July 20, 2010 · 4 Comments
Maybe spelling correctly is overrated. Does it really matter if a few letters are “mixed up”? Isn’t the most important thing that the concept/information is transferred? In fact we’ve probably all done the activity where only the... [Read the full story]
July 16, 2010 · 1 Comment
Awhile back I ran into a company called Forio and was able to sit down and see a demo. Their tool could really help my fellow eLearning developers so I thought I’d share. Their free tool is called Forio Simulate and it lets you quickly build web-based... [Read the full story]
July 12, 2010 · 2 Comments
Here is a set of 50 symbols that are used across the globe to help passengers and pedestrians. These could come in handy as you look for symbols/icons to use in your next online course. Take a look at these Universal Symbols. (They are free to download... [Read the full story]
July 7, 2010 · 2 Comments
We’d like to announce our latest interactive Flash template set: iStyle. Have you ever wanted to have a library of pre-made Flash interactions and activities? Templates that look great and could be easily integrated with your eLearning authoring... [Read the full story]
July 7, 2010 · 1 Comment
I never thought about text expansion/contraction until I needed to have a course translated. Headings, titles, and buttons that worked fine in English suddenly ran out of space when getting translated. When creating a course that will be in multiple languages... [Read the full story]
July 5, 2010 · Leave a Comment
I like to have color themes for my courses. I carry the colors into my images, course skin, backgrounds, and marketing communications. At times we need to create courses for an international market. Colors have different meanings across the world. Here... [Read the full story]
June 30, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Audio and narration are great ways to enhance e-Learning. We all know what a difference sound effects make when we watch a great action movie. Without it the movie would be terrible. All too often we forget that eLearning can also have audio. Not just... [Read the full story]
June 28, 2010 · 1 Comment
I met Cris “the Thrifty Trainer” at eLearningDevCon the other day and liked free eLearning resources that he has on his website. I also like his tag line, “Good training doesn’t have to be expensive. Cheap training doesn’t... [Read the full story]
June 15, 2010 · 1 Comment
We are shallow people! Let me explain why I say that…. The other day I was on an airplane and watched the person next to me “read” a magazine. He basically flipped quickly through the pages and stopped occasionally on a pretty picture... [Read the full story]
June 8, 2010 · 1 Comment
We’ll be at eLearningDevCon next week…are you coming? Stop by our booth and say hi! DevCon has been a great conference in the past. It’s not the largest eLearning conference but it is very focused on development. It is small enough that... [Read the full story]
April 27, 2010 · 2 Comments
Need pictures of cutout people and narrators for your online course? Well, you’re in luck! We just launched 30+ new series of business people. Each pack: contains 75+ layouts is “clipped out” and ready to drop into your course has multiple layouts both looking at and away from the camera is high resolution allowing you to zoom in and still maintain quality Using people in your course can really enhance the overall look and feel. Check out the eLearning People Pictures. Read More →
February 16, 2010 · 1 Comment
Master slides in PowerPoint are very powerful and they are easier than ever to do with PPT 07. When using a rapid e-Learning authoring tools that runs off PowerPoint I always start with a template that uses master slides. (or I build one to use throughout the course.) Why do I like master slides: Templates – You can create a bunch of master slides and then save it as a template.That allows you to chose from many different layouts with just one click. (see last image below.) Page Design – Create a different... [Read the full story]
December 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment
If you’ve been coming to this site for awhile you probably know that we build a lot of custom flash games/quizzes/interactions for eLearning developers. I want to take a moment and focus on how the templates work with Articulate. eLearning Games Each of the games is created in Flash and has scoring and looks amazing. A learner answers various questions and gets feedback and a running score. Every game comes with the .fla file so that you can customize everything until your heart is content. However, if you don’t... [Read the full story]
December 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment
8 Flash games, 2 PPT eLearning course style themes AND more than 60 Flash interactions included in this bundle! These are PPT and Flash based templates that are super easy to update. Each template is fully customizable in Flash (we give you the .fla Flash source file). All you have to do is open Flash, paste your text, publish, and insert into your favorite eLearning Development tool. Made to work within most rapid elearning software (Articulate Presenter, Adobe Captivate, Rapid Intake, Adobe Presenter, PowerPoint and more). BONUS:... [Read the full story]
December 8, 2009 · 4 Comments
8 Flash games AND over 30 Flash interactions included in this bundle! These are Flash based templates that are super easy to update. Each template is fully customizable in Flash (we give you the .fla Flash source file). Just open Flash, paste your text, publish, and insert into your favorite eLearning development tool. Made to work within most rapid elearning software (Articulate Presenter, Adobe Captivate, Rapid Intake, Adobe Presenter, PowerPoint and more). BONUS: Reuse the templates over and over again in multiple courses…or... [Read the full story]
December 7, 2009 · Leave a Comment
8 Flash games included in this bundle! These are Flash based templates that are super easy to update. Each template is fully customizable in Flash (we give you the .fla Flash source file). Just open Flash, paste your text, publish, and insert into your favorite eLearning development tool. Made to work within most rapid elearning software (Articulate Presenter, Adobe Captivate, Rapid Intake, Adobe Presenter, PowerPoint and more). BONUS: Reuse the templates over and over again in multiple courses…or even other websites and... [Read the full story]
November 20, 2009 · Leave a Comment
We are pleased to announce our new Flash eLearning Template Tutorials website. This website is dedicated to providing you with useful screencast video tutorials. We will continue adding to it weekly, and as always…feel welcome to request a screencast if you need additional help. Flash Tutorials Webpage eLearning Templates Hope you enjoy… Read More →
November 17, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Another great Flash eLearning game template from e-LearningTemplates.com. This is a Flash based template that is super easy to update. Each template is fully customizable in Flash (we give you the .fla Flash source file). Made to work within most rapid elearning software (Articulate Presenter, Adobe Captivate, Rapid Intake, Adobe Presenter, PowerPoint and more). BONUS: Reuse the templates over and over again in multiple courses…or even other websites and presentations. Specs: Files included: .Fla and .swf Requirements:... [Read the full story]
November 16, 2009 · Leave a Comment
We have just bundled another amazing group of elearning flash game templates. Visit e-LearningTemplates.com for additional details. $225 Value! – 4 Games included in this bundle: Golf Challenge ShootOut Challenge BootCamp Challenge Spy Challenge These are Flash based templates that are super easy to update. Each template is fully customizable in Flash (we give you the .fla Flash source file). Made to work within most rapid elearning software (Articulate Presenter, Adobe Captivate, Rapid Intake, Adobe Presenter, PowerPoint... [Read the full story]
November 16, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Are you developing online training content (eLearning)? Do you want to save money and time? Are there multiple members on your team and you need everything to be consistent? Are there varying levels of technical expertise on the team? These are just a few questions that we come across while building online training content. Using templates to build eLearning can address many of the questions above. Before discussing a few points let me describe what I mean by eLearning templates. Templates can include many different assets.... [Read the full story]
July 12, 2010 · 2 Comments
Here is a set of 50 symbols that are used across the globe to help passengers and pedestrians. These could come in handy as you look for symbols/icons to use in your next online course. Take a look at these Universal Symbols. (They are free to download and use.) Add Flash Activities to your next course. Read More →
July 7, 2010 · 1 Comment
I never thought about text expansion/contraction until I needed to have a course translated. Headings, titles, and buttons that worked fine in English suddenly ran out of space when getting translated. When creating a course that will be in multiple languages you must plan upfront for the “room” that each language will need. Here is a great chart that gives some guidelines for text expansion/contraction. (Thanks Globalization Group!) Read More →
July 5, 2010 · Leave a Comment
I like to have color themes for my courses. I carry the colors into my images, course skin, backgrounds, and marketing communications. At times we need to create courses for an international market. Colors have different meanings across the world. Here is a great charts that helps us know what various colors mean in different cultures. (Thanks Globalization Group!) Add pictures of people to your eLearning courses. Read More →
June 30, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Audio and narration are great ways to enhance e-Learning. We all know what a difference sound effects make when we watch a great action movie. Without it the movie would be terrible. All too often we forget that eLearning can also have audio. Not just narration but also sound effects that emphasize and support the text/images/animations. I met Sound80 for the first time the other day at a conference. They provided a great paper on “Best Practices in eLearning Audio“. Keep it in focus Sometimes silence really... [Read the full story]
June 15, 2010 · 1 Comment
We are shallow people! Let me explain why I say that…. The other day I was on an airplane and watched the person next to me “read” a magazine. He basically flipped quickly through the pages and stopped occasionally on a pretty picture and usually started flipping again. At one point he stopped and seemed to read a bit. When we create eLearning we should remember that people don’t read…they scan! We all do it. We quickly scan a page to see if there is any information that interests us. Then... [Read the full story]
April 27, 2010 · 2 Comments
Need pictures of cutout people and narrators for your online course? Well, you’re in luck! We just launched 30+ new series of business people. Each pack: contains 75+ layouts is “clipped out” and ready to drop into your course has multiple layouts both looking at and away from the camera is high resolution allowing you to zoom in and still maintain quality Using people in your course can really enhance the overall look and feel. Check out the eLearning People Pictures. Read More →
March 31, 2010 · 1 Comment
Video is really taking off in the eLearning world and can add to the effectiveness of content. However, when using video there are many things to think about. Typical steps to get video into an online course: Script the video on paper Record (sound and audio) Edit Compress/Render Insert into eLearning authoring tool Place on server Open up access to the learners Each one of the steps above takes various technical skills. A big challenge when using video is to keep a high-level of quality but not have the files size too... [Read the full story]
February 16, 2010 · 1 Comment
Master slides in PowerPoint are very powerful and they are easier than ever to do with PPT 07. When using a rapid e-Learning authoring tools that runs off PowerPoint I always start with a template that uses master slides. (or I build one to use throughout the course.) Why do I like master slides: Templates – You can create a bunch of master slides and then save it as a template.That allows you to chose from many different layouts with just one click. (see last image below.) Page Design – Create a different... [Read the full story]
February 11, 2010 · 1 Comment
I’ve come across various posts lately about handwritten fonts and they can be a great addition to an online course. Examples of handwritten fonts being used: Here are some free Handwritten Fonts: Articulate Da Font TripWire Magazine Instant Shift Great Post: Tom and the Rapid eLearning Blog on when to use handwritten fonts. Checkout PowerPoint backgrounds for your eLearning courses. Read More →
January 28, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Have you ever published your Articulate course and the images and flash are fuzzy and look terrible? Well, if so it might be caused by your course content resizing in the browser. There is a setting within each Player Template in Articulate Presenter that allows your to either allow the course to expand/shrink as the user’s browser window changes size or to lock the content as the “optimal” size. If you don’t lock the presentation then if your user has a large browser window your images/flash might... [Read the full story]
July 20, 2010 · 4 Comments
Maybe spelling correctly is overrated. Does it really matter if a few letters are “mixed up”? Isn’t the most important thing that the concept/information is transferred? In fact we’ve probably all done the activity where only the first and last letter of each word are correct and the ones in the middle are mixed up and we can still read it just fine. Try it out: “Arocdnicg to rsceearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng... [Read the full story]
June 30, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Audio and narration are great ways to enhance e-Learning. We all know what a difference sound effects make when we watch a great action movie. Without it the movie would be terrible. All too often we forget that eLearning can also have audio. Not just narration but also sound effects that emphasize and support the text/images/animations. I met Sound80 for the first time the other day at a conference. They provided a great paper on “Best Practices in eLearning Audio“. Keep it in focus Sometimes silence really... [Read the full story]
June 28, 2010 · 1 Comment
I met Cris “the Thrifty Trainer” at eLearningDevCon the other day and liked free eLearning resources that he has on his website. I also like his tag line, “Good training doesn’t have to be expensive. Cheap training doesn’t have to be bad.” It’s typically not the tool that makes good eLearning, it’s the creativity and instructional design. Here is a list of free software/tools: Audio/Video Capture and Editing Developing Tutorials Quizzes and Surveys LMS Image Capture and Editing eLearning... [Read the full story]
June 15, 2010 · 1 Comment
We are shallow people! Let me explain why I say that…. The other day I was on an airplane and watched the person next to me “read” a magazine. He basically flipped quickly through the pages and stopped occasionally on a pretty picture and usually started flipping again. At one point he stopped and seemed to read a bit. When we create eLearning we should remember that people don’t read…they scan! We all do it. We quickly scan a page to see if there is any information that interests us. Then... [Read the full story]
June 3, 2010 · 2 Comments
Everyone is always looking for ways to make their eLearning more interactive. There are many ways to do this. Here are just a few: 1. Interactions There are many times when you have various concepts or “chunks” of information on a page. You could break it into multiple pages or divide it into sections. For example use tabs and dividers so that the user only sees small parts at a time. Here are some tabs and dividers. You could also use some type of simple flash memory cards or drag and drop. 2. Scenarios If you... [Read the full story]
May 10, 2010 · Leave a Comment
The other day I participated in a networking group and we helped other start-up companies brainstorm their businesses. One of the speakers shared ideas on branding. Branding is very important to a new company and I’d like to extend that to eLearning courses as well. Branding a course is more than just putting a logo in the corner. It’s also more than just some pretty colors. So, what should we think about when creating a brand for our training? Here are some questions to ask yourself: What should people “think”... [Read the full story]
April 27, 2010 · 2 Comments
Need pictures of cutout people and narrators for your online course? Well, you’re in luck! We just launched 30+ new series of business people. Each pack: contains 75+ layouts is “clipped out” and ready to drop into your course has multiple layouts both looking at and away from the camera is high resolution allowing you to zoom in and still maintain quality Using people in your course can really enhance the overall look and feel. Check out the eLearning People Pictures. Read More →
April 20, 2010 · 1 Comment
Life has “necessary evils”. For example, yesterday I was with one of my little boys in the front yard and we were looking at the blossoms on the cherry tree. There were bees everywhere and he did not like that. To him bees were “evil” but as we all know they are necessary. Do eLearning courses have necessary evils? I believe that they do…it’s TEXT. When we think of the worst online course that we’ve ever seen it was probably a “page-turner”. So there was a lot of text... [Read the full story]
April 9, 2010 · 1 Comment
Ever been bored out of your mind while taking an online course? Of course you have. There comes a point in everyone’s life when they have to take a compliance course that they don’t like. There are 2 ways to look at this problem: 1. The learner should be responsible and find ways to motivate themselves to complete the training. 2. Course designers should create courses that are more engaging and relevant. How can this be accomplished? I like the ideas that Shelley shared in “Motivate Yourself to Learn through... [Read the full story]
April 6, 2010 · 1 Comment
I always took notes when going through school. There was something about writing on paper that helped me remember things. In fact during a test I could visualize where on my notes a particular topic was written. Should our eLearning participants take notes? Yes! Shelley Gable (“How Can Note Taking Help You with Online Learning?“) has a great article on this topic. She focuses on how taking notes can help a learner remember more. She also covers some note taking methods and what should be included in your notes. PowerPoint... [Read the full story]
July 7, 2010 · 2 Comments
We’d like to announce our latest interactive Flash template set: iStyle. Have you ever wanted to have a library of pre-made Flash interactions and activities? Templates that look great and could be easily integrated with your eLearning authoring software? (i.e. Articulate, Captivate, Unison, Lectora, etc.) Do you also want the source files so you can edit anything that you’d like? Now you can! The eLearning Flash templates are easy to edit, look amazing, and provide the source files. How to use the templates: 1.... [Read the full story]
June 7, 2010 · 3 Comments
These are examples of Articulate Skins that we’ve created. The skins have various layouts for courses with and without audio. There are also “stream-lined” versions that have less button options. Visit our site for Articulate Skins. (eLearningSkins.com) We also do custom Articulate Skins. Read More →
May 21, 2010 · 2 Comments
Add a fresh, new look to your Articulate course! We are happy to announce the launch of our new Articulate Player Skins site! Many eLearning designers use Articulate Presenter software to create eLearning courses. Articulate has a standard Player (or Skin) that it uses to “wrap” the course content. A skin has all of the buttons necessary to navigate and use the course. You now have an alternative to the standard Articulate Skin. Skins come in Packs of 4! (Change your skins based on the need for audio or more... [Read the full story]
May 14, 2010 · Leave a Comment
David Anderson over at Articulate has been doing some great screenr videos! Just watched a few on adding some great zoom and motion effects to PowerPoint. Also watched a great way to insert an Engage .swf file as a Flash object. Check out his Articulate videos. Thanks Dave! Want to spice up your Articulate courses? Try flash interactions, cut-out people pictures, and PowerPoint backgrounds. Read More →
April 27, 2010 · 2 Comments
Need pictures of cutout people and narrators for your online course? Well, you’re in luck! We just launched 30+ new series of business people. Each pack: contains 75+ layouts is “clipped out” and ready to drop into your course has multiple layouts both looking at and away from the camera is high resolution allowing you to zoom in and still maintain quality Using people in your course can really enhance the overall look and feel. Check out the eLearning People Pictures. Read More →
March 4, 2010 · 4 Comments
Do you have a glossary of terms that you’d like to have in every course? When there are additions and edits would you like to change one file and have it update every course? We’ll…if so you’re in luck! Below are the steps that I take to build Global (or Universal) Glossaries. Overview The basic concept is that you create a glossary in Engage and then export it as a website. You can then upload it to a server and use the direct URL to access it from any course. You’d place the link in... [Read the full story]
January 28, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Have you ever published your Articulate course and the images and flash are fuzzy and look terrible? Well, if so it might be caused by your course content resizing in the browser. There is a setting within each Player Template in Articulate Presenter that allows your to either allow the course to expand/shrink as the user’s browser window changes size or to lock the content as the “optimal” size. If you don’t lock the presentation then if your user has a large browser window your images/flash might... [Read the full story]
January 19, 2010 · 5 Comments
I really like Articulate’s Quizmaker ’09. It allows me to do some pretty powerful stuff quickly. Here is a list of how do make your quizzes awesome in Quizmaker. Grouping Questions There are times when you need to group questions to ensure that they flow in a certain order. (Especially if you want to randomize the order of some and not others.) I’ve also found this helpful if I want to present a scenario and then have specific questions after. Here are the steps: 1. Create your questions 2.... [Read the full story]
December 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment
If you’ve been coming to this site for awhile you probably know that we build a lot of custom flash games/quizzes/interactions for eLearning developers. I want to take a moment and focus on how the templates work with Articulate. eLearning Games Each of the games is created in Flash and has scoring and looks amazing. A learner answers various questions and gets feedback and a running score. Every game comes with the .fla file so that you can customize everything until your heart is content. However, if you don’t... [Read the full story]
December 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment
8 Flash games, 2 PPT eLearning course style themes AND more than 60 Flash interactions included in this bundle! These are PPT and Flash based templates that are super easy to update. Each template is fully customizable in Flash (we give you the .fla Flash source file). All you have to do is open Flash, paste your text, publish, and insert into your favorite eLearning Development tool. Made to work within most rapid elearning software (Articulate Presenter, Adobe Captivate, Rapid Intake, Adobe Presenter, PowerPoint and more). BONUS:... [Read the full story]
July 7, 2010 · 2 Comments
We’d like to announce our latest interactive Flash template set: iStyle. Have you ever wanted to have a library of pre-made Flash interactions and activities? Templates that look great and could be easily integrated with your eLearning authoring software? (i.e. Articulate, Captivate, Unison, Lectora, etc.) Do you also want the source files so you can edit anything that you’d like? Now you can! The eLearning Flash templates are easy to edit, look amazing, and provide the source files. How to use the templates: 1.... [Read the full story]
March 31, 2010 · 1 Comment
Video is really taking off in the eLearning world and can add to the effectiveness of content. However, when using video there are many things to think about. Typical steps to get video into an online course: Script the video on paper Record (sound and audio) Edit Compress/Render Insert into eLearning authoring tool Place on server Open up access to the learners Each one of the steps above takes various technical skills. A big challenge when using video is to keep a high-level of quality but not have the files size too... [Read the full story]
December 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment
If you’ve been coming to this site for awhile you probably know that we build a lot of custom flash games/quizzes/interactions for eLearning developers. I want to take a moment and focus on how the templates work with Articulate. eLearning Games Each of the games is created in Flash and has scoring and looks amazing. A learner answers various questions and gets feedback and a running score. Every game comes with the .fla file so that you can customize everything until your heart is content. However, if you don’t... [Read the full story]
December 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment
8 Flash games, 2 PPT eLearning course style themes AND more than 60 Flash interactions included in this bundle! These are PPT and Flash based templates that are super easy to update. Each template is fully customizable in Flash (we give you the .fla Flash source file). All you have to do is open Flash, paste your text, publish, and insert into your favorite eLearning Development tool. Made to work within most rapid elearning software (Articulate Presenter, Adobe Captivate, Rapid Intake, Adobe Presenter, PowerPoint and more). BONUS:... [Read the full story]
December 1, 2009 · 4 Comments
Happy Holiday’s from the eLearning Bros! We whipped up the Santa Attack game just for a little light-hearted fun this holiday season. Enjoy. Brother Shawn’s high score is 1280…we dare you to try and beat it! If you’d like this free flash game for your own use, just fill out our contact form and mention that you’d like the free santa attack flash game. We’ll email you shortly after with the working .fla file. Play the game! Screenshots from the game: eLearning Templates Read More →
November 24, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Ever wanted to make your photographs a bit more “stylized” or look more like an illustration or cartoon? Here is a quick tip on how to use Flash to turn your bitmap images into vectors. 1. Import image onto the Flash stage. 2. Select the image. 3. Select Modify / Bitmap / Trace Bitmap. 4. Adjust the settings as desired. Here is the details about the settings (From Adobe Tech Notes): Color Threshold: The range is from 1 to 500. This setting determines the degree to which one pixel may vary in... [Read the full story]
November 20, 2009 · Leave a Comment
We are pleased to announce our new Flash eLearning Template Tutorials website. This website is dedicated to providing you with useful screencast video tutorials. We will continue adding to it weekly, and as always…feel welcome to request a screencast if you need additional help. Flash Tutorials Webpage eLearning Templates Hope you enjoy… Read More →
November 17, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Another great Flash eLearning game template from e-LearningTemplates.com. This is a Flash based template that is super easy to update. Each template is fully customizable in Flash (we give you the .fla Flash source file). Made to work within most rapid elearning software (Articulate Presenter, Adobe Captivate, Rapid Intake, Adobe Presenter, PowerPoint and more). BONUS: Reuse the templates over and over again in multiple courses…or even other websites and presentations. Specs: Files included: .Fla and .swf Requirements:... [Read the full story]
November 16, 2009 · Leave a Comment
We have just bundled another amazing group of elearning flash game templates. Visit e-LearningTemplates.com for additional details. $225 Value! – 4 Games included in this bundle: Golf Challenge ShootOut Challenge BootCamp Challenge Spy Challenge These are Flash based templates that are super easy to update. Each template is fully customizable in Flash (we give you the .fla Flash source file). Made to work within most rapid elearning software (Articulate Presenter, Adobe Captivate, Rapid Intake, Adobe Presenter, PowerPoint... [Read the full story]
November 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment
In this post I show you how to create a button with a “click alert” on it which is a slight animation that indicates to the user that they should interact with the button. The click alert will also gray out after being clicked. You can use this tutorial to create flash eLearning interactions that indicate to the user that some action is needed. (hey you….click on me!) Also once they’ve clicked on it, you must have it visually change so that they know they’ve already been there. Here’s the click alert example... [Read the full story]