The Learning Solutions Conference & Expo is only a couple of weeks away.  And I can say that I am really excited!  A few weeks ago, I wrote about how you can change the world by volunteering to build an elearning course for one of the LINGOs organizations. 

Thanks to all of the blog readers who volunteered.  From what I understand, they’ve filled all of the requests and have gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars in free course development.  That’s what I call changing the world!  I’m anxious to see all of the LINGOs courses.   

David Anderson and I also took on the challenge and volunteered to help.  Just like many of you, we had a short period of time to assemble the content and build an elearning course.  It was interesting to collaborate with a client who was in a different country and we were both working from different locations.  I can say we learned a lot on this project.  You’ll hear more about that after the conference. 

However, during the design process we had an interesting discussion about some course navigation and when to provide access to resources during a decision-making scenario.  It’s a conversation that’s common to course design so I thought I’d share the gist of it. 

The Set Up

Part of the course puts the learners in a situation where they have to make decisions.  At this point they might not know all of the information to make the right choice.  That’s OK because it’s kind of like real life.  We’re always faced with decisions where we don’t have all of the information.

However, we did want to create a way for the learner to get information prior to making a decision.  So we added a “learn more” feature.  We liked the flexibility.  A confident learner could skip the information and go right to making a decision.  But if she wasn’t confident, she had resources available to make an informed choice.

Before deciding on our path, we wrestled with when and where to offer access to additional information.

Here’s the Dilemma

Suppose you create a similar type of interaction.  You want the learner to make a decision.  The decision will produce feedback that provides more detail.  Here are your design choices:

• Give the learner access to “more information” prior to making the decision.  But don’t provide it afterwards outside of the feedback.
• Don’t provide access to information prior to the choice.  Force the learner to make an educated guess.  Add a “review information” option after the decision.
• Offer access to additional information before and after the learner makes a choice.

Option 1: “More information” available prior to choice

In the image below, you are challenging the learner to make a decision.  Some people already know what to do (or think they do) so they’ll just go ahead and make a decision.  Others aren’t sure, so they’ll want to look up the organization’s policies and then make their decision.

What’s good about this approach is that the learner gets to assess her level of understanding first and then determines whether or not she needs additional information.  And a more experienced learner isn’t required to go through a bunch of extra information prior to making a choice.

After the choice is made, you provide feedback with no offer for additional information.  If the learner gets it wrong, you provide the right information in the feedback and encourage her to make “more informed decisions” on future decisions. 

If you have the right type of scenario, you can use this approach to reinforce being certain of decisions prior to making them.  My guess is that the learner would become more aware of her uncertainty and want to research her choices prior to making a decision.  It allows her to assess what she knows and then build the level of understanding she needs to continue. 

Option 2: Add a review option only after a choice is made

This next option is to not provide a “more information” feature prior to the choice.  The learner has to make a decision based on her current level of understanding.  If she’s not sure, she has to make an educated guess.  This ambiguity creates some tension which you can leverage to encourage learning.

It’s not easy to make a choice like this because it puts the learner in a vulnerable position.  No one likes the risk of being wrong.  However, that risk is motivation to learn.  And there’s nothing wrong with a little tension and uncertainty.  You should have the freedom to fail in an elearning course.

Many elearning scenarios and choices are kind of lame; and the learner can quickly spot the correct answers.  But if you created choices that are challenging and not easy to guess, it causes more reflection on the viability of the choices.  This in itself is a great learning vehicle, regardless of whether or not the right choice is made initially. 

Option 3: Provide information before and after the choice

This third option is the safest.  You provide a feature to access additional information for the learner who wants to make an informed decision first.  And after a decision is made, you provide access to additional information.  Thus, the learner always has access to the information and resources to help her learn.  And that’s a real benefit.

This approach definitely helps with navigating the course content.  The truth is that many elearning courses can be tedious.  In most cases, the learner’s not asking to take the course and just wants to complete it.  So it makes sense to provide as much freedom to the learner as possible.  And offering access to additional information at all stages in the course is valuable.

Personally, I like the ambiguity angle.  Life isn’t tidy like the third option.  And many of us just tend to make decisions and then learn from the consequences.  Given the right type of scenarios and course content, I prefer a “throw them into the pool” approach, where they make decisions and learn through the consequences.

Which approach do you prefer?  When would one be more valuable than another?  Share your thoughts by clicking on the comments link.

Tidbits

It’s not too late to submit a quick tip.  Check out last week’s post and some of the good tutorials in the comments section. 

And if you happen to be at the Learning Solutions Conference & Expo in Orlando, swing by the Articulate booth.  Or check out one of these sessions:

• Get Rid of the "Next" Button and Create Engaging e-Learning
• Visual Design Essentials: Practical Techniques for Designing Better Online Courses
• Master Session: Turning Click-&-Read Content into Interactive e-Learning

People are always asking me about how to get better at building elearning courses.  They want to know which books to read, which classes to take, which school to go to, etc.  It’s like they’re walking around with these big fat wallets wanting to spend money.

While all of the aforementioned options are valuable, there’s a way to learn that doesn’t cost you a dime.  All it requires is some time and willingness to share what you’re learning.

Here are three cool experiences that demonstrate a great way to learn and the value in sharing what you know.  You’ll even get some practical tips to boot.

Find Free Tips & Tricks

Stephanie Harnett of ICE shows a cool tip for creating a transparent tape effect in PowerPoint.  The effect is easy enough to learn and practice in a few minutes.

There are also a lot of uses for the effect.  For example, you can combine it with the notebook template I shared a while back.  Or use David’s Polaroid idea and “tape” them to a wall on your elearning course screen.

Click here to view the tape effect tutorial.

There are a lot of free tips and tricks like this on the internet.  Probably the best place to start is the user community.  There you can connect with like-minded people.  So, become a member of your software’s user community.

If you’re a rapid elearning developer, you can find a bunch of great demos and examples on Screenr.  If that doesn’t work, look for a local user groups, connect with people via Twitter or follow personal blogs.  Here’s a great example from Sumeet Moghe where he walks through the process of creating a course on a limited budget.

If you’re an Articulate rapid elearning developer, we’ve got a lot of help in our community tutorial list (and there are new ones almost daily).  In either case, the first tip is to find and follow the people who can teach you new skills.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Watching tutorials and reading blog posts will only get you so far.  You have to practice the things you learn from them.  Otherwise, what’s the point?

If you practice what you learn, not only will you learn new techniques, odds are you’ll also become more efficient at what you do.

Click here to view the Electric Pallet Jack demo.

Here’s an example from a recent conversation I had with David Anderson.  The other day someone in the community forums asked how Prometheus had built the Electric Pallet Jack demo above.  Specifically, they wanted to know how they built the animation effect on slide 19.

David wanted to do a quick screencast.  So he looked at the example, came up with an answer, and then proceeded to practice it.  Initially, he tried to combine the fade in and motion path animations.  However, they just didn’t look right.  So he tried a few things before he stumbled upon the often overlooked ascend and descent animations.

What David found was that his initial solution wasn’t the best approach.  But he only realized this after practicing the technique. Once he had a good solution, he built a quick prototype and created a screencast to share with the community.  You can see his solution right here and learn to build a similar effect for your own elearning courses.

The main point here is that when you see something (or have an idea) practice doing it.  You might not have it down the first time, but eventually you’ll come up with a solution that works.  And you’ll develop a production process that helps you become faster and more efficient.  That’s what happed with David. And it’s also what I advocate in posts like this where I discuss building templates and graphics to better learn PowerPoint.

Share What You Learn

You don’t have to be a recognized guru to share what you know.  Stephanie’s tape tutorial doesn’t require a Master’s in Graphic Design.  Yet it offers real practical uses.  And that’s more important than some abstract tip from an 80-year old elearning sage.

I’m sure that there are plenty of tips and tricks and things that you’re learning right now that can benefit others.  Why not do a quick tutorial?

Here’s an example of how sharing what you know makes the community stronger and contributes to you learning more and expanding your skills.

The other day, Tracy Hamilton shared a quick tip on how to nudge PowerPoint objects by pressing the ALT key and dragging with your mouse.  She used the technique while creating a mitered frame look.  Watching her demo, made me wonder about different ways you could build a picture frame.  So I played around with some ideas.

What’s cool about this is that Tracy shared what she knew.  It prompted some ideas to play with. And I created this screencast to share what I learned.  It’s a great example of how we learn by sharing and building off of each others’ ideas.  The same could be said of Sumeet’s post above. 

Here’s one final example that really speaks to the power of community and offers some good tips for your next elearning course, too.  It combines the folder template I shared with Jeanette’s hands animation to create a completely new tutorial with additional tips that you can use for your next elearning course.

Click here to view the folder tutorial.

While going to school is good, there’s no reason why you can’t learn a lot of what you need to know from your community of peers.  All it takes is a commitment to learn, practice, and a willingness to share with others.  If you do that, you’ll probably learn a lot of stuff you wouldn’t have learned in school anyway.  And it’s all free!

What rapid elearning tips do you have to share?  They don’t have to be long and drawn out.  They could be real quick like Tracy’s and Stephanie’s.

I have an extra copy of Patti Shank’s Essential Articulate Studio ‘09 sitting on my desk.  Create a tutorial using Screenr.  Share a link in the comments section.  I’ll do a drawing from the comments and send the book (and something extra to the winner).

Contrast is a key part of your course design.  In fact, it’s one of the foundational principles in visual design.  Many people know the acronym, CRAP (or CARP if you’re an ichthyolatrist) which stands for: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.  They are the four essential design elements.

Contrast allows you to distinguish the content on the screen.  It helps the learner navigate what’s there, discern relationships, and determine what’s most important.  There are a lot of ways to create contrast.  Let’s look at a few simple examples.

Contrasting Text

The images below are from a previous where I discussed a few graphic design principles.  Both images have the same information.  However, by creating titles, body text, bold text and underlines I’m able to organize the information and provide direction for the learner. Without more than a few design elements I communicate how the information is organized.

Contrasting Size & Proximity

There are other ways to create contrast—size being one of them.  One way is by changing the font size.  You can see it in the image above and in the text of this blog post.  The heading title is larger than the rest of the text.  This lets you quickly scan the titles and make an assumption about how the information is organized and what it contains.

In the image below, there are two characters.  However, most people are first drawn to the lady in the front because of her position and size in relationship to the other person.  She is the focal point of the scene and can communicate being the main character.  Most likely the first question is, “Why is she so happy?”

Contrasting Color

Another great way to create contrast is through the use of color.  In the example below, I used the bright yellow highlight to focus on a single point of information.  This could be a good technique for those times when your client gives you a text heavy slide and isn’t willing to budge.  This would really work well combined with animation and audio.

To show how color can change the meaning of the content, let’s revisit the earlier image.  By turning the color off of everything but one character, the point of focus now is the colorized person.  So instead of asking why the first lady is happy, we might be wondering what’s wrong with the second lady and why she appears upset.

A bonus tip is emotion.  In the image one person is happy, while the other has a smirk.  What’s the story there?

Contrast is a powerful way to communicate ideas and an effective way to use your graphics.  There are all sorts of ways to use contrast in your design, and not just with your graphics.  With your next course, make a deliberate attempt to use it and see what happens.

What are some ways you’ve used contrast in your elearning design?  Do you have any good examples?  Feel free to share them via the comments link.

When we’re new and just getting started with elearning, we need templates and project plans to guide us.  On the other hand, experienced developers rely less on those resources because they have more experience and a deeper understanding of what it takes to create an elearning course.

Think of it like driving around town. When I first moved to town, I needed a map.  But today, I don’t use a map.  In fact, even when I look for streets with which I’m unfamiliar, I can avoid using a map because I have a big picture understanding of the town’s layout and crossroads.

On top of that, if I run into a road block, I can quickly make adjustments to my route.  However, if I was following a print out with directions, once I hit a roadblock, I’d be stuck.  And as my wife would say, I’d be stuck there a long time reluctant to ask for directions.

Templates are fine, but they’re based on practiced routines rather than solving problems.  This is OK when getting started, but practiced routines can be constricting because the focus is on conforming to the routine rather than solving the problem.

We see that a lot of this in our industry that relies so heavily on templates, ADDIE project plans, style guides, and stringent branding requirements.  Reliance on these rigid guidelines doesn’t always fit the needs of the elearning project and in many cases leads to inferior course design.

Today, instead of offering a project plan or template for elearning, I thought I’d offer a basic project structure for a course.  Think of it like a big picture project plan.  To keep it simple, let’s break the course structure into three main chunks.

• Visual design: determine the look and feel of the course
• Information design: determine what content belongs in the course
• Activity design: how the learner applies or interacts with the course content

Visual Design: How Will The Course Look?

The two images below come from a recent CrunchGear article.  Don’t worry about what the products do or the merits of one product over another.  If you only had five minutes to play with one device, which one would it be?

If you’re like me, you’d choose the one on the left.  It’s colorful and inviting.  I want to pick it up and start playing with it.  The other one just doesn’t look as inviting.  Think about your course design.  Is it inviting from the start?

Design matters.  It conveys to the learner that what they’re doing is important and worth their time. Consider yourself a set designer for a Broadway play.  You are given a limited amount of space, and in it you need to create an immersive experience.  Your goal is pull the learner into the course first by capturing their attention and then by creating a learning environment that is both relevant to the content and engaging to the senses.   I like this quote about set design:

"The scenographer visually liberates the text and the story behind it, by creating a world in which the eyes see what the ears do not hear."

This doesn’t have to be complicated.  We’re not all professional graphic artists.  But there is room for us to place more emphasis on the visual design of our elearning courses.

Below are before and after examples both created in PowerPoint.  The first example is typical of what you might see in a rapid elearning course.  The second version is the same content.  The design is more interesting and relevant to content.  In addition, instead of a sterile white slide, it’s more like walking into the forest to learn more.

Information Design: What Do People Need to Know? 

A great looking course is only one part of the process.  You need to have great content to go with it.  Assembling the content rests on a few core areas:

• Clear objectives: understanding desired results and how to get there 
• Appropriate content: information that supports the learning objectives
• Relevance: information is meaningful and relevant to the learner 

There are all sorts of models and ways to collect the information you need for a course.  I kind of like the way the Performance Consulting book helps you walk through a training project.

Your course content is determined by your objectives.  To determine your objectives, you look at your current results and compare them to where you need to be.  The comparison should identify a gap.  This helps keep your objectives performance-based and is the basis for how you measure success.

Once you know where you need to be, you determine why you’re not getting there.  What does the learner need to do that’s different than what they do today?  This information helps you gather the right content for the course and build the right type of course.

Activity: How Will Learners Apply the Information?

The tendency in elearning is to design courses focused on information.  These tend to be the dreaded click-and-read courses, where the learner just clicks a next button to advance.  Ideally, the course is less about the information and more about how the learner uses the information.  This keeps the course meaningful and relevant.

This doesn’t mean that the course needs to have all of the bells and whistles.  Instead, the focus is on getting the learner to use the course content which can happen in all sorts of ways.

Ways to Apply Information

• Case studies & scenarios: Present some problem solving exercises and activities.  You can make these as simple or complex as you like. The main point is to give the learner a way to use the information and get feedback.
• Blended approach: Mix elearning with real-world activities where they get the core information online and then it’s integrated in some team or class discussions and exercises.  I designed a courses once where we emailed case studies for a manager to review with his new hires after they went through the basic elearning course.
• Social media: There are all sorts of ways to make social media part of the elearning process.  Have the learners work through exercises via a wiki or discussion forum.  You could challenge each learner to present one new thing learned and how it can be applied on the job.   

This is a basic overview of designing an elearning course.  The three areas are not exclusive.  They go hand-in-hand; and together they make a complete course.  When you build your next course, ask:

• Is the course inviting? Does the look and feel of the course support the content?
• What information does the learner need? 
• What do I expect them to do with that information? Can they do it in the course?

If you keep this simple framework in mind, you’ll be on the road to creating effective and engaging elearning courses.  What other tips would you offer to someone just getting started?  How about good book ideas? Click on the comments link to share your thoughts.

Tidbits:

• I’ll be in Orlando at the Learning Solutions Conference on March 24-26.  David and Jeanette will be there, too.  Swing by the booth or check out our sessions.
• If you’re interested, Joe Fournier just posted an interview with me. “…Spending the time breaking down a good course is better than spending the time reading a book on e-learning.”

In a previous post, I shared some free handwritten fonts.  Today, we’ll explore how you might use them in your elearning courses.

We already looked at how fonts are more than the text you read.  As a graphic element, they convey meaning and play a role in the message you communicate. That means you always have to consider what visual cues the text provides in addition to what is being read.

A Few Examples

Below are images from some web sites that include the use of handwritten fonts.  Look them over and consider what value they bring to the screen.  How would those sites be different if the font used was not handwritten?

Barista iPhone App

Foto.marcol.art

Creating Passionate Users

Handwritten fonts can draw attention to important parts of the screen, add a sense of personality, and speak to the user in more personal and informal tone.  It’s as if the instructor is letting you in on some personal notes, giving you extra information.  Kind of like the director’s commentary on DVD.  Because of this, handwritten fonts can add value to your elearning course.

When to Use Handwritten Fonts

Below are some tips to help you determine why and when you might use them.

• Novelty can contribute to engagement.  Most courses have a generic and familiar look.  Combine handwritten fonts with a less familiar look and you’ve got a course that stands out.  The cork board example above could easily be the design theme for an elearning course.
• Add a human touch.  Handwritten fonts can draw the learner in and make it seem like the information is a bit more personal.  Augment the screen content with a personal note and it appears as if you’re speaking past the course and directly to the learner.
• Instead of black, use a dark gray.  It warms up the “ink.”  I’d also look at common marker colors.  Bold colors probably work better than those that are gentle or subdued.  Plus, colors have their own meanings.  Like red, which can imply an error or command attention.
• Use strong contrast.  You really want the handwriting to stand out.  That’s where the bold marker colors come in handy.  The effect works well on the third image above because she used black and white images with colored handwritten fonts and arrows.
• Rotate the text slightly.  Never leave the text perfectly horizontal, it’ll look more natural.  Kathy Sierra from Creating Passionate Users also once suggested adding hand drawn lines to the handwritten fonts to make the font seem more real.  That’s why I included a free font set with some hand drawn lines.
• Contrast formal and informal content.  For example, the course content is represented with a traditional font, but when you want to pull out some key points or “did you know” text, handwritten fonts work well.
• Change the tone or voice of the course.  By changing from a formal font to the handwritten font, you create a visual cue for the learner.  An example of this might be where you transition from the formal course content to a case study.  The case study is pointed to the learner so the tone of the content changes and comes across as more personal and less generic.
• Create a sense of urgency.  Striking through some text and overwriting it with a handwritten font implies urgency or possibly an important last-minute change.  It definitely stands out and makes you notice the change.

I applied some of the tips in the image below.  The handwritten text represents the answer to a question.  It contrasts with the question text.  The red also helps the answer stand out and is probably the first thing most learners will focus on.

Add personality to your elearning course with handwritten fonts.  The contrast helps you focus on key information and they can create a more personal setting.  They can help step away from that common corporate look.

Do you know of some good examples of elearning courses that include handwritten fonts?  Feel free to share your thoughts by clicking on the comments link.

E-learning is hot. And for good reason. If done right, it can produce great results by decreasing costs and improving performance. Also, unlike a one time classroom session, the elearning course is available for others.  This includes the static elearning course as well as any ongoing conversations in networked communities.

Recently, I had a conversation with someone new to elearning and it struck me that she didn’t fully understand the value of elearning.  I think this is common as more people are joining the world of elearning.  Understanding elearning’s value helps you make the best decisions about when and why to use it. 

E-learning Supports the Organization’s Goals

• Improved training costs.  Producing learning content is time consuming whether it’s online or not.  With elearning, each time the course is accessed your return on investment improves because you are dividing the fixed production costs by number of uses.  You also have savings through decreased travel, reduced material, and hopefully improved (and more efficient) performance.

• Decreased material costs.  Let’s say you have to train how to arrange equipment in a sterile environment like an operating room.  If you had to use the real environment, it would be costly.  Even setting up a fake environment has material costs and labor.  By creating the environment online and letting the learner practice, you never have to worry about the costs associated with set up, use, and clean up.

• Increased productivity.  Because elearning is not bound by geography or time, you can control training’s impact on production by training people during down times.  In addition, with the current economy, you’re asking people to do more with less.  So elearning is a great way to give them the tools and skills needed to enhance their performance.

• Standardization.  You may have a great facilitator, but that’s no guarantee that the courses are presented the same across sessions.  Elearning allows you to create a standardized process and consistency in the delivery of content.  It also compresses delivery time.  I’ve combined elearning courses with facilitated sessions.  Elearning delivered consistent content.  Live sessions were interactive case studies that applied the information.

E-learning Supports the Learner’s Development

• Real-time access.  Live learning events require that those who participate align their schedules to the training calendar.  Elearning eliminates this because the course can be accessed anytime, anywhere.  This can also happen without Internet access.  I saw a Red Cross demo where the learners accessed the content on a PC out in the field and uploaded their results when they were back online.
• Freedom to fail.  Let’s face it, real learning requires some failure.  But no one likes to fail in a classroom full of other people.  Elearning lets you fail without fear.  This encourages exploration and testing of ideas.  With the right feedback you create a great learning environment.  Worst case, you can always start over.  Something you can’t always do in class.
• Improved retention.  The combination of multimedia and instructional design can produce a very rich learning experience that is repeatable.  Throw in some good practice activities with feedback and you have a learning environment that’s going to help your learners retain the course content which will produce results.
• Personalized learning.  Look out the window at your parking lot.  My guess is that you’ll see a dozen or more different cars.  They all do the same thing, yet we have personal opinions about what we want to drive.  The same for learning.  Learners want control.  Elearning allows you to offer control to the learners in a way that classroom learning doesn’t.

E-learning Nurtures a Learning Organization & Community

• Ongoing access to resources.  If you take a class in the real world and need a refresher, you better hope that you took good notes.  Otherwise, you’re out of luck.  That’s not the case with elearning.  Ideally, you continue to have access to the online content and resources to brush up on what you learned. 
• Knowledge management.  Many people see elearning as only the authored courses.  But elearning includes all sort of online technologies.  If you incorporate some of the tools that allow collaboration and conversation, you can capture organizational knowledge that is available for future learners.
• Encourage sharing.  The foundation of a learning community is built on sharing what you know with others.  This is where incorporating a forum or wiki really adds value to your elearning.  Depending on how the course is structured, you can encourage sharing of resources and insight gained from the course. 
• Employer of choice.  People want opportunities to grow.  A cafeteria with high fat foods is one way.  Another is a catalog with all sorts of elearning courses.  This allows them to explore other opportunities in the organization.  During downtime, it would be great to spend fifteen minutes learning to better manage meetings or improve working with peers.  Offering these opportunities to learn makes you a place people want to stay.

• Elearning is good for the environment.  Britain’s Open University’s “study found that producing and providing distance learning courses consumes an average of 90% less energy and produces 85% fewer CO2 emissions per student than conventional face-to-face courses.”   

One of the challenges with making elearning effective is how you manage the courses and access to resources.  I’m an advocate of freeing up the course navigation and giving the learner more control.

If you’re using a learning management system you might consider how that impacts the learning.  Do people have access to the resources when the course is complete?  Can they retake it?  Are you punishing them for failing?

Elearning is cost effective and can produce great results.  It’s all a matter of how you use it.  Where do you see elearning’s effectiveness?  What suggestions would you offer to those who are just getting started?  Feel free to share your ideas via the comments link.

Tidbits:

• I’m in San Diego at the Training 2010 Training & Expo this week.  If you’re there, swing by the Articulate booth and say “Hi.”

• I’ll also be in Orlando at the Learning Solutions Conference on March 24-26.  David and Jeanette will be there, too.  Swing by the booth or check out our sessions.  We’d love to meet you.

There’s a lot of conversation about social media.  And for good reason.  The tools let you connect with peers who share common interests.   It’s also a great way to build a personal learning network.  For example, if you build rapid elearning courses with Articulate products there are all sorts of resources available to you:

• Articulate’s Facebook page keeps you up-to-date on news and information.
• Connect with us via Twitter.  It’s a more personal connection to the network and you can stay on top of the cool tutorials we create with Screenr.
• Articulate sponsors two blogs: the Word of Mouth blog features Articulate-specific news and the Rapid E-Learning Blog offers general elearning tips and tricks.  In addition, many of the Articulate folks have their own personal blogs that also offer interesting tidbits.
• The community forums are a great resource for quick help from others who build rapid elearning courses.  They share the types of tips and best practices that you can only get from other users.  Personally, I think it’s the best online forum I’ve ever been part of because of the great interactions and downloads.  Check out this recent thread. 

As you can see from the example above, if you use Articulate products there’s an entire network of people and an active community for you to be part of.  And that is usually the case in any community where you share common interests.

Not only is social media good for you, it’s good for your learners.  Many organizations have their own tools like blogs, wikis, and discussion forums.  It makes sense to blend your elearning courses with social media because you teach your learners to create their own learning network.

The challenge with these tools is that it can be hard for people to manage all of the information.  In fact, I was talking to someone recently who said that she really appreciates all of the resources available through sites like Facebook and Twitter.  But she felt overwhelmed by all of the information and has started tuning out.

The Value of Community

When I was younger, I took great pride in not listening to mainstream music.  Instead, I sought out bands that no one knew.  The problem with unheard of bands is that they’re typically unheard of.  Back then we didn’t have the internet to find and listen to music. It was a challenge to be a non-conforming conformist.

I discovered the bands through a magazine that had a reader section titled, Desert Island Discs.  People listed the ten albums they’d take with them if they were marooned on an island.  I used that list to find someone with similar interests.  Inevitably they listed bands that I didn’t know.

And that’s the value of community.  You’re tapped into a network of people who have similar interests.  They’ll provide connections, resources, and perspective that you might not get elsewhere.

Click here to watch Social Networking in Plain English.

Even if you build traditional elearning courses, social media has value.  It’ll strengthen your network of peers.  And if you include it as part of your course design, you can leverage many of the online tools and help your learners build their own network of peers to support them long after they’ve completed the course.

It’s easy enough to integrate social media with your rapid elearning courses.  Here are a few examples:

• Three Practical Ideas for Using Twitter in E-Learning
• 3 Creative Ways to Empower Your Learners
• Prototype demos:  using online chat, a Youtube & Google Maps mashup, and incorporating Twitter discussion in your course. 

Filtering the Noise

Tapping into a learning community is fine.  But with the many resources available today, the “tapping into” experience is more like this scene from the movie, Small Time Crooks.  You just want a little but end up getting a lot more than you can handle.  Or so it seems.  

Click here to view the video clip.

No one goes to a library and complains that there are too many books.  That wouldn’t make sense.  You want as many books as possible in the library.  You just don’t want them all at the same time.  The same goes for your learning community’s resources.

Here are five simple ways to manage all of the information available to you.  I also did a quick screencast that walks you through some of these tips.

• Use a feed reader to subscribe to the resources.  Many of the social media tools and sites have an RSS feed.  By subscribing via RSS feed, you can access everything from one site rather than having to visit each site that interests you.
• Filter by keywords.  Some of the people I follow in Twitter post more than ten times a day.  It’s hard to keep up with all of that.  Besides, there are usually only a few things that interest me.  So I tune them out.  I don’t even look at their posts.  Instead, I create keyword filters.  This helps me get rid of the noise and only see those things that interest me.
• Find information that’s already aggregated.  Don’t feel like doing any of that sorting or subscribing?  No biggie.  Just find someone else who does it and go to that site.  For example, if you’re active in Facebook and use Articulate products, become a fan of Articulate.  A lot of the community news and resources are available there and that saves you from having to do it yourself.
• Focus on what’s practical.  Even if you do all of the sorting and filtering, it’s still a lot to handle.  Personally, I’m more interested in practical applications of ideas and not all of the conversation.  So I tend to pay more attention to tutorials, examples, and demos than I do news stories and conversations.
• Tune out.  OK, this kind of goes contrary to the whole social media thing, but who cares?  Don’t worry about being on top of all of the chatter. As a wise man one said, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”  Sometimes you’re better off tuning out and staying focused, than you are getting anxious and trying to stay on top of everything.  Just tune in when you want. 

Social media technology opens the door to a lot of helpful information and helps you build a network of like-minded peers.  In addition, your training program will be more effective if you can teach your learners to create and manage their own learning networks.

How are you using social media?  Are you using it with your elearning programs?  I’d love to hear how it’s working out.  Click on the comments link to share your thoughts.

Upcoming Conferences:

• David Anderson has a lot of creative elearning tutorials.  He’ll be at TechKnowledge this week doing two sessions, Dump the Templates! Create Custom Rapid
  E-Learning Your Way.  Stop by the Articulate booth to meet him.
• I’ll be in San Diego at the Training 2010 Training & Expo on February 1-2.  If you’re there, swing by the Articulate booth and say “Hi.”
• I’ll also be in Orlando at the Learning Solutions Conference on March 24-26.  In fact, David and Jeanette will be there, too.  Swing by the booth or check out our sessions.

In today’s post, we’ll pull some of these ideas together to create a folder graphic that you can use in your elearning courses.  I have a published example below, as well as a step-by-step tutorial.  You can also download the PowerPoint file so that you can play around with it.

Example of a Published Course

Here’s an example of how you could use this folder graphic when designing your elearning course.  It’s just a quick demo with a few slides.  But I think you can see that it works well and does a lot to make the course more visually interesting. 

Click here to view the folder demo.

How to Build the Folder

I got the idea for the folder graphic from a great Photoshop tutorial on how to create a folder.  For this demo, I only used a few of the Photoshop steps to keep it simple.  The video tutorial below walks through the process of building the folder but here’s a quick overview. 

It’s really pretty simple and uses only one PowerPoint shape that is duplicated three times, resized, and then filled with different gradient effects.

I used the generic PowerPoint 2007 color themes so that I can quickly change the folder color to match my project demands.  This allows you to have an unlimited number of colored folders.  All you would need to do is create a custom theme to match your project needs.

Here’s a good tutorial by @elearning on how to create drop shadows in PowerPoint.  I used that technique for the folders.  As you can see below, it gives them a realistic look, especially on the open folder.

I used a “paper clip” graphic and ungrouped it to pull out the paper clip.  Now I can attach miscellaneous objects to the side of the folder to give it a richer look. You can learn more about working with clip art images so that you can create your own paper clip.

That’s a quick overview.  There’s a lot more detail in the free tutorial below .  I think you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to create the folders.  The tutorial walks you through building the folder and it teaches you some production techniques to get faster using PowerPoint. 

Click here to view the tutorial.

Building the folder is pretty simple and straightforward.  If you have a few minutes, practice making your own.  You’ll learn to use PowerPoint as a graphics tool and you’ll also have a cool asset to use in your next elearning course.

I included the PowerPoint file I used to create the folders.  Feel free to use them as you wish.  You can download the PowerPoint file here.

If you have any tips or tricks you’d like to share, feel free to add them to the comments link.

Upcoming Conferences:

• Community Manager, David Anderson, will be at TechKnowledge on January 27-29.  Check out his session, Dump the Templates! Create Custom Rapid E-Learning Your Way, or stop by the Articulate booth to meet him.
• I’ll be in San Diego at the Training 2010 Training & Expo on February 1-2.  If you’re there, swing by the Articulate booth and say “Hi.”
• I’ll also be in Orlando at the Learning Solutions Conference on March 24-26.  In fact, David and Jeanette will be there, too.  Swing by the booth or check out our sessions.

The video below shows how graphic designer, Brian Hoff, selected the right font for one of his projects.  There are many points in the video where he probably could have stopped, but didn’t.  No one would have known the difference.  But something kept him going until he found just the right look.

Click here to view video.

What kept him going is knowing that the typography does more than share the information to be read. It also communicates ideas or concepts visually because the font is more than text.  It’s a graphic element that contributes to what you want your learners to learn.

The reality is that many of us probably don’t put too much thought into the fonts we use. I have to admit that I don’t always put a lot of thought into the fonts.  I know many times I just go with my gut.  Sometimes I’ll use new fonts, because they’re new.  Or big bold ones to fill the space.

However, when we build elearning courses we need to consider the visual design as well as the instructional design.  They go hand-in-hand and are part of the overall communication process.  And in that case, the fonts we use play a critical role to the visual design and tone of the course.

Studies have shown that people will assign emotion or personalities to fonts.  Thus, if the font implies meaning, it seems important to match the appropriate font to the tone of your elearning course.

To give you an example of how fonts have unique personalities, check out this quick demo I built in Quizmaker ‘09.  Your job is to match the font to the picture. 

Click here to view the demo.

In this exercise, there’s really not a right or wrong choice.  The fact that you can look at an image and assign a specific font demonstrates that they do have personality and can contribute to what you communicate.

Note: For those who want to know how I built the demo, here’s a link to the Quizmaker ‘09 source file.  Feel free to pull it apart and look under the hood.  I used the Wilde Ride font that you can find here.

Ok, so now that you see fonts convey more than the text they display, how do you apply this to elearning?  Here are a few thoughts.

• Develop a basic understanding of typography.  You don’t need to be a font geek or professional typographer.  But since you are using fonts and creating a visual medium, it makes sense to have a basic understanding of typography.  I am a big fan of the Non-Designer’s Design Book because it covers the basics of design and typography for those who aren’t pros.  Another good book is the Type Idea Index.  In fact, I like all of Krause’s “Index” books. It just depends on how much you want to learn.
• Create a course style guide. I’m not a big fan of rigid corporate style guides.  But it is a good idea to at least create a style guide for your course.  It’ll help you think through the visual design and what you want to communicate.  And it provides some consistency so you’re not using too many fonts and crippling your design.
• Set the tone of the course.  The typeface creates a first impression and sets the tone for the course.  How would the font used in a corporate compliance course be different than a course for high school students?  In developing a learner profile, you’ll want to consider the visual design that best communicates to them and which fonts support that style.  Here’s an interesting BBC broadcast on the Secret Language of Fonts.    
• Sort fonts by style and emotion.  Just like you did in the exercise above, fonts can be sorted by style and emotion.  It might make sense to invest in an application that lets you sort your fonts.  Smashing Magazine has a good review of 25 Font Management tools.  Some are free and they cross multiple operating systems.  If you use any of them, do a Screenr video so we can see how they work.
• Follow some professional graphic designers and typographers.  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, a great way to learn is by deconstructing and replicating the work of others.  The same goes with analyzing good typography and design.  Pay attention to how the fonts are used on a page or web site.  Try some of those ideas in your elearning courses.  When I see an interesting layout or design, I create a screenshot and then save it for future inspiration.

You don’t need to be a professional typographer to build good elearning courses.  However, part of the course design is visual communication.  And in that sense, you do need to be aware of typography and how it contributes to visual communication.  It will only help your elearning courses be that much better.

Do you have any tips on using fonts?  Share them by clicking on the comments link.

Tidbits:

• Community Manager, Dave Anderson, will be at TechKnowledge on January 27-29.  Check out his session, Dump the Templates! Create Custom Rapid E-Learning Your Way, or stop by the Articulate booth to meet him.
• I’ll be in San Diego at the Training 2010 Training & Expo on February 1-2.  If you’re there, swing by the Articulate booth and say “Hi.”

On top of that, because of time constraints, many organizations aren’t always looking for the best elearning courses.  They usually just want something done quickly.  That was always my frustration.  I wanted to do more, but most of my clients didn’t.  So I had to build a lot of the same types of courses and didn’t get many opportunities to flex my wings.

If you’re in the same boat, here are some tips to help make 2010 a good year for you.

Become Part of the Rapid E-learning Community?

In a learning community, the newbies need the experts who provide valuable insight and experience.  At the same time, the experts need the new people because they bring a different perspective and can challenge the norms.  The worst thing for the community is to become an echo chamber where nothing’s challenged and no new ideas are explored.

In fact, some of my best personal learning comes when someone less experienced tries to figure out how to solve a problem.  It’s something I might never explore if they didn’t ask (or if all I did was hang out with the other experts).

So if you want 2010 to be the year you really kicked your elearning skills into gear, here are some tips on how to join the rapid elearning community.  I’m going to share them from my perspective in the Articulate user community, but the ideas aren’t limited to any specific tool.

Resolution 1: Join the Community

You can’t be part of the community if you don’t join it.  Keep in mind, it’s not entirely a formal process.  It’s a combination of formal structure and informal networking.  You can join your software’s user community which is usually an online forum.  And you can also enter the community by connecting with other elearning people and following them via RSS feed or other social media, like Twitter.

• The user community is where you’ll get some of the best tips and tricks because you’re connecting with other users who have similar issues and experiences.  They can share best practices and techniques to help you succeed.  The software only gives you features.  But the users give you ideas on how to use the features. 
• Use a RSS feed reader to track blogs, tweets, news, and forum discussions.  I like Feedly, but there are a number of good feed readers available.  You can also use something like Netvibes to create a home page that pulls in your feeds.  This way everything’s always right there in plain sight.  If you think feeds have to do with the Food Network, then go here to learn more about RSS feed readers.  

Resolution #2: Ask Questions

Think of the elearning community as a big cocktail party with little groups of people involved in a bunch of different conversations.  Most of the time, we’re observers walking from one group to the next.  We listen, but rarely participate.  You won’t meet new people at a cocktail party that way, and it won’t work online either.  To really be part of the community, you have to be more involved.

• Ask a question.  For many of us, asking questions is a challenge because we fear looking stupid or uninformed.  However, if you want to learn, you’ll have to get used to asking questions.  So stop lurking and start asking.  If you don’t ask, you might be missing out on some really good stuff.
• Ask for help with ideas and not just technical issues.  The software you use is just a tool.  I find most people ask about technical issues like “how to add audio” but when pressed what they really want to know is “how to use audio to make the course better.”  You probably need less help with the technical part of the tool and more with how to use the tool to produce the course you desire.  Shift questions away from just technical help and start discussions about how to build better courses.

Resolution #3: Answer Questions

One of the best ways to become accepted in the community is to answer questions.  However, the reality is that most people in the community are lurkers who only take information.  The next level is the small percentage who will ask questions.  And then even fewer will offer answers.

• Someone has to answer questions, why not you?  You don’t even need to know the answer right off.  If you see a question asked, try to figure it out and then offer a solution.  You’ll learn and so will others.  Most important, though, is that you’ll build a positive reputation in the community.  And with that, people are more apt to help you when needed.
• Become an Expert. Want to be an MVP?  Want some freelance gigs?  This is the secret: make it a goal to answer five questions a day.  You’ll become a frequent poster and develop some authority.  Once you’re seen as an expert, the doors open.  Trust me.  Back when I was an Articulate MVP, I used to get all sorts of offers for freelance projects.  And it all started because I made a personal commitment to answer a few questions every day.

Resolution #4: Share your E-learning Assets.

In many cases, we’re all building the same types of courses.  Why not share what you’re doing?  You don’t need to share any proprietary data, but if you have some good graphics or a PowerPoint template feel free to share it with others.  Do you have some Flash skills?  Why not share your expertise?

A community of active members shares ideas and assets.  Sometimes it produces free assets for the other members.  And sometimes it produces opportunities for those who are entrepreneurial.

Here are some recent examples related to the Articulate user community with some freebies to boot:

• MVP James Kingsley regularly shares some neat Flash tips and tricks.  He did a pretty cool Flash demo that shows how to add variables to your rapid elearning courses. In fact, his blog has a lot of neat ideas. And he gives some of his stuff away.
• Articulate Engage comes with an SDK that allows community members to create and share community interactions.  Here’s an example of the latest built by Dave Burton that you can freely download and use in Engage ‘09.
• A few members of the community have created and shared some custom skins that you can apply to your elearning courses.
• David Anderson shares all sorts of free stuff in the community.  Here are a few examples: how to create rollover buttons, a chalkboard elearning template, and how to reduce screen text.  Also, be sure to follow his Screenr stream.  If you like the ideas in this blog, you’ll really like his tips, too.
• The same can be said for Jeanette Brooks who is active in the community and creates all sorts of helpful tutorials.  You can follow her Screenr stream if you want to learn how to get the most out of your Articulate tools.
• Rapid elearning developer, Bryan Jones was frustrated by the lack of good images for elearning courses, so he decided to offer them himself.  He’s even giving away a free starter pack.

Those are just a few of the examples of the tangible benefits of the elearning community.  Not only do you learn from each other, you also are presented with all sorts of opportunities, and in many cases, free assets for your courses.

Resolution #5: Share Your Ideas

Make the community more than conversation about technical support.  Share ideas.  Talk about things you’ve learned and what you’d like to do.  Here are a few recent examples that I think represent the best of what can happen in an active community:

• Peer review.  After the 2009 Articulate Guru awards, a local ASTD group in Texas reviewed the CPR course that won the gold medal.  The original course was built as a proof of concept and not a real course, so some of the critique is not relevant.  However, I thought the overall review was good on two fronts.  First, it’s a great example of how we can learn from each other in the community.  I like that they got together to review an elearning course.  Second, they do offer a lot of good ideas about how to improve the content.  And, it’s good advice for almost any course.  Here’s a copy of their review for those interested.
• Share what you learned. Is your first course going to be your best course?  Probably not.  But you can grow from each experience.  I love the way Indu Gopinath did a quick write up on her blog about her experiences building her first rapid elearning course.  It would be cool if more people did this.  We’d all benefit.

Online communities and social media tools give you access to peers and experts that you didn’t have a few years ago.  If you want to develop your skills and build better elearning courses, now’s a good time to get started.  Connect with your user community and share what you know.  You won’t regret it and you’ll have a great 2010.

What resolutions have you made to help build your skills this year?  Share them by clicking on the comments link.

On a side note, I really want to thank all of those who participate in the Articulate user community.  I also want to thank our MVPs who do so much to help other users and make our community a great place to learn.