E-Learning Challenge #101 – A Look Back at E-Learning’s Most Iconic Character

This week I missed DevLearn and was living vicariously through those in attendance via my twitter feed. But, I was finally able to relish in a secret I had been keeping for many months! On March 13, 2015, I suggested the lovely folks at Articulate have Atsumi, one of the most iconic e-learning characters, in the flesh, at their DevLearn booth. No one responded to this tweet, which I found a bit odd, but I later received a direct message vowing me to secrecy. I managed to negotiate a FaceTime in with Atsumi (thanks, Kelly!). My day was made!

This week’s e-learning challenge is an homage to the wonderful lady who made these experiences (throughout many courses and at DevLearn) possible – Atsumi! Thank you, Atsumi for being such a wonderful stock photo specimen and for taking time to engage with use E-Learning Heroes!

The Concept

The challenge this week was to share our favourite Atsumi e-learning moments and explain how we’ve used here in our courses.

I’ve only used Atsumi a handful of times in courses, mainly because I avoid using the stock character packs unless a client specifies. But when they do specify, Atsumi is my go to character! Because of the glory that are Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), I can’t show you how I’ve used Atsumi in those courses. Boo!

The Method

First, I downloaded Jeff’s Atsumoji Freebie to use as a background. Then I added a rectangular shape and applied a transparency.

Atsumi’s poses and facial expressions are near and dear to me, so I chose five of my favourite poses and added them to the slide, applying a fade animation effect.

I then added two states to each character: grey (greyscale) and selected. I added triggers to each character to change the state to grey when any other character was selected, and then a trigger to each character to change state to selected when the user clicked a particular character. Another trigger was applied to each character to show the corresponding layer when the character was clicked.

I added layers with textboxes, indicating what Atsumi was thinking (based on the pose).

Finally, I added a brief instruction so folks knew what they were supposed to do with all of the Atsumis, and adjusted the player (no menu/resources/title/changed player colour).

The Result

Click Here to view the full interaction!