Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

Instructional Designer & Consultant

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3 Great Cross-Training Options for Instructional Designers

People are always asking me what skills they should learn in order to be a successful Instructional Designer (ID), and there really is no hard fast recommendation. There isn’t one formula that will spit out the perfect ID, but there are a ton of adjacent competencies that IDs might want to focus on. In addition to enchanting your mind with new information and ways of doing things, these suggestions may also make you a bit more marketable within the ID world.

1. Education

IDs come from all walks of life – I had a Linguistics background when I hit the ground running as an ID, but it truly is important to know where you came from (so to speak) and learn about the principles behind Instructional Design. This could be through formal education, through books, or through a community of peers (just to name a few options). Whatever you choose, be eager to understand why it is you’re doing the things you’re doing within your Instructional Design, and how you can improve the user experience and optimize success (for the program AND the student).

2. Graphic Design

Some IDs pride themselves in being creative and capable graphic designers, but there is a large population of IDs who have what feels like zero creativity (me on most days) and who have minimal artistic ability (me, me, me!). In my first corporate gig, I was spoiled with a team of multimedia developers who would cater to most all of my whims and requests. Now as an independent, I’m often left to my own devices (or to sub-contracting out graphic design projects). With that being said, I do know my (truncated) way around Adobe Photoshop, and in a pinch I can do some very basic things (you also might not believe what a useful resource PowerPoint can be!). Here are some resources I would recommend for brushing up on some basic graphic design skills:

3. Programming Languages

This here is something I don’t have a lot of experience in, but it’s worth learning how to code basic HTML, JavaScript, and CSS in the event that you need some of this code for your e-learning projects. Now, again, this is not an essential skill of a ‘good’ ID, it’s just a nice-to-have skill and likely will come in handy every now and again. There are other roads you can go down if you’re genuinely enthused by learning programming languages – e.g. Learning something like Unity to program 3D scenarios, but I reckon you should research further than this post if you’re serious about learning programming languages…because I’m not the guru for you! Within authoring environments, code can be handy to know even to just troubleshoot why a Learning Management System isn’t ‘reading’ your SCORM package despite you having properly ‘SCORM’ed’ it.

E-Learning Challenge #15: Create a Radiant Template with Pantone’s Colour of the Year

Pantone announced that the 2014 colour of the year was Radiant Orchid. And how I feel about it? – What’s pretty for none is hideous to some. I’m sorry, Pantone. You dropped the ball on the colour for me this year. Purple is one of my very favourite colours, but this shade of purple is just acrid to me.

The Concept

This challenge was to create a ‘radiant’ template using Radiant Orchid as the colour palette of choice. I’m going to sound like I’m making excuses here, and I am. But, I truly struggled with creating this template because I found everything I created to just look so vile. However, perhaps some of you appreciate Radiant Orchid and will also appreciate these layout templates I developed – who knows?!

The Method

First, I checked out the colour and applied it as a background colour to one slide. I wasn’t a fan, but I had to move forward. I found adding a gradient helped a bit, so I did that and went with it.

Then, I considered several basic screen layouts and sought about developing them, added some navigational elements (e.g. chevrons instead of the back/next button default), and tossed some placeholder layers in for the buttons.

The Result

The fruits of my labour were six screen layouts that you can customize any which way you choose – I tried to appeal to some of the most commonly encountered layouts, so hopefully they will address your template needs. Below, you will see a screenshot of one of the layouts included, and you will be provided with a link to the demo and the downloadable .story file. Go forth, spread the cheer of Pantone’s colour of the year!

Screen Shot 2014-08-28 at 9.23.53 AM

Click here to view a demo of the full Radiant Orchid template.

Click here to download the full Radiant Orchid .story file for Articulate Storyline.

 

Terminology Tuesday: Style Guides

I was inspired to write about style guides after seeing a very beautiful one for a current client. As dorky as it might sound, I get incredibly excited about style guides!

Style guides?!

Style guides are typically client-generated; however, I have worked for organizations where various departments (e.g. Instructional Design, Programming, Multimedia) contribute to the development of a client’s style guide. They are documented explanations and illustrations of stylistic options that are available for the product in development.

These stylistic options typically include approved logos and branding, colours (and corresponding hex values), appropriate fonts and sizes, and can even be so specific as to dictate the pixel width a highlight box must be or the screen resolution the product must adhere to.

Basically, the style guide dictates how your product should look/feel and is typically developed by the client in an effort to stay ‘on brand’.  Other elements can even include the tone of voice used (active vs passive) or grammar preferences.

But why should I be interested in these?

Now, I’m not saying you need to get giddy about a beautifully crafted style guide like I do, but what I am saying is that you probably should inquire as to whether your client has one. Why? Because doing so can save a lot of time and effort spent revising a developed product to adhere to the company’s branding standards. It can be very tedious changing fonts and sizes for large projects…

Another great thing about style guides is that they ensure that all team members (if there are more than just yourself) have the same information and are adhering to the client’s aesthetic requirements. This can yield an incredible cost savings when you consider the effort involved in reprogramming interactive pieces or re-developing multimedia assets.

Style guides also save you tons of time and guess work! The projects I’ve worked on that had prescribed style guides had a lot less back and forth stylistic revisions than those without. While designing different layouts and using different typography may be your jam, clients may feel like you failed to read their mind with regarding to determining their brand’s vibe. No one wants you to miss the mark!

Here are some handy resources:

E-Learning Challenge #48: Storyboard Templates for E-Learning

This week’s e-learning challenge is an interesting one…one that is often glossed over in discussions, but which has also been discussed at length (if you look for it): Storyboard Templates! Hooray! I’ve chatted about storyboarding vs. rapid prototyping here and created a jaunty time-lapse demonstration of the development of a very basic storyboard template here (along with a downloadable template – wahoo!), but I’m going to go through David’s questions and maybe even include some downloadable sample templates. GET EXCITED!!!

The Concept

Share an example of your preferred storyboard template and answer the following questions:

  1. How do you define scripting, storyboarding, and prototyping? Which method do you prefer?
  2. Do you use different types of storyboards? When do you use each?
  3. How do you storyboard interactivity?
  4. What are your top three storyboard tips for new course creators?

The Method

First, I considered my storyboarding preferences and sifted through my hard drive to locate some samples. I realized that I had previously included my preferred storyboard template (and by preferred, I mean most commonly used and/or adapted for use) here.

Then, I considered each question and jotted down some note for each.

The Result

By clicking here, you can download my preferred/most commonly used and/or adapted for use storyboard template.

  1. How do you define scripting, storyboarding, and prototyping? Which method do you prefer?
    • I previously defined storyboarding and prototyping over here, so I won’t bore you with a re-ramble of that post.  As far as scripting goes, I would consider this to be including verbatim onscreen text, narration, and or media element scripts for other developers (and/or yourself as an organization tool). When scripting audio narration, I also would define aspects of the script to clarify the verbatim narration (e.g. pronunciation).
    • I prefer rapid prototyping overall, but find it most effective with smaller projects, requiring less sign off from other individuals. With larger courses/products, I prefer to storyboard in a Microsoft Word template as it’s much easier (and cost effective) to modify a Word document than a developed file.

  2. Do you use different types of storyboards? When do you use each?

    • I do you different types of storyboards, but it really depends on the clients needs. If they’re able to visualize the overall course based on a detailed Word storyboard, I’ll do that. If they need something more visual, I’ll develop a visual storyboard in Microsoft PowerPoint or Articulate Storyline. If a complex branching scenario is used, I’ll refer to a Word storyboard in a task analysis template (e.g. where each cause and effect task is branched out appropriately). If the client requires an Excel template, I’ll cringe and comply (and sob).
  3. How do you storyboard interactivity?
    • My typical method for storyboarding interactivity is to create detailed accounts (occasionally supplemented with mocked up visuals – for complicated media descriptions) of the media and interactivity to be included on that screen. This tends me be adequate, but sometimes clients (or Subject Matter Experts) need more of a visual, in which case, I’ll do a visual storyboard using PowerPoint and include descriptions of the interactions or mock them up as much as possible (using animation effects) to convey a similar look and feel of the end product.
  4. What are your top three storyboard tips for new course creators?
    1. BE CONCISE in your onscreen content – no one likes scrolling (too much).
    2. Ensure all aspects required for development are accounted for within the storyboard (e.g. navigation, introduction, conclusion screens, interactivity, audio script) – it’s good to have a one-stop-shop approach to your storyboard templates.
    3. Be as detailed as possible in your media descriptions; often times in larger organizations, the storyboard gets handed off to a media developer and then maybe a programmer, and you want to be as detailed as possible to avoid back and forth communication regarding elements. Doing this will save you time, money, and frustration. AND – everyone will be on the same page (e.g. the media developer can get added context for a screen by reading the onscreen text, and the programmer has a better understanding of how to program the media interactivity by reading the media description). All aboard!

Video Demo: Articulate Storyline – Convert to Freeform: Emphasizing the Need to Double-Click

Double_Click_Demo

I was developing some neat emulations for one of my clients last week, when the client requested that I include an additional ‘feedback’ of sort to emphasize that the user must double-click if they merely single click during the emulation. Now, this wasn’t feedback-persay, so I didn’t include it in the feedback options, but I did struggle a bit getting the hotspot interaction to behave the way I needed it to, so I decided to do a little demo to explain how I had worked through this issue in Articulate Storyline.

To do this, I converted a screen to freeform (hotspot), and set up the feedback options to branch to the correct response and set the submission to behave on double-click. Initially, I had messed around with it by providing the correct hotspot and then putting a trigger on the base layer over the incorrect option, but then that would only show the prompt if the user selected the incorrect option – something that might not happen as often with 2 options versus 20 (as in the software). So to get the interaction to behave the way I wanted, I set up two hotspots in the convert to freeform editor: 1 large hotspot encompassing the entire screen, and 1 smaller hotspot encompassing the correct response. Then, I ensured the correct response was selected and saved.

When I returned to the development screen, I added a layer with some text “YOU MUST DOUBLE-CLICK!” and created a trigger on the base layer to display this new layer if the user clicks anywhere in Hotspot 1 (which in the convert to freeform editor was the incorrect hotspot which encompassed the entire screen).

On preview, we see that the screen now behaves the way I need it to. Single-clicking anywhere brings up the double-click layer prompt, double-clicking the incorrect option (in this case, Oliver, the dog) produces no response (in the software simulation, this brought up some feedback, but for simplicity, I didn’t include any feedback), and then double-clicking the correct option (in this case, Milo, the cat) takes the user to the correct slide.

Did my explanation confuse the heck out of you? Watch the demo, below!


Double Click Demo from Ashley Chiasson on Vimeo.

Terminology Tuesday: Formative vs Summative Evaluation

Argh! I swear I hit ‘schedule’ on this post, but I’ll go ahead now and apologize for the 24 hour delay…whoops!

Today I’m going to be chatting a bit about two types of evaluation: formative and summative. Now, I had heard these terms thrown around here and there working within my first corporate gig; however, it wasn’t until I began my graduate studies that these terms creeped up more frequently. I’m not sure if they’re traditionally education-specific, but if that’s true, they really should change that! Evaluation is a critical part of each course/product/project, and both formative and summative evaluations are essential to a comprehensive evaluation. Why? Well, just hold on to your horses and I’ll tell you!

Formative and Summative Evaluation Explained

Formative evaluation occurs when a program is rolled out to a small group of people (testers) and is sometimes referred to as a ‘soft launch’. Essentially, this allows the developer to obtain information regarding potential revisions prior to committing to a full launch. Formative evaluation is essential, especially when you’re a one-person show, because it’s really invaluable to have a second (or third or fourth) set of eyes look at something you’ve spent all of your time working on, as these sets of eyes will often times pick up small issues you may have missed in your quality assurance check. Additionally, these reviewers may also provide great insight into modifications that may enhance user experience. Sometimes it can be too late to incorporate these revisions, but often times it’s easy to make a compromise and include some of the smaller revisions while holding out on the larger revisions for a version 2 of the project.

Summative evaluation occurs after the program has been formally rolled out and are meant to assess the effectiveness of the program as a whole. This type of evaluation is important as it allows the developer to revise the program accordingly to achieve maximum effectiveness. In this situation, effectiveness is measured by how well the training program meets the requirements and allows learners to achieve the learning outcomes.

But who has time to evaluate each program?

Great question! Most folks barely have enough time in the day to get all of their work done (come on – Beyonce has a large team of folks helping her out, and it’s just little ol’ me over here), but even if a formal evaluation isn’t in the cards (which is an unfortunate reality for many of the programs I’ve worked on), you should still evaluate each project (internal) and stay on top of client feedback (external) as it will help you grow as a developer. You’ll be able to consult a list (or memory even) of lessons learned and these lessons learned may help to streamline your process in the long run…making you more efficient and getting you closer to success (which often means fewer revisions)!

Still confused? Here are some great resources: