndersonGate Screens in Online Courses #3
Gate Screens in E-Learning #3:Challenge|Recap Challenge of the Week Show and share your best out-of-the-box ideas for using gate screens: Objective: Design a two-slide interaction that includes a content screen and a gate screen. The content screen can be a placeholder screen. The key is to show how your gate screen will load and close in relation to the course. Tools: You can use Articulate Storyline or PowerPoint to create your example. Resources: Check out Tom’s post on gate screens and the free Storyline and PowerPoint templates he put together in our downloads section. Sharing This is a really great way to practice your visual communication skills while building up youre-learningportfolio. To share your files, do one of the following: Comments:Use the comments section below to share a link to your published project. The comments section allows links but not attachments. If you have a question or want to share your source files, you should use the forums. Forums:Create your ownthread in our forumsand share a link to your published source file. You can also attach your project files if you’d like some help or feedback. Personal blog:Post your published example on your own blog and include a link in the comments below. Looking for inspiration? We were totally impressed with the creative ideas you shared in last week’s tabs interaction challenge. Thanks for making it a big success! To warm up for this week’s challenge, check out the creative examples your fellow community members shared last week: Heather Steckley kicked off the challenge with a roadmap theme and followed up with an out-of-the-box pseudo-scrolling tabs demo. Tricia Ransom shared creative example featuring interactive cabinet drawers with open and closed states. Kevin Thorn shared an elegant tabs example with animated tabs. Be sure to grab the free template he shared with his example. Przemysław Hubisz shared two grid-based tabs examples: version 1 and version 2. Montse Andersonfirst shared anleadership scenariofollowed by aninteractive quotes demo. Andrzej Rudnik shared a wonderful photo slideshow tabs interaction. Jenise Cookshared adesktop-themed tabs interaction. To help you get started creating your own tabs interaction, Jenise shared herStoryline fileand recorded ascreencast. Thanks, Jenise! Have a gatetastic week, E-Learning Heroes! Post written byDavid Anderson
