Jackie Van Nice

E-Learning Goodness by Jackie Van Nice

Jackie Van Nice

4 (More) Free E-Learning Tools I Use

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I shared 4  Free E-Learning* Tools I Use exactly one year ago as part of an Articulate challenge, but the world has moved on and so have I. What happened? Redbooth got rid of their free option, Microsoft Clipart took a powder, Pinterest I rarely have time for, and I don’t use free fonts anymore, so here are my current (free!) fab four:

1. Trello: Task & Project Management

Trello

I resisted Trello for the longest time, but the sheer simplicity of it won me over. At the moment it’s my primary project management tool. There’s nothing better than seeing every project at a glance and being able to quickly and easily share with others. I’m quite happy with the free version for both personal and work projects. I use it daily in my desktop browser, iPad, iPhone, and AppleWatch and it syncs beautifully. Love.

2. Toggl: Time Tracking

Toggl

Speaking of love and seamless syncing, Toggl for time tracking may have won even more real estate in my heart than Trello has. When I want to start or stop the clock I grab my iPhone and tap the app or do the same in a desktop browser. I control the same running task on either. The reports are perfect for my needs, it’s free for teams up to 5, and includes unlimited clients and projects. Wish I’d been using this for yeeeeeeeears.

3. Coolors: Color Scheme Generator

Coolors

This one is brand new to me, but the moment I saw David Anderson’s tweet about it I checked it out and was sold. (In a free kind of way.) With Coolors I love that you can quickly pull down existing palettes or generate your own in a way that even non-adept color scheme generators like me can handle. I’m also crazy about the fact that I can instantly export my found or generated palettes to PNG, PDF, or URL. It’s my new go-to for colors. (There’s a cool-looking iPhone/iPad app for 99 cents but I haven’t played with it yet.)

4. Greenshot: Screen Captures

Greenshot

For many years I used Snag-It for screen captures. A year or so ago it decided it didn’t want to play nicely with others and was continually crashing and not responding to fixes. I had to quickly find a substitute, which led me to free, open-source Greenshot. I’ve never had it crash, it’s not a resource hog, and it works reliably, quietly, and beautifully every time.

So those are my latest go-to tools that cost nothing at all. If any of them sound good to you, they might be worth a try!

*I use them for e-learning but they’re clearly great for project management, design, or general organization.

Turkey Needs Photo Sliders!*

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Blue Mosque, Istanbul

Blue Mosque, Istanbul

Fethiye, Turkey

Harbor, Fethiye

This week’s challenge is to create a photo slider. I’d never made one before, but with Storyline 2 and a few photos in hand, I was ready!

The Idea

To make the slider I trotted out some pics I took in Turkey. I wanted the demo to be simple, invite exploration, and be self-explanatory.

The Design

To establish the scene I started with an overview map of Turkey with my two photo locations highlighted.

I wanted the user to be able to see the topics of the photos up front so it’s easy to get a quick overview of the content and go directly to whatever they’d like.

Color provides the visual cue to tell you where you are. The title (Turkey), location (Map, Istanbul, or Fethiye) and the slider thumb all change color in unison depending on what you’re viewing.

I’m actually quite happy with the idea and the effect. It’s subtle in this demo, but I’d love to use it again.

Ready for Some Turkey?

You can see the demo right here!

*See: Mars Needs Women. These things happen after a long day.

Can I GIF You My Reaction?

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This week’s challenge is to use animated reaction GIFs for any e-learning topic you’d like, so I’m exploring my reactions to this e-learning challenge. Grab some popcorn and join me in the cheap seats.

#1. Should I Really Do An Entry This Week?

#2. What Could it Hurt, Right?

#3: What If Everyone Else Uses Up All of the Popcorn Reaction GIFs First?

#4: OK – This Is Stupid Fun.

#5: Maybe Ellie Will Do One!

#6: How Will David Ever Recap This?

Want to Add Animated GIFs to Your Posts?

I got all of these at Reaction GIFs. (Thanks for the link, David!) Here’s how you get them in your posts:

  1. Right click on the animated GIF you’d like to use and choose Copy Image URL (or Save Image As).
  2. In your blog post, go to insert an image as you normally would. Either choose to insert it from a URL and paste in the URL for the GIF you copied – or upload the GIF you saved.
  3. Tip: Bring it in at full size or the animation won’t work. You can always grab its handles and resize it after you’ve placed it.

That’s it! Have fun – and while you’re at it you may as well enter this week’s challenge!

Working Together to Create E-Learning

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This week’s challenge is to show how you create online training. The process of how I work with clients is something I’m always having to explain, so it’s about time I added a quick explanation to my site.

Who Does What?

David Anderson suggested we could use the helpful post How to Create an Online Course in 7 Simple Steps as a launching point if we’d like. That process is quite similar to mine, but mine reflects exactly how I work and shows which steps I perform and which ones my clients perform.

My Steps

These are the steps. You’ll find more details in the demo – and you can see them written out on this page. It’s an abbreviated list since it’s only meant to be a quick (yet useful) overview. Each step can be an entire world unto itself:

  1. Set Goals

  2. Set Content

  3. Design It

  4. Storyboard It

  5. Build It

  6. Deliver It

  7. Evaluate It

See it in Action!

Here’s my e-learning process succinctly explained.

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Select Image to Launch Demo

Checking Out Some Ergonomics

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Select Image to Launch Demo

This week’s Articulate challenge is to create an ergonomics training demo, so I sat up a little straighter and started brainstorming.

The Idea

I usually see ergonomic guidelines for sitting at a computer or lifting boxes, and wanted to find something different. I had some entertaining ideas, but then I realized the challenge comes down to images. With more time I could make my own, but it’s not that kind of week.

OSHA to the Rescue!

Luckily for me, after endless searching, I found a less-traveled topic and good images at OSHA. I included the full document as an attachment in the demo.

OSHA Ergonomic Guidelines

OSHA Ergonomic Guidelines for Retail Grocery Stores

OSHA Grocery Store Ergonomics

OSHA Grocery Store Ergonomics

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The Design

I kept it simple and let the images be the stars. It actually took me quite awhile to make all of the design decisions – (layout, what to present, how much to present, how to present it, colors, navigation, hover states, player choices, and on and on) – so though it’s simple, it took time.

See The Result!

What do grocery clerks’ toes really need? Check out the demo to find out!

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Select Image to Launch Demo