ELHChallenge

Free to Good Home: Playful Game Template

May 27, 2014 By Jackie Van Nice 4 Comments

Select Image to Launch Original Game

Select Image to Launch Template Demo

. . . .

The Source File Dilemma

People seemed to really like this German drinking game I created for an Articulate challenge a while back. I got requests for the source file but didn’t want to violate license agreements by handing it out with assets intact, and also didn’t want to hand out a stripped file that wasn’t fully functional.

The Happy Result & Lots of Free Games

Last week, still getting requests for the file, I finally took time to rework it so it was clean, easy to customize, and something I could offer as a free download. I wanted to maintain a sense of style and all of the functionality while still leaving it wide open to customize, and I’m pretty happy with the result.

By complete serendipity, David Anderson featured 10 free Storyline e-learning game templates on the Articulate site this week and was able to include mine as one of them. There’s a good chance that any or all of these games will get your creative juices flowing, and you can get all of them right here!

2 Free Templates: Storyline & PowerPoint!

Here’s the download page for the Storyline template, and since people without Storyline wanted to use it, too – I created a PowerPoint version you can download, too!

Videos to Help You Customize

I made a couple of videos to show you a feature comparison and the customization points you’ll want to hit. You can see them here.

Screen Captures Compared

I also created side-by-side screen captures, seen below, to help you see the original next to the template. Click on any image to see it larger.

Introduction

Game Start

Game Board

Progress Meter

Challenge Question

Feedback When Correct

Feedback When Incorrect

The Joy of Success

Let Me Know!

If you have ideas for how you could use this template – or if you’ve already used it! – I hope you’ll let me know. I’d love to hear what you did or would like to do. You can leave a comment below. And have fun!

4 Free E-Learning Tools I Use

May 22, 2014 By Jackie Van Nice Leave a Comment

Note: The sands of time move on, as do the free tools I use. See the updated version of this post here!

This week’s Articulate challenge is to share the free e-learning tools we really use. These are my favorites.

1. Redbooth: Project Management

This makes my life so easy it has to be first. Redbooth from Google makes project management effortless, and it’s free up to 5 projects and 5 users. I use it to:

Work Across Platforms: I use it on PC, Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It syncs effortlessly and tasks are immediately on my calendar.
Manage From Anywhere: I assign tasks, get feedback from team members, write up project notes, and participate in team conversations wherever I am.
Easily Manage & Share Files: I store and track all pieces and parts of a project – including email, notes, and conversations – plus sync files automatically with Dropbox. Nothing gets lost.

A “Free” Thought: I started on the free version to test it, then went to the paid one. Get creative and you could stretch those 5 projects and 5 users a whole lot farther.

I Used Microsoft Clipart For This

2. Microsoft Clipart: Images

Crazy, right? Sounds like the ’50s or something. There are a million other places to get images. Why is Microsoft Clipart still my first stop?

License & Attribution Issues: I REALLY can’t stand checking every license on every image and deciding whether it’s worth using and if there should be an attribution, and if so where do I work it in?
Editable/Flexible Images: I start with an image and think of ways to use it so it doesn’t look like everyone else’s. People loved the images in this piece, and they’re from MS Clipart. With an open mind and creative eye you’ll be amazed at what you can do.
Click & Play in PowerPoint: Since it’s integrated into PowerPoint, my quick image editor of choice, I can speedily bring in a pile of images and play around to see what works. Even if I get my final images elsewhere, it’s a great playground.

3. Pinterest: Inspiration & Project Organization

I haven’t been using it long, but already rely on it for a couple of things:

Graphic Inspiration: When I see something that resonates with me, I pin it in my Graphic Inspiration board. That’s where I went to design my interactive resume.
Project Organization: Now that you can have lots of “secret” boards I tend to create one for each new client project and use it as a catch-all place for everything from graphic and technical ideas to instructional design approaches. It’s secret, so I can include company-specific links and info.

4. Dafont & Font Squirrel: Fonts

These free font sites are so quick and easy to use, they’re hard to resist. I use them for:

Typographic Inspiration: Even if I don’t end up using one of theirs, browsing gives me ideas.
New Font Fun: I’ll often use them in the weekly Articulate challenges. They’re great to try out and see what’s possible.

What’s in Your Course Design Toolkit?

Check Out Many More!

Those are my current go-tos you can get for free.

There are tons more you can use, and many are being shared in the comments section of this week’s challenge. I’ll be using ideas from there, and you may find some new freebies you love, too.

Show Your Work: E-Learning Messiness By Me

May 18, 2014 By Jackie Van Nice 2 Comments

I love when people show their work. The whole creative process is inexplicable and mesmerizing and the only evidence of the path afterwards is the detritus left behind. My desk is full of mesmerizing detritus, so I thought I’d share. If Austin Kleon can do it, so can I.

This is how I designed my CCAF design model demo for last week’s Articulate challenge. Pretty typical of my process. If I’d known I’d be sharing, this would look way better.

Sketch One: The Whole Idea

First Sketch, Page 1: The Entire Interaction Idea on Paper

I never look back at my sketches, so the surprise to me is that the whole thing was there from the start. It felt more difficult than that. I think there were just a couple of details that bugged me for days.

First Sketch, Page 2: More Detail About the Activity & Feedback Sections

First Screen

It’s interesting to see the quick sketch of the first screen below versus the final result. It was the simplest screen of all, but you see how much went into image and color selection and then making the details tight, clean, and balanced.

Player Tab: I was thinking of including a player tab to offer more details about CCAF, but decided that info should only be available at a point of greater need; just before and after the activity.

Writing: I didn’t work out the text or script in detail beforehand. That comes easily once I’ve got the other elements in place.

First Screen: 30-Second iPad Sketch

First Screen: Final Result

Activity Screens

These ate at me because it took time to get both the layout and functionality exactly the way I wanted, but I was happy when they came together at the 11th hour.

Activity Screen: Quick iPad Sketch

Activity Screen: Final Result

Feedback Screens

In the iPad sketch below you can see I was looking at how many parts of the CCAF activity the user got wrong. I knew the score couldn’t be the focus of the feedback, but it helped me map out the five learner reactions that were the focus.

Feedback Screen: Quick iPad Sketch

Feedback Screen: Final Result

Colors: Obey the Wall

All of the final-version slides show my text-box color decisions. If they’re:

About the ID, they’re the same green as her jacket.
About the learner (including designing for him), they’re the same blue as his shirt.
An instruction or indicator that applies to the whole interaction, they’re the same orange as the wall.

An Eye-Opening Exercise

I don’t know if this exercise was helpful to you, but it’s helped me! I’ve never observed my own process like this before and it makes me appreciate the time and effort it takes to go from A to Z. Sounds ridiculous since I’m the one doing it, but it’s hard to see when you’re caught up in the process. Once I’m done with something I focus on the result, but I don’t go back and look at it like this.

Have You Shown the Messy Side of Your E-Learning Work?

I’d love to see if you’ve shared the messier parts of your e-learning projects, too! If you have, I hope you’ll share your shares.

A Model Smart Enough to Teach Itself

May 15, 2014 By Jackie Van Nice 10 Comments

This week’s Articulate E-Learning Heroes Challenge is to create an interaction to teach something about instructional design. So I took my favorite piece of e-learning wisdom, Michael Allen’s CCAF (Context-Challenge-Activity-Feedback) design model, and used it to teach itself.

Come On In – The Context Is Fine!

Your Context (Select Image to Launch Demo)

I plunged the learner into a demonstration of CCAF by supplying some context. Turns out you’re an e-learning designer who takes pride in creating effective learning. (Who knew?)

Your Challenge

Your challenge is to create fabulous e-learning using the CCAF model. If you accept the challenge and fail, you will torment your learners with terrible e-learning. If you succeed, learners will sing your praises and the world will be a better place. You have the option to check out a handful of CCAF tips before you start, but it’s always more fun to just dive in and see what happens.

There’s Something In My Activity

Your Activity

Since the activity part of this CCAF demonstration is to choose effective design elements using all four parts of the CCAF model, this is where it gets a little mind-bending – not for the user so much as the designer. But my CCAF-inside-of-CCAF-induced headaches this week are distant memories now, and they were worth it.

Everything’s Feedbacking – Can’t You Hear It?!*

Your Feedback

The feedback focuses on showing you the direct result your design choices had on the learner. However, since there are five possible outcomes (choosing 1, 2, 3, 4, or none of the ideal design options) – and I wanted you to be able to go back and play with it to get different results – I decided to give an indication of how many good choices you made, too.

Custom Results Help – Thank You E-Learning Heroes!

I’d never needed so many custom results slides before, and lucky for me – as always! – the Articulate forums came to the rescue. It involved creating 5 custom feedback layers on my results slide – then creating a trigger on the results slide telling it to show the appropriate layer based on the learner’s score using a built-in variable. My shout-out goes to Blair Parkin who offered this helpful little nugget in response to a question, and it really helped me out.

Blair Parkin’s Trigger Magic

Enjoy!

Hope you like this little demo. It lets you be the superhero e-learning designer you always knew you were, and you can try it out right here.

*Gift to self. It’s an impassioned cry on an Apples in Stereo song that I can’t get out of my head when I think of feedback.

Does Context Matter? Here’s a Before & After

May 4, 2014 By Jackie Van Nice 4 Comments

Before and After Example: Software Training

David Anderson’s Articulate challenge last week was to create an example of “bad” e-learning, and this week it’s time to turn “bad” into “good”. He wanted short, focused examples – so I chose a couple of screens and focused on context. The “before” is from a client, the “after” is from the lesson I created for the client.

What’s Context?

My first question in every new project is: “How will the learner use this information in the real world?” Then I try to design the piece from the learner’s post-course real-world point of view to show them why they’ll care about it and when where and how it’s going to come in handy. Using effective context can add lot of interest and learner motivation, too.

The Bad E-Learning “Before” – Where’s the Context?

This client had two “before” versions of this training. The learner is a salesperson who needs to know how to use the photo options on his mobile sales device. The first “before” version used the “show me, try me, test me” approach. Both versions were real and both went live.

Bad-E-Learning-Inspired Mimosa

The Show-Me-Try-Me-Test-Me Debacle

How I wish I could show you this one! It was done in Captivate (not Captivate’s fault), navigation was completely locked down, the pace was crazy slow, there was no intro or context, and all you saw was the computer screen with a mouse slowly moving around and the occasional text box popping up with cryptic information. Whenever you thought it was your turn to “try” it, it wasn’t.

It was as satisfying and enjoyable as using a voice-response phone system when the robo operator can’t understand anything you’re saying. I could only make it through two or three minutes of this course before I had to literally hang up on it and figuratively go have a mimosa on the veranda to compose myself.

The “Before” Training

The Slide-With-Animated-Text-Box Version

The other “before” version is still bad, but you’re never under the delusion that your input is desired or needed and you have a little freedom of navigation, so it’s less offensive. As training, it’s just animated software documentation. It’s context-free and a big snooze, jam-packed with information you’d never be able to retain when presented like this.

The Good E-Learning “After” – There’s the Context!

One Little Hitch

In the real course I teach the salesperson to use the camera during the sales process where they really need it. Since I can’t show you anything about their sales process in this example, I had to get creative.

Select Image to Launch “After” Demo

Plan “B”

Since a manager often takes a new salesperson out into the parking lot to introduce him to the basics of the newly-issued device, that’s the context I used. I knew learners would glaze over when hearing about sexy things like “white balance adjustments”, so I tried to think of a context in which photo adjustments in the parking lot with the manager would have meaning.

I came up with the idea of the salesperson taking practice shots of his manager to show what can go wrong when taking a photo, and then showing him how to make photo adjustments so his manager looks better. (There’s some motivation!) Putting the manager in silly poses added some much-needed humor, too. All together, it brought some context and emotional engagement to a very dry topic.

Before vs. After

Did context help? In reality the client’s salespeople and managers love this course. They find it extremely effective as an introduction to the device, and since it’s made up of many smaller lessons, it’s easy to use as a refresher, too. In case you’re interested, here’s how I designed the course. I even showed it at SolutionFest last year!