eLearning 101: Lesson 7 – how to create great-looking elearning

This lesson included a number of hints and tips on what to do or consider in order to deliver good elearning elements. I’ll list the ones that I picked out.

Apply Branding Guidelines

Decide on what your corporate look and feel will be; use a consistent tone and voice; use the logo; use branding fonts if available; decide on a colour-scheme to match / complement the corporate scheme.

Identify the Course Theme

The course theme would be dictated by the subject matter and audience, directing how the course could be presented. This might include considering professional, corporate, fun or casual presentation.

Header and Body Fonts

The advice given is to consider the subject and theme; decide whether to use decorative or simple fonts; above be consistent and obviously make it legible.

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Our courses have to appeal to a number of different user groups, from students learning something for new to healthcare professionals refreshing their skill-set. We have chosen to take a slightly professional tone, although with a theme that “we are learning this together”. I use the Articulate photo-characters, using one character as the help avatar and the others as the learner avatar. The exception to this is the “Check Your Skills” tutorial – here it is more lighter in tone and we use “cartoon” characters. This is to present a non-threatening, more fun tone as students are asked to assess their skills and we didn’t want it to appear like a test.

We are appealing to users from both Keele University and the NHS, so tend to take the corporate theme as “the Health Library”.

In terms of fonts – this is not something I get really excited about. I have chosen to use open sans which is clear and readable. I use font-size and bold to provide emphasis and headers.

eLearning 101: Lesson 6 – storyboarding, creating a blueprint for an elearning course

I was always mystified a bit by storyboarding – it seemed like something of an art-form. This lesson laid out what you needed to do.

Identify the stakeholders and participants, identify their roles – this will be the audience for the storyboard and will help to determine the format of your storyboard and the detail of the content.

Instructional Design – what learning activities are needed and how will they be sequenced?

Format – various formats could be used eg MS Word, Ms Powerpoint, authoring software. Whichever tool is used it must be made available to the stakeholders. Articulate offer a number of templates that could be used to create a storyboard.

Building your Storyboard - Items that should be included: navigation, links, media, text, interactions, on-screen elements, programming notes. Consider including a visual map to represent complex branching or dynamic content. Use reference labels to map the storyboard slide to an actual storyline slide.

Using your Storyboard – the storyboard should act as a living document, and followed during the lifetime of the project. It can act as a place to consolidate feedback and be used as a review checkpoint.

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So this is something that I am really bad at. At the start of our elearning project we were quite meticulous in creating scripts (which in essence were storyboards). During our upgrade phase these were really useful as a starting point for the upgrade. Since then I have been a bit lax. Sometimes I create lots of scribbled “boards” in a notebook to help me to work out how I am going to do something. However since I have no audience, other than myself, there doesn’t feel like any incentive to do anything extravagant.

I wonder if investigating the proposed templates will help me to find something that will suit my style and way of working.

eLearning 101: Lesson 5 – how to manage elearning projects effectively

Best practices for effective elearning project management were listed in this lesson:

Starting the Project:

• Identify who is in charge, who has the authority?
• What are the expectations?
• What is the budget?
• Who signs the project off? What is that expected date?

Establish a Common Understanding of…

• Success
• Goals
• Timelines
• Deliverables

Clarify Learning Objectives:

• What needs to be learnt?
• Who needs to learn it?
• What do they need to know before they start?

Identify Technology Considerations / Issues such as

• Computer set up
• Mobile devices
• Headphones
• Multimedia
• Hosting solution

Lots more lists in this lesson:

Planning the project – identify tasks, establish a schedule, set target milestones, set dependencies, plan for review and rework, buffer for the unexpected, allocate resources (including people).

Suggestions for keeping the project moving – be flexible to incorporate changes, but be aware of the possibility of project creep; keep communication open and transparent; include regular reviews and build in time to change things. Once the project is finished have a final checklist and sign-off. It is also a good idea to have a post-implementation review to determine what went well and what can be learnt.

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So this is the basics of project management. Again something I am familiar with from my computing days. But again something that tends to put off my fellow librarians so how it is presented needs to be considered. When we upgraded our etutorials I did draw up a plan (spreadsheet) but it did have to be very flexible, but I think you do need it to detail what needs to happen and monitor milestones.

Planning is also pretty difficult in my current role as the elearning development aspect is a relatively minor role and will almost always be trumped by other events occurring.

eLearning 101: Lesson 4 – how the course creation process works

This lesson described the steps which make up the workflow and design process.

Step 1 – discuss with the client

You should discuss the requirements of the proposer or sponsor (client) or the course to determine: why the course is needed, what the objectives are, what the performance gap is that needs filling. This will help you to identify: high level objectives, budget, tools, timeline, review process, branding requirements and where the course can be accessed from. You may also need to meet with a subject matter expert (SME) who has content specific knowledge.

Step 2 – gather and organise content

Identify what information is “need to know” and what is “nice to know”; identify task-based content. You may need to breakdown the content into smaller chunks, and work out how to organise the different elements into an order that makes sense.

Step 3 - storyboard

Use storyboard techniques to identify:

The text that will be used

Places for multimedia, images and video

Navigation

The level of detail required here depends on who the audience for the storyboard is – client, developer, you.

Step 4 – review and edit

Present the storyboard to someone else for review – this may be a colleague or the client. This is an iterative process – make changes as required.

Step 5 – develop the course

Use the authoring tool of your choice to create your course. Here are some visual design basics:

• Leave white space
• Avoid clutter
• Restrict use of fonts to 1 or 2
• Restrict the colour palette to use
• Be consistent – with buttons, links and other navigation tools
• Align items and text
• Use relevant and meaningful images
• Be consistent in use of types of images

Step 6 – quality assurance testing

Review and test to pick up problems.

Step 7 – publish and deploy

Make the learning object available to users.

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This process sounds very familiar to me – dredging up years of working on computing projects, lots of, basically, specifications of differing detail depending on who it was aimed at.

As I work with librarians now I find that this kind of language can be alienating, so although I follow the process it can be called different things. As the client is really us, I also probably don’t record things in sufficient detail.

eLearning 101: Lesson 3 – how to choose the best app to create your course

Lesson 3 looked at the different types of elearning authoring software. Three different types are listed:

• Web Applications – these are tools hosted on a server and made accessible via the web
• Desktop Applications – these are installed on a PC; are typically more robust and are often feature-rich
• Powerpoint Plugins – additional plugins to MS PowerPoint to enhance the functionality

The types of functionality required include the following:

Text	Audio
Shapes	Interactivity
Photos	Screen-recording
Animations	Quiz / Assessment feature
Video

Functionality should also include the ability to create linear courses (where the navigation is fixed in one direction) and non-linear courses (where navigation is branched and users can make choices).

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When we were looking at updating our etutorial package (from mediator), in 2015, I completed an exercise to evaluate which tools we should use. This involved:

• Creating a list of functions that we needed to include to deliver the same functionality that we already delivered
• Creating a list of functions that we believed we could use to enhance our package
• Talking to experienced staff within the University to identify various suitable apps
• Matching the applications against our list of needs
• Identifying the most likely applications that would work for us
• Trialling the most likely candidates
• Identifying the one application that we would use

And in the end we chose Articulate Storyline – which is why we are here.

eLearning 101: Lesson 2 – how instructional design relates to elearning

In this lesson the ADDIE model of design is introduced – I‘ve come across something similar before in another course:

A – Analyse – the needs, objectives and profile of the learner

D – Design – plan the learning object, identify the elements required to achieve the objectives, use storyboarding to record this

D – Develop – create and test the learning objects

I – Implementation – publish the learning object and make it available to the users

E – Evaluate – evaluate whether the object is achieving its objectives

Here is my diagram of the DADDIE model (similar)

DADDIE model

The evaluation process should then feed back into the analyse phase – to result in improvements to the course.

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I perhaps have far too informal approach to my design. So far I have generally produced online learning that often replicates or complements face-to-face learning. The etutorials offer an alternative route to the face-to-face training sessions, which learners sometimes find difficult to attend. Thus much of the analysis is based on what is already being delivered by the face-to-face training. The design phase can be informal (scribbled boxes on notepads) if I am only doing it for me but if I am working with colleagues then I make much more effort to document what will be done so that everyone else can review it. Evaluation is probably the trickiest phase. I have an informal distribution ie the etutorials are freely available via the web server, so learners can choose whether to complete the tutorials or not. Although every tutorial offers a feedback form, I cannot “make” a learner complete it. It is quite difficult to get feedback that can be used to re-analyse the content. This is an area that I think I need to work on.

eLearning 101: Lesson 1 – exploring the essential qualities of e-learning

So to start at the beginning…

What is e-learning?

I think there are a number of definitions, articulate plum for:

“use of electronic devices (computers, tablets, phones) 

to deliver educational or training content to learners”

eLearning has also been called web-based training, online learning and computer-based training.

Typically content has included slide-based content with simple navigation and incorporating some interactivity such as quizzes. Content can be developed to include responsive web-based content, software simulations and interactive courses with role-playing and complex decision-making.

Why is elearning valuable?

Some of the benefits identified include:

• asynchronous or synchronous activities
• global reach – anytime, anywhere
• proceed at learners own pace
• use of multiple devices eg tablets / mobiles
• flexible for the user
• just in time / needs based – available when the user needs it
• can reach more people, more quickly compared to face-to-face training
• allows consistency of quality and content – same message delivered to all participants

How do you create eLearning courses?

So at this point Articulate products are introduced – I’m not going to do the sales pitch.

How is eLearning shared?

Two possible routes are offered:

• Informal Distribution – eg freely available via a web server. Users can decide whether to participate.
• Formal Distribution – eg via a learning management system (LMS), such as Blackboard. Here the LMS tracks and record user activity. Standards are required to allow the learning object to “talk” to the LMS. I have heard of SCORM and TinCan protocols, although never used them.

What makes an elearning project successful?

1. Using the right applications

Use the application that can provide the functionality and interactivity that you want for your learners. You need to consider how easy it is for you to use, so that the learning curve is manageable and you don’t spend time dealing with technical issues.

2. Instructional design

You need to be able to create the most effective, educational experience for your learners, to maximise learning and help users to improve their knowledge and skill.

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The definition seems to change with the times – it always wants to be the new kid on the block, although the concept now must be pretty old (although efficacy is still argued over). I was trying to remember my first experience of “elearning”. Certainly not at school – I remember fund-raising activities to collect enough money to buy a computer for the school (one computer for the whole school!). You’ve never seen so many cake sales. Not at university either, we just about had a computer-based catalogue. I think it was when I first started work (in the 1990s). I was learning coding and I remember a “video disk” – something the size of an LP (if you remember what that was) which played video on a TV screen. We learnt all about the adabas database from shiny-faced americans.

I have found elearning to be very useful – for all the benefits described. I’m not sure that I would do any CPD if I had to rely on booking on face-to-face training events. I remember when I learnt visual basic (mid-90s) – it was a 1 week course and a book for 2 weeks. Now I am learning Articulate Storyline, it is an ongoing process with access to a variety of learning opportunities, in different formats, with peer support from people that I have never even met. Quite a change.