The Learning eXplosion , by Matthew Murdoch and Treion Muller, is a great read that steps you through how to successfully move your classroom instructor-led training into the virtual classroom. The book specifically focuses on 9 Rules for Creating Effective Virtual Training:

1. The Rule of Continual Change – Learners and designers must always be prepared for change.

2. The Rule of Knowledge Transfer – When transitioning from instructor-led classroom to virtual classrooms, be prepared to think through a new approach to the training delivery, content, timing, etc.

3. The Rule of Learning Circuitry – Follow the 5 steps to create a successful learning circuit.

4. The Rule of Overcoming Bias – By eliminating people’s fears of change, you can overcome their bias.

5. The Rule of Virtual Accountability – The 3 parts of the virtual accountability model are: Verbal, Visual, and Kinesthetic.

6. The Rule of Personal Practice – To be an effective virtual trainer, you must practice your presentations!

7. The Rule of Thumbs-Up – Make it easy for learners to give you feedback that will improve your virtual classroom.

8. The Rule of Global Positioning – Know the barriers to reaching a global audience.

9. The Rule of Sustained Orbit – Once your virtual classroom is launched, you need to keep the momentum following to keep it running successfully.

The book is a must read if you are in the process of transitioning instructor-led classroom training to virtual classroom training.

Matt and Treion also have a great blog to follow.

Often, due to shortened project timelines, the Analysis phase of the ADDIE process is cut short or skipped all together. This phase might very well be the most important phase of the ADDIE process. It is during the Analysis phase that you uncover the information critical for the learner to be successful in their job.

In Ethan Edwards webinar The 5 Most Important Analysis Questions You’ll Ever Ask , he highlights these 5 questions:

1. What do you expect learners to be able to DO after completing the course that they can’t do now?
2. What are the consequences TO THE LEARNER if the learner fails to master the intended outcomes?
3. Can you show me an active demonstration, a detailed simulation, or provide an opportunity to directly observe the desired performance?
4. What specific performance mistakes do new learners regularly make?
5. What tools, resources, job aids, or help do successful performers (or even experts) use to do these tasks?

Click here to access a replay of the webinar and supporting documentation.

I recently read a great blog post by Articulates Tom Kuhlmann, titled Here’s Why Slide Count is Irrelevant to Your E-Learning Course . In the post he mentions the following key points:

- Screen count does not matter to the elearner…what matters, is the interaction built into the course.

- Do not auto-advance the slides in your course. Some people are fast readers, some are not, and some want to review the slide information before progressing through the course. Give the control to the learner!

Finally, three tips for creating productive eLearning:

1. Break the content into bite-size chunks. Smaller bits of information are easier to digest.
2. Are you viewing or doing? Determine if you are just sharing information with the learner (viewing) or if it is tied to performance goals (doing).
3. Are you pushing or pulling? Don’t just push out information to the learner. Build interactions in your eLearning where the learner has to perform a function or make a decision. If they cannot successfully do the task, then provide a way for them to “pull” the information from the course.

In summation…slide count does not matter as long as you keep your learners engaged and they can effectively pull the information out of the course that will improve their performance.

Why is it important to create a course outline or storyboard before building an eLearning course?

A course outline or storyboard will help you to organize both the course content and your thoughts on interactivity (audio, video, graphics, interactions, etc.).

Here are a few things to consider when building your storyboard:

On-Screen text

• What information is best presented as on-screen text?
• How much is too much? Remember, learners typically only scan the on-screen text.

Audio Scripting

• Will or should you use audio in your course? If you decide to use it, be consistent throughout the course.
• If using audio, will you also include written scripting for the leaner to read?
• Can the learner advance through the course even if the audio is still playing?
• Do the learners have audio capabilities? Will they use headsets/earbuds? Do they have speakers for their computers?

Interactions/Quizzes

• Will you add interactions/quizzes to your course?
• Interactions/quizzes should support the learning process and not distract from it. Use interactions to reinforce learning content.

Graphics/Images

• Do not use gratuitous images. The images in your course must support the story you are telling.
• Most learners only scan over the text so your graphics need to help tell the story.
• Can the text be combined into the image?

Video

• Is video a good delivery method for the content being presented?
• What information is best presented in video format?
• Do you have the time and budget for video?
• Can your network handle video?

Course Test

• Is a course test required? If so, plan for the test in the storyboard process. This allows you to build test questions when you build the course objectives. The course test should not be an afterthought once the course is created.

Printable Reference Materials

• Does the learner need printable reference materials to refer to while completing the training or after the training? Maybe offer a training recap.

Website Links

• Can you link the learner off to a website to learn more about the topic?

Development Notes

• Include additional development/design notes.

Who would have thought that simply writing an eLearning course would require the instructional designer to have so many different writing skills? As an instructional designer our writing has to motivate the learner, as well as, instruct them on correct processes, policies, techniques, etc.

In the eLearning Coach’s article 10 Types of Writing for eLearning Connie explores the 10 different writing types we must all remember when writing effective eLearning. Below is a summary of her key concepts…with a few of my own thoughts added in:

1. Writing On-Screen Text

Summary: Most readers only skim online text so keep it lively and relative to the learner. Don’t kill the learner with continuous bullet points.

Comment: True, learners don’t read all of the text. This is why it’s so important to add nice visual design to your course. You need to “draw” learners in and help them “want” to engage with your course. You should also think about chunking content.

2. Writing Audio Scripts

Summary: Find that “hook” that sparks the learner’s imagination. The sounds of words and cadence of phrases in the script is important. Be sure to choose your voice talent carefully.

Comment: You also need to find a balance between what content should be narrated and what content you should let the learner read. Also, there are many times when the learner can read faster than the audio narration. How will you handle this? Can a learner turn off the audio? Can they advance to the next section when the audio narration is still playing?

3. Writing Video Scripts

Summary: Remember that video is for showing, not telling.

Comment: Video should be used to demonstrate key concepts in the learning. Here is a sample video tutorial we have built to demonstrate how to add a Glossary to an Articulate Skin.

4. Technical Writing

Summary: Technical writing can be dull and dry…so find a way to inject creativity into your course.

Comment: Scenarios can be a great way to spice this up. Start off with a problem and then show the steps to fix it.

5. Writing Stories

Summary: Storytelling incorporates facts and concepts learned, and should contain characters that the learners can identify with.

Comment: When building a course with various stories to tie them all together. Always focus on the same characters throughout the entire course…this allows the learners to keep building on concepts already learned.

6. Writing Test Questions

Summary: All test questions must correspond to the learning objectives in the course. Give yourself enough time to write effective test questions.

Comment: Many instructional design models have you write the test question very early in your design process. The problem is that many of us build the entire course and then say “oops, I forgot to create the test.” Then we hurry and create some questions and throw them out there.

7. Writing Glossary Definitions

Summary: The 4 tips for writing glossary definitions are: 1) every word counts, 2) remove extraneous words, 3) use a consistent style for every definition, and 4) let someone else edit them.

8. Writing Interactions

Summary: Interactions can be a powerful learning tool…but they must be well written with good instructions.

9. Writing Microcopy

Summary: Microcopy is the little instructions and phrases used in eLearning and should not be an afterthought.

Comment: I like to add text to my image treatments as well. Any image can be combined with text.

10. Copywriting

Summary: Copywriting is the use of persuasive language to entice someone to take your training. Most copywriters follow the AIDA formula when writing copywrite.

Today I’ll show you some fun masking techniques using Adobe Photoshop. I’ll show you how to create some visual interest and depth to a design by overlapping and masking elements.

Have you ever seen those fun graphics that look like stickers. It’s a very simple technique to duplicate. In this screencast I demonstrate how to create a sticker effect with our cutout people images.

Today I’ll show you a how to add a little more “visual interest” to an Flash animating object. I call it the bounce effect. It’s a very simple technique but can really be awesome. I’ve recorded a screencast to show you how to do it.

Here is a quick demo I created showing this “bounce” effect: eLearning Brothers Intro. Demo

I’ve recently been trying to learn how to surf. I’m such a computer nerd… the first place I look is YouTube. I watched nearly every video I could find. I bought my first board last Saturday and hit my first waves Monday. Not to brag, but I think I did better than I thought I would. I was able to catch a few waves and was surprised when I could stand up and actually maintain my balance. I knew my mad unicycle skills (balance) would pay off one day.

Anyways, before I hit the waves, a few of my newly met surfer dudes helped me wax my board. Now I kind-of thought wax was for the bottom of the board… wrong! So surf wax is for the top of your board to help you not slip off it. You rub a few layers of wax on and you’re good to go.

So how does all this relate to developing eLearning courses? I believe that just like surf boards need wax, eLearning courses need engaging visual design to keep the users from “slipping off” or losing interest. No matter how well designed and light weight the surf board is, if it doesn’t have wax, you’ll slip right off it. Similar is true with designing great content for a course… it should also have great visual design.

After you have spent all that time developing your content, I’d recommend spending some good time to make it more visually stimulating. Here are a few sugestions:

• Seek some creative inspiration from other websites, magazines, videos, etc.
• Hire a graphic designer to make you a “look and feel” for your course.
• Purchase pre-designed templates.
• Just take the TIME to play around and see what creative juices you have… you may be surprised with what you come up with.

If anyone has any good surfing pointers, love to hear from you.

Today I thought I’d share with you an example of how our eLearning Game Templates can be customized in Adobe Flash. I took only about 10 minutes to come up with new look for the Marathon game. I just wanted to show you that all of the elements in these game templates can easily be modified.

Here is a link to our Flash Game Tutorials page.

Click each example below to demo.

Here is the default game how it comes when you purchase it:

Here is my modified game: