There’s a lot to say about gamified e-learning. I’ve shared some ideas in previous posts with links to some examples, free templates, production ideas, and recommended books.

One thing that seems to be a common challenge for many e-learning developers is crafting the right visuals for a gamified experience. Even though gamification and games aren’t the same thing, often I look for game user interfaces (GUI) to provide some simple visual ideas. They offer a visual design that is cohesive and includes a lot of common objects, such as content holders, progress indicators, badges, and buttons.

Many stock image sites sell GUIs. Below is a screenshot from Deposit Photos. If you have a subscription to one of these services, you’re all set.

If you’re not in a position to buy a GUI, here are a few free options. You can also search some of these sites for additional free GUIs. I’m sure you’ll find more that the few I share.

Even if you can’t use the free GUI, it’s worth spending some time reviewing what types of assets and content buckets they offer. That may give you some ideas for your own interfaces. Keep in mind, most of these free downloads require other tools to open and edit the files.

Free Game UI: Jungle Game

Craftpix.net has a lot of free game image resources. They do require a free account to download the GUI.

• Download the free game ui
• The file uses the Soup of Justice font
• License: free for commercial use

Free Game UI: Cartoon Game 1

Graphic Burger is another site that shares a lot of free stock assets. I like this GUI and use it in one of my workshops where we learn to work with variables.

• Download the free game ui
• License: free for commercial use

Free Game UI: Cartoon Game 2

DesignShock often shares free resources. You do have to look at the license agreement to make sure they resources can be used for commercial work.

• Download the the free game ui
• License: free for personal use; slight fee for commercial

If you use any of these types of interfaces, I’d love to see what you’ve done. Feel free to share the links in the comments section.

Events

Free E-Learning Resources

Want to learn more? Check out these articles and free resources in the community.	Here’s a great job board for e-learning, instructional design, and training jobs	Participate in the weekly e-learning challenges to sharpen your skills
Get your free PowerPoint templates and free graphics & stock images.	Lots of cool e-learning examples to check out and find inspiration.	Getting Started? This e-learning 101 series and the free e-books will help.

I present at a lot of conferences and workshops. I’ve always thought about having captions during the live presentations. They come in handy for the person who can’t hear and needs them. And they potentially add value for the person who can’t quite hear everything: maybe the room is disruptive or the speaker talks too fast. Or perhaps, English isn’t the first language and hearing and processing is a little slower.

In either case, having a transcript in real time is valuable. Here are a couple of options to have transcriptions of your live presentations using tools you already have.

Live Transcriptions & Closed Captions in Google Slide Presentations

Here’s an example of live transcription and closed captions in Google Slides. I even show how you could use it doing a software demo in a live presentation. I find the transcription on Google Slides is a lot faster and a bit more accurate than in PowerPoint.

Click here to view the tutorial on YouTube.

Live Transcription & Closed Captions in PowerPoint Presentations

Here’s an example of live transcription and closed captions (or subtitles) in PowerPoint. The transcription is really fast and it dynamically adjusts to be more contextual. You can also translate the transcript in real time. It’s almost magical.

Click here to view the tutorial on YouTube.

It’s probably not practical to do a live transcription for a software workshop. I think the transcription may confuse things because of the naming of features and procedural steps. But for regular presentations it seems to work really well.

I recommend putting the captions on top and make them as large as possible. This allows people in the back of the room to see them better. If they’re on the bottom they may not be visible.

Anyone use these features for your live presentations? If so, any extra tips?

Events

Free E-Learning Resources

Want to learn more? Check out these articles and free resources in the community.	Here’s a great job board for e-learning, instructional design, and training jobs	Participate in the weekly e-learning challenges to sharpen your skills
Get your free PowerPoint templates and free graphics & stock images.	Lots of cool e-learning examples to check out and find inspiration.	Getting Started? This e-learning 101 series and the free e-books will help.