Three Time-Saving Rapid E-Learning Tips

Last week I shared a free PowerPoint template that was inspired by the iPad’s notebook app.  Hopefully, you can find a use for the template.  If not, check out some of the other free templates that are available in the Elearning Heroes community.

In last week’s template, I purposely only included the final template and not the original source file.  The reason is that I want to show you a few production tips that will help you build your own templates and speed up your production.

How to Create Your Own Textured Objects

In PowerPoint you can create all sorts of shapes.  There are dozens of predetermined shapes from which to choose.  And if they’re not good enough, you can always right click, edit the points, and make just about any shape you want.  That’s how I created the flap shape on the notebook cover.

If you have PowerPoint 2010, you can even combine shapes to quickly create custom shapes.  Here’s a quick demo that shows how.

To get a richer look fill your shapes with images rather than color.  That’s basically what I did for the leather notebook.  Only I added an extra step to give the leather a richer look and to give me an opportunity for even more customization.

The secret is to create two shapes.  Fill the first shape with the color.  Then duplicate it.  Fill the second shape with a picture and set it to partially transparent.  Align it on top of the color shape and you create a softer and richer looking shape.  Check out the tutorial below.

Click here to view the PowerPoint tutorial.

As you can see, it’s a simple trick that softens the image and lets you create all sorts of textures.  It works really great with wood grain and different fabrics.

Soften up The Bright Background Colors

Speaking of softening your image…

PowerPoint’s a great illustration application.  But many of the default colors are very bright and bold, almost cartoonish.  By using a technique similar to the one above, you can create semi-transparent shapes that sit on top of the PowerPoint colors.

To learn more check out the tutorial below.

Click here to view the tutorial.

Create Smaller File Sizes

Building rapid elearning courses in PowerPoint requires a few production techniques that are different than when you build presentations in PowerPoint.  This is especially true if you’re using PowerPoint to author Flash content.

The PowerPoint flash tools like Articulate Presenter are going to convert your PowerPoint content on each slide to a Flash movie file (.swf).  The size of the .swf can vary based on the content on the slide.  This can have an impact on how well your content runs over a network since larger files can take longer to load.  In addition, the more content on the slide, the longer it will take to publish your file.

A good time-saving technique is to use two PowerPoint files during your production.  Use one to create your graphics in PowerPoint.  Save those graphics as images.  And then import the images into the other PowerPoint file that you’ll use to build your course.

You’ll notice that in the notebook template, all of the graphics on the master slide layouts are single images.  Even though I created everything in PowerPoint, the course file doesn’t have anything but background images.

The advantage is that I can keep my graphics and illustration development separate from my course production.  This makes maintenance of the course easier.  It also speeds up production since each slide will have a lot less content on it.

Click here to view the tutorial.

Here’s the PowerPoint file that I used to create the notebook images.

If you’ve been working in PowerPoint for years then switching how you do work can be a hassle.  But if you’re building rapid elearning courses and using PowerPoint, keeping your graphics production separate from your course production is a good practice and will pay dividends in the long run.

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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.