Instructional Designing

Drag Anyone Into Anything!

2012-07-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

Now, with Articulate Storyline, anyone can drag anyone into anything!

Creating drag and drop quizzes in Articulate Storyline is as easy as 1-2-3. All you need to do is to click on the `Convert to Freeform’ and choose `Drag and Drop’.

Here, you will be able to match one object to another.

But what if you are building a scenario based course? You want to let the user drag and drop the object on any of the many options, and explore each option that way. Technically, we have one item, and many targets, with customized feedback. In such a situation, we cannot use the `Drag and drop’ freeform tool.

This is where the triggers come to our rescue.

Let’s take an example to demonstrate this –

I have a scenario in which the learner can drag and drop the tourist into any of the three countries (well, not literally, just technically speaking J ), and an information about that country pops up.

Below is a screenshot of the trigger I have used –

So the moral of the story (Storyline, rather) is not to limit yourself to the off-the-shelf options provided. Just playing around a bit with the triggers can stretch the software's capability almost as much as your creativity!

To G Or Not To G?

2012-06-08T01:07:00.001-07:00

With gaming being the hot buzz word in the e learning zones, a gamed up course is every instructional designer’s fancy dream.

But does every course demand a game mode for capturing user attention? To see if a game mode facilitates learning is a matter for research. Setting aside all the `it depends’ factors and research stats, I have tried to build a survey form. The survey takes into account various factors, and tries to solve our `To G or Not to G’ confusion.

I have consciously avoided the financial aspect in the survey form, but tried to include all other possible ones. But this is not an absolute indicator, and nothing is superior to your (or the team’s) instincts. The survey is just an `indicator’ to help you to analyze the possibility by taking into account as many factors as possible.

The survey was also an excuse for me to mark my debut experiment with triggers and variables. But I was not able to give a `Click only one’ option trigger. In case you have a work around for that, please let me know!

Go ahead and take the survey, and let me know your feedback.

PS - The survey was done in my latest crush - Articulate Storyline.
Since a conventional quiz does not give this result, I have tried to simulate a quiz by using (and experimenting) with triggers and variables. Hope you like it! :)

Managing an E-Learning Project

2012-04-27T01:18:00.004-07:00

Most rapid e learning teams comprise of 5-10 members, with at the most, 3 members involved in a single project.

From whatever experience I have, the Subject matter expert is usually someone who has little idea about the e learning aspect of the project. Therefore, it calls for some (standardized) efforts to manage your e learning project, and make it clear to your SME on the expectations from both sides.

The way of managing an e-learning project heavily depends on your way of working methodology. But here are some tips to build your own project plan –

Chunk It Up!

From getting a request to providing the e learning output, try and identify the key deliverables, and each deliverable can make a project phase.

You may also need to provide a sample storyboard to make your SME understand what to expect out of a storyboard.

By When?

Moving aside all the `It Depends’ factors, here is a rough estimate. Learning pedagogy recommends that you don’t plan for a course lasting more than 40 mins. The ideal time is 20 minutes.

For making a 30 min course (average), you might have to spend a week for initial discussion and storyboarding, and three weeks for building a course. Further review and iterations might go on for 2 weeks. So , most probably, your e learning project for a single module will span for 1.5 months.

The success, of course, lies in continuous improvement. Run a project plan and re visit it after the completion of a project, and see where you can improve.

Happy project planning!

Branding Your E Learning Courses

2012-03-30T03:33:00.003-07:00

There are many ways to give the company’s look and feel to the e learning course.

In case you are publishing in Articulate, adding the logo in the logo panel would be the easiest way to make your logo visible. Having the same template inside the power point area is nice, but the disadvantage is that it minimizes your creative zone.

But you can of course, work around your way through it. One way would be to use the exact color scheme in your work. But how accurately can one do it? Will eye judgment suffice? For people who are ultra color sensitive, its good. But the rest of the people (like me) need not worry. All you need is a color picking tool.

I use FastStone Capture, an easy screen capturing tool to help me in this mission.

You can use any other tool, provided it has a color picker. Using the color picker, click on the key colors used in the brand.

In this example, I have tried to develop an e learning course template based on the `E Learning Heroes’ website, powered by the Articulate.

The first step here to use the color picker, and note down the key colors. In this example, let us concentrate on the middle blue panel.

Once you pick the color, it will give you the RGB components.

In this case, RGB is 206, 234, 253.

Similarly, pick a few random colors and note down their RGB numbers.

Now, in Power Point, draw an object, and fill it with the same color.

Using this method, you can achieve the same color scheme as that of your parent website / company colors. While a screenshot may not be of good quality, the power point images are vector objects, and therefore do not suffer from quality loss when enlarged.

I have used this technique to create a power point template based on Articulate’s E learning Heroes website.

All the objects have been created fully in Power Point, and the trick of course lies in giving the same color gradients.

You can download the template from here.

So just like this, you can build your own e learning template that goes perfectly with the corporate branding of the company!

Happy branding!

Using Power Point as a Powerful Image Editing Tool

2012-02-23T04:39:00.000-08:00

Hailing from a Visual Communication background, I always thought that editing an image is impossible without Photoshop.

But today, 90 % of my image editing is done in Powerpoint itself. Let’s check out some cool ways of editing images in power point –

Cropping Images

With the Freeform tool, you can easily crop images to a fair degree of perfection.

For instance, here is a photo that I took from Microsoft Clipart. I just need to keep the one who is throwing the ball. So here is how I would do it –

First, maximize the picture (shortcut – Press Ctrl and scroll up your mouse, and vice versa for zooming out) and stencil out the picture, as perfectly as you can. At first, you might need a little bit extra effort and patience, but I assure you that you will be just fine with a little practice.

We are almost there. Now, crop the real picture and keep only the frame that’s required.

Now copy the image. And then, right click on your stenciled shape> Format Shape > Fill > Picture or Text Fill

You will find that the cut image has fit in the stencil, but not quite perfectly. Now, the trick is to select `Tile picture as texture'. Try playing around with the Offsets, until you get the perfect crop.

Bingo, the image is cropped!

Tip - If you choose to use the Curve tool, you can get a sharp/straight curve by pressing Ctrl.

2. Removing Image Backgrounds

If you are lucky, the image might just have a plain background. In this case, removing the plain background is just a click’s effort.

First, select the picture.

Reset Picture > Set transparent color

Now select the color you want to delete.

Here is a sample-

Here is a before and after version of the picture –

3. A tricky way to use the Crop tool in Power Point

My teammate Tom Thomas has shared a clever way of using the crop tool. Read it here .

Giving an iPad touch to your e learning course

2012-02-23T01:09:00.000-08:00

I was very fascinated by Tom Kuhlmann's idea of developing an e learning course template resembling an i pad.
Click here if you want to download Tom's iPad mock up. I was so much wowed by it, that I created a little more stuff, in order to accomodate my course material which had a heavier chunk of text.

You can download the additional templates here.
Go ahead and show off to your learners with a stylish iPad themed course!

How to Search Images in Google

2011-12-02T21:40:00.001-08:00

Instructional Designers often have the task of hunting images that suit the course content. There are many sites that offer free images. Google is often our ultimate refuge. In this blog, we will explore the different options for searching images in Google (in a very limited sense, of course!).

Click on `Images’ in the Google homepage to go to the sea of images that awaits you!

Giving search words

Searching for images is an art. (`Searching' for anything, is the ultimate function of the virtue of patience, I will say. :) ) Philosophy apart, the key lies in giving the correct search words. Google offers some useful tips for giving the right set of key words. Check them out here. However, the scope of this blog is just to share some tips out of experience. :)

If you are trying to illustrate abstract concepts, it is often not advisable to give the abstract word itself as a search word, for two reasons-

One, it might be a cliched picture. Two, it might not be the accurate representation. So, use your creative self, and try to visualize an image. The description of this image will be your key word.

Example, imagine we are doing a course on Corporate Responsibility.

Here is the search result from Google for `Corporate Social Responsibility’.

Yes, I know it’s very tempting to just go for one of them, as they look so off-the-shelf.

But remember that your audience might have seen the same picture a thousand times. So as soon as they open your module, they are like “Hey Copycat, I have seen that picture before”. That’s not what a wannabe instructional designer will want to hear, is it?

So let’s get creative, close our eyes and think of how we might illustrate the concept of Corporate Responsibility.

Yes, patience is a virtue. We will have to work around the image to get what we want. But that’s individuality.

Let us now try to use one of the above images to make one of our own. So back to our home pitch-

After a little bit of playing around with the image, this is the result -

And this is it's bone structure -

Other useful tips for searching images –

Look at the left hand pane of Google -

You find that there are various options to choose from - Size, color and type. I find the `Type’ option particularly useful. When your module uses just clip arts or drawings, for instance, you can base your search accordingly. For example, here are the three types of results for the same key word - Horse

By the way, if you are very used to dealing with images, you might have realized that we can actually make the `foot print’ that I used to demonstrate the concept of corporate responsibility, instead of buying the image. Stenciling images in power point is a whole topic by itself. We will discuss this in detail in one of the coming blogs.

Do you have any further tips to offer while searching for images? Feel free to add on through the comments section.

Striking a Chord With the SME

2011-11-07T01:10:00.000-08:00

This is mostly how a `Request for an e learning module’ buds. Explaining the capabilities and convincing the possibilities have always been a challenge for IDs. So how do you usually break the ice?

Well, the easiest way would be to get started with a call.

What is the scope of the project?

Here is a blatant truth – People normally hate to do or take trainings, just because of the plain reason that anything outside the routine work means a burden. I would’nt say `most’, but at least `some’ of the requests we receive are just a way for the Manager to shed off his `training’ burden.

Do analyze if a virtual course would actually help them, or if the concepts are better understood in a face to face training set up. However, do not forget that you can go for a combo training, where there is a little bit of class room and virtual training. And yes, don’t forget to ask on the target audience.

Split the process and explain it phase by phase

Don’t make the whole process look like a black box. Don’t assume that your client knows the procedure. Divide the whole project into distinct chunk. Anything that splits the process into simple, trackable goals is good enough.

This once happened to me – I was explaining our module delivery project planner to my customer. And weird enough, I found his face looking scarier as I finish explaining each stage.

And at the end of it, he gasped – “Oh, so that’s a lot of work”.And I nodded. “But sorry, I don’t think I will be able to do them all. I have never even come across the term `storyboard’ in my life!”

Yes, it was all my fault. While explaining the planner, I should have stated who does what. So it makes sense to add a `Who does what' column to your planner, so the SME has a clear understanding of his roles.

Watch out for jargons –

Once while working with an SME, I fell prey to a couple of abbreviations that had to be used frequently in the training. I assumed that the lingo must be a well familiar one, and did not care to question him on it. After rolling out the training, we received a lot of questions on what those abbreviations were supposed to mean. And then came the truth – Looks like the SME’s predecessors had used it, and was just `passed’ on to the next `generations’.

It was my fault that I did not care to ask him for the expansion in the beginning itself. Lesson learnt – I always make it a point to set my fingers on any ambiguous terms and straighten all the mysterious folds.

Measuring the Success

Most of the clients might want to know how to `measure’ the learning rate. Explain to them the various possibilities your LMS (Learning Management System) can offer. Can your team send a periodic test scores to the managers? Great!

Give a Realistic Picture

Don’t claim your training will churn out a super human in every employee. E learning, like anything else, has its boons and banes. And some trainings just simply follow the rule of osmosis.

Alice in Wonder - e- Land

2011-07-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

If not an Alice in Wonderland, every one of us instructional designers are Alices in our own wonder e lands. And just as in a movie and the book, and just as everyone of our clan, I have a rollicking time, fiddling around with the colors and scripts. So here's an allude to the `Alice in Wonderland'.

I can count up to as much as six impossible things before breakfast-

Number One, there is a potion that can make long and boring e modules short and smart.

Every learner wishes to hear this dialogue in the first three minutes of the course - "This session will last for 30 minutes". The lesser, the better. Though the Alices like to dwell in the wonderland for more time, people (the learners) like to be out in less than half an hour.

It is therefore a good idea to get the magic potion that can help you shrink the size of your course timing.

For courses that refuse to get over in half an hour, take out your knife, and cut it into slices. You can of course ask the learners to bite the slices one at a time, spread over a couple of days. And they will love it!

Number two, a cake can make you creative, every time.

I know how tempting it is to hit the CTRL (+ C +V) button every time. But bid a bye bye to the pedant in the course. Get more practical. Show your learners pictures from real life. If you are talking about cleanliness in office, don't just talk, show them. The courses would definitely breathe more life. Here is another example -

Number three - Anything can talk.

Get creative with your narration style. You don't always have to be that unseen and unheard voice talking prophetic stuff to the learners. Make the session more dramatic. The easiest way (and the one that mostly clicks) is to pick up a central character. And yes, anything can talk. A chalk from a teacher's board can teach the best practices involved in teaching, for instance.

In this example shown below, our challenge was to make the topic of `Protecting the Environment' a little more interesting. So we made the planet Earth narrate the whole course, as a personal plea.

Number four - Mouse can smile

Where to give `Proceed automatically to next slide' and where to give `Cleck by the user' is a definite conundrum for we Alices. O yes, the one on the navigation instructions is a separate book by itself. But do bear in mind that life in an e learning module goes certainly beyond the `Click next to proceed further'.

Number five - There’s a place called wonder- e – land

And there are heroes to save me.I always bump into the elearning heroes for any help or practical advice (yes, free templates included :) ).

They are here at http://community.articulate.com/

Number Six – I can slay the Chatterwokey dragon

If it was Jabberwockey that Alice had to fight with, we e Alices have to fight with the Chatterwockeys... Courses which just have a lot of chatters, with less of `learnable content'. They ultimately drone the learner to sleep and kill all your hardwork. Slay the Chatterwokey dragon and save your learners!

The Stone Porridge

2011-06-23T23:28:00.000-07:00

The Stone Porridge

Once, a man who was visiting a new village felt very hungry half way through his journey. He knocked at the doors of many houses, but the response was very unwelcoming. So he decided to change his strategy. He knocked the next house, and asked for food. When declined, he said, “Phew, and I thought you were lucky enough to learn the magic recipe from me”. This intrigued the house wife. “What magic recipe?” she asked. He replied in an enchanting tone, “Did you know that you can make porridge out of stones?”

In a matter of seconds, she got the stones, and the man set into action. He took water in a pot, and added the washed stones into it for cooking. “You know what?” he said, “This tastes even better with a little milk”. Who doesn’t like good food? So the lady was quick to give him the milk. “And now, a little bit of rice or semolina to give it a rich texture. Of course, what’s porridge without sugar?” he said.

Once the ingredients were cooked properly, he said, “The porridge is ready”, while throwing away the stone from the cooking pot.

______________________________________________________________________

It’s time again for our annual staff meeting day. The dance team decided to meet up after office to brainstorm on the show. I joined them too. Now don’t ask me what I’m doing in this group. My dancing career started and ended in UKG.

And here I am, after crossing more than quarter of my life, in a `Dance’ team. But don’t think that it was that dumb a team. I was probably the only black sheep. Others did have a decent little dance career to discuss (if not boast) about.

The team managed to churn out a song and now, the big challenge was choreographing. And what am I seeing in front of me? Even the trained dancers were clueless how to start. Call it starting trouble! Some could `imagine’ the step, but not do it, and some other person could tell what was wrong, but could not figure the right way.

This is when I adopted the stone porridge approach. “What about doing this step?” I asked. I just swirled my hands to make a somewhat `dancy’ step, and it clicked.

It meant a great start to the much distressed, starting trouble plagued group, that they unanimously agreed. “Hey. Let’s start with that”, said one of the girls. Once the ice was broken, the choreographer inside everyone bloomed to the full. So, on the third day, my task was to remove the stone from the porridge. And the team was quick enough to replace it with a more graceful step.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Whenever my team deals with a new topic, and is puzzled on where and how to make a start, the stone porridge approach has worked great. Start with a crappy idea, and let it just go on. It’s good enough to clear off the writers’ block, and usher in fresh and creative ideas. At the end of the day, just take away the stone, and your delicious porridge is ready!

The Story of an E Card

2011-04-12T01:58:00.000-07:00

Among the many crazy things our team does, designing birthday cards is the biggest brain teaser.
So the big challenge here, is to develop a birthday gif file of a colleague. The bigger challenge is to come up with a novel idea for all the 130 (and growing) employees, every year. And the biggest challenge is, to email the `final’ output within an hour.

Designing an e birthday card with pictures of our colleagues had no direct ROI. But we still love doing it. The brightest reason being, its nice to cheer someone on his / her birthday. Putting it in the lingo of Organizational behavior, `It helps to boost employee morale’.
But from the `Content Solutions’ perspective, e card design is a valuable brain teasing exercise. We have to come up with a quick and impressive unique idea and a card. What colors to choose, what is the story, searching for the exact pictures… all in the luxury of one hour.
And the reward? `Good job’ mails, a thank you mail from the birthday boy/ girl, and most importantly, the satisfaction of displaying a creative extravaganza. (O Yes, the birthday treat is an inevitable pleasure!)

Last week, our team got a good volume of applause for designing an e card. There are days where we have spent hours and hours on the design. But with this one, all we took was half an hour. But the `wow’ factor was for the novelty of the idea.

So I thought I will share this with you all, and how we made the card.

The design is of course inspired from Google. In order to emulate the Google page, we took a screenshot of a typical Google search, and re built the `personalized elements’ in Power point. Having the exact fonts and structure did the trick.

Lastly, we take a screenshot of all the slides and convert it into a gif output using Adobe Image Ready.

The Love at First Sight LOOK - Some Easy Tips to Design Your Course Template

2011-02-28T20:14:00.000-08:00

Making the audience fall in love with the module at the first sight is probably every ID’s dream. Converting dry and dowdy text input to a flashy looking module is probably the biggest challenge for us. Let’s explore ways to add more fun to our courses -

Building a Thematic Template
If you are looking for innovative ways of building your module’s make over, you might want to consider a thematic template. A thematic template is a look and feel which complements the content of the module.

For instance, here is a dummy module page that I have created –
The module aims to discuss some eco-friendly ways of life, and this module is built on a `green trail’ theme.

I have given a site trail map at the onset to let the learner know the key learning objects and the approximate time that he/she will have to spend. This way, we get to avoid stereotyped and allergic terms like `Module Objective’, `Time Taken’, `Test’ and `Key areas for discussion’. The `Trail’ theme also sets an adventurous spirit for the module.

Rollicking Themes
If using a thematic color scheme is a clichéd idea, then just go for a fresh and good looking template. The advantage of a generic theme is that you may `pre-build’ them (whenever you get free time), and use them to build modules as quick as a wink.

Let’s say our challenge is to build a product demonstration course. I have experimented with a carnival theme to avoid the routine `website-like’ feel. So, the module `ELX Trade Fair’ is a fun filled carnival place to explore and learn the company ELX’s products.

Here is how the opening page looks like –

Each of the items will branch into their respective slides -

This way, our audience will find the experience more refreshing.
Here are four golden tips while building your template in a Power Point (I owe a great deal of gyan to Tom Kuhlman, my e learning guru) –
Rule No. 1 – Use the Slide Master
View > Slide Master
Bingo! Amateur IDs tend to copy paste the slides instead of using the slide master. Using a slide master considerably reduces your file size.

Rule No. 2 – Use Two PPTs
Do not use the power point where you `built’ the template as your project file. This will only add to your project size.
For instance, your `template building file’ will have all the objects as shapes –

Once you are done building it, now open another PPT, and copy the template items and then paste it into a fresh file, as a png image.
Step 1

Step 2 -

Rule No. 3 – Use Place Holders in your Slide Master
Using a place holder allows you to be flexible with the text part.
To insert a place holder, first go to View > Slide Master. Now, select the slide layout -

Now you can insert the place holder –

Rule No. 4 – Master Title Style
If you don’t intent to use a master title in your template, don’t delete it. Instead, move it above the visible area like this – This becomes useful when your project has complex branching scenarios and hyperlinks –

Creativity knows no bounds. We can go as far as we (and our learners) can challenge us. 
(If you would like to use the template for your e learning course, shoot an email to me (Poornima.Ramachandran@fci.com) and I will be glad to share it with you).

The e-Altruistic Resolve

2011-01-30T22:16:00.000-08:00

As my eyes were ambling through an e issue of The Economic Times, something caught a second glance - Sudeshna Sen’s blog titled ` Philanthropy – Take It From Me’. (http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/LettersfromLondon/entry/philanthropy-take-it-from-me)

The question in the microscope was `"Why are Indians so bad at giving?". To quote her, “The need for financial security outweighs the need to feel charitable, except for religious or economic purposes. Besides, Indians have this insane need to 'provide' for the next generation that, in turn, generates those fabulous savings rates that are the envy of the developed world. If you had to pay inheritance tax, like in UK, you wouldn't be saving up as much as you do.”

Very true, I agreed. We so much hold back from giving. While the `mango man’ might be willing to dole out money for charring crackers to glory in a local temple festival, or save up all his whittles to gold-plate his daughter on her wedding, philanthropy has always been thought of as a reprehensible act, reserved only for the pompous and flamboyant filthy rich.

Forget the real world, let’s enter the e world, and I’m sure the phenomenon is more or less the same. We almost google for help as many times as we breath… but how many times have we bothered to respond to an online help query?

The thought did not rake my head until I once tumbled over Chris Grant’s blog on digital altruism (http://chrisgrant.wordpress.com/). He describes digital altruism as “a deep-seeded need to do good in the world and how, thanks to new technologies, we can be a part of something bigger than ourselves from anywhere in the world, transcending the market and our own self-interest.” Lo and behold, the whole world is at its altruistic best, and where am I?

So yes, I belong to the major chunk of Indians who are `digital-altruistically’ impaired. I shamelessly google for help, initiate discussions, accept helpful responses from people in some other continent. But never have I bothered to give my two cents (or even a quarter!).

Time for me to emulate my teammate Sayuj, who has resolved to do as many `digital altruistic’ acts as possible during free time.
Okay… so who’s hit the help button today?

Getting Social

2010-12-09T00:35:00.000-08:00

What is social media?

Had this been my final year exam question, five years ago, I would have bluntly replied that any media which is not anti social in its intention is social media.

But today, as a netizen trapped in the web for most of the time, I should confess, I live, breath and eat social media. Did I leave out an important fact here? Yes. Not only do I live, breath and eat social media, I also make a living with social media.
Wikipedia defines Social media as `media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogues’.

That means, while tweeting or re-tweeting, writing a blog, or setting a live status message, we are breathing social media.
This certainly marks a definite shift in mass communication. While my text books told me that mass communication is predominantly one-way in nature (like, you read the newspaper, listen to radio, or watch the television) the magic spell of the `social media’ phenomenon proves the definition otherwise.

Stark statistics blare out that the world today has over 60 million bloggers. Twitter is laden with 75 million accounts. Any news website has a zillion comments and replies.

So why are all these here in my blog space? Because its time I make my elearning stuff `social media compatible’. This means wading a sayonara to bookish stuff and ushering in content that is intuitive (or seemingly intuitive).

The above content could be better presented as this –

This makes the learning process more interesting, and the content is certainly more engaging.
Quiz is yet another area where the influence of social media is strongly felt. Gone is the age when it was enough to tell the people their net score and close the module. Today, quizzes need to `talk’ with participants, giving them enough reasons to tell them why a choice is right or wrong.

LMS platforms like Moodle take the concept even more further by providing chat windows for participants / teachers to communicate.

Reminds me of 007's lines - `The world is not enough...But is is such a perfect place to start, my love!'

Getting Back to Grass Roots

2010-10-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

Come Vijaya Dashami, and it’s time for Vidyarambham. A time to re visit alphabets, numbers and the seven music notes.

As I was scribbling the invisible alphabets in the floor, I went down two decades in the memory lane – The `era’ of my life when I used to stutter and ponder over every alphabet. Writing each letter seemed like a mountain of a job, and my dad would be crazed with the volley of questions that I throw on - On why `I’ cannot be written in small letters, why `A’ sounds different when used in sentences. Some would be answered, and some stonewalled.

Today, I just rush through the alphabets. No questions asked. Two decades, and am I done with the 26 alphabets? An emphatic No. Just that my curiosity to know more has acceded itself a dirty sense of complacency.

So how does this translate to my work? A conclusion is an inevitable part of an e learning course. But do we make an effort to emphasize what we told the learner a moment back? From the piles of information that we scattered, did we tell him what was really important and to be remembered?

On to a long term plan. Do we have a `semi-induction’ kit , or rather, a `reinforcement kit’ for employees? For instance, take my own case. I work in a connector manufacturing company. I had taken lessons on the basics of connector manufacturing in my first month here. Crossing three years, if you ask me what a terminal means, I would probably point to a bus depot. So the point is, we must re-enforce the key points on a periodic basis. As with the Vidhyarambham principle, with every year, the angle at which we look at the basics change, and therefore, will open up new insights.

BULLETED DOWN AND POINTED AT?

2010-09-10T04:21:00.000-07:00

  My 8 month old son refuses to pick up a toy if I give it straight away. Instead, any object is sure to gain his attention if it is just kept nearby.

Lesson for his instructional designer mom – Never compel your learner to READ at something. A subtle message or an indicator would do the trick.  How many times have we thrust upon the key points to the learners by those killer bullets?

Yes, we have been taught in schools to summarize points into neat bullets, and I still have all my nods for it. BUT, a lot of bullets in an e learning course might just make your e learning module more effective than a sleeping pill. .

  There could be more creative ways of nailing your learner to the e learning course than those sharp bullets.

RULE No. 1 – Never explain the obvious

Our learners are not morons. They are here in the work place after completing a decent level of education. Most of them are also familiar with a PC. This means they need not be explained what a play button or volume control stands for.  Of course, we cannot over look the fact that some learners need some sort of guidance in terms of navigation. So the best option would be to make this optional.

EXPLICIT NAVIGATION HELP = BORING

HELP IF REQUIRED = INTERESTING

Rule No 2 - Remember the Short Skirt

A good speech, it’s said, should be like a short skirt – Long enough to cover the essentials and short enough to be interesting. It’s the same with e learning too. Time the course to be just long enough to cover the key learning points, and yet short enough to be sustain interest.

RULE No. 3 – Know When to Load Your Gun

With our systems fully loaded with bullets, I know it’s quite tempting to just organize the content into some quick bullets and dump it into the course. Instead, do every bit to help your learner retain the lessons learnt. Go visual wherever possible.

Using bullets to organize information is a great way, but, know WHEN to load your gun!

Error Messages – The Paradigm Shift

2009-10-28T01:49:00.000-07:00

I was once surfing through Orkut, just curious to check out a friend’s photo album. The mouse did not seem to obey my command, and I was not taken anywhere, bringing a slight fret on my face and a twist on my brow. Soon, a message pops up on my screen, and my brows had a different reason to be twisted –

`Bad bad server, no donut for you’ it read. It did take me a few moments to realize that it was actually an error message.

Well, that one just earned my passing gaze, but this one really had me roaring with laughter –

An error message in youtube, consoling me that a team of highly qualified monkeys have been dispatched to deal with the situation.

As a casual browser, I could afford to amuse myself by reading these error messages, but as a technical author, it did really rake my grey cells – What a change in writing style! If I was to write an error message, this is how it would read –

`Sorry for the inconvenience caused, we are facing a technical error in accessing the page. Please check your browser settings or refer to our help …Blah blah blah… Snorr….’ Oops, sorry, I could almost hear my reader snore away to glory.

Thanks to our Indian psyche thickly wax coated with the formal Britain English, it is simply impossible for us to cocktail humor and matter. Traveling and writing light is simply unthinkable… and wit? No way in an official document!

Wondering if I should include humor and light language in my Technical writer’s quality checklist. Otherwise, no donuts for myself!

BTW, did you notice my heading? Now what did I say?