Earlier I shared a nice example of a gamified elearning course. Today I’d like to share a really neat example of an interactive video scenario. This example comes via the fine folks at SpongeUk who do some really cool work and said I can share it.

View the Interactive Video Example

Click here to view the video interaction.

What I Like About This Interactive Video

• I like the real life decision-making that they use. The situation is relevant, the choices are legitimate, and the consequences of the choice leads to more choices. It has a game-like feel to it and the timer adds a sense of urgency.

• I really like the way they did the email treatment. It’s a clean design and novel. And overall their visual design has a simple elegance.

• There’s something about video that’s much more engaging than reading slides of content. Setting up a quick video shoot like this doesn’t take long and the scripted dialogue is short enough to keep the home grown talent in check. My guess is they kept it simple and used a head-mounted GoPro camera (or a smart phone) to create the first person perspective. And it doesn’t sound like they used any special mics. Besides, you can’t go wrong with monkeys and bananas.

• Despite how much we try to complicate things, interactive scenarios are essentially glorified multiple choice questions. I like the 3C model for scenarios: give the learner a challenge (what to do with employee), provide viable choices, and the choice produces a consequence (which could be immediate feedback or another challenge).

• I also like the way they pulled the feedback together to identify what type of manager you are and tips on how to be better.

• Finally, I get a lot of questions about how to do this or that in elearning. Often people start by showing me examples of popular multimedia content they find online. I believe that was the case with this example. If I recall, it’s not a real project but a quick prototype based off of this popular Deloitte recruitment video.

Kudos to the folks at SpongeUK. They did a great job showing how Storyline can be used to create interactive scenarios that use video. They also did a great job reinterpreting the interactive video and creating something uniquely theirs. And as a bonus, once you build the foundation for this type of interactive, you can save it as a template and re-use it for other courses.

What did you like best about this example?

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Most software training is done using screencasting tools like Storyline or Replay. However, you don’t always need a full video to show procedural steps. Sometimes, it’s easier to create animated .gifs. And here’s an easy way to create them for free.

Create Animated .GIFs for Free with Screen2Gif

Screen2Gif is a free open source application available here for download. It’s created by Nicke Manarin, so be sure to give him props or send him a few bucks for his efforts. You can find his contact info and a link to PayPal (if you want to help him out) in the options tab.

Here are a few quick pointers if you’re using the application to create animated .gifs:

• There’s no installation required. When you click the .exe file it opens the application.
• You can record your screen, a webcam, or whiteboard. It defaults to screen recording, but you can change it to open in either of the recording options.

• You can set the quality settings for the recording as well as change the DPI and resize the image.

• There’s no formal community with the animated .gif software, but there is an active Reddit group where you can get all sorts of help.

Play Around with Quality and Recording Size When Creating Animated .GIFs

You’ll need to play around with the quality settings especially if you want to resize the recorded window down. Here are some examples recorded at different quality levels:

• Default 10 quality setting: 1355 x 762 (328 KB) and here’s the same recording resized down to 500 x 281 (125 KB).
• The highest 20 quality setting: 1355 x 762 (366 KB) and resized down to 500 x 281 (136 KB).
• You can play around with the DPI settings as well; but you should probably learn more about DPI and how it relates to images.
• Ideally you don’t want to scale the recording size down. Often people record the entire screen when they only need to record a portion. By recording a portion you can maintain a nice crisp image and smaller file size.

Personally I find the default settings fine. The key is to record at a resolution where you won’t need to scale the image so that you can retain a nice crisp image.

Animated GIF Example for E-Learning

Click here to view the demo.

Above is a simple example of an animated .GIF used with a static image. I did a screen grab of a software screen and then inserted markers for specific areas. This allows me to skip recording a video and instead focus on key areas where I need to show specific steps. This is a good approach when you have features that are still in flux and if recording the full screen is problematic.

Animated .gifs are great for simple steps. They’re easy to create. And now you can do it for free.

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At a recent conference I ran into Ken Haas and John Kostrey who work for Sodexo. They were showcasing a nice gamified course they built as part of the training program for facility management. What I like about the course is that it’s more than the typical linear, click-and-read course. They used a lot of the core building blocks for interactive elearning.

The course is part of a blended program where it’s combined with live facilitated training. Check out the course below.

Gamified E-Learning Example

Click here to view the course.

Key Points of Gamified E-Learning Example

Here is a list of a few of the things that stood out to me.

• This a good performance-based demo that allows the learner to explore and make educated guesses. They’ll easily figure out what’s right and wrong. And they get more specific feedback later in the course.
• They also provide some distractors and incorrect choices that may appear to be initially correct. This forces the learner to focus on their specific task rather than merely identify issues out of context.

• Use of gate screen to provide starting instructions. The gate screen stops the learners to orient them on what they need to do.

• Created custom navigation rather than use the default player.
• Timer based interactivity to create a sense of urgency.
• Progress indicators.
• Point system.

• Contextual map to show where you are in context to what you see.
• “I give up” is an option. However, the learner doesn’t get the points, but they do get the information.

• Summary allows you to go back to review what you may have missed.
• The course also included a leader board so that others in the organization could have a friendly competition. They used a JavaScript trigger to send the player data to a MySQL database.

Go through the course and see how you do. One of the best ways to build better elearning is by looking at different examples, deconstruct them, and then apply what you learn to your own courses. What do you like about this elearning example?

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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.

As you know, the Articulate community regularly shares all sorts of free downloads. We have elearning templates, free PowerPoint templates, graphics, and all other sorts of free assets that can be used for your elearning courses. Also, you are free to use them for your projects without attribution.

On top of that, many of your peers in the industry and elearning community regularly share free downloads. For today’s post I’d like to feature a few of them. Take advantage of what they offer and be sure to let them know you appreciate the files.

Joanna Kurpiewska

• Joanna Kurpiewska
• Get free templates here.

Alexander Salas

• Alexander Salas
• Get free templates here.

Linda Lorenzetti

• Linda Lorenzetti
• Get free templates here.

Jackie Van Nice

• Jackie Van Nice
• Get free templates here.

Montse Posner Anderson

• Montse Posner Anderson
• Get free templates here.

Matt Guyan

• Matthew Guyan
• Get free templates here.

Veronica Budnikas

• Veronica Budnikas
• Get free templates here.

Dianne Hope

• Dianne Hope
• Get free templates here.

Tracy Carroll

• Tracy Carroll
• Get free templates here.

Jeff Kortenbosch

• Jeff Kortenbosch
• Get free templates here.

Punab Parab

• Punam Parab
• Get free templates here.

Ashley Chiasson

• Ashley Chiasson
• Get free templates here.

Mike Taylor

• Mike Taylor
• Get free templates here.

Nancy Woinoski

• Nancy Woinoski
• Get free templates here.

Paul Alders

• Paul Alders
• Pending.

John Toh

• John Toh
• Get free templates here.

Meaghan Lister

• Meaghan Lister
• Get free templates here.

I’m sure there are more in the community who have freely shared their resources. If you share free elearning templates in the community, feel free to add a link in the comments. The only stipulations are that they’re original content, not spam, free to use for commercial work, and don’t require an account or some sort of login to access the free resources.

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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.

Creating great interactive learning experiences requires a few core building blocks: relevant content, pull versus push, and real-world decisions. With those building blocks you’re able to structure effective learning scenarios that are meaningful to the learner and helps meet the objectives of the course.

One of those building blocks in creating relevant content or content that is placed in a meaningful context. Essentially, you want to recreate the types of scenarios that are similar to the ones the learner has in real life. This allows them to see the content in a meaningful context.

Learning Interactions: What is the Learner’s Real World Like?

Most courses have the right content, but that’s all it is–content. And the content is usually plastered over a series of bullet point screens. To make a great learning experience you need content in the right context. It needs to be relevant to the learner’s needs and world. They need to see how the content fits into their world, the interactions they have, and the decisions they need to make.

• How is the course content used in the work environment of the user?
• Why would they use it? And when they use it what happens?
• Or if they don’t use it, what happens?

Learning Interactions: What Type of Environment Needs to be Built?

We make decisions all the time and they always produce some sort of consequence. These decisions happen in a real world and usually while interacting with other people like peers, managers, or customers.

When building relevant content that’s placed in the right context it’s important to understand the world of the learner.

• Where are they located?
• Do they need to use any equipment or machines?
• And who are they interacting with? Peers, management, customers?

Learning Interactions: What Triggers the Need for Action?

When I build interactions in Storyline I always talk through the triggers. I ask, “What do I want to do and when do want to do it?”

In the same sense, when you build relevant scenarios for your courses where the learner has to make decisions, it’s important to know what the triggers are for those decisions.

• What do they have to do and when do they have to do it?
• And at what point are they going to need the course content to make the appropriate decision or take the right action?

Learning Interactions: How to Collect the Right Content?

A great way to get this information is to meet with those people who will take your courses. Ask them to give you scenarios where the course content is important or when they would need to know it to make good decisions.

• Ask them what’s it like when things are going well? And then what it’s like when it not going so well. And what makes it go not some well? What types of things derail the day?
• If they interact with equipment, what do they need to know? Where do they go to troubleshoot? What types of cheat sheets or job aids do they reference?
• If they interact with people, what makes for good interactions? And what causes them to go sideways? How do they fix it?

The key in all of this is that instead of dumping a bunch of new content on your learners, find a way to put the content into a meaningful context–one that makes sense to their real world interactions. And when you do that you’ll be able to create great learning experiences.

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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.

After last week’s post on the different drag & drop interaction examples, I had quite a few emails asking for tips on how to create drag and drop interactions for elearning. So now’s a good time to review some good general tips for building drag and drop interactions.

Why Are You Dragging?

There are a few reasons why we make onscreen objects draggable.

• Sliders are used as a means to make adjustments/selections or as a simple way to navigate content. They’re fixed on a track.
• Move objects from one part of the screen to another. For example, planning a seating chart may require the user to move seats around or placing utensils on the table. These are freeform drag and drop interactions with no specific drop target.
• Targets are probably the most common use case where you have an object that needs to be placed in a very specific area.

Drag and Drop Interactions Tips

• Where is the user supposed to drag and drop the object? In most cases, drag and drop interactions require a drop target. Drop targets can be an actual object, or it may be an invisible element (like a hotspot) that controls where the dropped objects lands.

• Do you want the object to snap to the drop target? There are different ways to work with the drop target. Sometimes, things may not be quite as evident onscreen, snapping to the target helps when the user gets the object over the target.

• Do you want to make the target visible? This makes sense if there are a number of drag and drop options and you have a very clear target for each draggable object.

• What happens when the user drags an object out of position? I like to add a ghost image or something to show where the drag object originally came from. It’s also an easy way to indicate progress.

• Are the instructions clear? Sometimes developers forget to put instructions for the interaction and what the user is to do. If you expect them to interact with the screen in a new way, you should include clear instructions. I like to use gate screens that stop the user and provides instructions.

Drag and Drop Interactions: Providing Feedback for Correct and Incorrect Actions

There are a few way to provide feedback when the user drops the object on a target.

• The easiest way is to allow the target to accept the object. Using a snap feature essentially pulls the dragged item to the target. That lets the user know that they’ve dropped the object on a target. And depending on how you structure the drag and drop interactions, it can also be the means to show feedback for a correct action.
• Another way to provide feedback to the user is to reject incorrect choices and cause the dropped object to return to the starting position.

• You can also provide immediate correct and incorrect feedback by changing the state of the object to reflect when it’s a right or wrong decision.

Here are some previous posts that cover drag and drop interactions in a bit more detail:

• Basic Building Blocks for Drag & Drop Interactions
• 3 Tips for Building Drag & Drop Learning Interactions
• How to Provide Feedback for Drag & Drop Interactions

Drag and drop interactions can help make course more engaging and interactive. Too often we limit ourselves to standard click-based interactions and decision-making. Next time, try to convert one of those to a drag and drop and see how it goes. What tips do you have for those creating drag and drop interactions? Share them in the comments section.

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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.

One of my favorite ways to learn is by deconstructing what others do. It allows me to find new ways to do things. And even though I’ve been doing this stuff for a while, there’s always something to learn.

A couple of weeks ago, Creative Markets, gave away this PowerPoint template. Looks like it’s no longer free. It’s a nice template with a lot of useful layouts.

But there were two things that I really liked about the template and how they approached their production. So in today’s post we’ll look at what they did and learn to apply it to your own templates.

I created a PowerPoint tutorial that goes through both tips in more detail.

PowerPoint Tip: Use Pattern Fills for Image Placeholders

In PowerPoint, we can create all sorts of master slide layouts and add a whole host of placeholders. One type is the image placeholder.

Since the placeholder is designed to hold an image, when you don’t insert an image on the slide, it may end up looking like a big empty spot. And this could be confusing because people may anticipate that an object is going to be there and when it doesn’t show, they may think something is broken.

What I like about this template by Dublin Design is that they filled the image placeholders with a pattern fill. If you add an image, the pattern is replaced with the image. However, if you choose to not add an image, the pattern becomes a subtle part of the slide design. Very clever.

PowerPoint Tip: Use Merge Shapes Feature to Create Custom Image Fills

This is the tip that really caught my eye. They created a fill shape that was very unique and adds a lot more pizzazz to the design. It also helps you see the image placeholders in a new way.

Created editable shapes

When you insert an image placeholder it’s rectangular. However, if you right-click you’ll notice that you cannot edit its points. To change this, go to Edit Shape and select the rectangle shape. Now when you right click, the placeholder acts more like a regular shape and you have the option to modify the edit points and make the shape anything you want it to be.

Merge shapes to create unique placeholders

Starting with PowerPoint 2010, there are some merge shapes features. In PowerPoint 2010, you’ll need to add them to your ribbon toolbar. In PowerPoint 2013, they’re under the Drawing Tools’ Format ribbon.

Create an image placeholder on the master slide layout. Then insert a different shape. Use the Merge Shapes feature to create unique image placeholders.

Again, here’s a PowerPoint tutorial that walks through the steps in more detail.

There you have it, two cool PowerPoint tips to help you the next time you build an elearning template in PowerPoint.

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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’m a big fan of community and how it helps us learn from each other. This is especially important for those of us in the elearning industry.

If you are a financial analyst, odds are that there are a number of seasoned financial analysts in your organization who could draw from their experience and offer you all sorts of tips. Often that’s not true for elearning. Many of us work on small teams and don’t have access to seasoned pros. And that’s why community is so important for us.

The Value of the E-Learning Community

Community isn’t content. Instead its about learning from each other while we exchange tips, best practices, and share resources. It’s a means to help you grow. You’ll expand your support network and build your expertise (and eventually your reputation among your peers).

Here’s one example of how this happens in the community.

I think one of the best ways to learn to build better courses is by reviewing and deconstructing what others do. When I facilitate elearning workshops I routinely show the examples created for the community’s weekly elearning challenges. They’re authentic and created by real community members.

What I like about the modules is that I often learn something new. There are a number of occasions where I spend time deconstructing the demo trying to figure out how it was created. Sometimes I can’t, which bugs me. But most of the times I learn some new production techniques or a new way to think about the software.

Today I’d like to feature one of the community members who does a great job representing what’s good about community and how to participate in a way that’s meaningful and useful to others.

The E-Learning Community Shares Out-of-the-Box Ideas

I met Joanna Kurpiewska a few years ago at a workshop in London. She shared a little about her trajectory in the industry, some of her ideas, and what she hoped to accomplish. It’s really exciting to see how well she’s done over that time and to know that we played a small role in that.

There were two recent challenges where the demos she submitted were pretty cool.

Click here to view the slider demo.

The first challenge above was on using the slider feature in Storyline. The one Joanna did really stood out to me. First, it wasn’t a typical looking slider and second, it introduced a novel way to navigate the course, essentially removing the need for a previous and next button.

Click here to view the player demo.

The second challenge above was on creating a customized player. Again, the submissions were pretty creative and introduced some neat ideas. Check them out.

There were a few things that I like about Joanna’s submission. I like the informality of it with the cluttered desktop, the informal font, the lottery ticket link, and the structure of the next button. I also like the way she colored the player and filled the presenter image area with the Polaroid graphics to push the player out a bit.

Joanna’s not the only one who submitted creative ideas, so be sure to look at some of the other demos.

The key point is that your peers who share their work in the elearning community will help you see things in a new light and expand your understanding of what you can do (and possibly do it in new ways).

The E-Learning Community Shares What They Learn

As you know, I’m a big fan of PowerPoint and using it to create your own custom illustrations. I’ve featured that capability in a number of posts, such as this one.

In the past Joanna’s done something similar where she’s shared how she creates some of her own illustrations:

• How to Create Custom Icons in PowerPoint (free download)
• How to Create Gamified or Award Badges in PowerPoint (free download)

Recently she shared a great demo on how to create custom callouts and speech bubbles. You can read the article here and watch the tutorial video on YouTube. And of course, there’s a free download for those who want the files.

The E-Learning Community Establishes Your Authority

If you look at Joanna’s community profile you can see she regularly participates in the challenges and shows her work. She also freely shares her expertise by answering questions, doing tutorials, and making her source files and assets available for free. And she also maintains her own blog where she does even more of the same.

All of this activity allows her to build her own brand and expertise outside of the community. This is important because it allows your community activity to bleed over into your elearning portfolio which may lead to a stronger network of peers, more professional contacts, and potential business opportunities.

I know many people in the community who do the same thing and it’s paid dividends as they get all sorts of inquiries for freelance work.

What’s in it for me?

Community is all about practitioners getting together and learning from each other. The ultimate goal is to build expertise in the given domain, which in this case is using the Articulate elearning software and becoming a better elearning course designer.

This sharing and learning from each other is authentic and not manipulative. It’s not a marketing vehicle to sell your services and templates (which unfortunately some of the community members don’t quite get yet).

That’s why I chose to focus on Joanna, because I met her and know her story. What she shares and how she engages in the community is based on acquiring and sharing expertise. The modules that show off her skills and the free assets that she shares are merely artifacts, a by-product of what’s happening as she’s engaged with the community.

Are you stuck in a cubicle building the same course over and over thinking that the elearning world is passing you by? Do you want do something different and be connected to people who can help you grow? Then think about participating in the community. Even if you can’t answer questions or participate in the elearning challenges, at least make it a point to see what’s going on. And it’s easy to stay on top of that by following the weekly recaps.

Come join us and let’s learn together.

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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.

Course design is a challenge as you try to balance the needs of the client, subject matter experts, learners, and your own course design sensibility. One of the biggest issues with many online courses is that the course is a single solution designed to accommodate multiple learners. And most of them are designed the same way: start, click, click, click, knowledge check, click, click, click, and final quiz.

I suspect many courses are designed this way because they’re easy to build and, as we’ve noted before, many course designers are stretched thin with limited time and resources. I also know that many customers demand all of their information to be presented in the course, which makes it hard to move past a click-and-read model.

So what can you do to remedy this and not create too much extra work? Here’s a strategy I’ve used in the past.

Course Design: Separate Content from Activity

Create a two-pronged approach to the course design.

• Content: this is similar to the way the course is designed now.
• Activity: what should they do with the content? Create scenario-based activities so that they use the content.

This creates splits the process. Many clients want all of the content and won’t budge. That’s OK. You can present all of the content in the content track. In addition, there are many people who want or need the content. The content track gives them free access.

On the other side, build activities that require use of the content. And then let learners access the activities. A well-designed activity will present the appropriate level of content and provide the right types of decision-making to ensure the person learns and meets the course objectives. You can also provide access points to the content track and even create mechanisms that force people to pull certain types of content during the activities.

Or you scrap any focus on content, throw them in the pool and let them know where they can find life-saving information (the content track).  Some people will jump right into the activity and try to figure things out and some will refer to the content track when needed. An activities focused approach provides a lot of flexibility, especially when your learners range from beginner to experienced.

Course Design: Simple Example

Click here to view elearning example.

Here’s an example that David and I built for a LINGOs course a few years ago. The client gave us a number of Word docs full of content. All of the content needed to be in the course. However, we wanted to create interactions built around some real world decision-making.

So we created a two track course. One track featured all of the Word doc content. And the other track worked around the use of the content to make appropriate decisions. We also included ways for the person to go between the two tracks.

Building the course didn’t take much more time than if we had just made it linear because we used a simple question structure for the activities and broke up the flow with some good-to-know information about the organization.

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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.

[UPDATE March 1, 2022: The essence of the post is still accurate, but you can find an updated tutorial and instructions here.]

Today I am going to show you how to set up an Amazon S3 account to share e-learning courses and portfolios. You can also share your courses using Google Cloud which I cover in a different post.

However, this post provides more detail and it’s super important to those who use Google Drive to share their e-learning courses because Google is discontinuing that option on August 31, 2016. Now’s the time to come up with a better solution before all of your links no longer work.

Here’s what you’ll need to do:

• Create an Amazon S3 account.
• Download Cloudberry Explorer (free).
• Create an account in Cloudberry to upload your courses.
• Set the appropriate viewing permission.

I created a video that walks through the process. Below are the basic steps and the video provides a bit more detail.

Click here to view the YouTube Video.

How to Create an Amazon S3 Account to Share E-Learning Courses

Creating an Amazon S3 account is really easy. You’ll need to add your personal info and credit card for payment. Initially you get 5 GB free for the first year and then pay a fee after. For a personal account I wouldn’t expect to pay much, maybe just a couple dollars a year. It’s a very affordable option.

• First step, create an Amazon S3 account.

Once you have an account, you’ll need to locate the security settings and find your access keys.

• Go to User Name
• Security Credentials
• Access Keys

This will expose your access key and secret access key. You’ll need them so that Cloudberry Explorer can access your S3 account.

Download Cloudberry Explorer to Share E-Learning Courses

Cloudberry Explorer is the application you use to access your S3 account. Once you have access, you can upload files and get the URL to share.

• Download the Cloudberry Explorer application.
• Install Cloudberry.

Create an Account in Cloudberry to Share E-Learning Courses

Once Cloudberry is installed you’ll need to create an account that’s connected to your Amazon S3 account.

• Go to File>New Amazon S3 Account.
• Create an Account Name
• Go to Amazon S3, copy and paste the Access Key and Secret Access Key into the form.

You should now be able to access the account using Cloudberry Explorer.

Create a Bucket and Set Permissions to Share E-Learning Courses

On the left side you can display your desktop folders. And on the right, you display the S3 account and folders.

Initially there will be nothing in the S3 account. The first thing you need to do is create a bucket. That’s where you’ll host your folders and save files. You can create more than one bucket. For example, you may have one bucket for your portfolio and another for personal files. And you can limit who has access to the files in your bucket.

• Create a new bucket. It should have a unique name. All of your folders and files will go into the bucket.

• It’s a good idea…You can set the permissions for the bucket so that anything you add to it can be viewed when you share the link. Otherwise, you have to set permissions every time you upload a course.
• Click on the Bucket Policy icon and add your policy. This site explains it in more detail.
• Once you’ve established the policy, you can start to add folders and files.
• To share a file, click on the Web URL icon.

That’s about it. Of course, you should read more on what you get with both Amazon S3 and Cloudberry Explorer. But for the most part, what you see here and in the video is all you need to do.

Now’s a good time to set up an Amazon S3 account. The cost is nominal and the service works well for sharing your 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.

When I review vector images, I like to review the other images from the same artist. This way when I need to build a module or template, I can find assets drawn in the same style. This lets me deconstruct the vector illustration and use the parts to create illustrations that meet my own need. And remember, if you don’t have an illustration app, as long as you can get .EPS vector files, you can edit them in PowerPoint.

The other day I ran across this series of vector images that would work in an elearning course. Here are some things that work for an elearning template:

• Avatar: the circled avatar is a common design treatment.
• Progress meter: using variables allows you to combine various levels of feedback or progress. The meters could also be some sort of slider interaction.
• Circled content: these are nice buckets that could easily be used as a start screen or menu structure. They also could be replacements for bullet point content.
• Header bar: again, another common design treatment.

Most of the elements are pretty simple to create. The challenge is creating the circle avatar effect using your own images. Fortunately, it’s easy to do.

PowerPoint Tutorials

I’ve included a couple of tutorials to show how to create the circle avatar effect and how to work with connectors. This will work in Storyline or PowerPoint.

• How to work with connected shapes in PowerPoint. Some quick tips and tutorial on how to create additional connection points in PowerPoint shapes.
• How to create the circled avatar effect in PowerPoint and in Storyline.

And to make things easier, here’s a free template. All you need to do is add your own content and characters.

Free PowerPoint & E-Learning Templates

Click here to see an example.

I created a few simple layouts to help you get started. You’ll need to create the circle avatar effect using one the tutorials above. The template is also connected to the design color themes and font themes for easy editing.

The layouts are just a starting point. If you want to add interactive elements like I did in the Storyline demo above, you’ll need to make your own tweaks. I’ll include the demo file in the same download for you to see what I did.

Free Downloads

• Free PowerPoint template
• Free Storyline 2 template

Hope you enjoy the free templates and tutorials.

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 someone asked what I thought the three top pain points were for online training or elearning. I hear lots of complaints and I’m sure that there are many pain points, however if we keep them in perspective, they’re really not as painful as being stabbed or thrown down a flight of stairs. Here are some of the issues I find most challenging with elearning.

E-Learning Pain Point #1: Courses are Boring

I review a lot of courses during the year. Many of them are very basic–consisting of mostly slides, simple graphics, and bullet points. I’ll assume that the people who do take the courses probably don’t find then all that exciting. A slide with bullet point content isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, slide after slide of this type of content isn’t the most effective way to engage and teach people.

The bigger issue isn’t usually the content as much as it is that the content isn’t relevant to the person’s needs. Here are a few tips to help.

• The solution is to reframe the content so it’s relevant to the learner. Talk with your potential audience and find out where the content comes into play with their daily roles. Then convert the bullet points into more meaningful content.
• Ideally you’re able to align the content and learning objectives to the appropriate activities.
• Worst case, start with a case study to convert the content into a meaningful story.

E-Learning Pain Point #2: Developers Have Limited Skills & Resources

Many of the people I meet are the only elearning person on staff. And the majority of them didn’t start in elearning. They started as trainers who moved to elearning as the organization needed to put courses online. They end up having to do everything from instructional design, graphic design, and course authoring.

In addition to having limited experience building elearning courses, they usually lack a breadth of technical knowledge and programming skills. On top of that, they don’t get adequate support for other things such as media assets and IT help.

Many of them do a great job given their limited resources, but to build courses that are engaging, interactive, and meet learning objectives requires more than a basic understanding of PowerPoint and learning to find free clip art. This means that the developers need time to learn the skills to build more than basic courses and they need more support from their organizations.

Without organizations making a bigger commitment to their elearning teams, most courses will probably be stuck in pain point #1.

Here are some solutions for those who want to learn more and do more:

• Check out all of the free getting started resources we have in the community. There’s a lot of good generic content, free ebooks, and of course tutorials to learn the software.
• Participate in the weekly challenges to practice new things. Even if you don’t participate, make it a point to see what others do as a source of inspiration.
• Take classes where you can. You can go for a formal degree or certificate at most of the universities. There are informal options like the video tutorials, lots of free webinars, and a number of opensource learning opportunities. And of course, participate in your local ATD, ISPI, and STC chapters.
• Read a book and apply what you learn to your courses (or the weekly challenges). Here’s a good starting list. Or better yet, create a mini module on what you learned in the book and share it with others. It’s a great way to practice building courses–solidifying the content in your own brain and sharing what you learn with others.

E-Learning Pain Point #3: [Insert pain point here]

I can add an assortment of additional pain points such as courses are too long, high dropout rates, etc. But I’d like to open it up to you. What is the single biggest pain point for you when it comes to elearning and online training? Add your thoughts in the comments section.

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.