Microsoft Office Game – Ribbon Hero

I ran across this post on the Microsoft Office Labs blog and thought that it was a great idea. They have created an Office Software add-in that allows your to earn points by completing challenges and using the software. You can even tie to Facebook.

(Jennifer Michelstein, a Program Manager at Office Labs)

“Games for learning is an increasingly popular field that’s quickly gaining ground. When we started this project, we wondered if there was a place for games in Office. “

There are two ways to earn points. The first is simple – just by using the app. As you start using basic commands, like bold, italic, and underline, you’ll start earning a small number of points. As you use more complex features, like Styles or Style Sets, or combinations of features, you’ll earn even more points. But that’s just the beginning.

There’s a second way to earn points, and that’s by playing challenges. Ribbon Hero watches what features you do and don’t use, and then it recommends challenges for you to play, to hopefully expose you to new features.

Check out Ribbon Hero

Also, take a look at our eLearning games and interactive flash templates.

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)

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

Engaging Learners in Course Interactions

So how do you visually indicate where or what a user should click on? How do they know when they are supposed to interact with your course content?

Here are some examples of what I call “click alerts”. I like to use click alerts through out the course to help the user know when I expect them to interact with content. The click alerts below are made in flash and usually have a slight pulse or strobe. This subtle movement is enough to catch the user’s attention but is not distracting.

Flash Examples: (go ahead and click on them)

If you would like to see more, there are four styles of interactive e-Learning Flash Templates: Grunge City Ray Clean Corporate Pulsing Dots

Here’s an image of a few more alerts:

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

FREE Rapid eLearning Flash Template

We just finished another stellar rapid e-learning flash template. The Board Game template is designed to be easily updated by a novice Flash developer. Simply open it in Flash and edit text…yes, that easy. Get this Flash Game Template for FREE (Offer ended…check out www.e-LearningTemplates.com for other great deals) View the latest eLearning Games. View Interactive Flash Templates.