Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

2014 Recap and 2015 Goals

January 1, 2015

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a very safe and happy holiday season…now GET BACK TO WORK!

2014 was a very interesting year for me. Here’s a quick synopsis:

I broke into the post-secondary education scene at a local university (part-time);
I quit my full-time job and took my side business full-time;
I presented at my first ever speaking engagement: E-Learning Heroes Community Roadshow: Toronto;
I wrote my very first every blog post for ATD;
I was propositioned to author not one, but two books;
My part-time post-secondary education gig went full-time;
I presented at my second speaking engagement: E-Learning Heroes Community Roadshow: Denver;
I met a lot of my e-learning idols, engaged in some beta-testing for Articulate, had some exciting learning experiences with Articulate, and networked like I meant it;
My proposal was accepted to speak at Learning Solutions 2015; and
I worked with a ton of really incredible clients and was able to become more strategic with whom I worked with.

Now before I get on with my goals for 2015, here’s some real talk. I struggle with anxiety – mainly social anxiety. While you might think I made leaps and bounds challenging my anxiety in 2014, I really didn’t do so on a personal level. I still have a lot of fear and anxiety interacting with people I know (and whom I have known for 10+ years) on a social level (e.g. at parties, etc.), so New Years Eve 2014 was spent as a designated driver, human thunder shirt for our dog who is terrified by fireworks, and watching the non-HBO broadcast premiere of The Wire. Not a bad way to spend the evening, but still not optimal.

With that being said, my goals for 2015 are mostly personal goals:

Begin therapy to conquer my social anxiety (or at least learn how to cope with it);
Maintain a consistent exercise schedule and run a half marathon in May (and possibly another in September);
Take positive steps toward becoming the best version of myself I can be;
Spend more time with my husband and our family; and
Travel to Europe with my husband, taking a proper vacation.

As for business goals:

Complete both books and have them published;
Present and KILL IT at Learning Solutions 2015;
Continue networking with colleagues I respect;
Continue working with clients I respect;
Conduct various workshops at the university and encourage growth within our distance offerings;
Overhaul my portfolio;
Participate more actively in the ELH Challenges;
Continue blogging regularly; and
Begin authoring my third book.

Terminology Tuesday: Infographics

December 30, 2014

I took an unexplained two-week hiatus from Terminology Tuesday (and most other blogging) to enjoy a bit of a holiday vacation. Sorry, folks! Don’t sweat though – this week I’m back!

I recently took a mini-course on Infographics and vowed to get a lot friendlier with Adobe Illustrator in 2015; we’ll see how that goes…check in with me in about 6-12 months. In any event, infographics are taking the world by storm it seems, so I thought it fitting to have a little chat about them.

Infographics

Infographics consist of two pieces: information and graphics. When those two concepts are sandwiched together, you get infographics, which are designed to display information (e.g. data/trends/ideas) in a visually appealing way that also facilitates information synthesis. They are especially beneficial for people who are more visual learners. Just think back to all of the textbooks you read in school…how much of that information did you really retain? Likely quite a bit if you studied it, but you might learn more seeing certain information displayed meaningfully in a graphic. Even if you’re not a visual learner, an infographic might be handy supplementary material to accompany text-based materials. Additionally, infographics allow the user to experience the concept versus interpreting the concept, and passively retaining the information.

I developed an interactive infographic awhile back, and while it’s not the prettiest (hence my goal of learning illustrator in 2015), it effectively shows information when you hover over the visual elements. You can check it out by clicking the image below:

Resources

Maybe you’re well-versed at creating your own graphics or manipulating existing graphics. Great! Get your infographic on! But if you’re like me, you might need some help. Luckily, there are tons of free resources to help build your own infographics – all you need is the data!

You can also download many fantastic infographic icons and images for reasonable prices (and supporting local designers) from Creative Market, which is where I obtained the infographic elements used in the above sample.

Holiday Gift Guide for Freelancers and E-Learning Developers

December 22, 2014

I know we’re only three shopping days away from the holiday season (maybe even two in some parts), but let’s face it…everyone loves getting a package in the mail, so if it’s late…who cares?! Here are some of my very favourite items for e-learning developers and to make freelancing a lot easier:

Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet – I have one of these at the office, and I’m vowing to use it A LOT more in 2015.

I plan to use the Wacom tablet with The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the Power to Think Differently, which I’ve been slowly working through since the summer.

Another great book that you’ve heard me raving about in my posts for the last few months is How We Learn: The Truth About When, Where, and Why it Happens. I LOVE this book. Any and all learning professional should have it an read it and use it as a mantra!

All good freelancers/consultants/independent contractors need a good Project Management Program. I’ve been using, and loving PancakeApp. I’ve also had the opportunity to use RedBooth this year and would recommend gifting either of these to a freelancer in your life (PancakeApp is a one time fee and RedBooth is subscription-based). Most often, creative professionals think more about their creative endeavours and less about their business acumen…which ultimately turns into chaos come tax time…make their lives easier!

To make e-learning reviews streamlined and standardized (which all e-learning professionals would truly appreciate), a subscription to Review My eLearning is a great option! I recommend the Medium subscription, which should do the trick for most folk.

Storyline 2 – This might be a bit of a splurge for the holiday season, but it’s definitely well worth the cost; especially if your favourite e-learning developer has been lamenting the impending end of their 30-day free trial. As an independent consultant, this purchase pays for itself in about a week.

A second computer monitor – this is ALWAYS welcomed for folks that tend to toggle between multiple programs/documents, as are: external hard drives, flash drives, and noise-cancelling headphones!

For Mac OS users – Parallels, Dongles, or AirPort Time Capsule (LIFE SAVER).

Comfy pajamas or loungewear – ESSENTIAL for any work-from-home type. I recently picked up this exact PJ set, and I will be picking up more – so comfortable!

Terminology Tuesday: Scope Creep

December 9, 2014

Last week I posted my best advice for e-learning freelancers in the form of a poster:

After posting this, I had a question: What is scope creep? Great question! There I go again with my industry jargon, making the assumption that everyone knows what I’m talking about…and you know what assumptions do. After having this question posed, it seemed like a great opportunity to explain the phrase on this week’s edition of Terminology Tuesday. It’s a two part-er!

Scope Creep

It could be scope’s creepy friend (and sometimes it is), but it’s really broken down into two components. First, we have Scope. Scope refers to the scope of the project and is typically outlined in a contract or statement of work (p.s. if you don’t have it in writing…get it in writing!). Scope dictates the project requirements, and what will be included. In e-learning, it’s smart to be very specific when outlining scope (e.g. Module 1 contains 1 scenario, 2 interactive screens, and 3 static screens) because the more specific you are, the less you will be affected by creep. Secondly, we have creep. Creep occurs when clients attempt to get more than they signed on for and this is where you need to stand firm. When a client asks for ‘just one more scenario’ in Module 5, you should come back to their request with a compromise. For example, ‘well. we can add one more scenario in Module 5 if we remove one scenario from Module 2.”

Giving your client an inch of leeway by agreeing to add elements outside of the agreed upon project scope can quickly become a mile. I’ve worked on projects that were originally scoped at a 6 month development time, but due to some not so super project management, the client ended up receiving their courseware after 1 year of development, the project made absolutely no profit (it actually cost the company to finish it), all because the project manager kept agreeing to ‘just one more’ revision, scenario, etc.

So, in a very simple explanation: scope creep is when your client creeps their project requirements past the originally agreed upon scope.

Resources

Video Demo: How I Set Up Puppy Plinko

December 5, 2014

For those of you wondering how I set up the Puppy Plinko interaction for Artie’s Christmas Surprise, I decided to do a video demo (below).

First, I added a visited state to all of the pups, then added a trigger to each oval that would change the state of the appropriate pup to visited when the animation for the oval’s motion path was completed.

Then, I added a True/False variable for each oval, and added a trigger to each pup to adjust the variable of the oval to True when the motion path animation for the oval completed.

Finally, I added a trigger to Jump to next slide once all pup states were visited AND all ovals are True.

Confused? Yeah – I know. I’m sure some of you guys would have done things differently, but if you want to hear my sometimes confused ramblings about how I set up Puppy Plinko (or if you need more information), check out the video below:

Video Demo – Artie from Ashley Chiasson on Vimeo.

Demo: Artie’s Christmas Surprise

December 3, 2014

Last week I spent some time working on a silly little Storyline project: Artie’s Christmas Surprise, and today I’m ready to share a little bit about it.

The Concept

I downloaded this rad set of Dog Infographic objects from Creative Market awhile back, and figured I had to use them for something, so I came up with a little story about Artie a dog who just became a single-parent and is strapped to come up with gift ideas for his 8 pups as the holidays fast approach. The pups get to play a little game of puppy plinko to determine their gifts, and then I link out to several of my favourite charities to donate to over the holiday season. There’s poop involved – I told you it was silly.

The Method

Inspired by the infographic set and some other icons (that I can’t quite remember where I downloaded them from…), I came up with the story. I sourced some audio and modified Artie a bit to suit my purposes.

On the intro slide, we meet Artie. He has a little oof and a wagging tail (created using motion paths).
On the second slide, we learn about Artie’s current situation, which makes use of some animations and audio.
On the third slide, we learn about Artie’s monthly income and expenses, using several of the infographic icons, a ton of animations, and A LOT of kibble (amen to grouping objects)!
On the fourth slide, we see that Artie has decked himself out in holiday cheer and come up with a great idea – puppy plinko!
On the fifth slide, the pups are all set up for puppy plinko – I mocked up the plinko board based on the ever popular game show game, and controlled all of the plinko chips (albeit their addresses were forced and not dynamic) using motion paths. I also added states to all of the pups and created some variables so that the slide would advance only after all pups had been visited and only after all of the motion path animations had been completed and changed to a value of True.
On the sixth slide, we see how Artie did with all of his gifts.
On the seventh slide, we link out to some charities, using buttons and hyperlinks.

I also created custom navigation buttons because I’m not the biggest fan of the default ones.

The Result

I think the result was pretty darn cute and it made me laugh (and simultaneously feel delirious), so hopefully it can garner a chuckle out of you!

Click here to view the full demo.

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