3 Creative Ways to Use Engage Labeled Graphics
This guest blog entry was written by Articulate Community Manager Jeanette Brooks.
The Engage Labeled Graphic is like the Swiss Army knife of Engage interactions. It’s a super-versatile tool that you can use for just about any e-learning content.
Lots of developers use a Labeled Graphic to add callouts to technical images or screenshots, like in this example. But you can also leverage this flexible interaction in all kinds of other creative ways.
Here are three ideas you might not have tried yet.
Build a clickable chart for learners to explore
Data-heavy charts can cause learners to glaze over in a hurry. Instead of showing a static picture of a chart filled with data, try chunking the information with a Labeled Graphic. Start with a simple, compelling image like the one below. Use the Labeled Graphic’s markers to break up the detail into bite-size pieces that learners can explore. Then watch how much easier it is for your audience to take it all in.
It’s an approach that opens up all kinds of new possibilities for things like org charts, flow charts, bar charts, and other kinds of diagrams.
View larger version in separate window
Replace a bulleted list
Labeled Graphics are also a great alternative to bullet points. Check out the following example of a pros/cons list. You can build something like this in about five minutes! The image is just something I found in Microsoft’s clip art library. I made a few simple tweaks with PowerPoint 2007’s image-editing tools, then saved it as a PNG. Once I brought the image into Engage and added my markers and text, I was done.
View larger version in separate window
Set up an e-learning scenario
Another cool use for a Labeled Graphic is at the beginning of an e-learning scenario. You could use an interaction like the one below to help learners get familiar with key characters and the setting. Then, in subsequent slides, take your learners through an exercise where they choose how to handle the situation.
View larger version in separate window
Need help finding or creating cool images?
The appeal of your Labeled Graphic hinges, of course, on the image you use. Fortunately, there are lots of free or low-cost images out there. This thread in the Community Forums lists some helpful places to look.
Remember, though, that you can always build your own images, even if you don’t have fancy image-editing software! This tutorial shows how.
Share your ideas
What other cool ways have you used Labeled Graphics in your e-learning? Add your thoughts & ideas to this thread in the Community Forums!
14 responses to “3 Creative Ways to Use Engage Labeled Graphics”
Thanks for the very informative posts, Jeanette. Am enjoying them immensely!
Glad to hear it, Tracey! We’ve got lots more great stuff to come throughout the month. 🙂
Thank you for your informative post, Jeanette! I was wondering how you got your interactive Engage screen shots in the post. Is there a specific method to be able to do that?
Thanks!
@Pink Lady: thanks for your feedback – re: embedding an interaction into a blog post, if you’re using WordPress there are some plugins out there that make this easy to do. You could check out this screencast for one way to do it: http://screenr.com/uON … and the following threads explain another way: http://bit.ly/blaHk6 http://bit.ly/bHQBLl
Thanks so much for the cool ideas Jeanette! These are great!
Can you add more than one image expanding one topic to a labeled graphic template slide?
Hi Robin, currently Engage allows you to add one image or one video to each segment of an interaction. One workaround is to use an image-editing tool to assemble multiple images into kind of a montage, and then insert that single resulting image into Engage. A lot of folks even use PowerPoint to do this… here’s a screencast that shows how: http://screenr.com/00U
Hi
Does anyone know if the learner has to click on all the labels on a grapic I am struggling as they appear to have to and I dont want that
Hi Sharon- check out the option to “Allow user to leave interaction” that you’ll find described here.
I created a scenario in ppt (with text and images) then saved the slide as a jpeg to insert in the Engage labeled graphic interaction. The text is fuzzy in Engage – why did this happen?
Hey Anna, sometimes selecting everything on a PowerPoint slide and then doing a “save as picture” can end up giving you lesser quality than if you used other means. You might want to try doing a screencapture of the slide instead, and keeping the total size within 690×470 pixels, since that’s the largest size that an Engage Labeled Graphic can accommodate without scaling. Another thing that might help is to increase the image quality within Engage. You can do this by going to Interaction Properties, click the Quality tab, and choose Custom. Then increase the JPEG factor to 100%. Also, if your Engage interaction is embedded within a Presenter course, you’ll always get the best visual quality if you lock the presentation at optimum size, since that avoids scaling the output up or down (scaling always decreases visual quality). You might also want to take a look at this great article by Dave Mozealous.
Thanks for this! Question- how did you recolor the two separate halves of the picture in PPT? The half green, half red coloring that you have done on the pro/con interaction is perfect (as is the pro/con interaction itself) but I can’t figure out how the heck to do it! I can only see how to recolor the whole thing. I am using 2007.
Thanks!
Hi April! I actually used 2 separate copies of the same image for that little trick. On one of them, I used the PowerPoint recolor options to change the color tint to orange. On the other one, I changed it to a tint of green. I layered the 2 images directly on top of one another, and then cropped the top one halfway across (so that it reveals half of the other image below it). Hope that helps!
Perfect! Thank you so much for the quick response!
Comments are closed on this post. Need more help? Post your question in the E-Learning Heroes Discussions.