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eLearning: Color Design Challenges

by Sally Cox  

 

This is the first in a series I am creating on "eLearning Challenges." Over the coming weeks I will address common issues I run into when designing eLearning projects and offer tips for solving them.

 

Color as a Training Aid

I use color to train learners to interact with my eLearning content. For instance, I use a single color for all of my interactive objects. In the image below, there are several interactive buttons. Although the buttons might look different, they are similar in color.

 

 

By only using a specific color on interactive objects, users become accustomed to engaging with the interactive objects. In this case, I would also make all interaction instructions ("Press here for more info," for example) blue as well.

Seeing Red?

 

In my experience, corporate style guides prohibit the use of red unless it's a part of the corporate brand. Another problem with using the color red is readability. When used on text and then viewed on a computer screen (or a mobile device), most learners will agree that the red color makes text harder to read. As an alternative to red, I often use orange. 

Bright Colors

 

I tend to use bright colors in my designs, but I use them sparingly. In the image below, you see a series of nine rectangles on the lower right. Notice which colors grab your attention first. 

 

 

For me, it's challenging to focus on anything in the image above because I am drawn to the bright blue, the neon yellow, bright red, orange, and green. I hardly even notice the dark gray objects. Use bright colors only as needed, and sparingly. Too many bright colors distract your learner and inhibit learning. Notice the more muted, toned down yellow I used for the text boxes. It's a nice shade that is far less distracting than the neon yellow.

Note: The images above are from my YouTube video on this subject; find it here.

 

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Looking to get started with eLearning? Check out our 3-hour mini courses.

eLearning: How to Pick an LMS

by Ashok Sharma  

Picking a Learning Management System (LMS) to host your eLearning content is a crucial, but often overlooked, step in the eLearning development process. The problem is, there are several LMS vendors from which to choose. Which LMS fits best within your budget, your eLearning development software, your learner's technology, your training objectives, and your instructional design initiatives?

How to Choose the Right LMS for Your Business

Purchasing an LMS is a big decision for any organization. In fact, you'll find that the price for an LMS can range from free to $1,000,000. The first step in picking an LMS is knowing your organization. An LMS can be used for a variety of different tasks--internal training, performance tracking, compliance maintenance, policy awareness, and employee feedback. Ask the executive team what requirements they might need from the solution. Do you need the LMS just for training? Could the LMS be used for new employee orientations, site-specific safety training, internal policy management, and sign off? Identify the level of maintenance and internal staff that will be required to implement and maintain the service. Some systems are very easy to setup while others can require months to properly set up. Ensure you are aware of which one you are getting. When pricing an LMS, keep in mind that the number of users who will access the LMS will likely affect your licensing costs.

 

Your Content

One of the biggest factors that will influence your LMS choice is the content you'll be uploading into the LMS. Some eLearning courses use video, others use written materials. Things like file format (Flash vs. PDF, PowerPoint vs. Spreadsheet) can make a difference in what systems are a potential fit. Does the system accept SCORM courses? If so, what versions? Will the LMS work if learners are using tablets and mobile devices? Does the LMS support HTML5 versions of SCORM?

Compatibility

Some organizations already have training programs and background material; others need to start online course development from scratch. Be sure to ask beforehand what sort of authoring tools the LMS is compatible with, as it is recommended that you find a system that works well with all the leading tools like Adobe Captivate, Lectora, and Articulate Storyline. 

User Experience

Training management software may often be advertised as user-friendly, but each system has technical requirements that invariably affect deployment. Check to see if the system offers an API (automated program interface) or SSO (Single Sign On) that complies with your existing systems. These communication protocols affect the exchange of information between your LMS and other programs, like payroll.

Practicality

The final step in assessing which LMS is right for you is implementation and maintenance. Permissions, level of maintenance, and ability to make changes on-the-fly can all affect the cost of LMS implementation and the staff resources required to administer online learning courses.

Some systems, like open-source LMSs, may seem attractive because of low costs and easy customization, but they can be more complicated to use than software services that make support staff available. If you're frequently troubleshooting or making system adjustments, the money saved by using a free service can quickly be lost in maintenance hours. Commercial training management software may be pricier than open-source systems, but they are turn-key ready and frequently have dedicated staff to walk your administrators through maintenance and implementation issues-well worth the expenses. Perhaps your organization's learning requirements are seasonally variable? In this case, it may be best to choose a Software-As-A-Service LMS. These services allow you to define your service periods and store information on external servers giving you the external staff and storage resources to manage any required changes to course delivery. Many of the best LMSs provide free trial periods and open contracts to allow you to confirm that they work as advertised without locking you into heavy service fees.

Knowing your system, content, and staff requirements will play an important factor in streamlining LMS selection. Knowing your organization and system requirements will knock out most of the hard work that goes into creating a request for proposal. This means your organization can more quickly begin the demo process and start sampling the many LMSs out there without the worry of encountering technical snags late in the selection process.

 

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Looking to get started with eLearning? Check out our 3-hour mini courses.

Adobe Captivate: Custom Freeform Shapes

by Kevin Siegel

Smart Shapes were introduced in Adobe Captivate several years ago. Similar to PowerPoint's Shapes feature, Smart Shapes in Captivate allow you to draw stars, ovals, banners, and more on a slide. Once drawn, it is easy to switch from one Smart Shape to another (without having to redraw).

To draw a Smart Shape, visit the Shape tool and select any one of the Shapes. One the slide, drag your mouse to draw the shape.



If you're unhappy with the Smart Shape (perhaps you meant to draw a star but you drew an oval), visit the Properties Inspector and, assuming the shape you drew is still selected, simply pick a different shape.



The ability to create a Smart Shape and change it on the fly is awesome... but that ability pales in comparison to your ability to not only reshape the Smart Shape (and create shapes limited only by your imagination), but save your custom masterpiece as a Smart Shape for later use in any Captivate project.

To customize a Smart Shape, right-click a drawn shape and choose Convert to freeform.



Drag the points to create any kind of shape.



If you need to add more points (the points will disappear if you deselect the Smart Shape), right-click the Smart Shape again and choose Edit points.



When you're finished creating the Smart Shape, right-click the shape and choose Save Smart Shape.



Name the Smart Shape and then click the OK button.



From now on, the saved Smart Shape will be available in the list of Shapes.

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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, Camtasia, Studio, or Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you.

Adobe RoboHelp 2015: First Look

by Willam van Weelden

Adobe released RoboHelp 2015 last week, a major upgrade sporting several enhancements. This week we take a first look at some of the big changes.

Ribbon Based Interface

The menu has been redesigned to make RoboHelp easier to use. Options are sensibly arranged and menu inconsistencies have been cleaned up. Lesser known features like search synonyms are much easier to find and use.

Small improvements, such as working with tables, make editing content much easier.

One of my favorites is the Locate Item tool. Open a topic and select an image or a Captivate movie. Click the Locate Item tool and the item will be highlighted in the Project Manager.

Skins and Layouts

RoboHelp 2015 includes new WebHelp skins and Responsive HTML5 layouts. The WebHelp skins are clean and modern. Both WebHelp and Responsive HTML5 support Right-to-Left languages. Though for WebHelp you will have to use one of the six new skins.



The Responsive HTML5 Layouts have more customization options. It is now possible to choose which panes to include in the output, just as with WebHelp. The layouts have Facebook share and Twitter buttons included as well.

Important Enhancements:

• Named Conditions: Sensible names for Conditional Build Expressions.
• Dynamic filters: Conditional Build Tags on steroids. Dynamically switch Conditional Build Expressions in your output for fine grained control.
• Improved search results: Control the topic preview text in search results.
• Mobile App output: Create a mobile app without any coding.
• Right-to-Left: Output for right-to-left languages.
• Find and Replace: The Find and Replace pod has new powerful features.
• Scalable video: Adobe Captivate videos scale in Responsive HTML5 output.

I've mentioned what I consider to be the most important enhancements in RoboHelp 2015. Stay tuned for articles on each of these enhancements in the weeks to come.

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.

Articulate Storyline: Glossaries Made Easy

by Kevin Siegel

I had a client recently who needed to include a Glossary in their Storyline eLearning course. Fortunately, this kind of functionality is simple to add to any Storyline project.

To begin, open or create a Storyline project. Click Player (located in the Publish group on the Ribbon). From the Data area of the Properties, click Glossary and then from the bottom left of the dialog box, click Add.







In the Glossary Term dialog box, type a Term and Definition. When finished, click the Save button. Repeat the process as necessary.



The final step is telling Storyline that you want the Glossary to appear in the published lesson. From the top of the Player dialog box, select Features. From the list of Player Tabs, select Glossary.

Preview or publish the project to see the Glossary. In the image below, you can see the finished Glossary as a tab beside Menu that can easily be accessed by the learner.

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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.

Social Media: Increase Your Visibility by Sharing Content via LinkedIn Pulse

by Sally Cox

One of the more obscure features of LinkedIn I have come to love is Pulse, which gives you access to industry professionals and global leaders in a variety of fields. You "follow" them, much like you would on any social media platform. For example, Richard Branson is someone I greatly admire, so he was the first person I followed on Pulse.

To access Pulse, log into your LinkedIn account and choose Interests > Pulse.

Once you start following people on Pulse, it will automatically begin suggesting influential people for you, with an easy "Follow" button to press, if you want to follow them.

In the far right column, Pulse shows thumbnails of people you might want to follow. Click See all to view the entire list.

Pulse suggests industry leaders you might wish to follow, based on your prior choices. Use the + Follow button to add the person to your list of favorites.

I'm active on social media so I use Pulse not only to find good content to share with the LinkedIn community, I also share on Twitter at the same time.

To share an article on LinkedIn Pulse, select the Share icon (shown highlighted in the orange box below).

In the Share dialog box, decide how to share the content. If you want to share with everyone, choose Share with Public. To post to Twitter, select the check box at the right of the dialog box. Add a short note if you want (as long as it's within the 140-character limit for Twitter).

LinkedIn Pulse App

I love the Pulse app for reading articles on the go, but I can also follow and share via the app as well. The interface is clean and easy to navigate.

Above, the Pulse app in my Social Media apps folder. Below, I can swipe horizontally to see all the articles from people I follow.

Sharing articles to social media from the Pulse app is a breeze... just choose the venue you want and press Share.

Overall, Pulse is a useful feature if you like to read and share good content and is especially helpful if you're active on social media.


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If you like Sally's articles, you'll love her mini classes. Join Sally online for Mobile Photography Basics: Taking Better Photos with your Mobile Device and Enhancing Them Afterward and Building a Strong LinkedIn Profile.

Adobe Captivate & Articulate Storyline: Round-Tripping With Microsoft Word

by Kevin Siegel   

How do you collaborate with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who aren't Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline developers? Specifically I'm talking about text content. How many times have you gone back and forth (and back and forth again) with your SMEs, changing a word on a slide here, removing a comma there. Maddening, right?

Wouldn't it be great if you could export the text from your eLearning projects into Word, get your SMEs to make their changes in the document (using Word), and then import those changes back into your project? That kind of workflow is a dream, right? Nope. The workflow exists today in both Captivate and Storyline and the process is simple.

Adobe Captivate

Open or create a Captivate project and choose File > Import/Export > Export project captions and closed captions.

In the Open dialog box, name the resulting document, specify a save destination, and click the Save button. (You will be notified when the captions have been exported.)

Click Yes to open the document in Word.

The captions will appear in a Word table. There will be five columns: Slide ID, Item ID, Original Text Caption Data, Updated Text Caption Data, and Slide. You can make any changes you want to the Updated Text Caption Data, but you should not change any of the other information. The Slide ID identifies which slide your edited captions go to. The Item ID identifies which caption goes with which caption data.

 

Make your editorial changes; then save and close the Word document.

The final step is to to import the edited text back into Captivate. Choose File > Import/Export > Import project captions and closed captions. Find and open the document you edited in Word. A dialog box will appear confirming the number of captions that were imported. Not only will the edited content be imported, but formatting changes made to the Word document, such as making text bold or italic, are also retained.

 

Articulate Storyline

 

The process of round-tripping between Articulate Storyline and Microsoft Word is just about the same as it is in Adobe Captivate.

Open or create a Storyline project and then choose File > Translation > Export. In the Open dialog box, name the resulting document, specify a save destination, and click the Save button.

 

In the resulting Word document, SMEs can make any needed content changes in the Translate this column area of the document and then return the edited document to you.

 

The final step is to simply choose File > Translation > Import and open the edited Word document.

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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.