ELHChallenge

New! A Deliciously Frustrating E-Learning Cereal

November 7, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 10 Comments

Click Image to Launch Demo – With Audio!

This week’s Articulate challenge is to create an e-learning themed cereal box, so I did my best to channel a bit of Toucan Sam and some Michael Allen and got to work.

The Idea

I started by brainstorming the usual nouns on cereal boxes: Flakes, crispies, crunch, smacks, loops, etc. Once I got to “loops” I drifted to thoughts of frustratingly locked-down e-learning navigation and came up with “Locked Navigation Loops” as my cereal.

The Design

The Navigation Police

For the visuals, I like the classic cartoon-character-on-the-cereal-box look, so my first search was for a perky prisoner. Once I found her, I grabbed an image of a cereal bowl and a cartoon cop who could enforce the rules and mixed them together with some fonts and other graphic elements in a big bowl of milk.

The audio seemed necessary to get the goofball cartoon cereal feel, so I added lots of sound effects and a lovely cartoon-y tune I found at AudioNautix.com.

Once I synced images and music, I was pretty much done. Oh – and I added some frustratingly pointless feedback since that’s the only kind I ever see when viewing e-learning courses with locked-down navigation. Call it an “homage”.

Enjoy a Little Lock-Up Time Right Now!

Here’s my cereal box demo in all of its cacophonic glory. I hope you like it!

Click Image to Launch Demo – With Audio!

It’s a Kid-U-Cational (+ Free) Template!

August 22, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 6 Comments

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This week’s challenge, in honor of you brave back-to-schoolers, is to create an education-themed template and demonstrate how it can handle a real-world project.

The Template I Started With

The Idea

Lots of Room for Subtopics

I went back to the last template I made (using pieces and parts of Nicole Legault’s and Tom Kuhlmann’s fab templates) with the intent of making it over in a kid-friendly way.

Since that template has a free menu and a good amount of depth, it needed a pretty large topic. I brainstormed until I came up with everyone’s favorite – the science fair project.

The Design

Content Slides with Depth

Since most of the science projects I’ve seen get sketched out on paper, I thought graph paper would work well as the themed background.

The color palette came from the blues of the graph paper lines and the purple ink I was seeing in lots of kids’ projects – plus I added a perky green to warm it up.

The kid-riffic fonts I used are KG Happy (it always makes me happy), and Schoolbell. I found the main menu and quiz icons at flaticon.com. I like them a lot and they’re free to use with attribution.

Select Image to Launch Demo

The Result

Ready for a template you can use to teach any number of topics? You can see it here, and even prove your mettle in the quiz.

Get It!

If you’d like to customize it yourself, you can also grab it on the download page.

Have fun!

Video Backgrounds to Enhance E-Learning

August 16, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 3 Comments

Click Image to Launch Demo (With Audio)

This week’s challenge is to show how video backgrounds can be used to make elearning more engaging. Thanks to some free assets, it was a quick way to have some fun this week.

The Idea

As challenged, I wanted to design e-learning start screens, but make them more engaging using simple video backgrounds to lure learners in.

The Design

I started by browsing some of the free video assets David Anderson linked to, and found these videos at Coverr. I was looking for something that would loop well and that I was inspired to play with. After that it was a matter of coming up with course topics and visual and audio design elements to fit.

Entry #1 – Busking

I’m sure there are countless reasons someone would be outdoors playing with a yoyo, but it made me think of street performers and buskers. I added a font that looked rather string-like and buttons designed to mimic the color, shape, animation, and position of the yoyo. I also added a bluesy acoustic bit of music from audionautix to complete the scene.

Entry #2 – Inspired Color Palettes

To me, the most stunning part of this video was the gorgeous natural palette that had developed on this railing at the beach, so that became my theme. The button shapes mimic the clouds in the sky, and I looped an audio track of ocean waves beneath the video. Of course, the most important part was to integrate the natural palette on the railing into my own color scheme, and you’ll see it in the text colors. The sans-serif font is Century Gothic and the serif font is Centaur.

See (and Hear) Them in Action!

Ready to see if video backgrounds make these courses seem a little more appealing? You can decide right here:

Click Image to Launch Demo (With Audio)

Making a Simple Prototype

August 4, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 4 Comments

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This week’s challenge is to create a functional prototype of a course using existing OSHA fall prevention content, so I whipped up some stick figures and headed for the job site.

The Idea

Original Content

David Anderson gave us a 194-slide PowerPoint presentation to use as our source material, the idea being to choose a few slides to work with. I chose a section about preventing falls involving floor holes.

My goal was to focus on the instructional design approach, basic layout, and functional design (as opposed to visual design) to show how I’d approach and design the entire course.

The Design

The Process at the Point of Need

Naturally I wanted to start with a compelling scene featuring the learner as the protagonist. After adding proper context and a scenario where the learner would need to apply the information being presented, we’re off and running.

Once the problem was established, I was able to present the basic structure of this mini-course – the steps required to deal with the problem – at a point of need to give the learner a reason to want to find out what to do next.

A Real-World Challenge

At each step I then presented a simple challenge to roughly approximate what they would need to do in a real-life situation. I didn’t bother with up-front content presentation, so each challenge requires the learner to use his or her predictive abilities to ponder, guess, and explore the options. I’d call it Engagement 101.

This approach means that feedback (in addition to the scenario itself) needs to provide the information the learner needs. I kept the feedback brief and subtle in this demo, but would use more detail in the actual course.

The Result

It’s a simple and straightforward prototype that shows you exactly how I’d approach the content. The visuals and details to be added later are – compared to this – the easy part.

David wanted us to spend an hour or two on this, but for me I can’t imagine designing a course approach, layout, and basic functionality in that amount of time; though I certainly admire anyone who can. Let’s just say this took longer.

If you’d like to enjoy it in all of its stick figure glory, you can start preventing falls right here.

Converting Static Content Into Interactive Knowledge Checks

August 1, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 4 Comments

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A Zippier Part of the Course

For this challenge, David Anderson asked us to take static content and turn it into an interactive knowledge check. I grabbed some of the least appealing content I know and got to work.

Version 1: The Grim Original

The Idea

Version 2 Improvements: Visual Design, Hover, & Audio

I did a cost share course for a nonprofit a few years ago, and even though I was able to perk most of it up, there were a few screens that didn’t lend themselves to perking.

My idea was to take the worst – a screen about parts of a government code – and turn it into an interactive knowledge check.

The Design

Version 3: Fully Interactive Knowledge Check

I took my improved version (you can see the client’s original above) – and challenged myself to leave the layout intact.

I converted it into a drag-and-drop interaction that actually took quite awhile to get exactly as I wanted it.

My focus was not only on making it clean and functional, but on giving the learner the freedom to play with it as much as they’d like.

The Result

What I like best is that it gives you a chance to interact with the content. You can puzzle it through and learn a bit along the way.

What I like least is that it’s not the memorable, motivational, or meaningful star I would like it to be – but you have to pick your battles. 95% of the course uses scenarios and good context; but the client’s goal was to introduce the idea that each part of the code has meaning – not to memorize it. If you needed it on the job, you’d look it up! (Who doesn’t love performance support?)

Ready to get all interactive with a federal regulation? You can do it right here!