There are a lot of really cool things you can do with 360° images in e-learning. You can see some examples here.

However, I’ve chatted with a lot of people and the single biggest challenge for them is getting usable images.

In most cases, 360° image interactions are exploratory and based on real-world context. In those case, stock imagery doesn’t work. This requires that the course author have a camera or other means to craft the images. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t create an interaction using stock 360° images.

Here is a cool site that creates stock 360° images using AI. The steps are simple:

• Add a prompt and the site creates the imagery.
• Download the image.
• Insert into your course.
• Build the interaction.

Here’s a simple example where I used the AI generated images and inserted them into Storyline 360.

Click to view the example.

And here’s an example, recently shared in the community by Julie Bigot for the challenge we had on using AI in e-learning.

Click here to view the example.

Working with AI

A few key tips working with AI:

• The power is in the prompt. There’s a lot of trial an error in figuring out how to get the right imagery. Although, now AI can also help you craft the right prompts for your images.
• Craft a prompt and then use it to create complimentary spaces. In the examples below, I kept the prompt simple: modern business office. The first image produced a very distinct black and white office.

• I wanted similar looking rooms that may look like they were part of the same office so I appended “modern business office” with other words such as meeting room and cafeteria. Surprisingly, as you can see from the images below, the rooms are very similar and usable. Normally, the prompts have to be more descriptive.

• Sometimes you may get artifacts in the 360° images. You’ll notice my image below had some gibberish text on the wall. Those can be edited in an image editor. Here’s a tutorial that explains some options.

If you need to create 360° images for your e-learning interaction, this is a cool site to explore. Hope it helps.

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.

Many e-learning developers create multiple courses, but these courses are often very similar in content. Instead of building different courses, they are essentially building the same course repeatedly.

A job seeker expressed their desire to move away from creating basic click-and-read e-learning content and work on courses that have a more significant impact. However, they were unsure of which organizations are producing these types of courses and where to look.

The main question then becomes: where can you find the best e-learning courses? I have some brief thoughts on this matter, and I am interested in hearing your opinions.

The Best E-Learning Isn’t Compliance Training

The driving force behind our industry is compliance training, which typically lacks performance goals. Consequently, the primary aim of such courses, regardless of the subject, is to ensure compliance by the end of the year and to track which employees have or haven’t completed the training.

These courses are typically subpar. Organizations tend to allocate minimal resources to these courses, which are often the tedious click-and-read type that people dislike and few developers are proud to create.

The Best E-Learning is Locked Behind a Firewall

Although many high-quality courses are being developed, the issue is that the majority of them are proprietary and inaccessible due to a firewall. Occasionally, you may get a glimpse of these courses during webinars, conferences, or on social media platforms such as LinkedIn. Nevertheless, they are typically not available to the general public.

The Best E-Learning Projects Are Outsourced

In my experience, organizations may possess numerous Articulate licenses, but they often outsource the development of impactful training to external vendors. This indicates that the organization is dedicating significant resources to these projects, something that in-house course authors typically don’t receive, which can be frustrating.

At the corporate level, many teams possess authoring tools and instructional design expertise. However, they may lack the experience or resources required for media, learning experience, and visual design. Vendors are generally better equipped to support the entire development process from design to implementation.

Where Can I See Examples of the Best E-Learning?

• E-Learning Challenges: we organize weekly e-learning challenges with the intention of encouraging course authors to experiment with the software, learn about its features, and try out new techniques. While the modules shared by participants may not always be actual courses, they present innovative ideas and interesting solutions that could be easily adapted to most courses. Even if you decide not to participate, we recommend checking out the recap posted every Thursday. You will find excellent examples that may inspire your own creativity. Here’s a favorite from a recent challenge on interactive video.

Click to view the demo.

• DemoFest Examples: at their conferences, The E-Learning Guild hosts a DemoFest, which is like a science fair for e-learning projects. This is one of my favorite parts of the conference as it gives us an opportunity to view real projects created by individuals from a variety of organizations. If you can’t attend, no worries. Following the events, the Guild hosts a “Best of…” webinar, which is also worth watching and allows you to see some of the courses shared.

Those are a few suggestions on where to find good examples. Do you have any ideas to share?

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.