This week I’m showing you how you can use the Audio Editor in Articulate Storyline to trim audio tracks and add silence. Hopefully these quick tips will make your audio editing a little less stressful!
3 E-Learning Communities You Should Be Participating In
I’m often asked where I find clients and/or e-learning support, and my answer is always “E-Learning Communities”. I’ve learned so much from my peers, and have found many fantastic clients by participating in e-learning communities, so I recommend joining any of these:
- Articulate E-Learning Heroes – The E-Learning Heroes Community has by and large been one of my greatest support systems, particularly when I was first starting out as an independent contractor. The weekly e-learning challenges have helped me grow my development skills and my portfolio, the community members have provided continual support – from reviewing my e-learning and providing feedback to helping me troubleshoot projects in a pinch, and I’ve met many of the Articulate folks at Community Roadshows and conferences – all of them are incredibly fantastic and supportive. Another great thing about the E-Learning Heroes Community is the new(ish)-fangled Job Board – there are LOADS of e-learning jobs being posted here all the time, so if you’re in the market for clients, you should be trolling this board regularly
- The Online Network of Independent Learning Professionals – Patti Bryant started this group on Linkedin, and members meet every Thursday (live and online!) to chat about pointed topics or have community hours. Usually, one member will present on a given topic, and then a panel will be available to answer community member questions. Each session is recorded, so if you can’t tune in live, you can watch/listen later! This group has such a wealth of knowledge and I would consider participating – even if it’s only passively listening to the sessions – to be essential for any learning and development professional.
- The Instructional Design Sub-Reddit – Fellow E-Learning Heroes Community member, Rachel Barnum, keeps this sub-reddit moving like a well-oiled machine, and there always seems to be readers kicking around asking questions, providing feedback, posting jobs, and offering support to folks new to the industry.
Screencast Monday: Videonot.es Demo
This week I thought I would leave Articulate Storyline alone for a bit and show you an application that I have been rapidly recommending to faculty members for syllabus inclusion as a helpful hint for students, especially in courses that are largely video-based. It is an AMAZING student study tool!
Check out the demo, below, and hopefully you too can find some use for this handy, open-sourced application.
E-Learning Challenge #129 – Choose Your Own E-Learning Topic
First – Hats off to David for not doing this sooner! – I can only imagine how tiring it can be to come up with challenges and examples for challenges each week.
The Concept
This week’s challenge was to choose your own e-learning challenge topic and create an example for that topic, with the caveat that it must be an original challenge (a feat when you consider there have been 129 challenges – go, David!).
The Method
I had a dream about this last night…well. More specifically, I had a dream about colour palettes and one of my favourite websites, Coolors.co. I love the colour generator feature of this website because it makes my life a whole heck of a lot easier when my creativity is waning and I need some colour inspiration for my e-learning projects.
With that, my e-learning challenge topic is: App-Inspired E-Learning Resources. The challenge will be to create an e-learning resource inspired by one of your favourite, existing, applications.
To achieve a coolors-inspired resource, I tossed 5 rectangles on a slide, changed the colours for each rectangle, added the hex code to the bottom of the shape, and modified the player to appear as desired. After duplicating each slide and adjusting colours and hex codes appropriately, I added a trigger that would jump to the next slide when the user presses the Space key.
While this coolers-inspired resource is not as all-encompassing as the actual app itself, I feel like it’s a pretty good representation and it can definitely be expanded upon with an infinite number of slides/colour palettes.
The Result
To view the full interaction, Click Here.
To download the .story file, Click Here.
Screencast Monday: Extending Slide Content in Articulate Storyline – Part 3: Scroll Panels
Continuing with the theme of extending slide content in Articulate Storyline, this week I’m showing you just how easy it is to extend slide content within a ‘container’ by using a scroll panel. If after this demo you’re interested in learning a bit more about scroll panels, check out the Automatic Scrolling Effect demo!
(Also – Please excuse the sound of my dog gnawing on his toes)
Terminology Tuesday: Development Plans
This week I thought it might be useful to talk about development plans, as I work within them nearly everyday within my current role.
What is a Development Plan?
A development plan is a document that outlines an entire course. Typically, it will consist of the following information:
- Course Developer, including contact information
- General Course Information, such as:
- Course Name
- Course Title
- Calendar Description
- Required Text
- Credit Weight
- Overall Course Goals
- When the course will be offered or revised
- Prerequisites
- Enrolment information
- High-Level Leaning Objectives
- Module Information, including:
- Module Names
- Module-Specific Learning Objectives
- Topics
- Learning Activities, which may or may not be assessed
- References or Resources (e.g. module readings/videos/etc.)
- Assignment Information
- Assessment and Evaluation Strategy
Wow. That’s a lot of information. Why is a Development Plan important?
That’s exactly why development plans are important – because that IS a lot of information! Development plans serve as a course outline, and streamline things once the course developer gets to the development phase. A well written development plan will have a lot of elements that have been fleshed out and are ready to be copied from the development plan into the course site.
Development plans are also important because they allow key reviewers (e.g. department chairs, subject matter experts, etc.) to review the plan and make necessary changes or recommendations prior to entering the development phase…and it’s a lot easier to modify a Word document than it is to modify content in an authoring tool.
In online learning, development plans may also come in handy when it comes to fleshing out your activities and assessment strategies with an instructional designer, especially if you’re used to teaching in more traditional mediums (e.g. in a classroom).
