Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

I’m on vacation for the next twelve days, and I told Twitter yesterday that I would consider today the beginning of Blogmas, where I blog each day I’m on holiday vacation. For the first day of Blogmas, I’m sharing my e-learning developer wishlist.

Great Books

I have a ton of great Instructional Design and E-Learning books, but these are by far some of my favourites:

• The Essentials of Instructional Design: Connecting Fundamental Principles with Process and Practice by Abbie Brown and Timothy D. Green – This is a fantastic introduction to Instructional Design; so much so that I used it as the required course text for the Introduction to Instructional Design course I taught this year at the university.
• Design for How People Learn (Voices that Matter) by Julie Dirksen – I will never stop recommending this book, because it’s incredibly practical and Julie really does know her stuff!
• How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why it Happens by Benedict Carey – I’ve talked about this book so many times, but for good reason. It’s a fantastic read, and any learning and development professional should read it. Carey is a science reporter, so it’s interesting to read more about the science behind learning…maybe that’s my psychology degree speaking…or I’m just a huge work dork.

Creative Market Gift Card

Creative Market is one of my all time favourite places to seek out e-learning resources – backgrounds, characters, icons, templates. They have it all, and you’re supporting the developers!

Kuzy Keyboard Covers

These keyboard covers have saved my Macbook Pro many a time; mostly on flights or in situations where your computer is susceptible to liquid spills. These covers are silicon, fashionable, and super durable. I usually get several months out of each cover, so for the price, it’s a pretty good deal!

A Microphone Arm/Stand

I’ve been using my microphone a lot more, and with my current pop filter setup, I am constantly annoyed. Having an adjustable microphone arm would ease some of my problems.

Monitor Mounts

I have been lusting over the Bretford MobilePro Desk Mount for my iMac and Macbook Pro; working at my last corporate gig, I had a similar setup for my monitors, and having something like this would definitely clear some of the congestion that my desk is experiencing.

An Amazing Chair

Working from home, you really need to take care of yourself. A lot of people I know use standing desks, but I would prefer to invest in a really great office chair. Generation by Knoll chairs are AMAZING. I had one at a previous workplace, and it was incredible. For all the short folks out there, the lumbar dip really makes a difference. This was definitely the first office chair I ever had where I could put my feet on the floor while my back was still being supported. It’s a bit of a splurge, but definitely worth it if you’re going to be sitting in it everyday!

 

Wow. It has been a hot minute since I’ve blogged. Things have been B-U-S-Y! In any event, I thought it might be appropriate to ease back into blogging with an updated list of the tools I’ve been using for e-learning development. Let’s get to it!

Articulate 360

If you haven’t checked out Articulate 360, you must check it out.  The subscription-based model received a bit of flack at launch, but for what they’re providing you, it’s really a good bang for your buck. Especially if you make your living from Articulate products.

A360 gives you access to all of the authoring tools you might possibly need for your development: Storyline 360, Studio 360, and Replay 360 – updated versions of fan favourites as well as: Articulate Live, Content Library, Peek, Preso, Rise, and Articulate Review. Here’s the quick and dirty:

• Articulate Live provides you with webinars and live training opportunities from the folks at Articulate.
• Content Library provides you with SO MANY assets (including fully functional templates) – seriously, if you’re on the fence about A360, the Content Library could sell it for you!
• Peek is a powerful tool for easily recording screencasts on your Mac or PC.
• Preso allows you to easily capture and annotate recordings from your iPad.
• Rise (is amazing) gives you the ability to author courses quickly and effectively with a modern look and feel.
• Articulate Review makes course reviews fun and efficient – I bet those are two words you don’t use often when referring to course reviews.

Basically, A360 is a one-stop-e-learning-development shop. GET ON IT.

Articulate Storyline 2 

While I love A360, most of my clients are still working from Storyline 2, which is a tool that is near and dear to my heart. I’m resentful of my current workload that I haven’t been able to play around as much in A360 as I would like to, but with a workload heavy in Storyline 2 development, I still get to have fun!

Storyline 2 allows me to take my imagination to the limits by designing high-quality e-learning for my clients. It’s a no-brainer. And with clients a bit hesitant to re-invest in new technology (aka A360), it seems like I’ll be using it for the next little while – I have no complaints!

Tempshare

Articulate Review is amazing, but because most of my clients are still using Storyline 2, I use Articulate Tempshare as my primary means of hosting Storyline output for client reviews. Tempshare hosts your output for 10 days, which is usually enough time for my client reviews, and all you have to do is drop a .zip folder of your output. Once uploaded and published, Tempshare spits out a URL, and you’re good to go!

Camtasia

I’ve been using Camtasia for Mac a lot over the past few months. With Sprout underway, there are a lot of videos that need recording, and Camtasia lets me do that very easily, producing professional outputs with minimal effort. At the university, we also use Camtasia Studio to record faculty videos (lectures, demos, etc.).

Blue Yeti

Blue microphones have great quality; I’ve been using the Blue Yeti for my Camtasia recordings, and I also have and love the Blue Snowflake (super great quality with portability!). If you’re looking into an affordable audio setup, check out the Blue Yeti – for the price, the quality is bar none. As a side note, I will say that I’ve invested in a pop filter (which is basically an embroidery ring with a pantyhose material) to remove any of the noise created by those bilabial fricative sounds (I’m talking about your P sounds and your B sounds).

Vimeo

Finally – on the topic of videos, I host all of my videos with a Vimeo Plus account; this membership has enough capacity per week for my needs, and allows me to customize video settings appropriately.

Parallels

My computer setups include a Macbook Pro and an iMac, so to run my windows-based programs (e.g. Articulate), I prefer to use Parallels. My first kick at the dual-boot can was with Boot Camp, and it really didn’t address my needs. I found that I had to segment my workflow into Mac-based operations and Windows-based operations, and it just wasn’t an efficient workflow for me. Parallels allows me to run both operating systems in coherence, meaning it looks as though I’m working in one OS, and runs seamlessly. I recommend this to any Mac user over Boot Camp.

I will say, however, that it runs better on my Macbook Pro, which is setup with Windows 7, than it does with my iMac, which is setup with Windows 10. I don’t blame Parallels for this. I blame this one Windows 10…an evil, evil, operating system that insists on performing system updates at any inopportune time. If you sense resentment in my voice…it’s true. I hate Windows 10.

Dropbox

Dropbox is where I upload all of my files to share with clients, and to backup files. I have a pretty Type A backup protocol, and Dropbox is one of my backup locations. I have a Dropbox Pro account, and it has all of the space that I currently need.

Todoist

A few weeks back, I reached out to Twitter to find out what my fellow e-learning developers were using for project management. I explored all of the options suggested, but settled in on Todoist Premium, an application I’ve been using for years.

The reason I was looking for something better than my trusty notepad was because I’m still experiencing post-concussion syndrome from taking a softball to the face a year and a half ago…my memory (particularly short-term) is not quite what it used to be, and I find myself needing a bit more help to remember tasks and keep on schedule. What I like about todoist is that the interface aligns with my preferences, and it has multiple options for reminder-setting, which is something I really need now. In the past, I would have found these reminders annoying, but now I find them an integral part of my life.

I’ve been working really hard to get Sprout E-Learning up and running; it’s almost there, but I thought what better time than Cyber Monday to put it’s first course, Articulate Storyline 2: Basics, on sale? There’s no time like the present!

If you’re not interested in learning about Articulate Storyline, there will be an Instructional Design Certificate coming in January 2017, so sign up for Sprout’s mailing list to get updates!

If you are interested in this Cyber Monday deal, head over to Sprout’s temporary URL, click the Buy button, and use coupon code: yippie.

Here are the details on Articulate Storyline 2: Basics:

1. Have you or your organization just purchased Storyline 2?
2. As an organization, are you looking to quickly get your employees trained on using Storyline 2?
3. Are you looking to quickly learn the ins and outs of Storyline 2?
4. Do you want to take your e-learning development up a notch?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, this course is for you!

All too often, developers are thrown deep into the trenches of a new authoring tool with zero training. As humans, we’re fairly adaptable, so this is no big deal…except when you have looming deadlines. To maintain efficiency and reduce costs for you or your organization, training needs to be made available – otherwise, you’ll spend more time and resources in the start up development and/or revision stages of your project.

Articulate Storyline 2 is a powerful e-learning authoring tool that allows you to take your creativity to the next level and easily author your own captivating stories. By helping you leverage built-in development functionality, you can quickly create interactive and engaging e-learning experiences.

By adding this course to your training arsenal, my goal is to ensure that you have everything you need to successfully create high-quality e-learning courses using Articulate Storyline 2, while simultaneously maintaining your efficiency. No one needs a steep learning curve when it comes to new authoring tools!

This course is designed to walk you through the entire life cycle of a story, from creating a new story, to publishing and sharing your story. Walkthrough videos will take you on a tour of how to effectively enhance your story by adding images, audio, screen recordings, and interactive media. I’ll also show you how to master the trigger wizard, create high-quality assessment items, and how to customize the player.

Within this course, you will learn how to:

• Build a new story and familiarize yourself with the user-friendly Storyline interface
• Discover how to let your content do they talking with the help of text, images, and characters
• Improve the quality of your story using interactive elements such as buttons, markers, and screen recordings
• Create enhanced interactivity using triggers, states, and hotspots
• Build practical and common interactions, such as Tabs, Timelines, and Custom Menus
• Assess your learners using built-in question types or custom freeform questions
• Preview your story and modify the player settings to create a customized learning experience
• Share your story by exploring the available publishing options

Taught by the author of Articulate Storyline Essentials and Mastering Articulate Storyline, Ashley Chiasson, you are in good hands. Ashley will use screenshots, video demonstrations, and exercise files (that you can interact with) to emphasize all teaching points throughout this course, providing you with ample opportunity to become an Articulate Storyline 2: Basics champion!