Where to Look for Inspiration

Sometimes creating courses can become rather monotonous. You may be restricted to the same templates and graphics - you're doing the same old stuff you've been doing. Other times you may just be plainly stumped as to how to best animate your content. So what do you do to break out of these ruts?

Well, there are a few different resources that I like to take advantage of when it comes to course development, including:

1. Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Presentation
   
2. learningsolutionsmag.com
3. articulate.com/blog/
4. daveperso.mediaenglishonline.com/
5. articulate.com/rapid-elearning/

Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Presentation is an inspirational book authored by Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design, which is the company that created the presentation for Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth. Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Presentation describes and illustrates different techniques and ideas for creating killer slides, among other things. I'm partial to the following area of the book: Classifying Diagrams (Pgs 44-57). This area shows different ideas for building charts, diagrams, and processes. Looking at these fresh techniques can squash past used techniques that may have become repetitive in look and feel.

www.learningsolutionsmag.com is also a great resource for inspiration. It's a publication from the eLearning Guild, as of 2002. It's a great source for "practical information on the strategies, tools, technologies, services, and best practices for the management, design, development, and implementation of enterprise-wide e-Learning programs. Learning Solutions Magazine offers feature articles, case studies, reviews, interviews, spotlights, columns, snippets, tips, and news that you can use with confidence while making critical decisions to ensure your organization’s success with e-Learning."

www.articulate.com/blog/ is a blog sponsored by Articulate. Authors of Articulate's blog share techniques, tools, and concepts that you can utilize when creating courses via a coupling of Articulate with MS PowerPoint. Many of the blog posts are even video tutorials, that show you step-by step just how to create some of these cool things.

daveperso.mediaenglishonline.com/ is a blog written and maintained by David Moxon, a Product Specialist for Articulate. His blog focuses on using Articulate products, like Articulate Presenter, Quizmaker and Engage. It is aimed to "provide extra support for doing basic, everyday tasks with Articulate software, perhaps giving a fresh angle on a common theme." You can find some really cool things on this blog, like creating a video hot spot question in Quizmaker, for example.

www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/is another Articulate sponsored blog that shares Articulate related tips and tricks. Articulate's rapid-elearning blog is hosted by Tom Kuhlmann, a 15 year veteran of the training industry. Tom also presently run the community at Articulate.

So, the best part about all of these inspirational resources, with the exception of Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Presentation, is that they are free! Just sign up to receive RSS Feeds or Emails from them. Just when you may be happening to need something new and fresh for you course, an email with just that newness and freshness from one of these resources may show up in your Inbox. So go and check them out before you start your next course - enjoy!


*References:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596522347?ie=UTF8&tag=slideology-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0596522347
http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/
http://www.articulate.com/blog/
http://daveperso.mediaenglishonline.com/
http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/