The other day I posted a blog about designing a custom steel texture background and adding it to a PowerPoint template. It turned out so nice, I thought that I’d make some matching Flash Activities and Flash Games.

Click each sample below for a demo.

Here is a tutorial on how to import a custom graphic background into a Flash Template.

Do you have a Flash file that you’ve inserted into Articulate Presenter and it is doing “weird” things? Does it skip the first frame? Does it just keep playing and seem to ignore the stop actions?

We have many Articulate users that use our Flash Games and Interactions to build courses. I often get questions about how to make the Flash files work properly in Articulate. So I thought that I’d write a quick post that explains the proper settings.

If you have a Flash file that has buttons and navigation built into it (you want to users to click around) then you need these Articulate settings:

Click the Insert Flash button in Articulate and choose:

• Advance to next slide: When user clicks next
• Synchronization: Movie plays independently of slide

Important: Also make sure the flash file is ActionScript2. For now ActionScript3 will not work in Articulate.

For more questions/answers about our templates and Articulate skins please see our FAQ page.

Need Flash interactions for Articulate?

(Updated 3/2011: We have launched our next generation of PowerPoint templates and eLearning Flash interactions. Our PowerPoint template set now includes 40+ themes, 80+ backgrounds, and tons of layouts.)

Just a quick announcement that we just launched a new eLearning Style: Carbon Fiber.

View the Flash eLearning Interactions
View the PowerPoint Course Template

Now you have an instant look and feel for your next course. (Many PowerPoint layouts and matching quizzes and interactions.)

8 Flash games, 1 PowerPoint eLearning course style theme , 1 Flash Interactions Pack included in this bundle AND 1 Articulate Presenter Course Skin!

These are PowerPoint and Flash based templates that are super easy to update. Each template is fully customizable in Flash and PowerPoint (we give you the source files). Easily integrate into your Articulate Presenter course.

BONUS: Reuse the templates over and over again in multiple courses or even other websites and presentations.
Purchase these templates at eLearningTemplates.com

The company did a total redo of their intranet site and wanted to introduce it to their employees. It’s designed to give a short general overview and then let them choose parts to explore.

View the course

(Updated 3/2011: We have launched our next generation of Flash interactions and quizzes. Our template set now includes 40+ themes, 20+ button styles, and tons of layouts.)

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. Purchase and download the Flash source files.
2. Open the Flash file and copy/paste your text into the movie clips. (or change anything…you have the source file and can edit every part of the interaction).
3. Publish the .swf file.
4. Insert the .swf file into your authoring tool.

This Flash Ninja game is a customization of one our eLearning template games. The client ordered our ShootOut Challenge Flash game and had us shake it up a bit. This was a lot of fun to do and created a pretty unique elearning game. If you’re familiar with our flash templates, you know that pretty much every element in the template is customizable (we give you the Flash source file).

Check out our e learning template site to learn more about this Flash game and others.

Play the game

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:

1. Script the video on paper
2. Record (sound and audio)
3. Edit
4. Compress/Render
5. Insert into eLearning authoring tool
6. Place on server
7. 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 big. There are various techniques that help when compressing and deploying video. Flash .swf and .flv (Flash Video) is a great way to overcome these issues.

I found an article that focuses on compression, security, and deployment and could help you deploy your eLearning videos.

The article below addresses a scenario where a company needs to train 1500 employees using a 30 minute video. They are worried about security and the quality of their video. They will also have many employees accessing the video at the same time. Limited bandwidth is a worry.

Article: Deploying Online Courses with Video Content (Syberworks)

Quickly build eLearning games and eLearning interactions. Works with your eLearning authoring tool. No programming needed.

Is PowerPoint the most widely used tool for eLearning development? Should it be?

It seems that everywhere I go in the eLearning world I run into PowerPoint. Most of the new authoring tools either use PPT as their backbone or offer the ability to import slides. Interface creation, navigation buttons, LMS tracking, and testing abilities are then typically added to the PPT functionality.

I “grew-up” in eLearning world using Director/Authorware and then moving into Flash/HTML (PPT was “off-limits”). In the past few years I’ve started using Articulate and Captivate to do the heavy lifting and using Flash more for specific parts of the overall course. Using these new tools meant that I had to start using PPT.

At first I was very anti-PPT, however I have changed my tune a bit in the past few years. I have come to appreciate that with some good thought and instructional design you can use most any tool to a decent level of effectiveness. I’ve seen terrible Flash and Lectora courses even thought they were created in amazing (expensive) tools. Then on the flip-side, I’ve seen some very creative content built with free tools.

Seems clich© but maybe it’s not about the tool. Good instructional design skills can be applied anywhere.

Here are a few reasons why PPT seems to be so widely used in eLearning:

1. Classroom training is often converted to an online format. Every classroom course has a PPT and it’s usually the first thing that someone thinks about when they want to put the course online. Unfortunately too often the PPT is simply thrown online without having truly turned it into effective eLearning.

2. Everyone has PPT. It’s probably already on every training person’s computer.

3. Everyone knows how to use it (and if they don’t it’s pretty easy to learn.)

4. You can quickly create content and there are tons of layouts, backgrounds, and color themes.

5. And last but not least, Microsoft already owns the world so why not conform?

What do you think? What has been your experience with PPT as a development tool? What is it missing? Do you think Microsoft will add features and turn it into a more robust eLearning development tool? Good article from Rapid eL Blog.

Checkout these eLearning PowerPoint templates. (40+ themes, 75+ layouts)

We recently had the privilege of partnering with M2Results, a brand-based marketing design group, to develop this stellar website. They came to us to assist them with brainstorming the sites functionality as well as developing the Flash content. It was an exciting opportunity and the site has been a great success.

View the site