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.
Nice post! :o)
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