5 Ways to Use Animated GIFs in Your E-Learning
Animated GIFs—or image files that act like a short video that loops endlessly—are everywhere these days, on social media, in blogs, and even in e-learning courses! That’s right, instructional designers are using these eye-catching multimedia assets to grab their learners’ attention—and you can too. Check out these ideas to get inspiration on how to incorporate animated GIFs in your courses. 1. As Course Header Images If your learners have a ton of courses in their dashboard and you want yours to stand out, try using an animated GIF in the course header, like in this example: Mars Curiosity Rover. It’s a surefire way to get your course noticed. 2. As Attention Getters GIFs are eye-catching. Have you noticed how hard it is to look away even when you’ve already seen the same animation loop 10 times over? That’s what’s so great about them. Their movement naturally draws your learners in and incites them to pay attention. Not convinced? Take a look at this Rise 360 course: Space Travel–Themed Interactive Infographic See how the GIFs draw you in and make you want to click on the interactive parts? I thought so. 3. To Illustrate Key Messages But GIFs can do more than just catch your learners’ eye. They can actually help learners better understand the concepts you’re teaching them. Check out the GIFs in this course, for example: An American’s Guide to Driving in France. See how the GIFs support the key messages? 4. To Lay Out the Steps in a Process If you’re creating a how-to course, you might be tempted to make a video. And that’s definitely one way of doing it! But if people need to replicate the steps one by one, they might need to rewind each step and watch it over and over again. What a pain! Instead of creating a lengthy video or screencast, why not create a GIF of each step, making it easy for people to rewatch the steps as needed, like in this article on how to make coffee? 5. For Comic Relief If the topic of your course is particularly dry, it might be a good idea to work in some humor to make sure your learners don’t fall asleep. GIFs are a great way to do that! However, be careful to not overdo it. A humorous GIF here and there is one thing; peppering every section of your course with them is another. Here's an example that uses humorous GIFs effectively. Another thing to keep in mind with humor is that it’s subjective. Test your course out on a trusted coworker or two and make sure they find the GIFs to be both work-appropriate and funny. The Bottom Line As with anything, it’s important to keep in mind that too much of a good thing is bad. When using animated GIFs, make sure they’re helping and not hindering the learning process. After all, the goal is to get your learners to focus on the content and retain the key messages. If you’re sold on using animated GIFs in your courses but aren’t sure how to go about creating your own, check out this tutorial. Like this article? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (Formerly Twitter).How to Do an E-Learning Needs Analysis
According to the ATD, U.S. organizations spent over $100 billion on employee learning and development programs in 2010. That’s a lot of training! And a lot of resources spent. To make training worth the investment, you need to make sure your training program actually meets the needs of your audience. That’s why the first step for any effective online training program is an e-learning needs analysis. An e-learning needs analysis answers this important question: is training the right solution for the problem at hand? If it’s not, you’ll want to know that before you start your e-learning project, not after you finish it. Taking the time now to plan your project with a needs analysis will ensure you’re creating something useful. So let’s take a closer look at how to create your own needs analysis. To Train or Not to Train? Whether you call it an e-learning needs analysis, a training needs analysis, or a training needs assessment, the objective is the same: to identify whether training needs exist, and what they are. The exercise examines a business deficiency and identifies all solutions, training and otherwise, that will solve the problem. Why look at both training and non-training solutions? Because sometimes you may find that a non-training solution is more effective than a training course. Other times, you may learn that the cost of living with the problem is far less than the cost of initiating training. Let’s look at a training vs. non-training scenario: Bob, the sales manager at XYZ company, wants to improve the call handling time for his telephone sales team. Currently, employees take an average of 7 minutes per call; Bob thinks they can be done in 5. So Bob tells you to design some e-learning that will improve his team’s average call time. You dive into a needs assessment and observe the sales team in action. You see they’re doing the process just right, completing calls within the ideal time window. However, at the end of the process, the system is so slow that the sales team can’t complete the job until nearly the 7-minute mark. Would training help here? No, because this example is a computer systems problem, not a “trainable human” problem. That’s why it’s important to start with an e-learning needs assessment—to tease out exactly the problem and the potential ways you can solve it—before you design and deliver an online training program. Creating Your E-Learning Needs Analysis Needs assessments come in many shapes and sizes, but they all start with data gathering. A good, basic framework to get the data you need comes from five very familiar prompts: why, who, how, what, and when. Let’s delve deeper into each of these, to illustrate the kind of information you should look for as you investigate. Why Why do you think you need to create training? Dig into the details of the problem or deficiency, and look for evidence within the organization, in performance metrics, process breakdowns, customer feedback, employee observations, and the like. You should also look for upcoming changes. You won’t find evidence, of course, but you’ll know that if a new policy, process, or technology are in the works, people are going to need training. Who Take a look at the people or departments involved in the problem or deficiency. Then look for other audiences that might benefit from the training, particularly if there are pending changes. These groups will comprise your target audience. Get to know them, their organizational functions, and how they do their jobs. How Brainstorm ways to correct the problem or fill the gap. Can training help, or are there better ways to address the issues? Consider creative options, especially those that make use of resources in place or are less disruptive to ongoing work. Think broadly—this is the time to look at all the different ways to resolve the problem. What For this you should look at what employees do in their jobs. What’s the best way for them to do their job or tasks? Do employees have the knowledge or skills to perform to the standard? Are there critical hazards employees need to avoid in their jobs? Take a look at policies and standard operating procedures, and find out how employees implement these in their jobs. Feedback from the front lines can help you identify discrepancies and gaps. When Training needs to be timed to maximize the number of people who benefit from it and minimize the burden on the organization’s business operations. How you deliver training—whether via online modules employees can complete on their own time, in-classroom training that requires them to gather at a certain time and place, or some other means—will play a role in determining when. For example, if training means pulling people off a production line and into a classroom, perhaps there’s a time during the day when production is slowest; people could do their training then. Get a sense of when employees are going to need the training relative to upcoming business operations, as well as when to deliver the training during their day-to-day work. Once you’ve gathered your data, it’s time to analyze it. Approach this assessment with an open mind and look where the gaps and problems are, and how you might solve them. Understand employees’ current performance relative to requirements or standards they need to meet, and when they should meet them. Rely on your data to point you toward solutions to the problem. This is where you’ll see whether the problem is training-related or needs other solutions. If you can’t find a performance gap after all, it may indicate that the desire for training is more of a want than a need. The key is to know that before you create an e-learning program, not afterward. The outcome of a thoughtful e-learning needs analysis is a clear picture of the problem, solutions, and whether training will help. If it will, the evidence you discover in your investigation can help justify the cost of training to your organization, and serve as a launching point for your e-learning training course. 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 comments, please share them below.An Introduction to SAM for Instructional Designers
The ADDIE model is probably the most well-known approach for mapping out the course design process. But it isn’t the only game in town these days. One popular alternative is SAM: the Successive Approximation Model. Created by Allen Interactions, SAM offers an instructional design approach consisting of a few steps that you repeat as many times as necessary. These iterations address common instructional design pain points like meeting timelines, staying on budget, and collaborating with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). So what is SAM? And how is it different from ADDIE? Is one better than the other? Let’s dig in and uncover some answers to these questions. What’s the difference between ADDIE and SAM? ADDIE and SAM are two different approaches for crafting learning solutions that share some similar language. To better see where they differ, it’s helpful to understand how each of them works. Let’s start with ADDIE. ADDIE ADDIE stands for Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. It’s a linear approach—like a production line—with each step depending on the successful completion of the previous one. To borrow some terminology from project managers, ADDIE is a “waterfall approach.” And in a traditional waterfall method, analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation are all treated as ordered steps in the overall development process. While this model is preferred in many organizations, some folks say this sequential approach contributes to many of the challenges faced by instructional designers, including: Prolonged development cycles: Have you ever had your project come to a screeching halt in the development phase? It’s not uncommon for new training or technology requirements to emerge in the project development phase, bogging down your productivity with re-work. Communication challenges with SMEs and stakeholders: Even the most thorough explanations and storyboards are still open to interpretation. And with a sequential approach, SMEs and stakeholders typically don’t get to try a hands-on version of the project until well into the development phase. This can mean it’s not until you’re near the end of the project—when you’re out of time and money—that you discover your vision doesn’t match theirs. No time for testing: When projects run out of time or money, what’s the phase of the process we tend to skimp on? In my experience, it’s testing. Shortchanging this step may save you time, but with risky downsides like a training product that doesn’t work—or work effectively—to address a critical performance gap. Successive Approximation Model (SAM) SAM, on the other hand, is considered to be an “agile approach” that can be scaled from basic (SAM1) to extended (SAM2) to suit your needs. Both SAM models use iterative cycles to create the end product right from the start—all while continually analyzing and refining your work as it’s being produced. Proponents of using agile methods for creating e-learning claim that models like SAM can alleviate many of the challenges discussed above—in particular, improving the project team’s visibility into the instructional design process and reducing development time frames. The basic process—SAM1—can be a good fit for smaller projects or teams. This flavor of SAM is a simple model with three iterations of the familiar instructional design steps of evaluation, design, and development. Using this approach, everyone’s ideas and assumptions can be discussed, prototyped, and tested early on, bringing you closer to a usable product more quickly. And what if your project is more complex? That’s where SAM2 comes into play. SAM2 is an extended take on SAM1. It consists of eight iterative instructional design steps spread across three project phases: Preparation, Iterative Design, and Iterative Development. In addition to the incremental cycles, another notable feature of the SAM2 model is the preparation phase. It consists of two steps to help you prepare for your design and development work fast: gathering information and then holding a brainstorming and prototyping meeting known as a “Savvy Start.” Which is better—ADDIE or SAM? When it comes to evaluating which design model is a better fit for you and your team, it really boils down to what you’re trying to achieve and what your work environment will support. When applied in the right situations and fully committed to by everyone involved, SAM’s flexibility can get you to a successful final course fast. Its iterative approach both helps you use prototypes to get stakeholder buy-in quickly and also makes it easy to pivot should your course requirements change. However, many instructional designers work in organizations that have embraced agility in theory but not so much in practice. Applying an agile approach like SAM can be difficult when your environment doesn’t encourage rapid feedback or flexible processes. In those cases, ADDIE’s waterfall model may be a better choice. Because ADDIE is a waterfall method that’s been used for years, it might make clients, stakeholders, and even team members more comfortable. And while it’s still not as flexible as SAM, many people find an adapted version of ADDIE that includes some iterative loops does a good job of splitting the difference between both methods. More Learning Whatever design model you follow—whether it’s ADDIE, SAM, or another one entirely—weighing your options for more thoughtful, responsive development practices can be a great way to build collaboration and grease the wheels for smoother training rollouts. Start by digging into these related articles from the archives. An Introduction to ADDIE for Instructional Designers What’s the PADDIE Model of Instructional Design? Best Practices for Effective E-Learning Project Management How to Manage E-Learning Project Scope Creep What design model is closest to how you really work? What are your thoughts on ADDIE vs. SAM? We love hearing from you, so share your thoughts in a comment. Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.6 Rise 360 Blocks to Use Instead of Bullet Points
Bullet points have been a staple in presentations and e-learning courses since the beginning. It’s easy to see why—they’re a simple and effective way to organize content. However, like anything, they work best when used in moderation. Thanks to all of the block options in Rise 360, bullet points aren’t the only fast and easy option for presenting your content. However, if you’re used to relying heavily on bullet points, you might be struggling to come up with ideas for creative alternatives. You’re not alone! Let’s look at some block types that work well for content traditionally reserved for bullet points. 1. Checkbox Lists You might wonder, what’s the difference between a bullet-point list and a checkbox list? Interactivity, that’s what! Checkbox list blocks in Rise 360 let learners interact with the content, making them less likely to skim over it. Checkbox lists are especially useful when you want learners to reflect on each item and check it off when they’re done or if it applies to them, like in the example below: Explore the interactive version or send a copy to your Rise 360 dashboard. Do you ever use your pointer finger as a guide when you read, to underline the sentence you’re currently scanning with your eyes? Checkbox lists work in a similar way—preventing learners from losing their spot and helping them stay focused on the text they’re currently reading. 2. Flashcard Grids Next let’s take a look at another one of my go-to Rise 360 blocks for bullet-point content: the flashcard grid. Using flashcards is a great way to minimize the amount of text displayed at any given time, which in turn reduces the cognitive load and makes it easier for learners to focus. With flashcards in Rise 360, you have the option to use text on both sides, images on both sides, or one of each. It’s up to you! Here’s what it looks like when you use text on both sides: Explore the interactive version or send a copy to your Rise 360 dashboard. And here’s another example, with images on one side and text on the other: Explore the interactive version or send a copy to your Rise 360 dashboard. See how the images draw you in and make you want to click? If you like the way that looks but don’t have any graphics on hand, don’t worry. Thanks to Content Library 360, you have access to millions of images and illustrations—right from within Rise 360! 3. Labeled Graphics You can also use one illustration to represent all of your bullet points, like in the example below, and add interactive markers the learner can click on to view the text. Explore the interactive version or send a copy to your Rise 360 dashboard. Illustrations aren’t the only option for this approach; photos can work just as well. Check out the example below to see for yourself: Explore the interactive version. For tips on finding the imagery you need, head on over to this article: How to Find the Images You Want in Content Library 360. 4. Carousels Another creative way to transform your bullet points is by using a series of large images in a carousel block and adding the text below, like in this example: Explore the interactive version or send a copy to your Rise 360 dashboard. Are you starting to see a theme here? Whenever possible, it’s a good idea to use relevant images alongside text-based content. It adds visual interest and breaks up the monotony, increasing the likelihood that your learners won’t gloss over your content. 5. Accordions If your bullet points are longer and you’re looking for a way to make them less visually intimidating, accordion blocks are a great option. When learners arrive on the screen, they only see the titles. When they click on the plus (+) icons, they see the additional information for each tab one at a time, making it easier to digest. Take a look at how it works in the example below: Explore the interactive version or send a copy to your Rise 360 dashboard. Note that while the example above is text only, you can also add images to each tab if you’d like. It’s up to you! 6. Tabs Much like accordion blocks, tabs break up your content and allow learners to focus on one thing at a time. Explore the interactive version or send a copy to your Rise 360 dashboard. In the example above, each tab contains only a sentence or two of text, but that’s something you get to determine. And, of course, you can also add any other relevant multimedia elements you have on hand. More Resources If you found this article helpful, be sure to check out the resources below for more inspiring ideas: 7 Creative Ways to Use Images in Rise 360 Courses 5 Ideas for Turning Boring Bullets into Engaging Interactions Basic Elements of an E-Learning Course Want to try out these Rise 360 blocks, 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.10 E-Learning Attention-Getters That Really Work
As an e-learning pro, you’re always looking for new ways to connect with learners, to grab their attention and keep them engaged so they can get the most out of your courses. So how do you hook your learners right from the start, so they’re motivated—and maybe even excited—about learning something new? Let’s take a look at some tried-and-true techniques. 1. A Surprising Fact One way to grab your learners’ attention is to start off with a surprising fact. This could be something that most people don’t know or that challenges a commonly held belief. Here are a few example courses that use this simple but effective method. View example View example View example View example and download template View example 2. An Eye-Catching Animation Another way to catch your learner’s eye is by using animations. This could be anything from a simple GIF to a more elaborate combination of moving objects. Take a peek at these effective examples for inspiration. View example View example View example View example View example View example and download template 3. An Intriguing Video There’s something captivating about the combination of imagery, animations, and audio in a video that captures attention. Here are a few examples of using compelling video footage. View example View example View example 4. A Realistic Scenario Scenarios invite learners to interact and understand the practical application of the content you’re sharing. But they don’t need to be buried in the middle of the course! Use them to kick-start your course, or as the basis for your entire course. See for yourself how engaging this technique can be by checking out the examples below. View example View example View example View example 5. A Thought-Provoking Question (or Two!) Asking curious questions is a great way to start a conversation—and an e-learning course. Questions pique the learner’s interest in your course right off the bat! You can use questions that you write on the screen, inviting learners to reflect on their own, or ask quiz questions learners must answer to move forward in the course. It’s up to you to decide what makes the most sense for your situation. Here are some examples to get your creative wheels spinning. View example View example View example 6. A Stimulating Challenge When faced with a challenge, most people are naturally motivated to solve it. That’s why challenging your learners from the start can be a really powerful engagement strategy. These two courses will give you ideas on how to go about it. View example View example 7. A Powerful Quote Having trouble coming up with the exact words to say? Then find a relevant quote and include it in your course. Sharing the wisdom of others can be inspiring and give your content instant credibility. Here’s an example course that starts with a quote from the Declaration of Independence. View example 8. An Unexpected or Unique Interaction Most e-learning courses behave in a similar way . . . a Start button here, a Next button there. And while that makes it easy for learners to know how to move forward, it can also be a little boring. Why not throw in a couple of surprises? As long as navigation is still clear, there’s no harm in shaking things up! Here are a couple examples to show you what I mean. View example View example 9. A Humorous Image or Statement People love to laugh, but humor can be hard to get right in a corporate setting, so many course designers shy away from it. However, if you strike the right balance and ensure your humor is appropriate, it can be a great way to catch people off guard and leave them wanting more. Here’s a great example of that. View example View example 10. Evoke an Emotional Response A lot of our memories are derived from life experiences and how they made us feel. For this reason, starting with something that learners emotionally connect with can be a good way to get them to engage with your course. And if you continue on that path throughout the course, they’re more likely to retain what they learn. Check out these courses for some tips on appealing to your learners’ emotions. View example View example View example More Resources This list of attention-getters is far from exhaustive, but it’s a good place to start! And if you looked at the examples I shared, you probably noticed that course designers often use a combination of these ideas to maximize their effect. As you’re deciding how to capture your learners’ attention, make sure to keep your subject matter, learning objectives, and audience in mind. After all, those should always be your guiding principles as you design your course! If you’re looking for more examples of attention-getters, be sure to check out E-Learning Challenge #279: 23 Creative Ways to Motivate and Grab Attention in E-Learning Courses. And for more instructional design tips, check out the following articles: What to Include in Your Course Introduction 4 Summary Screen Ideas for Your E-Learning Courses What to Include on Your Course Closing Screen 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 I Designed This Immersive Scenario on Prioritizing Tasks
Recently my fellow instructional designers Sarah Hodge and Madison McCartney and I teamed up to prove that there’s always more than one way to present course content. Each of us created a mini-course on prioritizing tasks, using the Eisenhower Decision Matrix as our starting point. In this article, I’m going to walk you through how I got from this: … to this: View interactive version | Download template Without further ado, let’s get into it! Setting the Scene Since I created this project as an example, there’s no real target audience, much less learning objectives. But to make it feel realistic I set some basic parameters to guide my design thinking. Here’s what I came up with: Audience: Novice e-learning project managers Learning objective: Be able to identify tasks, classify them as important and/or urgent, and prioritize them accordingly Coming Up with the Concept Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of great e-learning examples in the E-Learning Heroes community, but a few really stand out to me. One in particular is this time management game by Phil Eagles. I love the way he took a series of simple multiple choice questions and made them into a scenario that feels real and meaningful. And since time management is so closely related to task prioritization, it’s the first thing I thought of when I started brainstorming ideas for my project. I wanted to create something similar—but put my own spin on it. Because I wanted to create a totally custom and immersive scenario, Storyline 360 was the perfect choice for this project. I decided to simulate a desk and let learners identify tasks and prioritize items for themselves. The idea behind this was to emulate real life—where learners have to identify tasks and decide which ones to do first—while also following one of the key principles of adult learning by giving them control over their learning experience. Refining the Scenario Once I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, it was time to iron out the scenario details. I wanted to give learners enough opportunities to practice prioritizing tasks without it feeling repetitive. I included a few different types of tasks—since that’s what it’s like in real life. In the end, I settled on a total of six tasks, including a few emails, a couple of text messages, and a Post-it. As I started to build out my scenario, I ran into some challenges. One of the main issues was that my slide was getting overcrowded. To overcome this challenge and help learners focus on one thing at a time, I divided the process of task prioritization into two parts: Step 1: identify and analyze the tasks to determine how urgent/important they are Step 2: prioritize the tasks based on their level of urgency/importance For step one, I used a series of toggles so the learner can decide if each task is urgent and/or important. Based on their answer, I provide custom feedback. This is how that turned out: For step two, I made a simple drag-and-drop interaction so the learner can decide where each task belongs on their to-do list based on its level of urgency and importance. Here’s what that ended up looking like: Because this project was intended for adults who may have previous experience with the Eisenhower Decision Matrix, I made the explanation walk-through optional, as shown in the screenshot below: Is this how I initially envisioned my project? Absolutely not. To be honest, I don’t think I really had a clear mental picture of what it would look like. Some people can map out their entire project before they even open up the authoring app, while others do better jumping straight into building and get inspired along the way. Both methods are totally fine as long as you always keep your learners’ needs at the center of your design. Designing the Graphics As someone with no formal graphic design training, I can be challenged to come up with ideas for the look and feel of my courses. To find inspiration, I usually start by checking out the examples and templates on E-Learning Heroes as well as the Content Library 360 templates. Even if I don’t find exactly what I need, I usually come across something I can use as a starting point. Personally, I find that starting with a template is less intimidating than starting from a blank slide. And even if the final result ends up looking completely different than the original template, having something to start with helps me channel my ideas and inch closer to a place I feel good about. So, once I knew that I wanted to create an immersive scenario, I headed straight to E-Learning Heroes to look for templates I could use as a springboard for my design. A quick search for “desk” led me to this template, which I thought was perfect: Download Template After opening the template, I made some adjustments and played around with different color options. Here’s what my first version looked like: There’s nothing wrong with the way this looks, but—as I mentioned earlier in this article—it was at this point I realized there wasn’t enough room on the slide to allow learners to both identify and prioritize tasks in one spot. Splitting the activity up into two parts gave me more screen real estate to work with. Around this time, I also decided I wasn’t sure about the mint green wall and wanted to give white a try . . . . . . but I wasn’t totally sold on that either. I also felt lukewarm about the way the desk looked and decided to incorporate some texture. This is what the next version looked like: Wondering how I created the wood texture? I did a Google search for “flat design wood,” inserted one of the images I found onto my slide master, and then used the curve tool and shapes in Storyline 360 to achieve a similar effect. This is what it looks like behind the scenes: I was pretty happy with the way this looked, but when I started adding other objects to the screen, I realized they didn’t stand out enough against the dark blue background. That’s when I settled on the design you see in the final version: I went through a similar process for the other slides in my project, so I thought I’d share the different versions with you as well. . . . and here’s the final version. You’ll notice that in the final version I pulled in the computer screen from the previous slide to tie it together a bit more. I also changed the size of the boxes to make it all fit on the screen. As I was working on my core content slides, I also started to pull together my title slide. Since my other two slides used a flat design style, I wanted to stick with something similar. I found this simple slide template in Content Library 360 and used it as a starting point: I didn’t want to include characters, so I deleted those and changed the color of the background to match the dark blue I was using at the time. After taking out the characters and changing the color, I felt like the slide was too minimal. It was missing something, so I sat and thought about how I could incorporate more visual interest. That’s when I had an idea: what if the title slide was a view of the desk from above? And since we’re talking about prioritizing tasks—and many people write their to-do lists in a notebook—I thought that might make sense and look nice. So I went back to E-Learning Heroes for some inspiration and ended up finding this spiral notebook template: Download I imported it into Storyline 360 and made a few adjustments to make it all come together. Here’s what it ended up looking like: As you can see, graphic design isn’t always a straightforward process. It doesn’t necessarily go from zero to perfect in one fell swoop. In many cases it’s an iterative process involving incremental changes until you’re happy with what you’ve got. So the next time you’re feeling stuck and unsure about your design, try doing what I did and search E-Learning Heroes or Content Library 360 for a template you can use as a starting point. Then, make small changes here and there. Eventually you’ll get to a place where you feel good about your design. More Resources Hopefully you’ve found this inside look at my design process interesting and insightful! Remember, it’s okay if your first draft isn’t perfect. Design (whether it’s instructional or graphic) is a process, and it often takes trial and error to get it to where it needs to be. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that! If you enjoyed this article and are looking for more insight into what goes on in the minds of instructional designers as they’re creating courses, be sure to check out these articles: How I Designed This Personalized Decision Matrix How I Designed This Interactive Dial Matrix A Behind-the-Scenes Look at How I Designed This Gamified Quiz Want to try building your own immersive scenario in Storyline 360, 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.What to Include in Your Course Introduction
The introduction sets the tone for the rest of your course. It gives learners an idea of what to expect. A good introduction piques interest and sets learners up for success, while a bad one braces them for boredom. So how can you ensure your introduction includes everything your learners need for a positive learning experience? I’ve got some ideas that can help! Let’s unpack all the key elements you should have in place for a great course introduction. An Attention-Getter It’s always good to start your course with something that’ll draw learners in. For example, a thought-provoking question, an eye-catching animation, a shocking fact, an immersive scenario … the possibilities are endless! The key is to attract their attention and get them interested in taking your course. Take a look at two ways to introduce the same topic so you can see firsthand what a difference an attention-getter can make. Here’s my first slide: There’s nothing wrong with this slide per se. It’s aesthetically pleasing and attractive. But now let’s look at another way to introduce the same topic that’s more likely to grab your learners’ attention. Click to view the interactive version. Which of the above examples makes you more interested in engaging? I’m guessing most of you will agree it’s the second option. Next time you’re designing the first slide of your course, think back to these examples and try to come up with an attention-getter that will reel your learners in. For more ideas, check out this article: 10 E-Learning Attention-Getters That Really Work. The Estimated Course Run Time One of the great things about e-learning is that learners can take it whenever and wherever they want. But how can learners work your course into their schedule if they don’t know how long it’ll take? Not easily! It’s important to give learners this kind of information up-front so they don’t get halfway through your course and realize they won’t have time to finish it. Sure, they could always come back to it, but odds are some of them won’t. And you don’t want that! But how do you gauge how long your course will take the average learner to complete? Good question! It really depends on the course. If your course has audio from start to finish, calculating the run time should be fairly easy—just add up the total duration of the audio. If your course is mostly text-based, you could use the total number of words and the average reading speed—250 words a minute—to come up with a rough estimate. We’ve also got a handy Course Seat Time Estimator template that you might find useful. Navigation Instructions Whether you’re designing with Rise 360, which is fully responsive and intuitive to use, or relying on the built-in course player in Storyline 360, you can probably go without including navigation instructions since both experiences are so intuitive. But if you’ve designed your own on-screen navigation in Storyline 360, it’s a good idea to walk through how it works—no matter how intuitive it seems to you. For ideas on how to set this up, check out this article: 3 Tips for Clear & Helpful Navigation Instructions. It’s also a best practice to give people a heads-up if your course includes audio by including an on-screen message. Otherwise they might start going through your course with their audio on mute and miss out on key information. Your Course Objectives While the course learning objectives might seem obvious to you as a course creator, it’s important to explicitly state them to learners. That’s because course objectives serve the dual purpose of giving learners an idea of what to expect from the course and (hopefully) motivating them to take it. For tips on defining course objectives that set the stage for learning, hop on over to this article: All About Learning Objectives for E-Learning How to Successfully Complete the Course If your course is required, one thing your learners will likely want to know up-front is how to get credit for the course. Do they need to simply view 100 percent of the slides? Do they need to get a certain score on a quiz? Whatever the requirement, let your learners know on the front end so they can keep it in mind as they’re taking the course. Need help determining what score learners should have to get on the quiz to pass? You’ll love this article: Creating Quizzes: Choose a Passing Score. More Resources A good course introduction sets your learners up for success. If you’ve included everything outlined here, you can be confident you’ve done all you can to guide them in the right direction. Looking for more instructional design tips from the pros? Check out these related articles: 4 Summary Screen Ideas for Your E-Learning Courses What to Include on Your Course Closing Screen 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. Sources for sample course content: Food allergy facts from foodallergy.org Ambulance sound from freesound.org
