It seems like every day there’s a new site that offers free stock images. There are so many, that sometimes it’s a burden to process so many choices. Seriously, how many stock images are you really using?

In the past, I’ve save you some time by reviewing free stock images and curating them into contextual downloads. However, even that can be a bit much to manage. What you need is an easy way to search through all of those free stock image sites so you can find what you need when you need it.

The good news is that there are three such sites where searching and finding free stock images is possible.

Stock Up

Stock Up is courtesy of Site Builder Report. It’s a search engine that indexes free stock photo sites. I consider it the Lord of Rings site because it’s one site to rule them all. Because of this, it may be the only link you need since most of the free stock image sites that I listed in this post are already indexed there.

Stock Snap

Stock Snap is similar to Stock Up because it’s a curated resource of free stock images that don’t require attribution There’s a lot of overlap.

Exposure

Exposure another site that searches free stock image sites. They’re listed as free for commercial use.

You’ll notice that all of these sites pull from the same free stock images sites. As I mentioned before, you probably only need to use one of these sites since they all host the same free stock images. But it doesn’t hurt to have all three sites at your fingertips.

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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.

Audio narration is part of multimedia and adds a lot of value to your elearning courses. However, there are times when it makes sense to NOT use audio in your courses.

Do Not Use Audio Narration When They Can’t Hear It

If those taking the course can’t hear the audio narration, then it makes sense not to include it. This probably seems obvious, but often we don’t get to meet those who take the courses so we’re not always aware of their audio limitations. In fact, many of the people I talk to get handed the course content with no access to the intended audience.

There are usually three main reasons why the person can’t hear the course:

• Technology. Many access the elearning courses from computers that don’t support audio. The computers may not have sound cards or speakers. This is not as common as it used to be, but it’s still a good idea to ask your client if the end users will have access to computers that support audio and if they need headsets.
• Environment. Some people access the online modules from shared computers in a production environment. Many of those systems don’t have audio output, and even if they did, the environment is too loud to hear it.
• Hearing disabilities. You may have learners with hearing disabilities. In those cases, you’ll need to make modifications so that they can learn what needs to be learned. Some organizations already require accessible content. Even if it’s not required for your course, it’s a good idea to add closed caption text or some sort of transcript for those who may need it. Here’s a free e-book that discusses best practices for 508 and accessible content.

Do Not Use Audio Narration If You’re on a Tight Budget

Producing good audio narration takes time and doing it right costs money. You need to write, rehearse, and approve scripts that sound like real people talking. Here’s typically what happens:

• Write the script.
• Review the script with subject matter experts.
• Re-write the script.
• Review again.
• Re-write the script.
• Record audio narration and realize the script doesn’t sound right.
• Re-write script.
• Record audio narration.
• Review final course and have upper-level manager tell you that they don’t like the audio and the legal team needs to make a few edits.
• Rinse and repeat.

Seriously, producing audio narration takes time and adds many variables to the production process with a lot of extra meetings. If you don’t have the resources, it’s better to skip it than doing it wrong or wasting time.

Do Not Use Audio Narration If the Narrator is Not Professional

I have mixed feelings on this next point. There’s a lot to be said about the authentic voice of a real person. And the reality is that in many cases, it makes sense to record your own audio narration. However, there is a big difference between a good speaking voice and a professional narrator.

• You want a voice actor. Someone once told me that you don’t want a professional narrator, instead you want a voice actor. And recording your subject matter expert who has a good speaking voice is not the same as the person you’d qualify as a voice actor.
• You don’t need to spend a fortune. There are a lot of ways to hire good voice talent at reasonable cost. Fiverr and services like Voice123 are worth exploring. And you can even find some freelance elearning developers that can produce their own audio.

On the flip side, if you do record your own audio narration:

• Get a good microphone. I have used the Samson C01U & C03U. Travel with the very portable GoMic, and currently use the Yeti Pro for most of my recording. They’re all good mics. You can get a decent microphone for about $75.  The links to Amazon mics may produce a slight commission.
• Learn some of the basics with these tips and tricks.

In an ideal world you have a budget to create the best course possible. And this includes inserting great audio narration. Keep in mind that bad audio is the least tolerable form of multimedia. People will tolerate less than perfect image quality before they accept bad audio narration. If you can’t do it right, perhaps it’s best to not do it at all.

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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.

The most common types of interaction we see in elearning courses are the tabs interactions and for good reason—they’re an easy way to sort and present information. Tabs can be simple content chunks or a way to explore and collect information to make decisions during an interactive scenario.

The Value of the Tabs Interactions

Let’s face it, most elearning isn’t overly interactive. In fact, a lot of it is more explainer-type content than it is interactive decision-making. Regardless of how dynamic or interactive an elearning course is, the majority of it still consists of text and presenting content. And since you’re going to present content, tabs interactions are a great way to do so. Here’s why?

• Easy way to organize content. Most elearning content follows some sort of sequential process. Tabs interactions are an easy way to organize and layout the content. Using tabs interactions also forces the course developer to better organize and label the content. The most popular type of tabs interactions are process interactions that go through procedural steps from A to Z.

• Chunk content for easier understanding. Many elearning courses have too much content that’s hard for the learner to parse. A lot of organizations are moving towards micro-learning where the content is distilled into easier chunks.  Tabs interactions are an easy way to create and organize the content into more digestible pieces. The entire course could be a single tabs interaction or the content can be chunked into slide-specific tabs.

• Open and personalized navigation. The tendency for many organizations is to lock down the course content and force the learner to go through it sequentially. One of the benefits of tabs interactions is that the navigation can be opened up and allow the person to go through the tabs in any order. And if the course needs to be locked down, it can happen with a conditional button that’s not active until all tabs are visited. Thus still providing some free navigation within the interaction.
• Initiate learner engagement. One challenge with elearning is to engage those taking the course. Obviously we want to engage them with the content and learning to apply it. But we can also engage them by getting them to “touch the screen.” This is something we discussed in this post on interactive elearning. We want to pull them in and have them do something onscreen and then couple it with good decision-making. Tabs interactions help initiate the activity.

• Lots of flexibility. As noted earlier, tabs interactions can be the entire course or the tabs interaction can be slide-specific. Tabs can be placed up, down, left or right. They can also be what I like to call in-slide interactions. The tabs are usually click-and-reveal interactions, but hover interactivity works, too.

The next time you build an elearning course, don’t neglect the simple but effective tabs interaction. To help you out, I’ve included some links to many of the free tabs interactions templates you can download from the community.

Free Tabs Interactions Templates

PowerPoint Tabs Interactions Templates

• City Themed Tabs
• Simple Tabs
• Clean Tabs
• Tablet Tabs
• Creative Team Tabs
• Power Teal Tabs
• Blue Reflection Tabs
• Punchy Tabs
• Color Tabs
• Corporate Tabs
• Accordion Tabs
• Tabtastic Tabs

Storyline Tabs Interactions Templates

• Simple Tabs
• Simple Bottom Tabs
• Simple Tabs Too
• Power Teal Tabs
• Big Circle Tabs
• Colored Tabs
• Folder Tabs
• Clean Design Tabs
• 4 Step Tabs
• Animated Tabs
• 5 Step Tabs
• Notebook Tabs

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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.

At a recent workshop I was asked to put together a post with some of my top instructional design tips. So here it is. Of course, over the past 8 years most of the posts are littered with various tips related to instructional design.

If there’s a single best tip it’s that the course content needs to be relevant to the learner’s needs. If not, why is the person taking the course?

Instructional Design Tips

Here’s a list of blog posts related to instructional design.

• E-Learning & Instructional Design 101. What do you really need to know to be a successful instructional designer?
• Instructional Design Basics for E-Learning Development. The start of a very good series on elearning 101.
• Instructional Techniques. Tell, show, do, practice, and review.
• What New Instructional Designers Should Know. An overview on the value of instructional design and how it impacts training.
• Instructional Design Challenges for Today’s Course Designer. With all of this new technology the role of the instructional designer has changed. Or has it?
• Do You Really Need An Instructional Design Degree? Our industry’s hot right now. If you can spell e-learning elearning eLearning then odds are you can get a job. But do you need an instructional design degree to get it?
• 3 Graphic Design Principles for Instructional Design Success. What role does graphic design play in instructional design?
• What Everybody Ought to Know About Instructional Design. What is the essence of instructional design?
• What We Can Learn About Instructional Design from Post-it™ Notes. What can we learn from the cheat sheets that people create to train themselves?

Instructional Design Tips from the Community

I’m a big advocate of the weekly elearning challenges because they offer a reason to step away from the daily grind of building the same types of courses and doing the same thing over again and again. We get to try out some new ideas, practice production techniques, show off our skills, and see how others approach the same challenge.

Here is a list of challenges that offer an extra bonus because they each share some tips and tricks that will help you build better courses.

• Instructional Design Tips That Really Pop. Motivation-style posters that share great instructional design tips.
• Instructional Design Learning Activities. This is a two-for: you get ideas for interactions and those interactions are all built around an instructional design concept.
• Instructional Design Quizzes. These quizzes demonstrate and test your instructional design acumen.
• 10 Things You Shouldn’t Say to Instructional Designers. Here is a list of common complaints and things instructional designers don’t like to hear.
• Using E-Learning Storyboards. Your peers share how they use storyboards to design their courses.
• E-Learning Audio and Recording Tips. Need to record your own audio narration? These tips will help.
• What’s In Your Course Design Toolkit? Course designers share the tools they use to produce their elearning courses. Links to lots of free tools.
• What Do E-Learning Designers Really Do? What do your friends think you do? What about your mother?

Do you have any instructional design tips to share?

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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.

Multimedia for elearning is something common to all of our courses. There’s only so much you can put on the screen. It’s either going to be text or some sort of multimedia like shapes, pictures, or video. In addition, you may have audio narration to complement what’s on the screen.

At some of our workshops we discuss inexpensive ways to acquire multimedia for elearning. We’ll reference some of the previous posts when we’ve discussed different ways to either get free multimedia for elearning or learn to create them yourselves:

• Free Stock Images
• Free Fonts
• Record Your Own Audio Narration
• Free PowerPoint Templates
• Free Downloads

However, sometimes you don’t have the time or skill to create your own assets. And all of those free media assets may not fit the real needs of your course design. That means you’ll have to find someone to build them for you.

Fiverr is a site that offers access to all sorts of multimedia and graphic artists for $5 a project. While the advertised costs are $5, most of the projects are limited in scope and the artists are looking for a way to market their skills and have up sells. If you plan it right, you can get multimedia for elearning at a reasonable price.

Here are a few examples I pulled together to give you some ideas. I have no affiliation with any of the artists and it’s possible they may have restrictions on what they will do. So you’ll want to connect with them personally.

Multimedia for E-Learning: Custom Illustrations

Proposed plan:

Many of the artists only do head and shoulder images. However, some do full body. They usually have a starting pay scale and range of add-ons. Even if the image goes from $5 to $50 per image, that’s a great deal for custom art work.

• Storyboard your screens so you know exactly what characters and poses you need.
• Create a shot sheet with a list of required characters.
• Find some co-workers and take photos of the expressions and poses as a reference for your artist.

Artists shown: Broomvector, Mariadesigns, Punisher357

Multimedia for E-Learning: Audio Narration on a Budget

Proposed plan:

As can be seen in the image above, you can select voiceover talent by gender, accent, age, and more. There are a lot of really good voiceover artists on Fiverr. Most of them will do 75-100 words for $5.

This is close 75 words of text:

What would the world be like if the objects that surround us became less mysterious, if not only the bits but also the bolts became something into which we could peer? What if the black boxes that occupy our desks, our homes, our skies suddenly became transparent?

We asked more than a dozen open-minded technologists to explain how applying open source principles to physical devices is shaping the way we work and play.

That means you can get each slide recorded for about $5-15 per slide.

• Write your narration script.
• Get rid of half the words. You don’t need as much as you think you do.
• Make sure it sounds like a human is reading it and not some corporate drone or lawyer (although they’ve been known to be human).
• Get the final script approved before sending it out to be recorded to avoid do overs.

Multimedia for E-Learning: Video Actors & Presenters

Proposed plan:

Adding video to your elearning courses adds a lot of texture and personality. To me this is one of the best things available on Fiverr because creating video requires video production skills, audio narration, and great on-screen talent.

Many of the producers offer green screen recording so that adding the videos to your course screen is seamless. Although unless you can do the editing, you want to request that the video has a transparent background and not the green screen.

To manage costs and production, I’d only add video to a few strategic sections like the opening, summary of sections, and closing.

• Storyboard the course to determine where you need video.
• Develop some shot sheets of required video. Also determine if the person is on left or right of screen. A recording with a transparent background is ideal because you can nudge it into position.
• Create narration script.

Artists Shown: Tamerak, Sebski22, Mjenning

Multimedia for E-Learning: Custom PowerPoint Templates

Proposed plan:

There are artists who will create infographics, templates, and presentations. Essentially any graphic file can find its way on your course screen. What’s the difference between a PowerPoint, web site, or elearning course screen? They all have the same elements.

• Storyboard your screens
• Define visual elements and content containers
• Determine color scheme  and font style

Artists shown: Mint_Ideas, Believeable Video, Danukz

There are all sorts of other services offered on Fiverr that may add value to your courses. One of the benefits of the site is that you can dip your toes in the market and see how things go. You’ll get some inexpensive multimedia assets and can test the service and responsiveness of potential multimedia developers. As I stated earlier, I have no vested interest in the site or the artists. I just want to give you some ideas on how you might use it to your advantage.

If you do use the services on Fiverr, especially video, let me know. I’d love to see how it turns out.

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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.

When designing the visuals for an elearning course there are only so many things that fit on the screen and one of the most important of those things is a character. Here’s why.

E-Learning Characters Initiate Engagement

Adding the right image initiates engagement because it draws the learner’s attention, communicates the general topic, and can generate a visceral reaction. Review the images below. What response do they elicit? What do you think the courses are about? Are they serious? Funny? Do they seem interesting?

Suppose you can only put one image on your screen, what would it be?

Many of the courses I see use bland, corporate branded templates coupled with generic stock images. The imagery is boring and does nothing to engage the initial interest. That can all change when coupling the right characters with good content.

Simple Ways to Use E-Learning Characters

Obviously this is a challenge because most of us aren’t illustrators nor have access to graphic designers who can create custom characters for us. If that’s true for you, here are a few simple solutions:

• Choose characters that map to the context of your course. You may be stuck with generic stock photos, but choose the ones that align to your course content. For example, if you’re creating a medical course, select medically-themed characters. Also, instead of cut-out characters, select a character in a contextual background. Seems obvious, but it’s the first step.

• Select a consistent visual style. You’ll notice in the first image above that the characters range from photographic to illustrated vectors. Find a style that works and use it consistently. If you use photos, select the same type with similar backgrounds. If you use vectors, use the same style. Or flip it. If you always use photos, try illustrations.  And you may be able to edit them to meet your specific needs.
• Shoot your own photos. At least two of the images above are not stock photos. Here’s a post with tips when shooting your own stock photos.
• Don’t use humans. Characters can be animals, icons, etc.
• Try some that are more dramatic or in your face images. Humor and drama go a long way to initiate engagement.

Additional resources:

• If you need some examples of how people have used characters in elearning courses, check out this weekly elearning challenge.
• These two books discuss characters/avatars in course design. Some people call them pedagogical agents. Those are the people I tend to avoid. In either case, these two books discuss how they may add value to your courses: E-Learning and the Science of Instruction and The Gamification of Learning and Instruction. 

Characters add context. Medical characters say it’s a medical course. People in suits suggest something more corporate. Someone dressed as a clown probably means executive training. See how that works? Adding the right character is a step in the right direction for your visual design.

Step away from bland, generic templates. Find ways to add characters to your screens. It’s one of the easiest ways to engage your learners visually.

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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.

We all work at the speed of business which means that we have to find tips and tricks that save time. In today’s post I’ll show three easy ways to create templates for your elearning courses.

30 Second E-Learning Templates

I’ve featured this technique before in the post on How to Build a Template in 30 Seconds. Essentially, you want to find a viable sliver from an image or screen grab. And then stretch it to create your template. I guess this could also be called the “viable sliver technique” but it doesn’t sound as sexy.

Use this technique enough and you’ll save so much time you’ll be able to go to the movies when you should be at work. When you’re boss asks where you were, all you need to say is “30 second template.”

10 Second E-Learning Templates

Want to save even more time? Try the 10 second template technique. This is one of David’s favorite tips and he shows how it works in this post on how he built an interactive quiz. The process is very easy:

• Create a slide with a header and footer shape.
• Find a contextual image.
• Fill the header with a color picked from the top of the image.
• Fill the footer with a color picked from the bottom of the image. In the example above, I also picked a color for the content area.
• Add your content.

Pretty simple, huh? They key is that you don’t have to put a lot of thought into the template and how to get the right colors. While it’s simple and the template is basic, it’s a good starting point for beginners.

E-Learning Templates on a Budget

One challenge is creating a nice looking (and functional template) that also incorporates your organization’s branding. In a previous post I shared how to create an elearning template using your organization’s website.

Why not allow your organization’s website (or other branded collateral) inspire your next elearning template?

Websites and elearning templates are very similar. They’re screens and they display content. The types of content you put on the screens is also very similar, as well as how you design their layouts.

Let’s assume your organization has the site above. It incorporates the brand colors, type, and imagery. You’ll notice that the page also includes tabs and button styles. These are all elements that are typical of elearning courses.

Here’s a quick mock-up I created using the website for inspiration. As you can see, it’s not a verbatim copy. But it does include the colors, button styles, and type (assuming I had the same font available).

Think of it this way, whether you’re using a web site, marketing collateral, or something else, the organization’s paid a graphics person to design the look and feel of those resources. That means you already have a great design from which to work. And it matches the organization’s brand. Use that design to create your elearning template.

So there you have it, three easy ways to create your own elearning templates. Have you tried any of these techniques? If so, how’d it turn out?

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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.

Things tend to slow down in the summer. A lot of people are on vacation and not a lot of work is being done. It’s also a time to prep for a new school year. Why not make it a time to prep for a new work year as you come back from your vacations fully rested?

To help you out, I compiled an assortment of free templates that you may have missed the past few weeks. There are 16 free PowerPoint templates and 15 free Storyline templates.

And if you’re on that side of the planet where summer’s long gone, you can still take advantage of the free templates.

Free PowerPoint Templates

Here are a bunch of free PowerPoint templates. There’s a really good assortment, too. Keep in mind, if you like the template, you can easily change the content and colors to match your needs.

Punchy Tab Template

• Download
• Demo

Circle Lift Template

• Download
• Demo

Creative Team Tabs Template

• Download
• Demo

A Day-in-the-Life Template

• Download
• Demo

Indigo Template

• Download
• Demo

Super Simple Circle Menu

• Download
• Demo

Interactive Office Template

• Download
• Demo

Realistic Desktop Interaction Template

• Download
• Demo

Interactive Desktop Template

• Download
• Demo

Notebook-Themed Template

• Download
• Demo

Interactive Conversation

• Download
• Demo

Tab-tastic Flat Template

• Download
• Demo

Fun Magic 8 Ball-Themed Template

• Download
• Demo

iPad-Themed User Interface

• Download
• Demo

Nested Menu Template

• Download
• Demo

Photo Gallery Template

• Download
• Demo

Industrial Zeal Template

• Download
• Demo

Free Storyline Templates

Here a few really nice free Storyline templates. They run the range of click and reveal activities to interactive quiz examples. Just like the PowerPoint templates, feel free to download them and customize them to meet your needs.

If you don’t have Storyline, download the free trial. You have 30 days. I’m sure you can use the templates and build quite a few free modules in 30 day trial period.

Text Message Style Quiz

• Download
• Demo

Timeline Interaction

• Download
• Demo

Simple Tabs Gray Interaction

• Download
• Demo

Process Drag & Drop Quiz

• Download
• Demo

Flat Office Icon Set

• Download

Circle Lift

• Download
• Demo

Zoom Office Interaction

• Download
• Demo

Tic Tac Toe Template

• Download
• Demo

Desktop Zoom Interaction

• Download
• Demo

Interactive Resume

• Download
• Demo

Interactive Conversation

• Download
• Demo

Compare & Contrast Interaction

• Download
• Demo

Multimedia Glossary

• Download
• Demo

Simple Tabs Blue Interaction

• Download
• Demo

Classic Practice Interactions from Storyline 1

• Download

Here’s a big shout out to those in the community who freely share the modules and templates they create. Hopefully you can find some use for these templates. If so, let me know. Also, which ones do you like best? I like the simple tabs interactions and the text-based quiz. How about you?

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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.

As noted in an earlier post, an easy way to build interactive elearning modules is by choosing a single image and adding interactive elements to it. This is a great solution for those who don’t have graphic design skills or access to a graphic designer. The key is finding a single image that has a few potential content buckets.

Finding images is relatively easy today. I look for images like the ones below. They need to have some visual interest, a consistent context, and potential content areas that can be clicked on or zoomed into.

Interactive Image Example

In a previous post, I shared this interactive image demo and had lots of questions about the zoom effect I used and how it was built. To help you out, I recorded a few tutorials that go through the basics. I used a different image for the tutorials and included a new free template for you to download.

Here’s the new template in action:

Click here to view the demo.

Interactive Image Tutorials

Here are some tutorials that walk through how I created the zoom in and out effect in this elearning template.

• Tutorial 1: Lay the foundation by setting up the slides and links.
• Tutorial 2: Create the zoom in and out effect (this is the main tutorial).
• Tutorial 3: Shortcuts and production tips to save time.

Free Interactive Image Templates

I’ve included the source file for the original demo and a new template based on the image I used in the video tutorials. As a bonus, I used the same image to create a free PowerPoint template.

• Zoom Office template (Storyline 2). I fleshed out the template a bit and added variables to track completion. But you can use it anyway you wish.
• Interactive Office template (PowerPoint).
• Original source file.

• The templates also include a slide of individual characters. Create additional slides in the template and add the characters.

So now it’s up to you—find some images, watch the tutorials above, and create your own interactive image templates.

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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.

This post gives you a two-fer: that’s two freebies for one. I found a free desktop image made available by Anastasia Kolisnichenko. I used the free image to create an interactive course prototype for an upcoming workshop activity. The template is free for you to download and use as you wish.

Below is an example of the template in action. It’s embedded on the blog page. Click here to view the template if the embedded version isn’t visible in the email.

The example above was created in Storyline and uses the zoom region feature and triggers to pause the timeline. Here’s a PowerPoint (no zoom). I like the push transition.

How to Create an Interactive Course Using a Single Image

If you had access to a graphics designer, you could create anything you want. But for many of you, that’s not an option. This means you’re limited to searching the Internet for free downloads and then using those for your courses. The challenge with this is that it can be difficult to modify or customize the free downloads that you find.

However, here’s a simple technique that doesn’t require a lot of extra work. It just requires an image that has clear potential content buckets. Then you add links to those buckets and add your content. It’s a straightforward way to create an exploratory interactive course.

• Locate an image that has multiple components. The free desktop download is a good example. It has areas that can be made clickable with links to additional content. Another example could be a collage style image or a comic book layout image.

• Create a separate slide for each distinct area. In the example above I made slides for the computer, picture frame, bookshelf, microphone, and calendar. Those are all exciting potential content buckets.

• Link from the main image to a slide of the isolated element. Also add a link back.
• Apply a transition. In Storyline, the zoom feature is a wonderful way to transition in and out. In PowerPoint, it’s a bit more challenging to create a zoom that’s easy to edit. In that case, I used a push transition.

In this demo I used the free desktop image to create the interactive course design. However, this production technique works great with other images. The key is that you start with a single image, so you need to do minimal editing and customization.

Download the Free Templates to Create an Interactive Course

Here are the download links to the free template. I also included the original graphic in case the link breaks somewhere down the road. Be sure to give props to Anastasia Kolisnichenko who made it available to use.

• Storyline: contains the Storyline 1 and 2 versions of the file.
• PowerPoint

Enjoy!

 

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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.

What is interactive elearning?

In previous posts we discussed different ways to interact with onscreen elements. Generally, interactions are limited to click, mouse over, or dragging interactions.

Then we explored two key points when building interactive elearning. The first point is to get the users to “touch” the screen. Find ways to have them interact with onscreen elements. The second point is to have them interact with the content to create a great learning experience.

 

Now let’s look at common reasons why people interact with the elearning courses and then we can use that to build better interactive elearning. To keep things simple, we’ll look at three common reasons why people interact with their courses.

Interactive E-Learning: Course Navigation

The most obvious reason why people interact with the elearning course is to navigate from one point to the next. The “next” button is the most common form of interaction. We click it to navigate from one screen to another.

Of course, there are all sorts of others ways to navigate content. It could be an onscreen button, like a gate screen that we click to advance. Or perhaps it’s something like the example below that uses a slider instead of next buttons to navigate from one screen to the next.

What I like about the slider interaction is that we are able to replace a clickable button with a draggable slider. This novelty helps engage those viewing the course and gives them better control of the navigation.

Click here to view the slider navigation.

When building your next interactive elearning course, think about ways that the user navigates the content. Play around with ideas that move beyond clicking and the next button. Perhaps there’s a way to include more mouseovers and dragging.

Interactive E-Learning: Exploration

Another common reason why people interact with the onscreen content is to explore and collect information. Most courses are linear and they require that a person click in a specific sequence. However, by allowing for non-linear interactivity, the user gets a bit more control and can access the content they need, when they need it—or at least start with the content that seems the most interesting to them.

Here are a few common types of exploratory interactions to give you some ideas:

• Tabs Interaction: this first example is standard. This second example has additional layers of content which shows that tab interactions don’t need to be limited to a single click and reveal.
• Interactive labels: interactive labels are a great way to add additional content to the screen without adding a lot of clutter. They’re great for letting the learner explore and collect content. Here is a form-based example created using pre-built labels for faster production. And this second example is a custom label interaction that includes similar looking labels, but they’re used to explore and learn more about the team. And here’s an example of an interactive screenshot (great idea for software training).
• Interactive Sliders: sliders are great because the user can scrub through content quickly. This lets them collect information in a novel way, scrub back and forth to see cause and effect relationships, and jump back and forth between procedural steps.

Couple exploratory interactions with decision-making and you have the foundation for solid interactive elearning and dynamic branched scenarios. They let users explore and collect information to make the decisions required to demonstrate their understanding of the course content.

Interactive E-Learning: Make Decisions

Outside of navigation, the most common reason we interact in our online courses is to make decisions. Usually, it’s a simple quiz question with a submit button. But interactive elearning could also include decision-making scenarios or other non-standard assessments.

Ideally, it’s designed to make decisions and then get feedback based on our decisions. Sometimes the feedback is immediate and sometimes it’s delayed and compounded.

Here are a few simple decision-making interactions:

• Interactive assessment: check out this interactive quiz with progress bar. It’s a good combination of a process, assessment, and progress interaction. Created by Montse Anderson at E-Learning Designer.com.
• Branched, decision-making scenario: this example scenario features branched feedback and a progress meter. Created by Nicole Legault.
• Novel interactive elearning: the Broken Co-Worker scenario created by Ryan and Anna at Elearner Engaged.
• Drag & drop decision-making interaction: determine the healthiest food choices by dragging food items to the plate. Created by David Anderson.

As you can see, assessments and decision-making interactions don’t have to rely on the out-of-the-box quiz questions. There are all sorts of ways to make the decision-making interactive to create a better learning experience. As you plan your next assessment, see if there’s a way to add some novelty or different ways to interact during the decision-making.

Interactive elearning means the learner interacts with the screen and course content. There are only a few ways to interact with the screen. In addition, there are specific reasons why they’re interacting. Do you want them to go from one piece of information to another? Are you giving them opportunities to explore? Or do you want them to collect some information and make decisions?

Understanding why they’re interacting with the course content will help you better determine how you want them to interact. And in turn, you’ll build better interactive elearning courses.

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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.

Do a search for “free vector images” and you’ll find hundreds of sites that boast tens of thousands of free images. The problem is many of them are junk and not even worth your time. Besides, how many free vector images do you really need?

Websites that Offer Free Vector Images

As you may know, many of the sites that offer “free” resources only allow them to be used for personal use. That won’t work for your courses and presentations. To make things simple, I reviewed dozens of websites that claim they offer free vector images and narrowed them down to just a few. My criteria for listing the sites below is that they really are free for commercial use. [updated 3/17/2023]

• Freepik
• Vecteezy
• Pixeden

Some of the sites may require credit or attribution. That’s OK. Here are some tips on how to provide attribution in commercial projects when you use free vector images.

Other Sources for Free Vector Images

Another good source for free vector images is from artist community sites or a graphic artist’s own page. Here are a few additional places to locate some good quality, free vector images:

• Dribbble: mostly professional quality images
• Deviant Art: miscellaneous artist site; it’s a mixed bag but there are a lot of free images
• Snap2Objects: images created by Mauricio Duque
• E-Learning Heroes: whatever you find in the community you are free to use for your elearning projects and presentations.
• PageResource: if you sport a mullet and watch Full House, then this site has the perfect free clip art for you.

Editing Free Vector Images

Most of the free vector images are going to be in .AI or .EPS format. If they’re .PNG or .JPG they’re not vectors. Editing the images requires an illustration application like Illustrator or Inkscape (free). However, you can edit most free vector images that are in .EPS format using PowerPoint.

Here’s a post that explains how to edit free vector images in PowerPoint and a tutorial video. Unless you’re comfortable with the illustration apps, I’d look for .EPS files first and use PowerPoint.

So there you go, a complete list of sites that provide free vector images that you can freely use in your presentations and elearning courses.

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.