eLearning – Page 10 – The Logical Blog

May 27, 2015

eLearning: The Role of Images

by Sean Stoker

Are the slides that make up your eLearning lessons text-heavy? Images are an often overlooked component of a good eLearning course. Sadly, when images are added to eLearning, they often have little to do with the content being presented or, just as sad, are of poor quality.

You've probably heard the saying that a picture is worth 1,000 words. But consider this: people process information presented in an image far faster than text. According to Mike Parkinson, founder of Billion Dollar Graphics, "visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text, graphics quickly affect our emotions, and our emotions greatly affect our decision-making."

Parkinson went on to say "Study after study, experiment after experiment, has proven that graphics have immense influence over the audience's perception of the subject matter and, by association, the presenter (the person, place, or thing most associated with the graphic) because of these neurological and evolutionary factors. The audience's understanding of the presented material, opinion of the presented material and the presenter, and their emotional state are crucial factors in any decision they will make. Without a doubt, graphics greatly influence an audience's decisions."

Mental

There's something very helpful about having a pictorial representation of the concept to hang your hat on. An image anchors a concept in a way that words often can't. While text forces you to create an image in your brain from scratch, introducing a picture gives us a jumping-off point, showing us a tangible concept which can be instantly grasped and further explored through text or audio.

For many of the same reasons above, a good image can also increase a learner's comprehension and recall. Instead of trying to remember the nebulous image that they produced in their mind's eye, they can simply call up the more tangible picture that they physically saw and didn't have to manufacture themselves.

Emotional

Any journalist worth their salt will tell you that a story without a picture lacks the punch it might otherwise have. For instance, if I were to describe to you a natural disaster that occurred in some foreign country, you might be pretty shocked by the words alone. However, it wouldn't be quite as real to you as if I included a picture of the rubble, injured people, and all-around devastation.

Similarly, I could try to tell you how much I love dogs and try all day to convince you to love them too, but it wouldn't have nearly the same impact as if I just showed you this…

Puppies!

How quickly did your heart melt? How long did it take for the word "awwwwwww" to involuntarily escape your mouth? Instantly, right? And now we both love dogs! (Thanks to Mike Parkinson for inspiring this example.)

Punctuating the Text

Finally, eLearning images also work wonders when it comes to breaking up the text and giving the eye a chance to rest. When you read, your eyes scan a wall of words trying to squeeze out each nugget of information. If done for an extended amount of time, it can get exhausting. But throw in some pictures periodically…

Fat free, sugar free!

… and it breaks the monotony of a text-heavy lesson.

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Looking to learn to create your own eLearning? We offer several live, online classes that'll get you up and running in no time. Classes range from 3-hour mini courses to full-day, multi-day events.

May 21, 2015

Adobe Captivate: Object Style Breakpoints

by Kevin Siegel

The ability to create Responsive Projects was introduced last June with the arrival of Adobe Captivate 8. During the development process, you can basically create and work on multiple screen sizes (called break points) in one Captivate project. When you publish the responsive project, the learner will automatically be served the break point appropriate for the device they're using.

As I've created more and more Responsive Projects, one of the big concerns is to ensure the fonts and font sizes used in each break point is appropriate for the display size. For instance, I might want my font size to be 14 points in my Primary Break Point, 12 points in my Tablet Break Point, and a bit smaller in my Mobile Break Point.

While I could manually change the font formatting used on my slides, Break Point by Break Point, if I've got a lot of slides, that means I've got a ton of work to do.

As an alternative to manually formatting the slide objects, visit the Object Style Manager (via the Edit menu). Select an Object Style and in the Text Format area, notice that there's a Break Points drop-down menu. The menu contains three options: Primary,Tablet, and Mobile.

Break Points drop-down menu
Select each Break Point in turn and set the desired Font Family, Size, Format, Color, etc. When finished, click the OK button and you'll see your changes immediately on the project's three Break Points.

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If you'd like to learn more about eLearning, come hang out in my next eLearning basics mini course. And if you'd like to learn more Captivate, Presenter, or Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you.

May 12, 2015

eLearning: Sync/Align With the Playhead in Captivate or Storyline

by Kevin Siegel

You're developing an eLearning module in Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline. There's a slide that plays for 45 seconds. As you're listening to the audio, you'd like a screen object to appear in sync with the voiceover audio or some other screen action.

If the object in question is already on the slide, you can certainly select the object on the Timeline and drag it until its left edge gets to the desired part of the Timeline. Of course, if the slide is playing for a significant amount of time, that's going to require a lot of dragging.

One technique that I use when I want to match screen actions to voiceover audio is called Sync with Playhead (in Captivate) or Align with Playhead (in Storyline).

In the image below, I've positioned the Captivate Playhead on the Timeline by clicking at the top of the Timeline.

The technique is identical in Storyline (except as you'll see in the image below, the Playhead looks a bit different).

On the Timeline in either program, I can then right-click an object that I'd like to automatically move to the Playhead position and choose Sync with Playhead (Captivate) or Align with Playhead (Storyline).

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April 28, 2015

eLearning and TechComm: Click, Select, Choose, or Press?

by Jennie Ruby

Right at a time when flat design has become the rage, removing the three-dimensional look that for 30 years (happy anniversary to Windows this November!) has informed us that "this thing looks like you can poke it in! It must be a button!" people are starting to worry and become uncertain about the clear vocabulary that has helped us to write about software and computers for just as long.

In a recent class I had one participant tell me her office has forbidden the word "click" in favor of "select." Another told me that her office had done just the opposite!

The two concerns in question are whether the word "click" loses its meaning on mobile devices, and whether the word "click" is exclusionary toward individuals with disabilities or different abilities.

The good news is that using the word "click" is not ableist, nor is it declaring the hegemony of mouse users over mobile device users. It is just the standard word in technical communications to indicate "execute," on certain kinds of interactive items on screens. In other words, "click" means "hey you, button, do that thing you do."

The button, as with so many things in the computer realm, is an analogy to real-world little pokable nubbins that make things happen on electric devices from vacuum-cleaners to doorbells. Even real-world buttons have undergone some changes in the ways people use them. The buttons on my microwave and stove are now flat to the surface and covered with a plastic sheet so that spaghetti sauce and porkchop grease can't get in and ruin the mechanism. But you still actuate them by pressing them–and most of them still emit a satisfying "click" sound (or a beep) when you do so.

By analogy, "click" is whatever action you do to an on-screen button to make it do its thing. It is executed on various devices and by various computer users in various ways. Many of us already made the leap from "press and release the left button on a mouse device" to "press and release the left side of your mouse even though it no longer has a button" to "press and release the entire touchpad on your Mac laptop so that emits a click sound" to "tap ever-so-gently on the hair-trigger touchpad of your new Windows laptop" to "tap once on the screen of your iPad or phone" to "tap once on the screen of your touch-screen laptop" to "tab to the button and press the Enter key on your keyboard." And with Windows Speech Recognition, to actuate a button, you actually speak the word "click," as in, "Click OK;Click File; Click Bold; Click Save; Click Close," and so on.

To back away from the word "click" right now is as unnecessary, and even nonsensical, as deciding that the Save icon has to be changed because no-one has used an actual mini floppy disk since 2005. The Save icon has become a symbol that will retain its meaning like other permanent glyphs, such as the Arabic numerals or the smiley face. And the word "click" is the way you indicate "actuate" for certain screen items.

But that is not to say that the word "click" should be used for every screen action. By now I hope I have made clear that a "click" is a characteristic of certain screen items-buttons, icons, tools-not of the physical method by which you actuate them. So even though you may also click your mouse to execute the following actions, the word "click" is not the clearest vocabulary word for them.

You "choose" something from a menu, because you are "choosing" from a list of "choices," and once you "choose" the one you want, the chosen command is immediately executed.

choose File > Close

You "select" something that, once you select it, stays selected. You select a cell in Excel. You select part of the text in a document. You select an option from a list and the option stays selected-as in a drop-down list or a list-box. You select a radio button, and you select a checkbox. And they stay selected. Until you "deselect" them.

select the Portrait Orientation radio button

select the Kerning checkbox

from the Font drop-down list, select Verdana

select the first paragraph in your document

deselect the Enable Live Preview checkbox

You "press" a key on a keyboard or a real button on an actual piece of hardware. (The word "press" definitely cannot be used to describe what you do to an on-screen button, because it may create ambiguity: Does "Press Home" mean on the screen or on the keyboard?)

press the Enter key

press the F6 key

press the Power button (on the microwave)

And finally, you "click" an on-screen button, an icon, or a tool.

click the OK button

click the Bold tool

click the Wifi icon

As this vocabulary discussion continues, I would love to hear your take. Is your office using "select" for everything? Are you using "press" for mobile devices? Or tap? Are you combining commands, as in "click or tap the link"? Email me.

References

Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications: "Do not use choose as an alternative to click or double-click. Choose does not convey any additional information to those who do not use a mouse, and such users normally understand the equivalent action that they must take when a procedure step says to click."

Web page: Use Speech Recognition to operate windows and programs

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Do you need to learn how to write eLearning scripts? Come check out my live, online mini course.

April 26, 2015

Adobe Captivate: Object Hyperlinks

by Kevin Siegel

Last week I taught you how easy it is add a hyperlink to caption text in Adobe Captivate. This week, let's tackle object hyperlinks.

First of all, keep in mind that any interactive object can take a learner to a website. Interactive objects include, but aren't limited to, click boxes, buttons, text entry boxes, and smart shapes (assuming the smart shape is being used as a button).

To insert an interactive object, click Interactions on the Main toolbar. In this example, I'm going to use a Button.

Captivate Interactions

With the object selected, go to the Properties Inspector and select the Actions tab. From the On Success drop-down menu, choose Open URL or file.

Select Web Page from the Link To drop-down menu and then type in the web address. And just like I mentioned last week when creating a text hyperlink, prior to clicking the OK button, visit the drop-down menu to the right of the web address. Select New from the list of options. (This will ensure that the page that appears after the learner clicks is a new page or tab, rather than a page that replaces the current lesson.)

When viewed via a web browser or a PDF, the learner will be taken to the web address you specified in the Link To area if the interactive object is clicked.

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April 22, 2015

eLearning: Top 20 Must-Read BLOGS

by Sean Stoker

In our own, considered, humble opinion, we have an awesome blog that every eLearning professional should read.
But sometimes we like to see what our colleagues are doing, which means taking a look at the multitude of eLearning knowledge that exists all over the web. Here are a few blogs that you simply must bookmark and read on a consistent basis:

eLearning Industry. This website publishes original eLearning content with 360 authors and more than 90 original articles published per month.
The eLearning Coach. Instructional design know-how from a highly experienced eLearning guru, Connie Malamed.
E-Learning Provocateur. E-Learning Provocateur is the brainchild of Ryan Tracey, a member of eLearn Magazine's editorial board. Tracey hopes to "provoke deeper thinking" in the world of eLearning.
Cathy Moore. Cathy Moore is an impassioned advocate for interesting and stimulating eLearning. As a speaker and adviser she is in very high demand, and her impressive resume includes companies such as Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, FedEx, and even the American Government, amongst a multitude of others.
E-Learning 24/7 Blog. Blogger Craig Weiss was recently named the most influential person in the eLearning industry. He is an expert on Learning Management Systems and a well-known public speaker.
OpenSesame. OpenSesame is a unique website that allows for easy buying and selling of eLearning Courses.
The Learning Generalist. Written by Sumeet Moghe of Thoughtworks Technologies Pune.
Social Learning Blog. An industry blog brought to you by LMS giant Interactyx.
Upside Learning. One of the most socially shared eLearning blogs on the internet.
Technology Enhanced Learning Blog. By David Hopkins, the 2014 ALTC Learning Technologist of the Year.
Learning Solutions Magazine. The eLearning Guild's publication, boasting more than 1000 articles since 2002.
Rapid eLearning Blog. By Tom Kuhlman, an eLearning pro with two decades of experience.
I Came, I Saw, I Learned. An informative blog about the software and design side of things from IconLogic.
Allison Rossett. A blog hosted by Dr. Allison Rosset, an eLearning expert and professor of Educational Technology at San Diego State University.
The Spicy Learning Blog. "The Spicy Learning Blog" is posted by Saffron Interactive, Europe's prolific eLearning organization.
Kasper Spiro. From the mind of Kasper Spiro, CEO of easygenerator.
Docebo E-Learning Blog. A blog created by Docebo, one of the Top Ten Learning Management Systems of 2015.
LMS Blog. Insider knowledge from the respected LMS, Latitude Learning.
E-Learning Acupuncture. An eLearning blog created by accomplished scientist and Educational Developer at Queen's University, Eric Tremblay.
E-Learning Academy. Tips from e-coach Alison Bickford.

Is there a blog you would like to add to this list? Feel free to name your go-to blog in as a comment below.

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Looking to learn to create your own eLearning? We offer several live, online classes that'll get you up and running in no time. Classes range from 3-hour mini courses to full-day, multi-day events.

April 16, 2015

eLearning: Become a Pedagogical Agent

by Jennie Ruby

If you've taken any of our Adobe Captivate, Adobe Presenter, or Articulate Storyline classes, you are probably aware that these programs provide a selection of screen characters–cut-out pictures of professional actors in business, medical, or business-casual clothing posed as if they are talking to you. They are intended for use as a kind of avatar of the trainer.

There is research that shows that using a screen character as a pedagogical agent or learning coach, who speaks informally and appears to be giving the lesson, increases learning. (My reference for this is Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer, eLearning and the Science of Instruction.)

Over the past few weeks, I've had multiple students ask how hard it would be to use themselves as the learning coach. Believe it or not, becoming a pedagogical agent is easier than you think.

Put Your Picture into the Lesson. Place a professional head shot of yourself, your trainer, or expert on the introductory slide (including job title, credentials, etc.), and then have that individual record the audio narration for the project.

Create your own screen characters. Photograph your expert on a green screen background for a full set of screen characters in various poses. The IconLogic Blog has a whole series of articles on how to do this:

Green Screen Part I

Green Screen Part II

Green Screen Part III

Green Screen Part IV

Create cartoons of yourself or your in-house experts. You can use the images over and over in on-going training videos. Here is one article to get you started: Using Bitstrips Characters.

If you don't have specific, known individuals in your company to act as your learning coaches, you are not stuck with the same four or five actors that come with your software. You can purchase additional screen characters from The eLearning Brothers. Or you can just make good use of some inexpensive clip art. By trimming out the background in ordinary office photographs, you can get some nice effects.

Whether you use generic actors or your own home-grown experts, screen characters are an excellent way to add the personalization, engagement, and local feel that will bring your eLearning to the next level.

Once you have your screen characters, how do you know what to make them say? Join me for an afternoon mini course on writing voiceovers to find out.

April 13, 2015

Adobe Captivate: Text Hyperlinks

by Kevin Siegel

Over the years I've had more than a few eLearning development clients ask us to create links to web resources on a slide. There's more than one way to accomplish the task. Over the next couple of weeks I'll discuss some of my favorite techniques. Up first, text hyperlinks.

To create a text hyperlink, select some text (the text can be contained within a text caption or a smart shape). Then, on the Properties Inspector, select the Style tab. From the Character area, click the Insert Hyperlink tool.

From the Link To drop-down menu, choose Web Page. Next, type a web address into the field.

Prior to clicking the OK button, visit the drop-down menu to the right of the web address. I think it's a good idea to select New from the list of options. (This will ensure that the page that appears after the learner clicks is a new page or tab, rather than a page that replaces the current lesson.)

When previewed in a web browser, the text hyperlink will look similar to the image below. If clicked, the learner will be taken to the web address you specified in the Link To area.

Should you change your mind about the text hyperlink, removing the link is as simple as selecting the text and, back on the Properties Inspector, clicking the Remove Hyperlink tool.

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Adobe Presenter Video Express: Creating Software Demos

by Jennie Ruby

If you've tried Adobe Presenter with Video Express, you are probably aware that you can create a video of yourself as you present your PowerPoint slides, and then display either yourself, your slides, or both in the published project. However, a well-kept secret is that Video Express actually enables you to take a simultaneous video of yourself and anything you have on your computer screen–it doesn't have to be PowerPoint slides.

Here's an example: I needed to show a few different functions in Word 2013. I'm creating an update lesson, not a full how-to video. I want to be able to list the changes in 2013 from the 2010 version of the software, and show just a quick mini-vid of things that have been changed.

First, I turn on Video Express independently of PowerPoint and Presenter. (On my Windows 8 touch-screen machine, I went to the Start screen and tapped the Video Express icon. You can start your copy of Video Express just as you would start any application.)

Next I created a script (you can't do anything without a step-by-step script, and possibly a voiceover script to go with it), and opened my target application, Word 2013, in maximized view. Video Express is automatically set to capture the entire screen.

From the task bar, I retrieve Video Express, and hit the Create New Project button.

Create New Project

I ignore the fact that my video camera is now showing my face–I'm not going to display that aspect of the video in my end product. No need for lighting, makeup, etc. on this one!

I click the Record button.

Record button

Video Express disappears, a count-down from 5 to 1 rolls, and consulting my script, I take a live video of some screen actions, narrating as I go.

When I've finished the steps, I hit the stop recording short-cut key combo, Shift-End.

My video opens in Editing view.

At the bottom of the screen, I click the Presentation Only tool.

Presentation Only tool

Now the published output will display only the screen actions, and not my face, but my audio narration will play throughout.

Since the video was shot with Word maximized, I click the Pan & Zoom tool at a crucial point along the timeline.

Pan & Zoom tool

Then I adjust the Pan and Zoom to focus on the part of the screen that is of interest.

Adjust the Pan and Zoom

Later along the timeline, I could choose to zoom back out, but that is not needed for my project.

Finished with editing, I go to the lower right corner of the Editing screen, and click Publish.

From the options displayed, I choose Export to PowerPoint. I've decided to create a slide show of the Microsoft Word updates, with a mini-video of each change.

Export to PowerPoint

After some processing, PowerPoint opens with my inserted video ready to go on a new slide. I'll add an intro slide and explanatory slides along with additional slides showing my other mini-videos.

Now I can save my project, then use Adobe Presenter to publish it as one continuous movie, with my embedded videos playing automatically in between explanatory slides. Sweet!

So okay, I did end up using PowerPoint and Adobe Presenter along with Video Express after all, but that combo was just what I needed for this hybrid project.

Want more on Video Express? Sign up for my Video Express mini course for just $79, and you'll be ready to make expert videos after just one afternoon session!

April 3, 2015

eLearning: Is Gamification Really Necessary?

by AJ Walther

I like the idea of games in learning, generally speaking. Why shouldn't learning be fun? Set the capitals of the states to music, turn the stock market into a game, great. But lately the eLearning community is all aflutter about the gamification of learning. Game this. Video that. Avatar all the things!

Sure, I think there's a place for games in learning. Yes, I think to some degree games can improve learner engagement. But what about retention? What about actual knowledge gain? And mostly, what about the message we, as eLearning developers, are sending? Should everything be a game?

A game-based school for 6th graders opened in Los Angeles. It looks like attending the school would be a blast. But I have to wonder how kids attending a school where everything is a game are going to turn out. Will they be motivated to do anything if there's not a prize at the end? Will the students want to learn for the pure joy of discovery and the attainment of knowledge, or will they always only be focused on leveling-up? What about when they enter the workplace? Will their jobs need to be set up on an instant gratification game system? Or will it even matter, because at that point all of our job training and all of our work will be gamified as well?

Conversely, maybe these kids will go on to be super-motivated brainiacs because they "learned to learn" in an environment based upon fun and games. I certainly don't know. What's concerning to me, is that I'm not sure if anyone knows. Are we gamifying things because it's the new, fun, thing to do? Or are we doing it because it works? We'd love to hear from you.

I have mostly questions, and no answers. I've yet to come across any research that goes beyond how gamification can be applied, instead focusing on whether or not gamification works. What I did find was an interesting survey conducted by the Pew Research Center (Gamification: Experts expect 'game layers' to expand in the future, with positive and negative results). I found it interesting because it looked at gamification from both sides, pointing out that some industry experts think gaming can be "fun, useful, increasing engagement and personal improvement" while others say it can also be "manipulative, insidious." Because it was only an opinion survey, however, there was no statistical data on whether the gaming is working.

Check out this infographic from Knewton about the Gamification of Education. Looking for more? Here's an infographic by OnlineSchools.com that goes into a little more detail about gaming in education. (And, if you'd like to know how to make your own infographic, check out this blog post on using PowerPoint.)