Once Upon a Time, There was an eLearning Course

When developing an online course, there are so many factors that are involved—most of which seem to be focused primarily around the content itself. Yes, I agree that a course’s content is vital to the delivery of quality eLearning, but I also think that how the content is presented visually is just as important. Simply placing an icon in a specific location on the screen, giving that icon a particular “action,” and so forth can really bring a course’s content to life—actually tell a story.

To better prove my point, I have put together a few basic videos for you to see what a difference the placement of icons and simple animations can make in strengthening the overall concept that you may be trying to get across to the learner. In this first video, I am attempting to visually show the sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog to steal the dog’s bone.”



As you can see, the icons are placed in a single row. The icons definitely match up with the general order of the sentence, but do you feel that the way these icons are being presented really provides the full concept? No, I agree, I think it needs a little more added to it, to really get the sentence’s concept across. Now let’s take a look at the next video, which is also attempting to visually show the same sentence.



Now, the icons appear one at a time, in a single row. The simple animation of fading each icon onto the screen, one at a time, helps to build a “story” around the sentence, but do you think it still needs more? I think so, too. How about this third video?



Do you see a difference? This third video shows how, through the appropriate placement of icons and some simple animations, you can really tell a story with your content.

Creating a Mathematically Intensive Course Without Sacrificing Aesthetics

I have been working on a course lately with a lot of terms and mathematical equations that need to be viewed on the screen. I have found a few treatments that prevent the bland math-y look and create images and graphics that match the visual style used in the rest of the course.

A very useful treatment that I have been using on my current course is "word art". Word art is somewhat lame, but when it comes to showing mathematical equations, or X's and Y's, it's a relief. Most programs have some type of word art, even if it is named something different.

I created the equation, then added the word art treatment, and saved it as a picture (if you don't save it as a picture, it may turn out jumbled). I used the most basic treatment, which has a fill and an outline. By changing the color of parts of the equation, and layering them on top of each other, I'm able to create a highlight effect without using shapes, annotations, or animation. Additionally, when you need just a section of an equation, you can add the image, and crop the sections you don't need.
Using this treatment has added dimension to what would otherwise be a very dry text-on-screen equation. And though it is a simple solution, its benefits are a more eye catching experience with a look that matches with the theme of the other treatments used throughout the course.

In addition to equations, creating real mathematical graphs can be a challenge using excel, but it is possible. You can manipulate the axises to look more like algebra, and less like finance.

You can adjust the axis settings to have the horizontal axis meet the vertical axis at the zero, and then by creating negative values, it will extend your graph to look like linear algebra. You then need to adjust your vertical axis to meet your horizontal axis at whatever value is at the center. You will want to use an odd number of "categories" to achieve this result.

By deleting the default "series" labels and replacing them with numbers, and having the label appear on the tick mark instead of between, you create the linear graph effect easily.

You can use this treatment throughout any mathematical course to illustrate your graphs, and continue to keep within theme and approved colors by creating a border and adjusting the color gradient.

You can also keep with the normal quarter graph look to illustrate other ideas, such as the bottom two graphs I created to illustrate "outliers" and "variance". I removed all axis labels, as they did not reinforce the concept.

Using these graphs allows you to control the background and other effects without having to use shapes, which are unstable, can easily appear messy and uneven, and can be time consuming to create.

Little Things Mean a Lot...of Aggravation

It’s usually it is the little things that will drive one to brink of madness. By their very nature, though, little things are…little. That makes them a bit less threatening than a giant SNAFU…but infinitely harder to find. For example, I recently had a little problem with an Articulate interaction I created to add some zazz to the course I was animating.

The interaction seemed to come together pretty well. The settings, color scheme, fonts, tabs, controls, and whatnot were all aligned with my organization’s specifications. A little slice of heaven.

Much to my chagrin, when I previewed the interaction, I discovered that the audio file would begin to play when it should…and then start over for a second time at about 5 seconds in. Basically, it sounded like a slightly delayed echo from the bottom of a garbage can.

Naturally, I was a little irritated because I’d have to redo the audio. So, I opened the interaction file once more and re-installed the audio file. I saved and republished the interaction—same problem.

Hmmmm…OK, now it was ratcheting up my frustration level. I mean, I’ve created HOW many of these in the past? What was the problem? One more time…

After repeating the process again, and finding the same echoing double-audio, I tried the program’s “Help” option. The information in “Help” rarely holds any answers for me, and this time was no different. So, I started looking for answers online. I tried a few message boards, including the Articulate site’s posting areas. I found nothing.

I’m guessing that, at this point, you as the reader are getting as frustrated with me as I was with Articulate…so I’ll cut the chase!

I finally found an obscure post on a site that had little to do with Articulate or e-learning. I had wasted time, effort, and my last iota of self control—but I had finally found an answer I hadn’t read before. It said that the problem of double-audio in an interaction could be the result of having punctuation symbols in the file's save-name. What? This solution seemed SO disconnected from the actual problem, and everything else I’d read or experienced, that I assumed it was a sham.

Since it was such a simple little fix I thought I’d give it a try. I found the Articulate interaction file in the course material, and I removed the em-dash from the save-name…and I’ll be darned if it didn’t work like a charm! That was it! All that messing around, swearing, stomping to-and-fro like a toddler in a poo poo diaper…just one TINY edit to the file name and my problem was solved.

I know…bizarre.

At any rate, the point of this wandering little reverie is that sometimes, when things aren’t working out, it’s just a little tweak that makes a big difference. Next time I have a little issue with a job, I plan to take a little break, do a little research, and maybe save the last little sliver of my mind…