Have you ever wondered how to cutout an object from a background? In this tutorial I show a quick and effective way to remove a background using Adobe Photoshop.

Want pre-clipped People Pictures? Check out our People Pictures.

Most online courses have toooooo much text. I’m a huge fan of info-graphics. Whenever I travel I like to look at the front page of USA Today. There is always an info-graphic that shares some information. It could be something about oil production and gas prices or dogs owners and where they live. The trick though is that within a few seconds I can look at the graphic and understand the concept. I don’t have to read a paragraph of text.

I know that info-graphics can take a lot of time to create but I think that we can use them more in our training content. Many learners are visual and meaningful graphics could really help transfer the concepts.

Here are some info-graphics that gave me some good ideas/inspiration:
(Use these sites as inspiration when you’re trying to figure out how to create an info-graphic.)

Google API and Developer Tools
This is a great visual and it’s interactive. Great way to present a lot of resources at once and then let the user go to specific tools.

Swine Flu Vaccination
This is a good example of walking a user through many different questions.

Twitter Users
This graphic is a bit dated but it’s a nice way to organize information.

Haiti Earthquake Donations
This is a simple graphic (just circles) that uses size to indication the amount of money. This would not be a hard concept to integrate into your next course. Any designer can draw circles.

SAP Salary Survey
Here are some simple visuals.

Apple Time-Line
Time-lines make great graphics.

LinkedIn Visual Map
I’m not sure that this gave me a great idea for my next eLearning image but I thought it was pretty cool. You can visualize all of your LinkedIn connections and how they are related. You can click on each person and it will show your shared connections.

Hopefully these gave you a few thoughts for your next course.

Additional Resources:
“Stink No More – eLearning Deodorant”
Images that Make a Difference
Using People Pictures in eLearning

I’ve written various blogs about why gratuitous eLearning images are bad. Our images should be relevant and be used as a teaching aid. It has always been interesting to me how many “bad images” are used in eLearning. Especially since many of us are primarily visual learners. This probably happens because typing text is a lot easier and faster than creating meaningful images. (Confession…I’ve used my fair share of “bad images” over the years.)

Jakob Nielsen has done various eye tracking studies to determine how users interact with images on websites. I’d consider eLearning to fall into the same category as websites. Our learners typically browse and scan our courses as they would a site.

Here are the main results of his study:

- Users pay close attention to photos and other images that contain relevant information but ignore fluffy pictures used to “jazz up” Web pages.
- Some types of pictures are completely ignored. This is typically the case for big feel-good images that are purely decorative.
- Other types of pictures are treated as important content and scrutinized. Photos of products and real people (as opposed to stock photos of models) often fall into this category.

Basically learners pay attention to “information-carrying” images.

Extra Tidbit:
He also mentioned that when a user clicks on an image to enlarge it we should make it at least twice as big. Too often we only enlarge it 20% and that’s not enough. If the user wants a big picture…give it to them.

Sometimes it is very effective to add people pictures to your online courses. They could be used as a guide/narrator that directs the learner through the course or you could use people to create scenarios and graphics.

Below are a few simple examples and layouts for using cut-out people pictures in eLearning. The pictures are copied into PowerPoint using pre-build eLearning course styles. (A couple are also published with a custom Articulate Skin.)

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.)

Pre-cutout People Pictures

There is no doubt that graphics and images greatly improve online training content. The question is how to properly use them. I’ve come across some good articles lately and thought that I’d compile and list them here. (the list also includes some posts on graphics that we’ve done in the past.)

Realistic Graphics and Learning: What’s most effective? (The eLearning Coach)

Really…Were These the Best Images We Could Find? (eLearning Brothers)

Don’t use Gratuitous Images in eLearning (eLearning Brothers)

Graphics: Adding Reflections (eLearning Brothers)

5 Common Visual Design Mistakes (The Rapid eLearning Blog)

Visual Design for Instructional Content (eLearning Post)

If you have some more good articles please let me know.

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

JOIN THE CRUSADE…NO MORE CHEESY, ANIMATED CLIPART!

How many times have you seen images like these?

Images are an important part of online courses. The trick is that the images we use must enhance the instructional qualities of the content. The images must also look professional and give the learner confidence that the material is accurate. The images above do not look professional and certainly do not give me a feeling that I can trust the course content.