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.

We thought it would be nice to start the New Year by sharing with you a sample PowerPoint Template…for FREE. That’s right, click the link below to go to our eLearning Templates website and download this free template.

Free PowerPoint Template

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.

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.

A key point in instructional design is to “know your audience”. One of the reasons to do this is because you can tailor the content to the learner’s existing knowledge level.

Connie at the eLearning Coach has done a great series of posts on how to design course content for experts vs. beginners.

Tips when designing for experts:

• Quickly Mention Prerequisite Content
• Keep it Organized
• Get Them In and Out
• Don’t Play Simple Games
• Assume They’ll Get It
• Avoid Condescension

Tips when designing courses for both experts and beginners:

• Allow learners to skip extra steps and detailed guidance.
• Use a design model that allows for independent exploration.
• Provide support for informal approaches to learning.
• Provide rapid diagnostic tests at the start that will point each learner to the correct level of instruction.
• Allow the learner to choose the level at which they want to enter a learning experience.
• Allow the learner to perform a task and then identify how difficult he or she thought the task was. From this information, guide the learner to the appropriate level.

Thanks Connie for the great posts!

“In the beginning there was a blank slide.

All eLearning designers dreamed of the endless possibilities.

Wondrous content could spring into life.

However, something went wrong…

Bullet points sprang up like weeds.

Clip art infiltrated the blank space.

Bad color schemes and ugly fonts polluted the slide.

The dream of engaging, awesome content suffered a great blow.

Would the dim flicker of hope survive?

Would awesome content rise from the bullet points, clip art, and clutter?

Would eLearning designers overcome the Curse of the Blank PowerPoint Slide?

YES!”

Ok…enough of my attempt at creative writing. As many of our readers know our goal is to Make Your Training Look Awesome. Many eLearning designers look at a blank slide/page and have a hard time overcoming the “curse of the blank slide”. Many times we do better when there is an existing structure and layout. (It’s also faster.) That is why we started creating templates.

eLearning templates offer great benefits. Here are a few:

– Professional Graphic Design: Not all eLearning designers have graphic design or multimedia skills. However, they have enough experience to use templates.
– Branding: Templates can have branding incorporated so that course material matches your corporate look/feel.
- Standards: Build you standards into the templates. You can exterminate rainbow colored fonts, lime green buttons, and microsoft clip art.
- Speed: Content development goes a lot faster when you don’t start with a blank slide every time.
- Quick Customization: Get the source files with your templates so that you can make tweaks. Many of us know software well enough to make tweaks to an existing file. (the challenge is to build it from scratch)
– Consistency: Templates give a consistent look, layout, and branding to eLearning. Even if many different designers are working on the course it will still look like it “belongs” together.
– Lean Team: If you don’t have the luxury of employing a graphic/multimedia guru then owning professional templates can help.

Our learners expect courses that look professional! If a course looks ugly, the learner will think the content is ugly too. In other words if our course looks professional then the learners will pay more attention.

Rapid eLearning development can overcome the Curse of the Blank Slide and be Awesome!

PowerPoint Templates
75+ layouts, 40+ themes, professional branding…all in one pack!

Flash eLearning Templates
High quality flash games, quizzes, and interactions. Own the source code.

eLearning Interaction Builder
Use this online tool to build great looking interactions and games.

I don’t remember how I came across this Google book preview but it has been an interesting read.
eLearning and the Science of Instruction (Ruth Colvin Clark, Richard E. Mayer)

Chapter 8 of the book has some great points that I’d like to share, “Applying the Personalization Principle” (page 160).

Ways to Personalize eLearning

1. Conversational Tone
As eLearning designers have learned over the years that learners want to feel connected to the training. We need to personalize the content. One way to do this is to use conversational text/narration instead of formal. Conversational tone would use “I, we, me, you, my…”.

Clark and Mayer state, “Based on cognitive theory and research evidence, we recommend that you create elearning courses that include some spoken or printed text that is conversational rather than formal.” There is also reference to a research project (see image below) that compared the knowledge transfer of two groups of students who read a formal or informal introduction. The image below shows you what they read and could give some pointers on how to use conversational writing. By the way…the students who read the informal text did better every time.

2. Voice Quality
People learn better if narration is a human voice rather than sounding like a computer. I’m sure that we can all agree that listening to a computer voice for an entire course would be terrible.

3. Polite Speech
Learners are sensitive to the politeness tone of statements. For example you could say, “Click the NEXT button.” or a more polite way (and a way to involve the learner) would be to say “You may want to click the NEXT button.” or ” Let’s click the NEXT button.”. This make the learner part of the course and doesn’t tell them what to do.

4. On Screen Coaches and Agents
So is it worth the time and money to create an on-screen agent? According the research cited in the book the answer is Yes. It seems that agents done in the right way can have very positive results. Suggestions are to:

• Have the agent’s words narrated not written out
• Use conversational words
• Use a human voice

5. Make the Author Visible
A visible author style can promote deeper engagement from the learners. A visible author shares a few things about themselves and may write in the 3rd person.

Thanks to Ruth and Richard for the good read. What else should we be doing to personalize our courses?

Additional Resources:
Conversational Tone in eLearning
Using Image and Audio in eLearning
Stop Using Narration in eLearning

I’ve often thought that our eLearning courses are like one big presentation. We’re trying to share information but we’re also trying to capture attention. We can’t have our course just “stand there” and use a monotone voice to try and teach. We must engage, motivate, capture, and excite.

Last week at Learning Solutions I ran across Nancy Duarte and a new book that she has written. I’ve seen her work in the past and have always been impressed.

Here are 5 Rules for Creating World Changing Presentations. (And my comments of course)

1. Treat your audience as king
You should always build a course with the audience in mind. How will they learn most effectively? In what type of environment will they be learning? What do they already know? What do they really need to know? Why should they care?

2. Spread ideas and people

• Use images to convey meaning. Images can be inspiring.
• Replace pages of text with something that “means” something. The course audio can be coupled with diagrams, images, and truly meaningful information.
• Don’t put everything on the screen at once. Sequence information and build the suspense.

3. Help them see what you’re saying

• Brainstorm graphics that can replace your words. You’ll be surprised what can visually replace the text.
• The audio can do the “talking”. You don’t have to write down every word that is spoken.

4. Practice design not decoration

• Don’t put too much on the page. (Less is more)
• One word on the page is OK and can be powerful. It draws attention.
• A picture can fill the whole slide.
• Don’t put stuff on the page just to “fill space”.

5. Cultivate healthy relationships with your slides and audience

• Use fewer words and let the course narrator “connect the dots”.

Check out duarte.com for some inspiration.

PowerPoint templates for eLearning.

Color impacts your courses and your learners. Choosing the “correct” colors can hinder or increase the speed of learning and retention. Colors can affect mood, have different meanings in various cultures, and bring immediate things to our minds.

Here is a quick summary of each color’s psychological effect.

Red is a stimulant and can evoke passion and excitement.
Use to draw attention to key points, but don’t overdo it.

Orange is an antidepressant and can be used as a stimulant that is warm and welcoming. (We at eLearning Brother really like orange.)
Use to appear more personable to your learners, particularly with boring content.

Blue encourages serenity and lowers the pulse (opposite of blue). It is liked by the widest range of humans.
Use to calm learners when presenting complicated and overwhelming information. It is a color that many companies use and is easy to use in content without conflicting with branding guidelines.

Green brings tranquility and peacefulness. It is refreshing and is the easiest color on the eyes. Green helps to relax muscles and deepen breathing.
Use wherever you want, as much as you want.

Yellow is a brain stimulant and promotes memory. It is harsh on the eyes so use it sparingly.
Use to highlight points that should be memorized or that are often forgotten .

Purple is the color of royalty and luxury. It also can be paired with other colors to emphasize a mood (with blue it becomes calming, with red it becomes stimulating).
Use it with another color to achieve your desired mood. Purple is a very well-rounded color that can express lightheartedness and fun in learning to sophistication of a company or brand.

Black elicits feelings of power, formality, mystery, and fear.
Use it for fonts. Black is often the best choice for the bulk of text (or a dark gray). Black is a nice color to add to an overall look/feel to add some depth. It is basically a color that isn’t really focused on and seen.

White is seen as pure and clean.
Use it everywhere. White space can be very powerful and help learners to stay focused.

(For more information read Using Color in Learning and The Psychological Effects of Color)

Creating Color Schemes

• Kuler is a great tool to come up with color schemes. I use it a lot of dream-up new ideas.
• COLOURLovers will let you upload a photo and then it will create a color scheme based on the picture.

Designing for Color-Blindness

• Here is an interesting chart that shows how people see colors if they have various color deficiencies.
• Here is a great site that will let you input your URL and test it against various versions of color-blindness. It will display your sight as that person will see it. (Colorblind Web Page Filter)

Colors in Different Cultures
Means of colors in cultures

Build eLearning Games and eLearning Activities

Ok…the title is a bit harsh. I don’t think that we should completely stop using narration in our courses.

Let me give you an example of a course that drives me nuts:
Imagine going through a course with a bunch of text and some pretty pictures. Now imagine that there is a nice calm voice that is reading every word on the page. Also, the page navigation is locked and you can’t advance until the slow voice is done. Arghhhh…I’ve already read the text 3 times before the voice is done! I’m stuck and beginning to really dislike the course.

There are times when audio narration is appropriate and other times when it’s “less effective”.

I’ve always been in the “camp” that believes that audio narration and text on the screen should not be exact duplicates. The audio, text, and visuals should be used to tell the story and teach.

Here is a great demonstration of 4 ways to narrate your training course (from the Rapid eLearning blog). After viewing that demo I think that we can all agree that method 1 was very painful. I really liked the 4th method. It takes a bit more time to come up with the visuals but it’s a lot more effective.

Here are some interesting articles and studies to dig deeper into this topic:
Do we really need narration? (Cathy Moore)
Should we narrate on-screen text? (Cathy Moore)
Narration in eLearning (eLearning Leadership Blog)

Add people pictures to your eLearning.