Many organizations have rules on using PowerPoint. But there’s a difference between elearning courses and slide presentations. How you use PowerPoint and its features is different; and so is the output. The only thing that’s the same is the application.

However, it never fails that once someone knows you’re using PowerPoint to build the rapid elearning course, they apply the same rules to your elearning course that they’d apply to presentations. And that causes issues.

PowerPoint is a Diverse Tool

Despite all of the complaints about PowerPoint it’s a very diverse product that is used to create everything from vector illustrations to elearning courses. The goal shouldn’t be to force a single guideline to all uses of PowerPoint. Instead it should be to clarify the final product and its objectives and THEN apply the appropriate guidelines.

See the demo above.

Essentially PowerPoint is neutral. When it comes to presentations, it’s a blank slide waiting for content. But for creating an illustration, it’s a stage to assemble objects. And for elearning it’s a multimedia screen used learning.

But here’s the problem. Once your client knows you’re using PowerPoint to create the rapid elearning courses all bets are off. Instead of developing guidelines based on the output and objectives, they create restrictions based on the application being used, in this case PowerPoint.

That means they force the same requirements on your elearning courses that they force on presentations. And that’s not a good thing.

PowerPoint Branding Requirements

Many organizations have branding requirements when it comes to the use of PowerPoint. This makes more sense for public facing presentations. But the requirements for a presentation are not the same for elearning.

While there are many similarities between a presentation and elearning course, there are also many differences. In a presentation, the slide is all you see. Thus if you need to reinforce visual branding requirements, all you have is the slide area to do so.

But in an elearning course, the slide is for content and all of the real estate is valuable. In addition to the screen, the elearning course also has a player. If there are visual branding requirements, that’s the best place to put the logos and custom color schemes. It fulfills the requirement of the branding interests and it frees up valuable real estate.

When I managed a team of Flash developers I rarely ran into the same branding requirements that I did when using PowerPoint. Why is that? They’re both blank screens. The final output is Flash. But PowerPoint comes with a built-in bias. And most clients don’t know much about Flash. So they trust your expertise.

I tell my clients that if they have any PowerPoint content to give it to me as is. As far as they know, they’re just handing off content. I don’t need to tell them all the details of the production process or that I will be working in PowerPoint to produce the course. All that really concerns them is that they get the best elearning course possible.

However, if they do find out that I am using PowerPoint, then I have to deal with many of the branding issues that I’d never have to deal with if I were working in Flash.

Here’s my advice:

You can set expectations based on the details you provide. Does your client need to know how you create the course?

Don’t tell your client that you’re using PowerPoint if they don’t already know. They probably don’t care anyway. Just let them know you’re going to deliver a Flash-based course. If there are branding requirements, they can be built into the Player skin and color schemes.

Subject Matter Experts

Many elearning courses come from pre-existing classroom content. And most of it was initially created in PowerPoint. That means someone (usually a subject matter expert) spent a lot of time creating those slides.

They’ve organized the content and picked their templates. They’ve included the clip art and fonts that they like. And often they’re reluctant to change anything. If it worked in the classroom why shouldn’t it work online?

When I used Flash to build elearning courses, I never had to deal with any issues concerning the original visual design of the classroom content. The subject matter experts accepted and expected that the elearning output was going to be different. They never insisted that I keep their wacky fonts and templates.

However, that would change immediately once they knew that I was using a PowerPoint-based application like Articulate Presenter. Then it was like pulling teeth to get them to concede changes. Most of this could have been avoided if they never knew that I was using PowerPoint to create the final elearning courses.

Here’s my advice:

Don’t tell the subject matter experts that you’re using PowerPoint. Do they need to know what tool is used to create the final courses? What matters is that you deliver the course on-time and that it meets the organization’s needs.

The ultimate goal is to create and deliver effective elearning. You’re going to get content from all sorts of sources and in many formats, with PowerPoint being the most common. That’s OK.

But because you get the original content in PowerPoint doesn’t mean you need to advertise that you’ll also be using PowerPoint to create the final product. Does it really matter if the client knows how you’re creating the course? If not, why introduce an issue that can throw a wrench into the production process?

How do you deal with PowerPoint branding issues when it comes to building rapid elearning courses? I look forward to hearing your thoughts. You can share them by clicking on the comments link.

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.

One of the most frequent questions I get is how to convert linear, click-and-read courses to something more interactive. Linear courses are often the result of our focus on sharing information and not knowing how to move beyond this.

In today’s post we’ll look at a few guiding principles that help in the transition from linear to interactive elearning.

But before we get started, let’s keep in mind that click-and-read courses are not bad. In fact, there are many times where a linear course may be the best solution. But that should be something determined as part of the process of building the course and not a default position.

The Interactive Trifecta

When it comes to creating interactive elearning, I focus on three key principles. And they’re principles that are repeated throughout this blog.

• Relevance. Make sure the content is relevant and meaningful to the learner.
• Decision-making. Offer opportunities for real-world decision-making and feedback.
• Pull. Instead of pushing information out, create a way for the learner to pull information in.

Make Your Courses Learner-Centric

We tend to be an info-centric culture. If someone asks how to learn more of something, we’ll point them to a web site or give them three good book recommendations. The assumption is that with more information things will be better. And that’s what drives a lot of linear elearning. Obviously, information is important and critical to learning. But information is only part of the learning process.

Interactive elearning courses require an understanding of how the learner uses the course content and then lets them practice so they can get the appropriate feedback and make the adjustments so critical to the learning process.

The first step in crafting an interactive course is to make it relevant to the learners. How will the learners use this information? Once that’s determined, you can craft relevant situations which moves the course from an info-centric design to one that is learner-centric.

Help Learners Collect Information to Make Decisions

Determine why the learner needs to know the information. Then create an environment that puts them in position to make the types of decisions they’d make in the real world. These decision-making activities are how you get them to pull and collect information.

Example: A customer wants to buy a new widget. Your job is to sell him the best widget.

A typical elearning course gives them a bunch of information on widgets and customer needs. An interactive elearning course puts them in position to make the types of decisions they’d make when working with real customers.

Get them to form a hypothesis about solving the situation. Then they make what they think is an appropriate decision, which produces consequences—sometimes good and sometimes bad.

Add a pull mechanism. Adult learners don’t like to make wrong decisions so they tend to collect information to make an informed decision. This is how you get them to pull the information they need. Here are a few simple ways to pull information in:

• Link to additional web material like company policies
• Include documentation and resources
• Ask someone to gather opinions

Instead of dumping a bunch of information on them, we’ve got them interacting with the content and making real-world decisions. When they don’t know something, we provide ways for them to collect information by using different pull mechanisms.

One challenge in this is working with your subject matter experts. It’s hard enough to get your subject matter experts to provide ten good multiple choice questions. So it’s often a challenge to get them to work through decision-making scenarios. If that’s the case, work with your potential learners. Ask when and how they’d use the information. You’ll get plenty of real-world situations to use for decision-making scenarios.

Linear elearning isn’t a bad solution, but often it’s not the right solution. If you want to step away from linear elearning focus on the three essential elements:

• Make the content relevant.
• Give them opportunities to make real-world decisions.
• And let them collect and pull information rather than just pushing it out.

If you do those three things you’re on your way to effective and interactive elearning.

What challenges do you find when trying to move from linear elearning to courses that are more interactive? Feel free to share your comments here.

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.

It would be cool if every course we build was highly interactive with decision-making branches. But the reality is that not all elearning courses need to be that way.

Despite the complaints we hear about linear, click-and-read courses, there are plenty of times when linear is the best solution. This isn’t a defense of bad elearning (that often is linear). Instead it’s an acknowledgement that there’s a place for linear content.

Instead of injecting our personal views on what elearning should be, we need to focus on the type of course that is most appropriate for the organization’s goals. Whether the course is linear or interactive it’s merely a solution. So we need to step away from the solution, determine our objectives, and then select the best solution. If we do that, we’ll find that there are plenty of times when a linear course is preferred over a more interactive one.

Learning is Bigger than E-Learning

A couple of the benefits of elearning are consistent delivery of content and compression of time to deliver it. That means that even if the course isn’t highly interactive it can still offer some value to the organization.

For example, there are often training initiatives that require some face-to-face sessions and peer interaction. That’s something that elearning can’t always do effectively. But they can help make the face-to-face time more efficient.

• Compressed time to deliver content. Classroom sessions often have delayed start times and they can be side-tracked by other discussions. It’s often possible to compress a one hour classroom session to a 20 minute online module because there’s better control of the content and distractions.
•  Learner flexibility. People are able to take the modules at their convenience and speed. So it doesn’t disrupt their work schedule or production as much.
• Consistent delivery of information. Each facilitator is different and each class has its own pacing. Many times we’ll spend 80% of the time going through 50% of the content. And then we’ll notice the time’s almost up and quickly skim through the last 50%. An elearning course can assure that at least the delivery and access to the content for each learner is consistent.

In that sense, linear elearning is an appropriate solution when blended with classroom activities. By compressing the time and ensuring consistent delivery of the content, it frees up time for more meaningful conversation and learning activities in the classroom.

Click here to view the demo.

I like this example from Mike Enders. He took what would have been a lecture and made a multimedia presentation. It’s something the teacher only has to create once, but is available to the student at any time. Then after viewing it, the students can come back together to discuss the content.

While, the content is linear, it’s not boring. And it’s quite effective in sharing information. The interactive part of the learning experience happens in the classroom and with any papers the students have to write.

A Simple Solution Saves Time & Money

There are many times when the main objective of a course is that the learner completes it by December 31. The organization only wants a record of completion. Sure you can sit on a soapbox and lament the decline of effective learning because of this. But you’ll most likely be an unemployed lamenter.

The reality for many organizations is that they tend to require participation in elearning courses that are not always relevant and don’t require a lot of interactive engagement. In an ideal world, we work with our clients to help them frame the content so it is relevant and adds value to the organization. But if that’s not possible, the best solution for the organization is to limit the time wasted taking irrelevant training.

A simple linear course that allows the person to get the information as fast as possible is one of the best things you can do for the organization. To make it better, you may even have the learners test out so they can avoid wasting time.

Interactive elearning courses require more resources which is a challenge because most of us are working with limited resources. So when it comes time to prioritize your projects, don’t waste your limited resources on less meaningful projects. Keep them simple and you’ll have the resources available for those courses that require more.

Not All E-Learning is E-Learning

There are some elearning courses that are focused on improving performance and changing behavior. But there are also many courses that are information pieces. They exist to promote awareness and not necessarily change behavior.

For those types of courses, it doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of time on interactive content. The last thing you want is a decision-making interaction when all you need is a few screens of content.

Some would argue that if there’s no performance element, then it should just be a job aid or PDF. That’s a valid argument. But with the tools today, creating multimedia content doesn’t take much more time to pull together and distribute than a document.

I like this example from Hitachi. It’s a linear presentation of their social media policy. This could have been a simple website or PDF, but I think you’d agree that this is more interesting as a multimedia presentation. And they can always augment the presentation with interactions that let them practice applying the policy.

Click here to view the presentation. It looks great on the iPad, too.

Linear is just a form of navigation. What happens between the navigation can be very compelling and dynamic. It doesn’t have to be boring, bland, or full of bullet points. It just depends on how much effort you put into it.

Here are a few more examples of information modules that are mostly linear:

• Evernote Tour
• Diabesity
• Ad Giants Products

So there you have it. Linear is merely a form of navigation. This means what happens between the next buttons is up to you. It can be bland with a bunch of bullet points, or it can be interesting and meaningful. It just depends on what you choose to do.

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.

In a recent post we looked at ways to build interactive elearning even if using PowerPoint to build the courses. One of the demos I shared prompted lots of questions. So in today’s post I’ll show you how I created the PowerPoint interaction. This lets us look at some essential production tips when using PowerPoint to build interactive elearning.

PowerPoint Tutorials

Click here to view the tutorials.

Review the PowerPoint interaction to see how it works. I also included a link to download the PowerPoint file so that you can see how it’s assembled. This may help when viewing the tutorials above. Or quickly skim the notes below. In addition, the download can be used as a template. Feel free to replace the content with your own if you need a quick interactive module. 

Use Multiple Layouts

Use as many layouts as you need to build your course. In this template I have two layouts. One layout is for the instructions and feedback; and the other layout for the interaction.

As a rule of thumb, once I get three or more slides with the same information, I try to put as much as I can on the master slide so it’s easier to edit and maintain. When you build your slides, try to determine what’s persistent and then add as much of the persistent content to the master slide.

Use Slide Titles as Metadata

I like to move the titles in the master slide up and off the slide. This lets me use the title area as a way to describe the slide, but not have that content appear in the actual slide.

This comes in really handy when you’re creating interactive branches and using PowerPoint’s hyperlinking because the titles of the slide are easy see. Don’t be afraid to add a lot of descriptive content to the slide title.

Add Hyperlinks to the Master Slide

In this interaction, we’re working with a single image that has multiple hyperlinks. Since we’re using the same master slide for all five slides, it makes sense to add the hyperlink to the master slide. That means I only add them once and they’re easy to edit.

• Use transparent shapes for the hyperlinks (1).
• Title the hyperlinks so that you know where they go (2).

Create Shapes for Hyperlinks

You can add a hyperlink to any object in PowerPoint. However, if you look at the object on the slide, there’s no way of knowing which ones have links or not. Come back to a course three weeks later and you’ll have to spend a lot of time trying to remember which objects have links and where they go.

That’s why I like to create a shape just for the links. I add the link to the shape and then in the selection pane I title the shape as a link and where it goes. This makes reviewing the slide’s links super easy.

Bonus tip: CTRL+K opens the hyperlink window.

Title Objects on the Slide

In the image above I show an example of titled hyperlinks. And in the image below I show titled objects on the slide.

It’s a good habit to title objects on the slide. The most obvious reason is that you know what each object is and what it does based on how you title it.

The other reason is that when you leave the course and come back a while later, you’ll find it a lot easier to orient yourself to what’s there. That’s a big time saver, especially if you hand the course off to someone else to maintain.

The Cropping Tool is Your Friend

In this template, I added the image of the four people on the master slide. I created a new slide and applied the master layout. Then I pasted a copy of the image on the slide itself.

From there I was able to use the crop feature to crop to the person’s head and add the image frame.

I duplicated the first slide for each additional character. Then selected the head image (see above) and opened the cropping tool. All I had to do was move the crop box to the new head and all of the same formatting was applied.

Graphic Creation Tips

One of the best parts of PowerPoint is that you can create your own graphics by combining the shape formatting with layered objects.

I created a pattern background for the slide to add a little depth and visual interest. Instead of adding it to the background, I put a shape on the slide then applied the pattern fill to the shape. This gives me the flexibility to manipulate the background.

The drop shadow under the box is a rectangle that is semitransparent and uses a soft edge. Use the edit points to create a pull away shadow for more depth. Here’s a tutorial that shows how to create that type of shadow.

Layer images for more effect. In this example, I started with an office image. To make it more interesting, I pulled the woman out of the image and added a lighting effect in the corner. I also added a shape to use as a text box.

In the case of the woman in front of the table, I start with the original image of the woman in the meeting room at the desk (1). Then I added a spotlight shape on top of the original
image to create a corner shadow (2). I added the semitransparent rectangle as a content holder for my title text (3).

Finally, I duplicated the image and isolated the woman by cutting out the background. Then I added the isolated woman back on top of the image. This pulls her out of the original image and puts her on top of the text box. This is a simple technique that helps create a focal point.

As you can see PowerPoint’s freeform environment makes it easy to create your own graphic effects.

Even if you don’t build the same type of interaction in PowerPoint, these production tips are generally the same ones you use to build any interactive elearning courses in PowerPoint.

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 irony of Labor Day is that many of us celebrate it by taking the day off. That means one less day to create elearning templates. No worries because we’ve got you covered.

To help you relax and enjoy the last few days of summer, I’ve included a free tab-themed elearning template. It’s a good one for  business policy and compliance courses.

Glassy Blue Template

Click here to view the demo template.

The image below shows the key layouts that make up the template. There’s a starting screen, a series of tab screens, a quiz start screen, and an exit screen. Included with the PowerPoint file is a matching Articulate Quizmaker template customized with a matching color scheme.

The Glassy Blue template is designed around a series of click and reveal tabs. That means you need to add hyperlinks from the tabs to the appropriate slides.

Here are some more tips on working with the template:

• The start screen consists of four rectangles that represent links to four sections. If you have more than four sections, just add another rectangle. Align them with the others and change the size to accommodate the right layout. Add hyperlinks to the shapes so that they link to the appropriate sections.
• Each distinct section should have a series of tabbed screens. You can see those above in slides 2-4. Duplicate those slides for each section. Use hyperlinks on the tabs to link to the appropriate slides. You can always add additional tabs. It probably makes sense to add the section tabs to the master layout for easier editing.
• This template is designed using the PowerPoint design theme colors. That means you can easily change the template to match the colors required for your course and organization’s branding.

Demos & Downloads

Following is an example of the published template. You can also download the file that includes a .ppt and .pptx version. It also includes the Quizmaker file.

• See the template in action here.
• Download the PowerPoint & Quizmaker templates.

Since the PowerPoint files can be imported into Articulate Storyline, Mike Enders built a Storyline template using the Glassy Blue PowerPoint file. He made modifications that take advantage of some of Storyline’s interactive features.

Click here to view the demo.

• Download the Articulate Storyline template.

The Glassy Blue template is simple and perfect for information sharing and compliance training. The tabs would also work well as a process interaction. The template is also easy enough to customize so that it meets your needs. Feel free to download it and use as you wish.

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.

When building courses, many of you are in the role of instructional designer AND graphic designer. This can be a challenge when you don’t have the graphic design skills.

An easy way to get around that is to look for places in your organization where they’ve hired graphic designers. Then use their work as a guide to inspire yours. This post on how to build an elearning template offers some good tips on where to look.

Once you have a source of inspiration, it’s usually easy enough to mimic the screen design because they tend to be basic shapes filled with colors and gradients. For example, the image below is a screenshot of the Articulate Storyline website. I noted those areas that I could incorporate into an elearning course template.

In the following image, you can see my mocked up screen and one way I could use it for an elearning course. It’s not a verbatim copy of the website, but as you look it over you’ll notice many similarities and how I worked elements of the web design into my rapid elearning template.

Building the template didn’t take too long. But I still had to add all of the shapes and then figure out the gradients and shadows. That does take some time and if you’re not efficient with your elearning software, it could take a while to get it all to look right.

The good news is that there’s a cheater’s way to create the same type of template. Here are the steps to create an elearning template in 30 seconds.

View the tutorial here.

• Start with a screenshot of your inspiring website. Here’s a post that shows you how to use some tools you probably already own take your screenshots.
• Crop the screenshot to a clean sliver so that you pick up all of the elements of the template but none of the page’s information.

• Copy and paste the sliver onto your course slide.
• Stretch the sliver to fit the slide. You may to do some clean-up to get rid of artifacts.

Super easy, huh? Depending on the site you use for inspiration, creating a template can be just a matter of a few seconds. It’s a good start for those who have limited time or access to graphic designers. And it helps meet any of the branding requirements you may have in your organization.

Once you have a sliver, play around with different layouts. I like to scale them large and small to create different layouts. I also like to flip them to give me a different look, but one that’s still consistent with the overall design.

A few things to consider:

• Look for clean slivers that can be stretched. Gradients that go up and down work. But gradients that go across the screen usually don’t. Patterns also don’t work well.
• Experiment. Scale the image after you stretch it. Or use a color filter to recolor the image and you end up with something that looks different. See what happens when you flip it or turn it upside down.
• Make sure you have rights to the original screenshot. If it’s your company’s site, that’s probably OK.

This is a simple technique, but one that’s quite effective if you’re stretched for time and resources. If anything, it’s a great way to build a quick prototype of a background or layout you want to try for your elearning course.

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.

When building rapid elearning with PowerPoint it can be a challenge to get away from linear courses. For one, PowerPoint’s original intent is creating presentations. And they are usually linear. On top of that, many of us have limited time and resources. So building linear, info-centric courses tends to be an easier way to get the projects out the door.

The good thing is that PowerPoint isn’t limited to linear elearning. Building interactive elearning is just a matter of learning a few techniques. And in this post, we’ll review some examples built in PowerPoint that demonstrate non-linear functionality.

It’s easy enough to take any of these types of interactions and incorporate them into an interactive, decision-making elearning course that allows the learner to explore, pull in content, and make decisions.

Interactive Picture

This is one of my favorite demos that shows what’s possible with PowerPoint. It demonstrate a number of useful PowerPoint features. And from a production standpoint, it’s really easy to build and manage. Plus, the output looks nice.

This type of interaction is perfect if you want the learners to explore and pull in information before making a decision.

• Demo 1: explore content
• Demo 2: interactive scenario
• Tutorial
• Download: PowerPoint practice file

Animated Response Scenario

Here’s a neat example that combines a decision-making interaction with a clever animation technique in PowerPoint. Build a templated scenario and it’s just a matter of swapping the character and backgrounds images to go from one type of scene to another.

• Demo 1: office
• Demo 2: outdoors
• Tutorial
• Download: free PowerPoint template and practice file

Interactive Decision-Making

I created this demo from one of the Flash examples that Allen Interactions shares on their site. I did it as a challenge because someone told me that you can’t build effective and engaging elearning with PowerPoint.

I think you’ll agree that while PowerPoint’s not going to give you the programming options that you’d get in Flash or Storyline, it still is a very capable tool and does allow for effective elearning.

• Demo: PowerPoint version. Comparison between Flash & PowerPoint versions.
• Tutorial: learn to build the overhead office interaction
• Downloads: assets and the PowerPoint file are available in this post.

Rapid E-Learning Interactions

These next two examples weren’t built in PowerPoint, but I included them because they let me make an important point about rapid elearning software. Step away from the way the software is marketed and think about them merely as tools that create multimedia content. In that sense, we can determine what the tools let us do and then figure out how we can use that output in our courses.

Quizmaker: Branched Scenarios

Quizmaker is a rapid elearning application that is used to create quizzes. But if we look at it from the perspective of multimedia output and not quizzing we’ll see that Quizmaker is the most unique rapid elearning quiz application on the market.

Most quizzing applications are form-based, which means the design is very rigid. Articulate Quizmaker is unique because we can create custom layouts and designs using slide view’s freeform authoring. That means we can make our quiz look more like an elearning course and less like a quiz.

And the interactive branching feature combined with the timeline lets us leverage the built-in quizzing logic to create simple, branched interactions.

These are perfect for quick knowledge checks and decision-making interactivity—just the type of thing that can help shift linear elearning to something more engaging and effective.

• Demo: branched interaction built in Quizmaker*
• Tutorial

*Note: I saved money by doing all the narration myself. 🙂

Engage: Interactive Knowledge Checks

Engage is used to quickly create simple, click-and-reveal interactions. They’re easy to build, look nice, and can compress a lot of information into a single interaction.

But like Quizmaker you’re not confined to the way the tool is typically used. You can do more than simple interactions. Why not use the multimedia output to create quick knowledge checks?

In previous posts, we reviewed the 3C model to build interactive, decision-making scenarios. Essentially we create a situation where the learner’s understanding is challenged. Offer some choices. And then each choice produces consequences.

Engage is perfect for simple 3C knowledge checks. Use Engage’s introduction screen to pose the challenge. Then the clickable areas offer choices. And when a choice is clicked it presents a consequence or feedback.

These interactions are easy to build and they’re a quick way to assess the learner’s understanding. They also let the learner explore the other options. Below are a few examples on interactive knowledge checks built in Engage.

• Demo: management scenario (labeled graphic)
• Demo: ergonomics position monitor to eye level (timeline) and wrist position (labeled graphic)
• Demo: performance management (tabs interaction)
• Downloads: management scenario & performance management

Keep in mind; the tools are only there to create the output. They don’t do the instructional design. That’s still up to you. But as you can see, even with simple rapid elearning tools you’re still able to build engaging and interactive elearning.

Events

Free E-Learning Resources

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

I get a lot of questions about how to move past the PowerPoint look when building rapid elearning courses. My first suggestion if you’re working with PowerPoint is to step away from the original content. Start with a blank screen and then based on the context of the course, build the look and feel that’s appropriate for the content.

With that said, sometimes you can get away with a pre-built template. A good example is with office-themed templates. They work because they’re generic and can fit the look required for a lot of corporate elearning. The template isn’t a replacement for analyzing the appropriate design needs for your course, but if you do determine that this type of template is appropriate, it’s a good head start, especially for those who have no graphic design expertise or access to graphic design resources.

Here are some free office-themed templates and assets. The first is a new one and the rest are ones I’ve given away in previous posts.

New Multi-Layout Overhead Office Template

Here’s a free PowerPoint template that features 10 layout options and also comes with a Quizmaker file.

• Office template: download.
• See it in action here.

Desktop Folder Template

• Overhead desktop template: download.
• Original blog post that explains how to create and use the closed and opened version of the personnel folder.
• See it in action here.

Personnel Folder

• Personnel folder:  download.
• Original blog post that explains how to create and use the closed and opened version of the personnel folder.
• See it in action here.

Spiral Notebook

• Notebook: download.
• Original blog post that explains how to get more out of the free clip art.

Tabbed Notebooks

• 3 tabs notebook: download.
• 5 tabs notebook: download.
• Multicolor tabs notebook: download.
• Original blog post that explains how to make and use the tabbed notebooks.
• See it in action here.

Leather Portfolio

• Leather portfolio: download.
• Original posts that highlight the portfolio template and shows off some rapid elearning tips and how to create the portfolio.
• See it in action here.

Projection Screens

• Projection screens: download.
• Original blog post that shows how to create your own projection screen.

Clipboard

• Clipboard: download.
• Blog post that features the clipboard.

Hand-drawn Assets

• Checkmarks and x-marks
• Hand-drawn boxes
• 32 free chalkboard graphics
• Boatload of hand-drawn graphics

These free templates and assets are great for office-themed presentations. They also work great for simple exploration interactions where the learner can click on various resources to collect information. Combine that with some decision-making activities and you have all of the assets you need to create simple, yet interactive elearning modules.

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.

In an earlier post we looked at how to build branched scenarios for interactive elearning courses. Branched scenarios are great for simulating the types of real-world decisions a learner needs to make on the job.

As noted in the earlier post, it’s not always easy to create a branched scenario if you’re not the content expert. The main reason is that decision-making scenarios depend on a nuanced understanding of the subject matter so that you can guide the learner through the activity.

The Critical Path

Most elearning courses have a critical path. Essentially it’s a completely correct path. With a linear elearning course it’s easy to stay on the critical path because all the learner does is move from one screen to the next.

Branching allows you to take the learner off of the critical path as she makes decisions. This adds complexity to the learning experience. Usually what happens is that branches resolve on different paths. Sometimes there are multiple alternative correct paths. Sometimes the path just ends and forces the learner to restart or go to some sort of remedial instruction.

This is all really good if you have the time and resources to build the interactive situation. But what if you don’t?

Stay on the Critical Path

A simple way to create a branched decision-making scenario is to always force the learner back to the critical path. Imagine it like a road trip. You need to drive from New York to Washington DC to pick up your Aunt Betsy and you’re on a tight schedule. The first thing you do is map out the path that will make you successful. That’s the critical path.

Suppose while driving you see a sign advertising Miles the Monster, the world’s largest concrete monster. Surely Aunt Betsy can wait and off you go. Mistake! You’re now off the critical path and wasting precious time. Your family calls, tells you Aunt Betsy is waiting and they get you back on the critical path.

Single Critical Path

Using a single critical path is a simple way to build a branched scenario. Build out you decision-making challenges. The 3C model is a good model to use. But instead of continuing on a separate path, which is more difficult to manage, find a way to bring the learner back to the critical path.

This helps keep the construction of the scenario simple and manageable. But it doesn’t necessarily mean the scenario itself has to be simple. For example, you can alter the flow and pacing of the branches. But eventually moving forward in the scenario requires getting back on the critical path.

Multi-tiered Interactive Branches

The goal is to keep the scenario moving forward by keeping to the critical path. But that doesn’t mean you have to immediately bring the person back to the path after the first deviation from it. You can allow them to drift away a few levels as they make decisions. But ultimately you want them to come back to the critical path.

Reconcile Feedback

The key in getting them back to the critical path is providing the feedback to reconcile decisions they made that took them off of the path in the first place. If you want to keep it simple, let them make a wrong decision, provide immediate feedback, and then put them back on the path.

But when we make decisions in real life, we don’t always get immediate feedback. Another option is to hold the feedback through a few decisions and then provide some consolidated feedback. Delaying the feedback lets the learner work through the consequences of the decisions made.

There’s really no right or wrong way to build interactive branched scenarios. Ultimately it depends on the content and context of the interaction. And then of course your resources are a key consideration. If you have time and resources, a complex branched interaction can be a great way to create an interactive and engaging learning experience.

However, if you are pressed for time and have limited access to subject matter experts, then a simplified scenario that always reverts back to the critical path is great way to go.

What are some of the challenges you face when crafting interactive scenarios? What advice do you have for those new to all of this? Please share your thoughts by clicking on the comments link.

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.

Screenshots and elearning go hand-in-hand. I use them for a lot of my software training. I also use them almost daily for project reviews. It’s easy to create a quick screen grab and then add a few notes. I also use screenshots when I run across a template or idea that I may want to use in a future elearning course. Just grab an image and save it in my ideas folder for later.

If you do a search you’ll find that there are a ton of screenshot products on the market—both free and paid. The free ones are hit and miss. Most look like they were built in 1995 and many are bundle with adware or possible malware. I’d stick with a paid tool because they don’t cost that much. But what do you do if you don’t have the money for a paid tool and you don’t want to download risky free product?

The good thing is that if you need to do screenshots, most likely you already have the tools to do so. Here are three easy ways to do screenshots and they won’t cost you a bit. Below is a quick description and then I added a tutorial that shows how they work.

The Old Fashioned Way

Years ago when you wanted a screenshot you pressed the PRINT SCREEN button. This took a snap shot of your screen and loaded it on the clipboard. Then you pasted the screenshot into something like MS Paint and made your edits. The print screen option still works today (unless you have it mapped to another application).

• Print Screen: captures your entire desktop and loads the image on the clipboard. Paste the image into a different application to make edits.
• ALT+Print Screen: captures your active window.

You can learn more about using Print Screen here.

Windows Snipping Tool

I’ve been using the Snipping Tool since the days of the tablet PCs. Starting with Microsoft Vista it’s available to all Windows users. It’s located in the Accessories folder. I have it pinned to my task bar for quick access.

With the Snipping Tool you can capture freeform (like a scissor cut out), rectangle, window, or full screen. After snipping part of a screen you can highlight and annotate the image. When you’re done save it to your favorite image format.

Here’s more info on the Snipping Tool.

PowerPoint 2010

Starting with PowerPoint 2010, Microsoft included a feature that allows you to quickly grab a shot of any open window or do a screen clip of anything on your desktop. This is perfect for creating quick interactive software simulations. Grab a series of screenshots, place them on some slides, and then add hyperlinks to simulate the software like I did in this quick demo.

Another nice benefit of using PowerPoint is that you can annotate or embellish the screenshots and then save them as single images. Because of the freeform authoring in PowerPoint, creating custom graphics is super simple. By the way, Articulate Storyline also has a similar feature.

You can learn more about PowerPoint’s screenshot feature here.

Quick Tutorials on Creating Screenshots

Here are three tutorials I built in Storyline where I walk through all three screenshot applications. You can check them out below.

Click here to view the screenshot tutorials.

If you want more robust screenshot features, then you can find all sorts of free and for-pay applications.

However, if you need to do screenshots and don’t want to spend any money, then odds are that one of these solutions above will work for you.

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.

This past week I was in Nashville where we discussed building interactive scenarios. Part of the discussion revolved around designing some simple scenario strategies to move the projects away from linear elearning and towards meaningful interactivity.

The ultimate goal is transitioning from a push model where we just provide information and move to a more interactive model where the learner makes the same types of decisions she’d make in a real-world environment. These decision-making activities are used to reinforce what you want her to practice and learn so that your courses have real-world impact.

Simple Structure for Scenarios

As I’ve shared before, I like to use what I call the “3C model” to construct my scenarios or interactive elearning. We’ll assume that the scenario is relevant to the learner and what needs to be learned. And in that context (which could be a fourth C) here’s how the 3C approach works:

• Challenge: The goal is to engage the learner and challenge her understanding. Present a situation, get her to process some information, reflect, and then let her make a decision.
• Choices: Once the learner is challenged, she needs to make a decision (or series of decisions). Provide some choices to work through the challenge. The choices should all be viable and realistic options. Don’t waste time on meaningless choices.
• Consequences: Each choice produces a consequence. Sometimes the consequence may lead to immediate feedback; and sometimes it may lead to additional challenges that compound the situation. We don’t usually get immediate feedback, unless of course you stick a finger in a wall socket. So stacking or delaying the feedback can make the learning experience much more dynamic and more true to the way things work in real life.

There are a few different ways I use the 3C model to template the interactive scenarios. In today’s post, we’ll explore what I see as the more complex type of branching.

Complex Decision-Making Interactions

Some elearning courses are more like marketing pieces. In those cases if all you need to do is share information, then a branched interaction is probably too much and can frustrate the person who has to take the course. So let’s assume you’re teaching to improve performance.

Performance-based courses usually come in one of two flavors. There are courses that teach procedures, like the ten steps to loading a widget. And then there are courses that teach principles that guide decisions, like much of the soft skills training.

Most likely you’re not using branched interactions for training on simple procedures. Those are easy enough to show and then get people to practice and demonstrate they can follow the procedures. 

Branched interactions come in handy when you have nuanced situations and are trying to help people think through them and make appropriate decisions. You’re less focused on the specific, step-by-step procedures and more focused on principles that guide decisions.

If you want to build a complex branched interaction, look at the 3C model as a single building block, kind of like a Lego brick. For each consequence link to a new challenge. In that way you’ll get a branched interaction that looks something like the image below.

Pros & Cons of Complex Branching

We rarely have to make clear right-wrong choices when dealing with people or situations. Many of the decisions we make are nuanced. And a solution that works in one situation may not work in another. Because of this complex branched interactions are great for getting to the heart of the principle that you’re teaching.

There are a few challenges with complex interactions. The first is that they take a lot more time to develop. So if you’re pressed for time, then you may want to look at a more streamlined approach.

Another challenge is that it’s hard enough to get your subject matter expert to give you ten good multiple choice questions. So imagine the difficulty in getting them to help you work through a complex scenario and all of the nuances. If you’re not the content expert, you’ll need to figure out who’s going to help you through the content to craft relevant and meaningful interactions.

The first two challenges can be overcome by allocating more time to develop the course and more time to work with the subject matter expert. But this next challenge is a bit more difficult to overcome, and that’s the matter of creativity and good writing.

Learn More About Storytelling

A complex branched scenario is a like a story. We can all write; however that doesn’t mean we are all good writers who can craft compelling interactive stories. This takes some practice and creativity.

But there are things we can do to learn and become better at crafting stories. Here are a few tips to help move you in the right direction:

Keep the scenarios simple. The less complex they are, the less you get tangled in a lot of extra script writing and scenario building.

Review what makes a good story. Learn about storytelling and how to compose them. And when you think through your scenarios, determine how to follow a storytelling model. Here’s a good site that has all sorts of resources on storytelling and here’s a list of books.

Take a creative writing class to help think in a different way. Elearning courses tend to have that corporate voice that read more like they were written by lawyers and not real people (although it’s been alleged that lawyers are real people). By taking a creative writing class, you’ll learn to write with a different voice and learn to look at what you write in a different way.

Read some books on storytelling and scenario-building. Here are a few specific to our industry that may help:

• Design for How People Learn. I put this on the must-read list for people who are just getting started. Learn about learning and there are lots of good nuggets related to sto
  rytelling.
• Scenario-Based Learning. Goes into the heart of storytelling with lots of practical tips & examples.
• Performance Consulting. Decision-making scenarios are great when linked to meaningful objectives. Working with your client to understand their goals and identify the gaps in understanding is a key part of it.
• Designing Successful E-Learning. A great book that gets to the heart of instructional design. Another must-read book.
• Made to Stick. Not an elearning book, but a book about crafting sticky messages and compelling stories.
• Learning by Doing and Simulations & Serious Games. I’m a fan of Clark Aldrich’s work because his company builds interactive simulations. He covers content a bit more involved than what most rapid elearning developers do, but it’s good stuff to learn and think about especially if you want to grow.

Are there other good books you’d add to the list? If so, add it in the comments section and tell us why it’s a good book.

There’s a reason a lot of elearning isn’t more interactive. We have limited time and lack of access to the subject matter expertise needed to craft good scenarios. But using interactive scenarios can transform what might be a boring click-and-read course into a dynamic and effective learning experience. So if you haven’t tried to build one yet, give it a shot and see how you do.

If you’ve built interactive branched scenarios in the past, what tips would you share for the person just getting started? Share your tips by clicking on the comments link.

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.

Who doesn’t want free PowerPoint templates? If you build rapid elearning courses, they can save time. And if you’re challenged for ideas or graphic design skills they also help bring a consistent and clean look to your rapid elearning courses so that you avoid the Frankencourse.

It doesn’t mean that relying on templates is always a good thing. In fact, I have mixed feelings about templates. They’re great for beginners and subject matter experts to help move them in the right direction. But at some point, a person gains enough experience to be weaned from templates.

My biggest concern about templates is that people become too dependent on them. Or the organization creates rules about using them that are more problematic than problem-solving.

With that said, the use of templates in elearning is a reality. The goal is to find good templates that help make the courses better.

In a previous post, I shared a simple way to get free PowerPoint templates from Microsoft’s Office Online with links to five usable templates. Like I noted earlier, the templates on that site are hit and miss. Some are really good and some maybe not so good.

Here are a few more templates that are free to use via the Microsoft site. I like these because they offer more than just a clean background. Instead they offer a number of usable layouts that can be pulled from the template and used in other elearning courses.

PowerPoint Template 1: Various Bar Charts

Download the free PowerPoint template here.

PowerPoint Template 2: Business Deals

Download the free PowerPoint template here.

PowerPoint Template 3: Business Strategy

Download the free PowerPoint template here.

PowerPoint Template 4: Financial Presentation

Download the free PowerPoint template here.

PowerPoint Template 5: Meeting Agenda Layouts

Download the free PowerPoint template here.

On a shoestring budget, you’ve got to know where to find good free resources and then learn to use them to help build effective elearning courses. A PowerPoint template isn’t going to make your course go from ineffective to effective. You still need to design the instruction and determine the appropriate content and activities.

But for those who need some graphic design help or options when it comes to layouts, templates like the ones above can definitely help move you closer to your goal.

If you’re looking for more free templates, there are plenty on this blog (a few listed below) and in the elearning community’s download section.

• Here’s a Free PowerPoint Template & How I Made It

• How To Design Custom PowerPoint Templates for E-Learning

• The Secret to Creating Your Own PowerPoint Templates for E-Learning

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.