The Rapid Elearning Blog

E-Learning Resources & Examples for Success

Articulate Rapid E-Learning Blog - knowing your online training and online learners Many online training courses go by a one-size fits all model: build one course and everyone has to take it exactly the same way. I like to think of this as the e-learning gulag where there’s not a lot of freedom for online learners and little concern for their experience. Who Are Your Online Learners? Regardless of how you design your online courses, it is important to understand your online learners, their needs, and what motivates them. ...

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Articulate Rapid E-learning Blog - Build Better Online Training There’s often a big disconnect between the training that is delivered and the training that has impact. It’s because training is commissioned by someone who doesn’t take the training like a manager or subject matter expert. What happens is that while the training has all the right information it doesn’t frame it in a perspective that is true or relevant to the learner; and that’s because the end-user usually doesn’t have a seat at the table when the training is being developed. Here ...

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Articulate Rapid E-learning Blog - interactive scenarios As many of you know, I tend to divide courses into two buckets. One bucket is information. The other is performance. When I meet with a client I quickly assess what type of course they want to build so that we can best meet the organization’s goals and control the cost of development. Information-based courses are common, and many people complain that they’re just click-and-read. However, they are legitimate and do meet a need. Here are few common examples:

  • Awareness: sometimes, the only goal
...

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Articulate Rapid E-learning Blog - 7 free audio editors Even though many e-learning applications have their own audio tools, I usually don’t use them. I may for quick projects, but generally, I like to keep my audio production separate from my e-learning course production. It provides more control over the audio files and dedicated audio editing software tends to have more features. Here’s a list of some free audio editors that are more than sufficient for what you may need for most of your e-learning course production. And the price is right. Of ...

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Articulate Rapid E-Learning Blog - create hand-drawn graphics Earlier we looked at the essential guide to visual thinking where we discussed how to communicate visually. Coupled with that post, we explored practical ways to apply visual thinking skills to e-learning course design. One advantage of visual thinking is learning to see the concepts and how to express them to others. Another advantage is that you gain the skills to create real assets that can be used in your e-learning courses. Today we’ll look at ways to create our own hand-drawn graphics. ...

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Articulate Rapid E-Learning Blog - practice visual thinking skills for e-learning In a previous post, we discussed visual thinking concepts and where they fit with e-learning design. Now, let’s look at ways to practice sketching your ideas so that you’re able to move past understanding the concepts and actually applying them to your course. How to Practice Your Visual Thinking Skills The first step is to get a handle on the basics:

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 Articulate Rapid E-Learning Blog - essential guide to visual thinking for e-learning Here are two common challenges when building online training courses: knowing what content needs to be in the course and then having the right visuals to support the learning of that content. One way to overcome these challenges is to increase your visual thinking skills. You’ll learn to focus on the right content and then find the right visuals to support what you’re teaching. What is Visual Thinking? The essence of visual thinking is to convert your text-based information to images and text that ...

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wacky fonts in e-learning One of my pet peeves is when courses use too many font types. Most of the time it comes from a lack of forethought about how and when to use certain fonts. Some people like to change up the fonts to make the course more visually interesting. This is a noble goal but perhaps not the best reason. An interesting font will not make the course more interesting. And it's possible that the font distracts from the content. Be Intentional Understand why you're using the font you're using. The font not only ...

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Articulate Rapid E-Learning Blog - become e-learning pro "I want to become an e-learning pro. What do I have to do to get better?" This is one of the most common questions I'm asked. I've addressed it a few times in the blog by sharing some tips, free e-book recommendations, and a ton of tutorials. But it's still a common question and worth reviewing from a slightly different perspective. We'll look at three key steps in the process of becoming an e-learning pro. Become an E-learning Pro by Learning More There are many ...

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Rapid E-Learning Blog - how long should e-learning course be I’m often asked how long an e-learning course should be. My quick response is that it should last long enough to meet your objectives. On the surface that’s not a bad answer, but it’s usually one that doesn’t satisfy either. There are a few variables when it comes to determining how long an e-learning course should be. However here are some tips that may help answer the question. Chunk Your Content The trend in online learning is small, digestible chunks. Some people call it ...

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Articulate Rapid E-Learning Blog - free stock images for e-learning courses If you're using Articulate 360, you already get access to more than enough stock images. However, if you're looking for a place to find more, one of my favorite sites for free stock images is Unsplash.com. They provide hundreds of free stock images with a Creative Commons Zero license. That means you can do anything with the images, whether free or commercial. And that’s a good deal for those of us who are on ...

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Articulate Rapid E-Learning Blog - training mistakes One of the activities we do at my workshops is prototype an interactive e-learning module. I provide some generic content and their task is to do two things:

They spend about twenty minutes discussing ideas and then they share their ideas. It never ceases to amaze me how creative they are and what they’re able to produce within the limited time. I find that there’s no ...

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