Building E-Learning Games: Concept & Storyboard #470
Game Show Design: Storyboards #470: Challenge | Recap How in the world did you build that? A common challenge for new course designers is seeing polished e-learning projects and having no clue how they came together. I hear from folks all the time that they want to do the weekly challenges, but it feels too advanced for beginners. So, for this challenge, we're going to pump the brakes and spread the build over four weeks. We’ll follow a linear development model so we can really dig into and focus on common development steps. I realize experienced designers will prefer a more iterative approach for real-world projects. And that's fair. But using a progressive, step-by-step approach should help new users follow the evolution of an e-learning challenge project from concept to deliverable. Plus, it gives us something tangible to show each week. Week 1: The Concept & Visual Storyboard This first week, we’ll focus on the initial game show theme or concept. Your task will be to create a wireframe, flowchart, or visual storyboard that captures the flow of your game. For new users, this helps you work intentionally through your ideas before jumping into development. And for you pros, this might seem like extra work, but slowing it down will help others visualize how polished interactions come together. Here’s a breakdown of the four-week schedule: Week 1: Concept & Storyboarding Week 2: Prototype Development Week 3: Development & Review Week 4: Final Testing & Project Submission 🏆 Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to develop an e-learning game show concept and present a visual, non-interactive storyboard or flowchart of your game’s mechanics and visual elements. You can either create something new or take an old project and break it down with us over the four weeks. This way, everyone can see how it all comes together. Week 1: Concept & Storyboarding Goal: Choose a game show concept and design theme Deliverables: Choose a game show concept, theme and design style Create a visual storyboard, flowchart, or static mock-up of the game Share a link to your static design concept Week 2: Design & Prototyping Week 3: Production & Development Week 4: Final Testing & Project Submission ✨ Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post. Forums: Start a new thread and share a link to your published example. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We'll link to your posts, so your great work gets even more exposure. Social media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can follow your e-learning coolness. 🙌 Last Week’s Challenge: Before you get started on this week’s design concept, check out last week’s examples to see what e-learning designers do and how they got started in the industry. What Instructional Designers Do RECAP #469: Challenge | Recap 👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. 📆 Upcoming Challenges Challenge #471 (07.26): Week 2: Prototype Development Challenge #472 (08.02): Week 3: Production & Development Challenge #473 (08.09): Week 4: Final Testing & Project SubmissionConverting Classroom Activities to Interactive E-Learning #465
This week, your challenge is to either rework an everyday classroom activity into an e-learning interaction, convert static content into an engaging e-learning experience, or share a tip or technique to help teachers transition from traditional classrooms to e-learning.How I Became an E-Learning Instructional Designer #469
What Instructional Designers Do #469: Challenge | Recap Have you ever tried explaining your job to friends or family, and all you get are those confused looks? Even though our industry is booming, titles like “Instructional Designer” or “E-Learning Designer” are still pretty much a mystery to most folks. It usually leads to a bunch of questions: What kind of education did you need? What exactly do you do? What technologies do you use? Do you build those compliance courses I have to take? And, of course, what do you love about your job? Now, explaining all that can be a bit of a challenge, but it’s also a great way to show off the wide range of skills we bring to the table. And demystifying our profession is what this week’s challenge is all about. 🏆 Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share an example that explains what you do as an e-learning or instructional designer. Your example can be anything from a simple static graphic to a complex interaction. ✨ Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post. Forums: Start a new thread and share a link to your published example. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We'll link to your posts so your great work gets even more exposure. Social media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can follow your e-learning coolness. 🙌 Last Week’s Challenge: Before you share your e-learning origin story, check out the drag-and-drop interactions your fellow challengers shared: Drag-and-Drop in E-Learning RECAP #468: Challenge | Recap 👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article.Building a Working Prototype for Your E-Learning Game Concept #471
Interactive Prototypes in E-Learning #471: Challenge | Recap Welcome back to part two of our e-learning game design challenge. Last week, you laid the groundwork with your design concepts and visual storyboards. Now, it’s time to bring those ideas to life with functional prototypes. This week, you’ll build a working model to test your game’s functionalities and interactive components. Your example should give us a clear preview of your game's key features and gameplay interactions. 🏆 Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to build an interactive prototype to test specific functionalities or components. The goal is to create a functional version of your game that you can test and refine over the next two weeks. Think of this as the halfway point between the design concepts you created last week and the final version of your project. Don’t worry about making this version of your game perfect. You’re only creating a working model of your project. Keep it simple, focus on the essentials, and let us know if you need help or have any issues. Week 1: Concept & Storyboarding Week 2: Prototype Development Goal: Build a working prototype of your game Deliverables: Create a rough prototype of the game with basic interactions and navigation Build the basic game functionality with questions, scoring, and feedback Focus on core interactions and basic navigation Submit to Review 360 to gather initial feedback (optional) Week 3: Development & Review Week 4: Final Testing & Project Submission ✨ Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post. Forums: Start a new thread and share a link to your published example. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We'll link to your posts, so your great work gets even more exposure. Social media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can follow your e-learning coolness. 🙌 Last Week’s Challenge: Before you move from concept to prototype, check out the storyboard ideas your fellow challengers shared over the past week: Game Show Design: Storyboards RECAP #470: Challenge | Recap 👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. 📆 Upcoming Challenges Challenge #472 (08.02): Week 3: Production & Development Challenge #473 (08.09): Week 4: Final Testing & Project SubmissionPreventing Workplace Violence: E-Learning Scenarios #57
E-Learning Workplace Violence #57: Challenge | Recap What’s the first word that pops into your mind when you hear “compliance training?” If you’re like most course designers (and learners), you know that compliance training isn't typically where one finds showcase e-learning examples. That makes sense. Most compliance courses are designed to share information and create awareness more than change behaviors. Some topics, such as preventing workplace violence, can be designed as information- and performance-based courses. The challenge for course designers is striking the balance between information sharing and relevant interactions. And that’s what this week’s e-learning challenge is all about! Challenge of the week This week your challenge is to show scenario examples designed to prevent or address workplace violence. You can structure your demo any way you like—just be sure to include some type of scenario. If you’re looking for a practical model, take a look at Tom’s 3-C scenario model. We use this model a lot in our workshops because it’s simple and works with any content. --- Thanks to Raye Shilen for suggesting this week's challenge topic. Resources Here are some scenario resources to help you get started: Compliance-based training These 3 Tips Can Change Your Compliance E-Learning Forever Are You Using These 3 Ways to Identify the Objectives of Your Online Training Program? Blog posts on e-learning scenarios Build Branched E-Learning Scenarios in Three Simple Steps An Easy Way to Build Branched Scenarios for E-Learning A Simple Approach to Interactive E-Learning How to Add Scenarios to Your Rapid E-Learning Courses…Rapidly! How I Built that E-Learning Scenario Forum discussions on scenarios Conditional endings in a branched simulation Do you have good examples of e-learning scenarios? Branching storyboards Branching best practices and tips How we built a customer simulation Share your e-learning work Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published project and blog post. Forums: Create your own thread in our E-Learning Heroes forums and share a link to your published demo. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. Twitter: If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. Facebook: Reply to this Facebook post with a link to compliance demo. Last week's challenge Before you jump into this week's challenge, take a look at the top things instructional designers don't like to hear: E-Learning Challenge Recap #56: Challenge | Recap New to 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. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness.Using Hints to Guide and Challenge Learners #367
Using Hints and Clues in E-Learning #367: Challenge | Recap In a recent challenge, Jonathan wrote about his quiz makeover and how he removed the default submit button to increase the pace of his quiz. Triggering choices based on click events is an excellent approach for many skill-and-drill quizzes because it removes the extra step of clicking a submit button. However, there are also times when it’s appropriate to delay feedback and use helpful hints to guide the learner toward the correct choice. Rather than immediately showing correct or incorrect feedback, try challenging your learners with a hint or prompt. You can give learners the option to view or display hints without requiring any action from the learner. How you provide learners hints is up to you. And showing hints is what this week’s challenge is all about. Showing Hints After a Number of Attempts You can delay giving feedback by showing hints after the learner answers incorrectly. Using a number variable, you can provide helpful hints after several missed attempts or provide personalized hints for each missed attempt. View the examples | Download Video Tutorial Here's a quick overview of how to set up the counter and show hints after a specific number of missed attempts. Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to show how hints can be used in e-learning. Your example can be static or interactive, and you’re welcome to share examples from previous challenges. Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post. Forums: Start your own thread and share a link to your published example.. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. Social Media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. Last Week’s Challenge: Before you hint at what you’re working on this week, check out the creative ways course designers use blurred backgrounds in e-learning: Blurred Backgrounds Effects in E-Learning #366: Challenge | Recap New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article.Applying Mayer's Principles of Multimedia Learning in E-Learning #330
Multimedia Learning Principles #330: Challenge | Recap What Do Course Designers Need to Know About Multimedia Learning Principles? Have you ever been asked to design an e-learning course, module, or interaction you knew wouldn't help the targeted audience? I had a good discussion recently with a community member who was frustrated with her current e-learning project. Her client insisted that she—wait for it—sync all the on-slide text animations with the audio narration. She tried to convince her client that this wasn't the best way to present the material. She sent them dozens of research articles, including Richard Mayer's Redundancy Principle, backing her claim. You know, the principle that tells us "not to add printed text to spoken text." Unless your clients are instructional designers or educators, it's unlikely that research alone will be enough to help them see the light. Instead, you need something more tangible that brings the research to real-world examples. And that's what this week's challenge is all about! Basic Principles of Multimedia Learning The number of principles has increased a little over the years, but they’re still practical, common-sense guidelines for designing effective training. The big win for designers is having research-based evidence to guide and support the decisions you make in course development. Multimedia Principle: Adding Graphics to Words Improves Learning Redundancy Principle: Should You Duplicate Narrated Text on Screen? Contiguity Principle: Keep Graphics & Related Text Together Coherence Principle: Less Material For Better Learning Personalization Principle: Speaking to Instead of at Your Learners More Principles of Multimedia Learning Split-Attention Principle: People learn better when words and pictures are physically and temporally integrated. Modality Principle: People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics and printed text. Signaling Principle: People learn better when cues are added that highlight the key information and its organization. Segmenting Principle: People learn better when a multimedia message is presented in learner-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit. Pre-training Principle: people learn better from a multimedia message when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts. Voice Principle: People learn better when the words are spoken in a standard-accented human voice rather than a machine voice or foreign-accented human voice. Image Principle: People learn better when on-screen agents display humanlike gestures and movements. Embodiment Principle: People do not necessarily learn better when the speaker’s image is on the screen. Multimedia Learning Books by Richard Mayer The Handbook is a massive collection of scholarly articles from the best-known experts in our field, perfect for anyone looking for a deep dive into cognitive science and technology-based learning. I prefer the Multimedia Learning book because it’s more practical with examples of each principle. Handbook of Multimedia Learning | Multimedia Learning Note: You don’t need either of Mayer’s books to complete the challenge. There are hundreds of great resources (videos, articles, SlideShares, and presentations) covering each of the principles. Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to design an interaction to teach one of the principles of multimedia learning. You can leverage ideas from previous challenges (tabs, quizzes, games, sliders, comparisons, etc.) as a starting point for your interaction. Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post. Forums: Start your own thread and share a link to your published example.. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. Social Media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. Last Week’s Challenge: Before you get started with this week’s challenge, take a few moments to check out the creative ways course designers use background video in e-learning: Video Backgrounds in E-Learning RECAP #329: Challenge | Recap New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.
