Instructional Design for Financial Services: Lessons from the UAE
Hello Articulate Community, I’m reaching out to connect with fellow learning designers, educators, and organizations exploring fresh ways to drive professional development through impactful e-learning. I’m an Instructional Designer based in Dubai, specializing in designing and developing training solutions and digital learning experiences using Articulate tools. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to scale large-scale training programs across the UAE, particularly in the financial sector, including banks and insurance companies. What makes my approach unique is the balance between instructional creativity and scalability. I’ve not only crafted engaging modules but also rolled out end-to-end learning journeys, covering classroom, digital, and blended formats, ensuring they align with compliance standards, industry regulations, and organizational goals. Some areas I’m passionate about include: Designing custom e-learning modules (SCORM-compliant) that seamlessly integrate into existing LMS. Building training frameworks that can scale from a single team to entire institutions. Creating learning content that bridges complex financial concepts with learner-friendly, practical delivery. I’m now exploring freelance opportunities to collaborate with organizations that want to reimagine their learning, scale their programs, and maximize learner engagement. If your organization is looking for instructional design expertise with proven UAE financial sector experience, I’d be happy to connect and discuss how we can work together. Feel free to reach out here or connect directly. Looking forward to learning and collaborating with this inspiring community!Do You Storyboard Before Building in Rise?
When I'm starting a new Rise course, I often sketch out a quick outline first. Other times, I build right in Rise (especially now with AI!) and organize as I go. Lately, I've been wondering how others approach it—especially when it comes to storyboarding or outlining content ahead of time. If you build Rise courses, I'd love to hear: Do you typically create a storyboard or outline before jumping into Rise? 📝 (And if you do, what does it usually look like—simple notes, a spreadsheet, something more detailed?) I'm gathering some insights for an upcoming community project and would love to learn from your processes! 🙌🏼Best way to get feedback/workshop content with SMEs
I'm starting a project that involves a lot of SMEs contributing content, and I know there will be plenty of back and forth to get the language just right. What’s the best way to handle this? In the past, we’ve used Word storyboards with track changes, but it’s hard for SMEs to visualise, and it takes ages to format. I’ve also used Review 360 in Rise, but the feedback screenshots often end up in the wrong spot, making it confusing to know what the SME is referring to. A colleague suggested Storyline might be better for reviews. Is that true? Or should I just export as a PDF and get feedback that way?Basic Elements of an E-Learning Course
When something’s new, it can feel complex and difficult. And when you’re first getting into e-learning and you view a finalized course, it’s hard to imagine what all the moving pieces are. However, when you pull back the curtain and look at the most basic elements of an e-learning course, you’ll realize that most courses are made up of the same fundamental components. If you’ve taken or designed at least one online course, you should recognize most of these course building blocks. While there’s no rule saying you must include these components in every course, it’s helpful for new e-learning designers to be familiar with the basic elements and where they fit into the overall course structure. Course Welcome or Opening This is the first thing your learners see when they open your course. In addition to welcoming learners visually, it usually provides options for navigating the different sections of the course. Remember that the welcome content sets the tone for your course, so it’s important to start off strong! Here’s an example of a welcome screen created in Rise: Here’s an example of a Content Library welcome template you can insert into your Storyline 360 project: Instructions Depending on the type of course you’re creating, you may want to include instructions to help learners understand how to navigate through the course. If you’ve built your own custom navigation using a slide-based authoring app, you could use arrows, callouts, and text to point out the important features of the course player. Noteworthy features include navigation buttons, resource tabs, a transcript menu, and help buttons. If you’re using the built-in course player that comes with your authoring app, you may not need to go into that level of detail. But even if you’re using standard navigation, it’s still helpful to let your learners know if they need to turn on their speakers, whether there’ll be a quiz at the end, and how much time they should set aside to complete the course. If you’re using a web-based app, like Rise, it might look something like this: If you’re using a slide-based app like Storyline, a simple instructions slide could look more like this, for example: Learning Objectives Objectives give learners an overview of the course goals. Usually presented in bullet point format, the list shows actionable tasks the learner should be able to do after completing the course. However, objectives don’t have to be listed in bullet point format. Often, it’s the client, business partner, or organizational style guide that requires objectives to be presented that way. There’s a trend in the e-learning industry to find creative alternatives to the bulleted format. For example, you could create an accordion interaction in Rise so your learners can explore the different objectives at their own pace, like in the screenshot below: Or, if you’re using a slide-based tool like Storyline, you can create a stylized objectives layout to catch your learner’s eye: Here are some additional resources and discussions on making bullet points more engaging: Convert Your Bullet Points to Interactive E-Learning with Video Five Surefire Ways to Get Rid of Bullet Points Ideas on Getting Rid of Bullet Points to State Course Objectives Reducing Bullet Points and On-Screen Text Animating Bullet Points — Is It Possible to Animate More Than One? Content This section is the meat of your course, where all the learning happens. Here you can include text, images, charts, tabs or timeline interactions, scenarios, screencasts, videos, and much more. There are many different ways to present your content, but here are a couple of ideas to get you started. Text and Images Example created in Rise Content Library template available in Storyline 360 Scenarios Example created in Rise Content Library template available in Storyline 360 Timeline Interactions Example created in Rise Content Library template available in Storyline 360 Depending on your content and course objectives, your course could include just one or two of these elements, or all of the above and much more! Let your objectives guide you through the creation process and help you decide how to best present your content to help your learners reach their target. Practice Activities The purpose of practice activities is to help learners strengthen their skills and knowledge. As such, they should include content presented earlier in the module so learners can apply what they just learned. Here’s an example of a practice activity you can create in Rise: And here’s another example created in Storyline 360: Knowledge Checks & Assessments Knowledge checks and assessments are quizzes at the end of each topic, module, or course, where learners can test their progress during a module. The main difference between the two types of quizzes is that knowledge checks do not generally count toward the final score, while assessments do. They might look like typical quizzes (i.e., true/false, multiple choice, etc.), or take on a more casual format, such as a scenario in which learners must make decisions about what to do in a real-life situation. Check out this example of a quiz question created in Rise: And this one created in Storyline 360 : Summary At the end of each topic, module, and course you’ll often find a summary of the key points from that section. They can include links to additional resources to help highly motivated learners take their knowledge to the next level. In Rise, that could look something like this, for example: Or if you’re working in Storyline or another slide-based app, you could create a slide like this one: Contact Info & Resources At the end of each course you’ll usually find contact information for the trainer or subject matter expert (SME) as well as some additional resources to help support learners as they apply the skills they’ve learned in the course to their jobs. Typically they include one or more of the following: Contact information: People to contact for help or questions about the course Continued learning: Additional resources beyond what was in the course Job aids: Handouts from the course that can be used as performance support In Rise, you could create something that looks like this, for example: Or you could build a slide like this in Storyline or another slide-based app: Final Thoughts As a course designer, you have unlimited options for combining e-learning elements in your courses. Your experience level, combined with expectations for your course and learners, will influence many of your choices. If you’re a new e-learning designer, try covering these common elements to start. Good luck! Leave a comment or post in the forums if you have any other questions about these e-learning elements or want to share ideas for combining them in unique ways. Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.20 Ways to Present E-Learning Game Design Concepts & Storyboards #470
Game Show Design: Storyboards RECAP #470: Challenge | Recap This week’s challenge asked course designers to share a concept or storyboard for an e-learning game show activity. This is the first part of our four-part game design series, which highlights the major milestones in e-learning development. Week 1: Concept & Storyboarding Week 2: Design & Prototyping Week 3: Development & Review Week 4: Final Project Submission Mallory Frazier Example | Mallory Frazier | Website Phil Mayor Example | Phil Mayor | Website | @philmayor Julie LALAMEDIA Example | Julie LALAMEDIA David Davis Example | David Davis Thierry EMMANUEL Example | Thierry EMMANUEL | Website Sean Murray Example | Sean Murray Samuel Apata Example | Samuel Apata | Website | @afrostem Jonathan Hill Example | Jonathan Hill | Website | @DevByPowerPoint Ron Katz Example | Ron Katz | Website Jodi M. Sansone Example | Jodi M. Sansone | Website | @jodimsansone Jesse Wu Example | Jesse Wu | Website Maren West Example | Maren West eLearn Dev Example | eLearn Dev Shelby Breece Example | Shelby Breece Mara Buggenthin Example | Mara Buggenthin Angela Thomas Example | Angela Thomas Kirsten Ossa Example | Kirsten Ossa Arron Walker Example | Learn more | Arron Walker | Website Jayashree Ravi Example | Jayashree Ravi | LinkedIn Kate Golomshtok Example | Kate Golomshtok | Website 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 write about your challenge example. I'll add links to your blog post, so your examples get even more exposure. And for those who share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, please include #ELHChallenge so your network (and Articulate!) can track your e-learning coolness. Share Your Concept & Storyboard Examples! The e-learning game challenge is still open! If you have one or more ideas you'd like to share, please jump over to the original challenge and post your links in the comments section. I'll update this recap page to include your examples.Share Your E-Learning Storyboard Templates #251
E-Learning Storyboard Examples #251: Challenge | Recap Whether you prefer scripts, blueprints, or rapid prototypes, chances are you’re using some type of storyboard to plan and organize your e-learning projects. In most cases, successful projects depend on the designer’s use of a storyboard. Storyboards are also one of the most popular discussions in our forums. New designers ask to see examples, download templates, and learn more about workflows and using storyboards. Experienced designers share their favorite tools and tips while debating the use of storyboards and prototypes. Regardless of your experience, storyboards are a critical element in the course design process. And that’s what this week’s challenge is all about! Challenge of the week This week your challenge is to share an example of your preferred e-learning storyboard, blueprint, or scripting template. We want to see what you use and learn how you use it! Share your storyboard templates Do you have a storyboard template you’d like to share with the community? Great! Share your template in the comments and we’ll feature it in our downloads gallery. Questions to answer Whether you share a template this week or just want to join the discussion, I’d love to get your feedback on one or more of following questions: How do you define scripting, storyboarding, and prototyping? Which method do you prefer? Do you use different types of storyboards? When do you use each? How do you storyboard interactivity? What are your top three storyboard tips for new course creators? Last Week’s Challenge: Before you storyboard your challenge demo, check out the creative ways course designers are combining text and images in e-learning courses: Combining Text and Images in E-Learning Design #250: Challenge | Recap Wishing you a great week, E-Learning Heroes! 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.Make Working with SMEs a Breeze with These 3 Downloads
One of my favorite things about being an e-learning designer is creating courses on a wide variety of topics. I’ve learned so much over the years! When I look back on it, it’s almost like I had to become an expert in every subject in order to create the most effective learning experience. And while some of my knowledge came from my own research, more often than not it was gleaned from the content provided by my project’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Subject Matter Experts play a critical role in course design. They have the knowledge, experience, and insight to help you create the most impactful training. Despite their importance to your projects, working with SMEs can also be challenging. From different perspectives around how content should be presented to old-fashioned beliefs around how people learn, many e-learning pros find themselves in a battle of wills with their SMEs when all they really want is a productive partnership. This problem can be especially vexing when creating custom e-learning in a powerful app like Storyline 360. With so many creative possibilities, there are countless ways to present content. So how do you help your SMEs visualize different treatments and bridge gaps in understanding, all while building positive relationships with your SMEs? Here are three documents I’ve found essential for communicating clearly and aligning expectations from the start. Document 1: Project Kickoff Questions Before meeting with your project’s SMEs, it pays to do a little prep work. If you already have some source content pulled together, study it to get a basic understanding of the material. And if you don’t have content, research the topic or the company to make the most of your time with your SMEs. As you study, prepare a list of questions to help guide the conversation and show the SME how much you value their time. Need to kick-start your thinking? Download and customize this Project Kickoff Questionnaire for your needs. Download With all of your prep work done, you’re ready to set up a meeting with your SME to discuss the project. Make sure to bring your list of questions, and then listen actively and take notes. This is your time to build trust with your SMEs and identify knowledge and performance gaps to determine the right solution. Document 2: Project Plan After you determine the right solution, it’s time to put the details in writing so you’re all on the same page. A project plan can be a great way to align expectations. In the project plan, you can include the project background, course information, deliverables, timelines, and any other important details. Once you’re done preparing the project plan, have the SME review it and confirm its accuracy before moving forward with design. Need help creating a project plan? I’ve got you covered! Download this free project plan template. Download Document 3: Storyboard Now that you and the SME are on the same page, it’s time to start designing the project. If you’re using a slide-based authoring app like Storyline 360, the best way to make sure you have a solid foundation for development is to create a storyboard. A storyboard is the blueprint for a course that outlines the content screen by screen. Storyboards help your SMEs visualize how the content will flow and allows them to make edits before you start development in your authoring app. Note: If you’re using a web-based authoring app like Rise 360, you can skip the storyboarding phase and go straight to development since it’s easy to use and quick to make changes. Need help getting started? Then download and customize this storyboard template with your content. Download What Next? After the storyboard is finalized, you can feel confident knowing you have a solid foundation to start building your course. Taking the time to develop project kickoff questions, create a clear project plan, and storyboard the content before you start developing it in your authoring app will set you, the SME, and the learners up for success. For more ideas on working with SMEs, check out this series on Everything You Need to Know About Working with SMEs. 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.7 Tips for Writing Effective E-Learning Scenarios
Scenarios are a great way to make your e-learning content more relevant and meaningful for learners. They give context to the training and allow learners to determine whether they’re really grasping the knowledge and skills outlined in the course by giving them an opportunity to apply them in a real-life situation. If you’ve never designed an e-learning scenario, you might be feeling intimidated and unsure where to start. Don’t worry, we’ve got your back! In this article, we’ll walk you through some things to consider during the scenario design process. 1. Identify Real-Life Opportunities to Apply Knowledge Most courses are designed to help employees improve job performance and gain specific skills, so the key to creating an effective scenario is to identify real-life situations where the learner will need to know or apply the information or skill they’re learning. Let’s say, for example, you’re a training designer at a company called Pharma Inc. The Product Development VP just gave you a bunch of PowerPoints about a new product, and you need to train the company’s sales reps on it. You decide the best way to do that is to design a scenario-based course. Now what? Start by asking yourself when the sales reps need to know or apply this information about the new product. One likely scenario would be when they’re trying to sell said product to a potential customer and need to know how the product works, its benefits, and key selling features. So that could be the basis of your scenario: a sales rep is trying to sell the new product to a client. 2. Think of a Choice or Decision and Potential Actions Now that you’ve identified a common real-life situation that the learners would face in the workplace, you need to think of a realistic problem or decision that would require learners to use the training content. Going back to our Pharma example, what realistic conversation or situation might lead the sales rep to talk about the new product? One idea: maybe an existing or potential client mentions a problem the new product could potentially solve. As such, you could present the learner with a few responses to choose from and ask them which one they think would most likely result in a sale. 3. Use Relatable Characters Characters are a central piece of your scenario. When developing your characters, it’s important to think about your audience and choose characters that will resonate with them. This applies not only to the profile of the character (what’s their job?), but also to the image you use, if you choose to show them on the screen. Another way to make your scenario feel more human and personal is by giving your character a name. In our example, let’s say the learner is the sales rep and they’re meeting with a potential client named Amir. 4. Incorporate Important Details It’s also a good idea to include any details that would be present in real life to make the scenario feel as relatable as possible by giving your learners all the context they need. Let’s say your sales reps have to sell to a variety of customers. Some are medical professionals, such as doctors and surgeons. Others are regular everyday people with no medical background or experience. Whether or not the customer is a doctor changes the way the sales rep interacts with that customer, so a realistic scenario needs to include that information. For our scenario, we could specify that Amir is a doctor. 5. Provide Feedback That Illustrates Consequences Instead of simply telling the learner they made the right choice, try showing them the consequences of their choices. This is often more meaningful and effective because it allows them to visualize what would happen in real life. When it comes to consequences, it’s often more effective to showcase worst-case scenarios: for example, lost earnings, wasted time, or maybe—in some serious situations—injury or death. Because they’re extreme, these tend to resonate more with learners. If we go back to our Pharma example, we could imagine a few different potential outcomes. If the learner provides Amir with the info he needs, they land the sale and get promoted. And if they don’t, they lose the sale and the bonus they were counting on to pay off their student loans. This kind of feedback feels real to the learner and is more likely to stick with them long after the course is over. 6. Keep It Realistic Even if you’re looking for worst-case situations to make your stories dramatic, you never want to sacrifice realism. Avoid exaggeration and include just enough details so your stories seem authentic and appealing without overwhelming learners with extraneous information. So if we go back to our example, if the learner chooses the wrong option and Amir decides not to buy the new product, we wouldn’t want to say their boss threw their computer out the window and lit their desk on fire. We’d simply state that they didn’t get the bonus they were hoping to get to help pay off their student loans. 7. Lean On Your SMEs Your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are a valuable asset for crafting effective scenarios. They can give you insight into some common problems that come up in real life. They know your audience, so they can help you decide what types of characters to use in your training. Your SME can also fact-check your scenario and let you know if it’s plausible or too exaggerated. And they can help you strike the right balance when it comes to the level of details in your scenario. Don’t try to go it alone—lean on your SMEs for help as you design your scenario. Together, you can ensure the scenario is both meaningful and realistic. The Bottom Line Like almost everything in life, practice makes perfect. The more scenarios you design, the faster and easier it’ll be. It won’t be long before you start imagining scenarios the minute someone hands you source content! Want some more pro tips before you dive in? Check out these articles: How to Easily Create Compelling E-Learning Scenarios How to Choose the Point of View (POV) for Your E-Learning Scenario Help Learners Practice Their Skills with Scenarios in Rise 360 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.E-Learning: Storyboard vs. Prototype
If you’re new to e-learning, you may have heard people throw around terms like storyboard and prototype without daring to ask the question: What’s the difference? Well, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! In this article, we’ll walk through the definitions of both as well as some advantages and disadvantages of using one over the other. Let’s get to it! E-Learning Storyboard A storyboard can act as a blueprint for developing custom, interactive e-learning in apps like Storyline 3/360. Using a storyboard helps you lay out the visuals, multimedia, text, audio elements, interactions, and navigation details (where does the learner go next?) of each and every slide in your course. By viewing the storyboard, the stakeholders should be able to understand what learners will see, hear, and do during the course. Often, storyboards are created with Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. While this makes it easy to share the course content and design with stakeholders, the drawback is that it can be harder for them to imagine what that experience will be like. For people who have never been part of an e-learning project team before, storyboards can feel a little abstract. However, the more experience stakeholders have with e-learning, the easier it is for them to look at one and imagine what the finished course will be like. Advantages Helpful way to get stakeholder buy-in. Quick and easy to create and edit. Puts focus on the content itself instead of functionality and layouts. E-Learning Prototype We like to think of a prototype as a halfway point between a storyboard and the final version of a course. Like a storyboard, it lays out all the course content. And like a finished course, it’s clickable, so stakeholders can interact with it. That way, instead of having to imagine what that experience will be like, they can actually click through for themselves and get a feel for the flow of the course. Sometimes, prototypes include branding elements—like the customer logo, colors, and fonts—which allows the stakeholders to approve their usage. However, unlike a finished course, prototypes usually contain only mockups of graphics, and not the final versions. They also don’t include the final version of the voiceover audio. In fact, sometimes they don’t include any audio at all—just the script that’ll be used to record it later on. Other times, designers will include text-to-speech audio to allow stakeholders to hear for themselves what the audio script sounds like when read aloud. That way, if stakeholders notice anything that sounds awkward, they can request changes before the audio is recorded. Advantages Often easier for stakeholders to understand. Gives stakeholders a preview of what the entire course experience will be like. Saves the designer time by getting approval before developing the final course. More Resources Some e-learning designers swear by storyboards, claiming it’s an essential step in the course creation process. Others skip straight to prototyping, saying it’ll save them time in the long run by helping stakeholders better understand what the final course will look like. In the end, there’s no right or wrong answer here, it’s all about personal preference. Looking for more storyboarding and prototyping tips? Check out these helpful resources. Articles 11 Best Practices for E-Learning Storyboarding Storyboard Like a Pro with Storyline 360 and Review 360 What Information Do You Include in Your Storyboards? Downloads Storyline: Storyboard/Prototype Sample Storyline: Storyboard Template Based on the definitions of storyboard and prototype above, what do you think are the pros and cons of each? Do you always create a storyboard, or do you prefer to skip straight to prototyping? Leave us your thoughts in the comments! Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.
