The Power of PowerPoint Master Slides in eLearning

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 layout for each type of learning interaction. Build master slides with 1,2,3…. boxes, scenarios, title page, pre-quiz, course evaluation, etc. (see the example images below.) Consistent Layout – The text boxes and images for each layout are always in the same spot. It makes the presentation/course look clean and professional when things don’t “jump” around. Easy to Share – If you work with multiple designers it is easy to share the file so that everyone is using the same layouts. It’s Fast – Once you build some master slides it can really increase your design speed. You don’t have to “fiddle” with the layout of each page. Just click New Slide and choose a layout. Reusable – You can quickly select the master slides and make changes. These changes will be reflected on every slide/page that used that master slide. Quickly change fonts, text positions, colors, etc. Here are PowerPoint course templates and styles for eLearning that we’ve created. I hope that they speed up development and make your courses look great! Happy eLearning!

Awesome Games and Interactions for Articulate Presenter

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 know flash very well, that’s ok. All you have to do is insert your question text into the movie clips in the library. (a tutorial is included with every .fla and there are videos on our template tutorial site.

There are 8 games available right now:

eLearning Interactions

Ever wish that you have tons of interactive page layouts just ready and waiting? Now you can! We’ve created 4 different designs of interactive flash layouts. Pages with tabs and sections, scenarios, drag and drops, flash cards, quizzes, and more! Each set has over 30 interactive layouts.

All you need to do is add your text to the text movieclip in flash and publish. Here are some samples:

Using Templates and Games in Articulate Presenter

Here are the steps to use these flash templates in Articulate:

1. Add the text that you want to see in your game/interaction to the appropriate movieclip in Flash.

2. Publish the flash movie as .swf

3. In PowerPoint go to Articulate / Flash Movie

4. Select your .swf

5. From the Insert Flash Movie window choose these settings:

• Display in slide
• Advance to next slide “When user clicks next”
• Movie plays independently of slide

6. Click OK

That’s it.

Bonus – eLearning PowerPoint Backgrounds

There are also PPT backgrounds available that have over 80 different layouts. We also provide a PPT master template file that you can use to speed up the development process.

(Check out amazing eLearning Games, Flash Interactions, PowerPoint Backgrounds, and eLearning Templates)

eLearning Templates Biggest Bundle

$1500 (Sells separately for $2,670)

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: Reuse the templates over and over again in multiple courses…or even other websites and presentations.

What’s Included:

• Millionaire Challenge
• GameShow Challenge
• Golf Challenge
• Boardgame Challenge
• Bootcamp Challenge
• Pyramid Challenge
• Spy Challenge
• Shootout Challenge
• Interaction Pack: Clean Corporate (30+ Interactions)
• Interaction Pack: Pulsing Dots (30+ Interactions)
• PPT Course Style Theme: Billboard (80+ files)
• PPT Course Style Theme: Paper & Folders (80+ files)

Specs:

• Files included: fla, psd, ppt, pptx, jpg, swf
• Requirements: Flash 8 or newer (CS, CS2, CS3, CS4)
• Flash Player 8 or newer
• Output size: Final .swf around only 50 KB each
• Output dimensions: 720×540
• Actionscript 2.0

Copyright info

Demos:

Click each of the screenshots below to demo a few of the games and interactions included.

PPT course style samples (just a few)

• Demo PPT Theme: Billboard
• Demo PPT Theme: Paper & Folders

Games

Testimonials:

“I’m really impressed by the professional build up of your templates, so that even an non programmer like me can make the changes in an easy way. Your templates are really excellent add-ons to the Articulate software I am using.” ~ Peter M.

“I just built the Gameboard one for a course we offer, it is fantastic! These are so easy to work with and I am a Flash hater…we will definitely be integrating these into our Articulate courses.” ~ Laurel S.

“Your template is swimmingly easy – the tutorials were very helpful.” ~ Rich V.

Tutorials:

We have an entire website dedicated for tutorials to assist you in customizing these templates.

eLearning Templates Bigger Bundle

$1000 (Sells separately for $1,250)

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 even other websites and presentations.

Specs:

Files included: .Fla and .swf
Requirements: Flash 8 or newer (CS, CS2, CS3, CS4)
Flash Player 8 or newer
Output size: Final .swf around only 50 KB each
Output dimensions: 720×540
Actionscript 2.0

Copyright info

Demos:

Click each of the screenshots below to demo a few of the games and interactions included.

Testimonials:

“I’m really impressed by the professional build up of your templates, so that even an non programmer like me can make the changes in an easy way. Your templates are really excellent add-ons to the Articulate software I am using.” ~ Peter M.

“I just built the Gameboard one for a course we offer, it is fantastic! These are so easy to work with and I am a Flash hater…we will definitely be integrating these into our Articulate courses.” ~ Laurel S.

“Your template is swimmingly easy – the tutorials were very helpful.” ~ Rich V.

Tutorials:

We have an entire website dedicated for tutorials to assist you in customizing these templates.

eLearning Templates Big Bundle

$650 (Sells separately for $800)

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 presentations.

Specs:

Files included: .Fla and .swf
Requirements: Flash 8 or newer (CS, CS2, CS3, CS4)
Flash Player 8 or newer
Output size: Final .swf around only 50 KB each
Output dimensions: 720×540
Actionscript 2.0

Copyright info

Demos:

Click each of the screenshots below to demo the games included.

Testimonials:

“I’m really impressed by the professional build up of your templates, so that even an non programmer like me can make the changes in an easy way. Your templates are really excellent add-ons to the Articulate software I am using.” ~ Peter M.

“I just built the Gameboard one for a course we offer, it is fantastic! These are so easy to work with and I am a Flash hater…we will definitely be integrating these into our Articulate courses.” ~ Laurel S.

“Your template is swimmingly easy – the tutorials were very helpful.” ~ Rich V.

Tutorials:

We have an entire website dedicated for tutorials to assist you in customizing these templates.

Free online Flash Tutorials for eLearning Templates

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…

Spy Challenge eLearning Flash Game Template

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: Flash 8 or newer
File size: Final .swf only 144 KB
Output dimensions: 720×540

Flash eLearning Multi-Game Bundle #2

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 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: Flash 8 or newer
Output dimensions: 720×540

Why Use eLearning Templates in Your Course?

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. Many common ones are PowerPoint master slide layouts that have many different pages ready for you to insert content. There are also various tools that create template interfaces and GUIs for courses. E-learning templates can include buttons, icons, color schemes, images, quizzes, games, and more. Basically they can be used over and over in different projects. Now let’s discuss a few benefits.

Save Time and Effort

Wouldn’t it be nice to have the interface, page layouts, buttons, icons, colors, and the most often used components of an online course ready to go? Right there on your desktop and ready to drag and drop into place?

Having templates ready to goes means that you don’t have to waste time re-creating the same pieces for each course. This can be very valuable for those who may not have a strong background in multimedia. It could take a novice designer a long time to create a flash movie or design an asset that an expert could do in minutes. Also, the quality will be very different.

Another huge plus is that the designers can now spend time focusing on writing good material and less on how to make a button look pretty.

Consistency

Many organizations want their online courses to be consistent. They should have the same colors, look/feel, quality, etc. no matter who the individual designer was. Templates can help achieve this desire. Designers have a base to work from and are all using the same files.

You can also develop a template interface player. This would ensure that learner always have the same navigation options on each course. You could also standardize where links to job aids, outlines, bookmarking, and other features appear. The learner become familiar with navigating your course and doesn’t need to waste time trying to figure that part out. They can jump right into the training.

Technical Functionality

Are there certain requirements that your Learning Management System has for courses to function properly? Are there guidelines that the IT department has? Templates are a great way to build a file that works within all guidelines and then to share it with the entire department. As designers use the template is cuts down on troubleshooting time trying to determine why something isn’t working. That effort has already been done and only needs to happen once.

Move Beyond Your Talent

There are some amazing multimedia designers that can create some great content for online training. Not all instructional designers are good at creating multimedia. Templates can be created to add a lot of professionally designed interactivity and games to courses. All you have to know how to do is edit the template and then you can add content that is beyond your skill level to create on your own.

Increase Output and Creativity

I touched on this earlier but e learning templates allow designers to spend time on what they do best…writing course content. Templates can allow you to spend project time on the “meat” of the course and not on the “administrative” parts. This has two consequences: 1. You can spend time thinking of creative ways to make your course interesting and 2. You can build more courses in a shorter amount of time.

I hope that this article gave you a few ideas around how eLearning templates can help you and your team.

If you would like to see some templates here are some examples:
eLearning Flash Template Interactions
eLearning Games
PowerPoint Backgrounds

Flash Interactions Pack: Grunge

Included in this PACK are over 30 amazing Flash based templates that are super easy to update. Instructions are included within each of the files. 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). Reuse the templates over and over again in multiple courses…or even other websites and presentations.

e-Learning Templates

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