A guest post by Elizabeth Pawlicki, Senior Manager, Training Programs at Articulate.

Like many of you, we have a ton of zoom meetings and often I’m tasked with presenting information or training sessions. My initial inclination was to build something in PowerPoint or Google slides, but I switched to Rise 360 and haven’t looked back.

I find that even though Rise 360 is designed to be more of a traditional e-learning course authoring tool, it really does lend itself as a great presentation tool.

Let me tell you how I am using it and why.

Creating the presentation in Rise 360 is just as fast as creating a slide.

With Rise 360, I spend less time constructing the layout because I’m not starting with an empty slide. However, I can still make something that’s visually appealing, chunked into distinct sections, and still control what’s on the screen and when.

In the example above you can see how easy it is to add all sorts of presentation content such as text, media, and interactivity.

Chunking content is easy and can be creative.

I like to use to use the Continue Divider block to chunk the content similar to how I may have it in a PowerPoint slide. And then to advance my presentation, I click the divider to reveal more.

Also, I will convert what should have been bullet points to simple interactions like the the accordion or tabs. This allows me to keep people focused on what we’re discussing. The flashcard block is a great way to talk through things, ask a question, and then reveal content when clicked.

Augment the presentation with embedded content.

Embedding content from other sources can make the live presentation more engaging or add extra capability. For example, often in our conversations, I present a timed activity.

This is where I use the embed block in Rise 360 and add a timer from vclock using their embed code. You can also embed maps and all sorts of extra media using that block. Basically, if you can find it online you can add it to your presentation.

Skipping unnecessary content is super easy.

Often during the presentations I find the attendees already have a good grasp of the information. In those cases I like to skip to something else. That’s where the sidebar menu comes in handy where I can jump to specific content that I’ve chunked into lessons.

Keeping the sidebar visible is a great way to let the people know where we’re at and where we’re going. So sometimes I keep it open. But it’s easy enough to collapse the sidebar and only show it when I have to.

The course works well as a leave-behind resource.

One of my favorite things is that I can just share the presentation as is. I don’t need to save a PDF of slides or email them a copy of my PPT presentation.

I publish the Rise 360 presentation to Review 360 and then provide the group with the review link. For example, here’s a presentation that I created for the blog that you can access now.

Keep the conversation going.

An added benefit to using Review 360 is that since the Rise 360 presentation is published to Review 360 the attendees can leave comments. This is really great if we run out of time during an activity or discussion. We can continue to conversation in the published presentation.

Test it out. Go to the demo presentation and post a comment.

Keep the content updated.

I can always make updates to the presentation and then republish the new Rise 360 presentation over the old version knowing that everyone will have the same updated content. This is really important for things like sales training and presentations where the content is updated and changes often.

Articulate Rise 360 Presentation Example

I recorded a quick video to show how I use Rise 360 as a presentation tool. Check it out.

Click here to view the presentation on YouTube.

Have you used Rise 360 as a presentation tool? If so, what worked well? And if not, why haven’t you tried it yet?

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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.

In e-learning software like Storyline 360 and Rise 360 you can record (or import) audio narration into your courses. Since many e-learning developers tend to produce all media that belongs in the course, recording audio narration usually is one of those responsibilities. That means there are a lot of people that record audio narration who aren’t trained voice over talent.

If you have money and the time, using professional voice over talent makes sense. But most of us don’t have that luxury. So here are some tips to help you get started and get the best audio narration that you can get.

Audio Narration Script

• Script approval. Narration (especially for non-professionals) can be time-consuming. You don’t want to do a lot of re-work. Get the script approved before you start any work on recording the narration. That will save a lot of time.
• Text-to-speech. Use the text-to-speech feature to create demo narration for the review process. This way the subject matter experts and reviewers can hear the script and not just read it. And if you need to make changes, it’s just a matter of typing new text and not going through the process of recording new narration. Settle on a final, signed-off script.
• Sound like a real person. Audio narration should sound like a real person. That means you need to move past the legalese and corporate way of saying things (assuming the legal department lets you). Write a script that sounds conversational and how you would talk and explain things in real life.

The Right Environment to Record Audio Narration

In an ideal world, you have a recording studio or one of those fancy whisper rooms. But odds are you have a cubicle or empty conference room.

• Cubicles are good. The walls are designed to absorb sound. Unfortunately, in an open-air cubicle farm, you don’t get a lot of privacy and there’s a lot of background noise, so you’ll need to record when there aren’t many people around.
• Minimize noise. Turn off office machines, fans, and air conditioners (if possible). Record about 15 seconds of ambient noise. Sometimes you can use that to create a filter and edit out the background noise when you do post-production. But the best option is to record the best quality you can. As a general rule, the best recording is the original recording.
• Use sound buffers. Listen to the difference between using a sound box and not. There are several ways to buffer the sound coming into your mic. There are professional options with sound proof panels, mic boxes (you can make these with a fabric cube and foam wedge panels), and panels that connect to your mic. In my home office, I have a clothes rack and drape a thick blanket over it. Then I roll it behind me. Here’s an emergency option: the foambrero. If you have a budget, this recording booth looks interesting and seems very portable and easy to set up in a small office.
• Headset mic. Sometimes you’re stuck in an office and cannot control the background noise, but a headset mic helps because it is unidirectional and will only record audio from one direction. This helps block out a lot of ambient noise.

Prepare Yourself to Record Audio Narration

• Read the script aloud a few times. You’ll quickly identify areas where it doesn’t sound natural and when it doesn’t roll of the tongue right.
• Record it first so you can hear it back. Just the act of recording often helps identity where it doesn’t sound right and where you flub over words and sentences.
• Drink plenty of water. Hydration is key.
• Don’t worry about being perfect. Remember, you’re not hiring a pro, so you’re not getting a pro.
• Stand rather than sit. Standing helps you breath better and take in more air. The most important thing is to be comfortable and of course being able to reach your audio controls between takes.

The Right Tools to Record Audio Narration

I created a list of good audio accessories and mic recommendations that won’t break the bank. And there are plenty of affordable or DIY options like building a sound box or using an Ikea lamp as a mic boom. Regardless, here’s a general rundown of what you’ll need:

• Good microphone: headset or desktop. I usually prefer a desktop mic, but a headset is much more mobile and the sound quality is decent.
• Pop filter to remove those annoying mouth sounds and popping p’s.
• Mic stand. I use a boom mic mounted to my desk. I like to swing it in and out of position. The Blue Compass is a nice-looking boom if you don’t want to make your own or break the bank.
• Teleprompter (better than reading from a paper script). A lot of people use a second monitor or tablet.
• Sound buffer to control ambient noise and get fuller sound quality.

How to Record Audio Narration

I won’t go into a lot of detail about recording because there are a lot of different applications. But I will narrow it down to a few basic tips.

• Record in the authoring tool or outside? You can always record much of the audio narration with the e-learning software. That makes it super easy, especially if you’re doing all the work by yourself. Storyline 360 even has a simple audio editor for some post-production editing. However, I prefer to separate my multimedia production into distinct groups: video, audio, graphics, and course construction. I find it helps keep me focused on one thing and I can get it done right the first time. Because of this, I like to record my narration outside of the authoring tools. Then I can make any edits I need and upload the narration into the software. This works in both Storyline 360 and Rise 360.
• Free audio editors. If you don’t have any money, Audacity is a free audio application that works fine for recording narration. Here’s a list of a few other free audio recording options. Levelator (although no longer supported) does a respectable job cleaning up your audio narration. There are also all sorts of apps you can use on your phones and tablets to record audio (iOS and Android).
• How to save audio files. You can save as .MP3 or .WAV. Both should be fine. MP3 files will be much smaller and you won’t notice any degradation. It’s also a good idea to have a consistent naming strategy when you save your files. “Audio1.mp3” isn’t very good. However, “Safety101-Intro-Layer4.mp3” makes a lot more sense and you know where it goes in the course when you have to import it.

These are some good, basic getting started tips when recording audio narration. If you have some to share, feel free to add them to the comments.

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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.

Who doesn’t like free and animated .gifs? They’re great for e-learning courses. Use them to create novel attention-getting images, add some humor, or show instructional procedures.

Recently, the AppSumo site gave away free animated .gifs via Lordicon. The offer no longer exists, but the Lordicon site still has a pack for 50 free animated gifs. It’s actually 100 images because you get outline and solid options.

These are great to use in your Rise 360 and Rise.com courses. Here’s an example course from one of our training webinars on how to create compliance training.

Use Free Animated Gifs As Header Graphics

Use Free Animated Gifs As Bullet Point Alternatives

Use Free Animated Gifs with E-Learning Interactions

Bonus Idea

I sign up for sites like AppSumo (there are others, too) because often they have media-related offers that can be used in online course development. This Lordicon offer was free and they gave away 1000 animated gifs. They also recently had an offer for Depositphotos images at $.39 each. That’s a great deal. That’s one that seems to come around every few months.

Most of the offers on those sites are not relevant so I ignore them; but I do like it when I come across one of the low cost (or free) multimedia deals that I can use for my courses. It’s worth checking out.

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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 of you are currently creating new health and safety training focused on the Coronavirus (COVID-19). It’s not always easy to find the images you need. Here are some free images and resources to help with your training programs. And here’s a link for different ways to give credit and attribution for the free resources.

Free Coronavirus Stock Photos

These stock photos are provided courtesy of Icons8. They’re free to use. However, you may need to offer some attribution.

• Coronavirus stock photos

Free Coronavirus Icons

Here are a bunch of icons to use in your presentations and online safety training.

• Iconfinder
• Flaticon

Free Coronavirus Course

Cut through the confusion surrounding the new coronavirus with this free course that aims to dispel misinformation about COVID-19 (courtesy of Articulate).

If you want to use the course in your own organization, you can send a copy to your account and make the edits you need and publish it. If you don’t have access to Rise 360, sign up for a free, 60-day trial of Articulate 360.

Here’s another free course shared via John Hopkins created with Rise 360.

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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 of you probably do lots of writing using online applications. This is especially true as many of us are spending a lot more time working remotely. If you do a lot of writing, odds are you can use one of those handy browser extensions to help with spelling and grammar.

I’ve used Grammarly, in the past. It’s a really good extension and works well. In fact, I used it for a quite some time. However, I’m always open to new browser apps and extensions, especially if they’re not too intrusive to what I’m working on. Personally, I had to quit using Grammarly because it slowed down my work and often the feature interfered with what I was doing, so I found myself turning it off more than on.

Microsoft recently introduced their grammar/spelling browser extension, Microsoft Editor. The app is available to anyone, but with a Microsoft account, you have access to more features and multiple languages. I’ve been using it for about a week now. I find it to be light and responsive.

If you do your course editing in your e-learning authoring tool like Rise 360, then Microsoft Editor is a tool that comes in handy.

Below is a quick overview of the Microsoft Editor app and how I use it in Rise 360 when building online training programs.

There are a few good grammar and spell checker tools out there. This is one I like.

What are your thoughts?

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Rise 360 is a great application to create e-learning. It’s form-based so it’s easy to use. Pull all of your instructional content together. Then go into Rise 360, select from dozens of various content blocks, and add your content.

Super easy. No programming required and because of the way it works, it doesn’t require any design work.

But what do you do if you want some graphics or illustrations to go with your Rise 360 courses?

Check out these open source illustrations from unDraw.co. They look nice and they’re free to use for commercial projects. You can download PNG or SVG versions of the illustrations.

Here’s why I think these free illustrations work well with Rise 360.

• In Rise 360, you set a core accent color.

• In unDraw, you set an accent color.

• Use the same accent colors for the Rise 360 course and the unDraw illustrations and they look like they belong together.
• The illustrations are editable if you use an SVG editor. And because they’re open source you can customize them to your hearts desire.

Here’s an example where I matched the accent color in Rise 360 with the free illustrations from unDraw.

If you need some quick, easy-to-use free illustrations to complement your Rise 360 courses, then give these a try.

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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 get lots of questions about e-learning templates. Recently, I shared some tips on how to get the most value out of a template, which I’ll build on today.

Templates make sense to speed up production and create some visual consistency. They don’t make sense if you’re doing a lot of editing and tweaking. At some point, it becomes easier to build from scratch rather than modify templates.

Many people mix and match templates, which generates many of the questions I get. Today, I’ll like to share some thoughts on what makes a template and how that impacts mixing and matching.

Most e-learning templates consist of a few core elements:

• Fonts
• Colors
• Layouts
• Design elements

E-Learning Template Fonts

Most templates consist of a header and body font. If you mix and match templates, you’ll want to make sure they use the same fonts. This works in other tools, as well. For example, if I use a Storyline block in Rise, I want the Storyline content to look like it’s part of Rise. So I’ll incorporate the same template elements. In this case, I want the fonts to match even if they use different means to manage the fonts.

The same thing if I import PowerPoint slides. They use a header/body template structure, too. When you leverage existing PowerPoint content, switch the template elements to match.

E-Learning Template Color Schemes

Generally you can use as many colors as you want in a course. However, in Storyline (and PowerPoint) you get six colors. And with the five tones, that gives you thirty color swatches. You probably don’t need thirty color choices. I usually recommend two colors: a main color and a complimentary color, and perhaps a third accent color.

Regardless, when working with templates and colors, you want to be consistent in how you use them. If the main color is accent one, then do that with all templates. The challenge with already existing templates is that the template designer may have followed a different rule. Thus, when using different templates, you want to get them aligned and using colors the same way. Then, going forward, they’ll all work the way you want.

Rise 360 makes it easy as you get one accent color. However, you can also bring in other colors using the block fills and font colors. But, you’ll still want a plan as to how you’ll use colors.

E-Learning Template Layouts

There are all sorts of ways content can be laid out on the slide. Things can be up, down, left and right; and aligned at different percentages.

The key thing with layouts is that the content placeholders are the same. They don’t need to be in the same position, but they need to be the same in terms of content placeholders. When they start the same, then you can mix and match different templates and apply different looking, but similar, layouts. If they’re not the same, the inheriting template won’t know how to assign the extra content placeholders. This will require extra work to get it aligned.

For example, the layout above has a header and three content placeholders. Applying that layout to a different slide, requires that the other slide has the same core structure of a header and three content placeholders.

Before inserting a layout from one template to the next, make sure they having matching content placeholders. If they don’t, that’s OK. You can modify the template or just know you’ll need to make some adjustments later.

E-Learning Template Design Elements

There are design elements that are unique to the templates. When I mix and match, I try to identify what makes the template visually unique outside of the things mentioned above. Then I add those elements to the other content so they have unifying characteristics.

Here’s an example where I integrated some Storyline content into Rise, which is a completely different type of tool. One of the key elements of the template is the rounded rectangle and pill shape. I integrated some images with those shapes in Rise and the two pieces look like they belong together. You’ll notice I leveraged the colors and fonts to match, as well.

Those are the four core elements that make up most templates. Before mix and matching slides from different templates, review how they use fonts, colors, and layouts. And then identify the design elements that make the template unique. Add those to the new slides where appropriate.

What template tips do you have?

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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.

Here’s an issue I run into quite a bit: I need a map for my e-learning courses; but I don’t need a detailed map.

Stock image sites are fine for generic illustrated maps but they’re usually too generic. The other option is to do a screen grab of an online map, but then that’s often too detailed.

Recently, I was working on a map demo where I needed a specific map, but I didn’t want a real map screen shot because it was too busy and I knew the stock sites couldn’t provide what I needed because it was too specific. Fortunately, I found this site, Snazzy Maps, that makes it easy to customize Google’s online maps.

Examples of Custom Maps for E-Learning

Here’s why this comes in handy.

Most maps have too much visual information. For example, if I built a labeled graphic map of some historic sites in Washington, D.C. I need a simple map for reference, but I don’t need all of the street names and colors that may distract from my labels. Instead I want a map that gives me some context, but allows the label to be the star of the show.

In the example above, the real online map has way too much visual info. It’s hard to know where to look first. In fact, it’s difficult to see the markers because of all of the colors, text, and roads. I’m not using this map to drive an Uber so I probably don’t need all of the detail and distracting visual information.

This next example above is the complete opposite. All of the colors are turned off as well as many of the roads. A gray scale map like this allows the accent colors from the labels to really pop. In fact, one of the best simple tips for course design is to get rid of competing visual information like colors and then only use color to accent or highlight content. In this example, the marker colors are much more distinct.

For this particular interaction, I like having a little color to show the park and monuments in relationship to the city and water. I turned off the titles and some of the roads. You can still recognize it as a map, yet it’s not quite as busy.

Customizing the Maps

To be honest, I don’t have the patience to learn how to use the Snazzy Map site. So I started with one of the maps someone with more patience created. And from there it was just a lot of clicking around to see what I can edit. Most of it makes sense and with a little practice you can get almost any look you need.

If you need a custom map for your e-learning courses, check out the site. It may come in handy.

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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.

Here’s some content that spans the past decade or so of rapid e-learning. Originally, the interactive scenario started as a PowerPoint file that was published with Articulate Studio to demonstrate how to create simple branched scenarios in PowerPoint.

Interactive Scenario: PowerPoint

Click to view the interactive scenario create with PowerPoint

Since PowerPoint is linear and doesn’t offer tracking logic, it requires a lot of slides to create the illusion of movement and branching complexity. The slide number increases exponentially with each additional choice and gets to a point where it’s not manageable.

In those cases, PowerPoint isn’t the best solution for interactive courses.

Interactive Scenario: Storyline

The same content goes from 154 slides in PowerPoint to just 18 slides in Storyline. That’s a dramatic decrease in slides and the production time required to create an interactive scenario. It really shows off the power of Storyline and why it’s so well received as a preferred authoring tool.

Interactive Scenario: Rise 360 Content Blocks

When we launched the Rise 360, I wrote about the new approach to rapid e-learning. Rise 360 is form-based so the authoring process is different than PowerPoint or Storyline.

I played around with how to convert the PowerPoint scenario into Rise 360, a completely different type of tool. Here’s the first attempt using content blocks.

Click here to view the interactive scenario using content blocks in Rise 360.

Interactive Scenario: Rise 360 Scenario Block

The content block scenario works, but with the scenario block in Rise, I am able to create something that is visually more in line with what I want and it’s a lot easier to build. Here’s an example of the same content in the Rise 360 scenario block.

Click here to view the interactive scenario using the scenario block in Rise 360.

Interactive Scenario Resources

• In a previous post, I showed how I created the menu design for the interactive scenario using PowerPoint.
• Here’s a tutorial to learn more about the scenario block where I used some of this scenario for the demo.
• I am doing a free webinar on May 21, if you want to learn more about the scenario block. If you can’t make it, register and you’ll get a link to the recording to watch at your leisure.

It really is interesting to see the evolution of rapid e-learning through this scenario content. It started with PowerPoint, passed through Storyline, and now it’s part of Rise 360.

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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.

Animated .gifs are great for e-learning. Often, I like to use them instead of videos for e-learning interactions, especially process interactions that go through a sequence of steps.

Here are a few previous posts on animated .gifs with some free resources:

• 3 Reasons to Use Animated GIFs in E-learning
• How to Make Animated Gifs from Video
• Here Are Some Free Animated Gifs
• How to Create Animated .GIFs for Free

Today I’ll show a simple way to convert a video of a process into smaller animated .gifs that you can insert into a slide, article, or process interaction.

Demo of the Animated Gifs in a Process Interaction

Here’s a demo I created using Rise and the Process Interaction.

Click here to view the example.

Animated Gifs Tutorials

Below are a couple of tutorials that go into it in more detail:

• How to cut the video into smaller parts using the free video editor in Windows 10.
• How to import and convert the video into an animated .gif.

Animated Gifs: Create a Procedural Video

Record a video of the process. Don’t worry about the audio as it will be removed. To keep the edits to a minimum, make sure to be clear on the steps and to not waste a lot of movement. Get to the point quickly.

At our workshop in Milan, David and I quickly recorded the process to make an espresso with the machine in the back of the room. While we pretended to be working, it was really a way for us to sneak in a few more shots of espresso.

Here’s the original video.

Click to play the video on YouTube.

Animated Gifs: Convert the Video to Gif

There are a number of ways to convert video to animated .gifs. I like to use ScreenToGif because it’s free (which is always good) and it is really easy to use.

The conversion process is simple: import the video and convert it. However, there are some key considerations.

The original .MP4 video is 159 MB at 1920 x 1080 resolution. Animated .gifs can be large, really large.  Without any significant edits, the 159 MB video becomes a 470 MB animated .gif. That’s just not manageable.

There are a few things you can do to decrease the file size of the animated .gifs:

• Scale the video down from it’s original resolution. There’s no need for an HD quality .gif. In this case 1920 x 1080 will be sized down to 500 x 281.
• Crop the video to just the critical pieces of info. The fewer frames the smaller the file size. You can always duplicate frames to keep something on screen longer with minimal impact to size.
• The less difference there is with the pixels from one frame to the next, the smaller the file will be. Unfortunately, video isn’t static and those millions of pixels are changing from frame to frame. You could try to shoot against a solid background and with a tripod. That may help, depending on your subject.
• Video runs at about 30 frames per second (FPS). When you convert the video to .gif, you can modify the frame rate to something like 10 to 15. It just depends on how much motion is in the video. The less motion, the more you can lower the frame rate.

Animated Gifs: Edit to Individual Steps

Unless the steps are very short and can be shown in one file, it makes sense to break the steps up to individual parts. That helps reduce the file size and keeps the focus on very specific parts of the process.

• You can import the entire video and then cut it down. Or cut the video into smaller videos first and work with them individually. It’s probably easier to edit the videos first and then import the smaller videos. This is more manageable and less strain on your system.
• Get rid of what you don’t need, cut out extra frames.
• The animated .gifs loop, so it may make sense to add a little buffer at the front or back end to let the user orient to the start and end of the process.

The original video was 1 minute long. Converted to an animated .gif without edits, it was 470 MB. After cutting it into pieces and creating four smaller gifs, the total ended up being about 15 MB. That’s a pretty significant difference and the output works well for the demo.

That’s basically it, shoot a video and then convert it to animated gif.

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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.

Here’s a PowerPoint tip: build your e-learning course graphics in PowerPoint. PowerPoint is great for simple graphic design projects. In fact, I use it quite a bit for this blog and some of the graphics I need in my e-learning demos.

In a previous post, I shared visual design tips for graphics I built in Rise 360 for an e-learning scenario. All of those graphics were built in PowerPoint.

In this example, the images all need to be wide, but short rectangles so that I could get them about the same height as the text and squeeze them as close as possible to the button stacks in Rise 360.

I created a custom slide size 13 x 4 inches. When I save the PowerPoint slides as images that results in an image that is 1280 x 384 pixels.

Here’s a detailed tutorial that walks through the process of creating similar graphics in PowerPoint. I cover a lot of little PowerPoint tips.

Click here to view the PowerPoint tutorial on YouTube.

The links below take you to specific parts of the tutorial. The last two links show how to create the final pill shape with the character’s head extended outside of the image.

• 00:00 | Introduction
• 03:08 | How to create custom slide size
• 04:00 | Create first graphic
• 04:27 | Install Studio 360 to use the media assets (characters)
• 05:21 | Inserting and editing the character
• 06:30 | How to use the crop tool
• 07:45 | Save slide as image
• 08:50 | Experimenting with other ideas
• 09:13 | Manage layers with the selection pane
• 09:50 | Transparent echo technique
• 12:21 | How to colorize images
• 13:09 | Working with layered objects
• 14:36 | How to create the pill shape image
• 16:43 | Get the head to stick out of the picture

The tutorial above shows how I created the images. But here are a few key points to consider.

PowerPoint Tip: Step Away from PowerPoint as a Presentation Tool

If you’ve read much of this blog, you know that I’m a big advocate for using PowerPoint to build simple graphics. It’s easy to use, most people have it, and there’s not much you can’t create with PowerPoint once you learn a few things.

Is it Photoshop or Illustrator? No! And if you have expertise with those tools, then have at it. But for those who don’t have a graphics editor and need a simple solution, give PowerPoint a try.

Here are some previous posts that show what you can do:

• 5 Ways to Use PowerPoint as an Image Editor 
• How to Edit SVG Graphics in PowerPoint
• Here’s How I Built This 3D Pop-Out in PowerPoint
• A Simple Way to Build PowerPoint Graphics for Mobile Learning
• How to Create Custom Shapes in PowerPoint
• How to Create Your Own Illustrated Characters in PowerPoint
• Create Free Icons and Images in PowerPoint Using Dingbat Fonts
• How to Customize Illustrations in PowerPoint

PowerPoint Tip: Save Slides as Images

Whatever you build in PowerPoint you can right-click and save as an image. I usually save as .PNG. This preserves the color clarity and any transparency. If you save as .JPG, the transparent areas fill with white.

For most cases (especially when working with Rise 360), I like to use the slide as my entire image. So I build what I need and then save the slide as image rather than PPTX. While there are a number of image options, like above, I stick with .PNG.

PowerPoint Tip: Create Custom Slide Sizes

The default PowerPoint slide is 16 x 9 aspect ratio. In most cases that is fine. It works great for Rise 360. However, there may be times when you want a custom slide. For example, if you want a square image, you need to change the slide size. I usually use 10 inches by 10 inches which gives me an image that is close to 1000 x 1000 pixels (give or take).

Go to the Design Tab and select Slide Size to change the settings.

PowerPoint Tips: Install Studio 360

Many of you are you are using Articulate 360 which comes with Rise 360 and Storyline 360. Those are obviously the go-to apps for building courses. Because of this, many people ignore Studio 360 which comes with Articulate 360.

Even if you don’t use Studio 360 to build courses (why would you when you have Rise 360), it’s still a good idea to install it. The main reason is that you get access to all of the assets including the characters from Content Library 360. And when you build graphics for your e-learning courses, especially as I did in Rise 360, it helps to have all of the characters in PowerPoint.

If you aren’t using a graphics editor or don’t know how, then PowerPoint is a really easy way to build graphics for you e-learning 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.

The other day I made some images for a course menu page in Rise 360. I spent some time playing around with different ideas. When I reviewed my final image, I realized that there were several iterations.

Today I’ll share some of the different ideas I considered and why I made changes.

Visual Design: The Set Up

I’ll start by stating that most of this is subjective, so there’s not a right or wrong.

With this particular menu, I needed an image that had a 10:3 aspect ratio. In this case, the images are 1280 x 384. The aspect ratio calculator is a good resource if you ever need to figure out an aspect ratio or the resolution of images.

The short but wide aspect ratio creates a challenging constraint with what you can show. And that’s why I played around with different ideas.

Visual Design for E-Learning: Example 1

Because of the dimensional constraints, I started with just text. But the text looked empty and uninteresting. Since these images were part of an interactive scenario, I wanted to add a bit more personality.

I added a character to the text. This creates a visual connection to the scenario. I also wanted some white space so it was easier for the eye to scan the screen. Generally, it looks good and the white space is nice as the Rise course responds to the mobile devices.

Visual Design for E-Learning: Example 2

I wasn’t keen on the smaller character but as noted before, the height of the image created some constraints. So I played around with making the character larger. This meant is had to go off screen.

I was also concerned that perhaps the larger image would be too busy if it remained in color. So I got rid of the color and then lighten up the image a bit.

I liked the gray image and text overlay. But it just didn’t feel right, especially in the mobile view with the top of the heads cut off.

The second design is OK. But it looks a bit unbalanced. The right side of the menu has text and a strong visual element with the button. It kind of fills the right side. But the left side just looks odds to me.

Visual Design for E-Learning: Example 3

Sticking with the grayscale, I played around with making the character image a bit larger to fill that side of the menu. It does add some heft, but I wasn’t fond of the way the faces were cropped.

I do like it in the phone view because it fills the column and the lighter image with the darker buttons works.

Visual Design for E-Learning: Example 4

In a previous post, I shared an easy graphic design tip that I call the transparent echo technique. The idea is to add the same image twice. One is muted and serves as the background and the other is a focal point.

The image above was my first attempt. The examples in the blog post linked above look nice. But this one felt a bit busy and the eyes were too big. It feels a bit creepy.

So I added a color overlay that I color picked from the button. I also moved the image around and used his shirt and not the face. I like the texture that the echo creates. You can see part of the shirt so there’s some very slight visual context and the texture adds depth which I like better than just a solid color. But the echo isn’t distracting.

The design seems blocky and the buttons are heavy. My original goal was to have white space. Now I have an image design I kind of like, but it’s just too square and heavy.

Visual Design for E-Learning: Example 5

To gain white space and get rid of the block I decided to play off the pill shape of the buttons. That gives it some visual cohesion by tying in the header with the button.

By extending the heads outside the pill shape, it creates additional white space. And the round corners with the characters poking out of the shape feel a bit more organic and informal, which lends itself well to an interactive scenario course.

I also lightened the buttons so that they were a little more subdued and not as heavy. They’re just a bit lighter than the pill shape.

Visual Design Principles

Again, most of this is subjective. But I thought I’d give you some insight into my thought process as I created the graphics and made iterations. While the images are subjective, there are a few core principles to consider when creating the visuals for your courses.

• Use white space to give your eyes a break. White space also helps to discern what content is there and how’s it related to other content on the screen.
• Visual consistency between design elements. I like the final image and that it works with the pill shaped buttons. The colors also work to tie the objects together.
• Play around with color. Remove colors from the images to neutralize them. Then add a few accent pieces or a single color to draw focus. It’s easy to do and a good basic tip for those of us who are visually challenged and opt to over work our images.

In the follow up post, I’ll show how I used PowerPoint to quickly create all of these images and make edits in seconds.

Which design do you like best? Is there something you would have done different?

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.