Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

Publishing Articulate Storyline Output to Dropbox or Google Drive

October 8, 2014

Yesterday, Jonathan from the Articulate E-Learning Heroes Community tweeted at me asking how I go about publishing my Articulate Storyline outputs to Dropbox, so I made a screencast! It took a couple of takes due to sneezing fits and barking beagles, but I think it does a good job at explaining how easy it is to upload your Storyline outputs to both Dropbox.com and Google Drive.

Below, I’ll outline the steps and then I’ll include the screencast so you can see how I published my Storyline output to both technologies.

Publishing to Dropbox

Download and install the Dropbox app.
Drag your output folder to your dropbox.
Open dropbox and drag the output folder to the Public folder.
Open the uploaded folder, within the Public folder, and right-click the story.html file.
Select Copy Public Link.
Open a new browser tab and paste the copied link.

Publishing to Google Drive

Download and install the Google Drive app.
Drag your output folder to your Google Drive.
Open the uploaded folder, and rename ‘story.html’ to ‘index.html’
Return to the your main page of Google Drive and right-click the uploaded folder.
Select Google Drive > View on the web.
Google Drive will open; Select Open in Drive (in the upper right-hand corner).
Click My Drive, and then select the check mark beside the uploaded folder.
Select the Share icon (icon of a person with a + symbol) and click Advanced.
Select Change next to ‘who has access’ and change the permissions to Public on the web. Click Save.
Enter the uploaded folder, and in the browser address bar, copy the identifier, which includes all letters and numbers appearing after “0#folders/”.
Open a new browser tab and in the address bar type “http://googledrive.com/host/” after ‘/host/’, paste the identifier copied in the previous step.

As you can see, there are a few more steps when publishing to Google Drive versus doing so with Dropbox, so for ease, I recommend Dropbox; however, both are good options. My preferences is to publish to my website’s server, and if that option isn’t available, publishing to Articulate Tempshare.

Video Demonstration – Publishing Articulate Storyline Output to Dropbox and Google Drive

Sharing Storyline Dropbox GoogleDrive from Ashley Chiasson on Vimeo.

Terminology Tuesday: Microlearning

October 7, 2014

This week’s term, microlearning, was inspired by several Twitter chats I’ve been lurking for awhile now. In times like these where information is constantly requested/searched, there’s a greater trend toward instant gratification – and the wonders of the Internet can do magic to make this happen!

Microlearning

Microlearning refers to learning that occurs in bite sized chunks or very short-term learning activities. For example, these Twitter chats. Each week, participants respond to questions posed and are able to read (and respond to) the responses of fellow participants. It’s really a great form of collaborative learning. Twitter chats are a great example, because responses occur within the constraint of 140 characters, and learners are encouraged to synthesize this information in bite-sized responses or presentation.

But who the heck would this benefit?!

Everyone involved! Well – maybe not everyone (there are always outliers), but most participants and facilitators. I’ll give you an example of how microlearning is working in an online course I worked on.

The faculty member came to me wanting to redevelop her course. She wanted to swap out some readings and make it more engaging for students. Her course consists of about 3000 pages of readings over a semester (they’re all children’s books), a midterm and final exam, and some written assignments. Holy crap! What a slave driver, you might think…the reality is not really, but I could see how students might balk at the workload. In any event, she was struggling with quality forum participation because the students were exhausted by the workload and couldn’t commit to writing lengthy posts and responses. She also tried a wiki to no avail (well – it worked, but not in an optimal manner). I suggested a Twitter chat for her; like the forum posts, she could incite participation out of a course requirement and she could require the student post one original response to the question and respond to at least two of their peers, BUT the student would only be required to write a maximum of 420 characters instead of potentially a minimum of 1500 words!

This approach benefits the faculty member in terms of her participation grading and it benefits the students by requiring less of their already taxing workload to obtain the elusive participation points (some students would just drop the participation grade of 5-10% as they were too swamped to participate, but 5-10% can mean a lot of the course of a course).

Confused by what I’m talking about? Here are some great examples and some resources!

3 Bits of Advice for Aspiring Freelancers

October 6, 2014

People ALWAYS ask me about freelancing – Always! As many of you folks know, I spent several years freelancing prior to making the jump into full-time (and now part-time) independent contractor-ship. When you’re just getting started, you can be overwhelmed by the amount of work you’re doing, underwhelmed by the amount of opportunities you’re finding, and dazzled by the dollars you’re raking in. Before you get too deep in the freelance game, you really should step back and organize yourself…or at least screw your head on right. Here are some helpful pieces of advice for doing just that!

1 – Set some of your profits aside.

And by this, I don’t mean in a fun-money fund for your next vacation to Fiji. I mean that taxes are impending (and may incite of feeling of dread or doom) reality, and you really don’t want to pay them out of pocket because you were so busy being pumped on the extra cash you were bringing in. If you fail to set cash aside, it actually turns out to be counter-productive and may make all of your hard work and hours spent moonlighting seem fruitless. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Here’s what I do: When I receive payment on an invoice, I take 30% of the payment and put it in a separate savings account. Next year I will be opening up a business account, but if you’re just sticking to occasional freelancing as a supplement to your income, a savings account should be sufficient. This 30% deduction can be a bitter pill to swallow, but it ensures that I won’t get strapped paying taxes out of pocket (and may even receive a refund – who knows?) come tax time!

2 – Get organized!

This advice might seem like a no-brainer, but unless you’re a planner at heart, the last thing most folks do is get organized, and failing to do so can get messy realllllly fast. As a freelancer, you should have several processes in place before you get too involved, such as development processes (for whatever it is you develop), get-money processes (for invoicing/collecting payment), kick off and close out processes (for kicking off and closing out a project with a client). Having these processes in place will save you a ton of time, streamlining the projects you work on from start to finish.

Here’s what I do: One of the first things I do when I start a project is open up my Project Management Software (PMS) and set up a new project. Prior to the kick off meeting, I review anything the client has sent me and compile a list of questions I have (deadlines, review cycles, etc.). During the kick off meeting, I document the conversation in a Word document, which I then save to the project in my PMS. After the kick off meeting, I itemize all of the project tasks and set deadlines in the PMS. Basically the PMS runs my life and keeps me on point. At the end of the project, I have a wrap-up meeting (or email exchange, depending on client preferences), document what was said, and upload the document to the PMS. Then, I generate an invoice…in the PMS (previously, I had a Word template for this, which I would email) and send it to the client. The moral of this story – find a PMS you love and use it! I recommend Pancake.

Before I caught on to the importance of being organized in my freelance life, things were messy. PMS has changed my life, and I find it so helpful (and refreshing) when I work with clients who use them too!

Another great way to stay organized (and productive) is to maintain a tidy office space and use folders for hard-copy paperwork (e.g. contracts, non-disclosure agreements, tax documentation). This will make your life a lot easier when you need to refer to a piece of paper you printed off once upon a time.

3 – Be considerate (to yourself and others).

In this context, being considerate doesn’t necessarily mean being nice to yourself and to others (but, that will happen indirectly). It really means being cognizant of your abilities and not over-obligating yourself. Furthermore, being considerate to yourself should also mean: don’t apply to every single thing your see – especially if you’re freelancing through odesk, elance, freelancer, or one of the many freelancing sites.

Here’s what I do: Initially I did not heed my own advice, and I paid dearly (over-committing to projects I wasn’t qualified for or which I absolutely hated). Before you start working at the freelance chain game, take some time and itemize your interests and qualifications. Then, bid or apply for projects that align with your qualifications or interests. This will ensure that you don’t get saddled bidding on ‘Spinning 100 articles for 30 dollars’ or writing some kids PhD thesis for a 250 bucks – neither of which are at the high of ethics and integrity…or profit. Be considerate and smart about what you apply for, don’t undervalue yourself, and don’t over-commit!

E-Learning Challenge #52 – Using Interactive Sliders in E-Learning

October 2, 2014

This week’s challenge is a fun one! Storyline 2 offers the ability to easily create slider interactions, a feat which was previously completed by using states….and LOTS of ’em! Think hundreds (depending on what you’re trying to accomplish). Now, you can create sliders with a few clicks of some buttons – presto, tada!

I was also excited to jump on the bandwagon this week, because last week I started something and didn’t finish…and it’s always nice to sneak in right before the recap is posted – I like living on the edge!

The Concept

Use interactive sliders to focus on functionality and/or design. For this challenge, I chose to focus on both. I wanted to illustrate how you could use sliders to create an interactive website mockup – fun and practical (for some)! You could take my colour customization approach to another level and use states to incorporate different layout options – that would be cool!

The Method

I thought up how I might want to work with the sliders to make my imagined design come to life, so I first created a little mock up website layout. Then, I pulled some elements from the mock up (background colour, title text colour, and body element colours) to and made some quick colour palettes – some, when combined, are more appealing than others (…basically the default looks the best – don’t hate).

Once I decided how I was going to roll this all out, I created my sliders. I created one slider for each element, created a four colour-way palette for each element, and then created four states (well – three, because one was normal) for each element, one for each colour. Then, I set the sliders to show each state when the user drags the slider to a certain point, using triggers to change the states.

After it was all said and done, I added a little intro slide, customized the player, and the rest is history!

The Result

Click here to view the full, interactive demo!

Click here to download the source file to learn how you too can create a comparable interaction!

Terminology Tuesday: Instructor versus Facilitator

September 30, 2014

Next week I begin the OLC Teaching Certificate, and as a prerequisite I had to take a brief (1 week) workshop. There has been some discussion about the changing role of traditional face-to-face instructors when they begin teaching online, so I thought it might be relevant to provide my thoughts on these changing roles.

Instructor

The instructor of a class is often viewed as the Subject Matter Expert (SME), and while there are various delivery mechanisms this instructor may choose to use, instructors are often viewed as feeding students with information. Some call this a ‘banking’ model, wherein the instructor is depositing information into the bank of student minds. This is a traditional method of instruction for a reason: it’s been used for many moons, and it works. However, it’s not the only way teaching and learning can work.

Facilitator

Facilitators are often viewed as ‘a guide on the side’ in that they provide the subject matter/content to the students, but the students build upon the information collaboratively with one another. The facilitator facilitates discussions surrounding the content and keeps the students focused on the learning outcomes, but they operate in a more holistic approach.

How does this relate to online learning?

Well – in online learning, the instructor really needs to make a shift and adapt their teaching preferences according to the environment in which information is being delivered. For example, if you choose to continue with the traditional ‘banking’ style of approach in an online delivery format, your course will likely end up looking like a repository of information…which is not very engaging instructional design. In this example, you can see very clearly why the banking method doesn’t work that well for online as it does for face-to-face instruction; while, the facilitator role can work well in both contexts of delivery.

With that being said, the facilitator may need to adapt their role based on the environment in that they may need to provide more examples and explanations in the online format to mitigate the lack of face-to-face engagement.

Change is innately unwanted and there is always resistance to change, but in the interest of your audience, it’s a necessary evil!

Still confused? Here are some resources!

Terminology Tuesday: Competency-Based Learning

September 23, 2014

Having worked within the defence sector for many years, I became accustomed to (and sometimes exhausted by) taking a competency-based approach to learning. Life was spent swimming in Job Task Analysis (JTA) spreadsheets and ticking off boxes for various types of knowledge/skills/attitudes. Spreadsheets never made me want to cry more. However, these spreadsheets helped me ensure I was accommodating the learning of some very concrete and practical (mostly) tasks.

Competency-Based Learning

Competency-based learning involves breaking down learning into each individual task until that task is mastered. For example, screwing in a bolt requires many competencies, such as: Identify the appropriate screwdriver, insert the screwdriver into the bolt, turn the screwdriver in a clock-wise motion to tighten the bolt – etcetera. You might not think of each individual task because doing so would make your day a lot longer and exhausting, but each small task is part of a greater whole, and it’s essential to know how to perform each task before you can achieve the greater whole. The military uses this type of learning because everything is very structured and each task helps the individual achieve a greater goal – AND, when it comes to complex procedural tasks like installing a main gearbox, I’d like to think that the technician has mastered each task involved as this will enhance my overall safety as an individual who frequently flies on aircraft.

From my experience, competency-based learning often users a tell, show, do model. First, the instructor will explain the task to be completed and how to achieve the end goal. Then, the instructor will demonstrate what they have explained, showing the students exactly what they need to do. Finally, the instructor will allow students to complete the task on their own, providing feedback throughout.

Similar to my experience with military training, Starbucks training (unless it’s changed since I was a manger) is also competency-based. We would use the tell, show, do model and it was incredibly effective to break sach task into a sub-task. For example, when new beverage items were launched, this process worked very well at ensuring consistency among beverages made by employees. Why? Because competency-based learning is extremely measurable! This is why it’s often used for teaching concrete vs. abstract concepts/tasks.

Still Confused? Here are Some Resources:

Competency-Based or Personalized Learning

Using a Competency-Based Approach: Linking Core Competencies to your Business Strategy by ThinkWise

Competency-Based Approach

From Job-Based to Competency-Based Organizations by Edward E. Lawler III

Competency-Based Learning Models: A Necessary Future by Richard A. Voorhees