Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

E-Learning Challenge #27: Visual Storytelling with Photo Collages

March 26, 2014

The goal of this week’s challenge was to create a visual story using photo collages as a means of moving away from the urge to display slides and slides of bullets within your e-learning modules.

The Concept

A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon this article by the CVU, outlining the state of online university education in Canada, and it really struck a chord with me. As someone who is extremely passionate about Instructional Design and increasing accessibility, it seemed baffling that we could be lagging so far behind other countries. However, after since working for a university, I have a bit more context into the why of how things are – you can’t really force professors to put their courses online, you can only provide them with gentle encouragement. In any event, I thought it was important to disseminate the information in this report, so I did it once in a paper for graduate school, and I did it again within this challenge.

The Method

I thought an infographic-style of approach would best display the statistics I wanted to illustrate, so I downloaded and cropped the infographic elements in Adobe Illustrator, imported them into Storyline and organized them appropriately.

Then, I added a layer for every element, and applied hotspots on the base layer so that when the user hovered over each element, the appropriate statistics would display. When the user moves their mouse away from the element, the base layer returns to its original state.

While not a traditional infographic and not the most attractively organized (Hey! I’m not a graphic designer!), I was happy with the end result.

The Result

To view the complete interaction, click here.

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Terminology Tuesday: Storyboarding and Rapid Prototyping

March 25, 2014

Alright, folks! I’ve got a new feature – Terminology Tuesday. As someone with a background in Linguistics, this is clearly up my alley, but it should be up yours too! Why?! Two reasons: 1 – As Instructional Designers, it is important to be able to define the terms you will be working with on a frequent basis so that you can properly explain these terms to a client instead of fakin’ it til’ you make it; 2 – As a potential client, I want to know that the cash I’m shelling out is going to something productive and meaningful to my project.

This week we’ll be discussing Storyboards and Rapid Prototyping.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a process wherein a sequence for the product is laid out visually or textually. You may be most familiar with this term as it applies to animations – where the story is depicted scene by scene prior to development.

Within Instructional Design, storyboarding lays out the course or module to indicate screens, topics, teaching points, onscreen text, and media descriptions. There are many variations; however, the previously mentioned elements are most commonly represented within the storyboard. Other elements may include audio narration, assessment items, filenames for media assets, source or reference images, or screenshots exemplifying the anticipated media asset or screen to be developed.

Pros: Allows the Instructional Designer to organize the content and provides an encompassing document which may be reviewed prior to entry into an authoring environment.

Cons: Is an extra step in the development process and may be considered an unnecessary expense by clients or as storyboards do not depict the finished product, reviewers may have difficulty reviewing content as they cannot contextualize the content without seeing the final product (this is typically an issue for visual learners). Storyboarding can also hinder the ability to adequately convey branching scenarios.

Rapid Prototyping

Rapid prototyping is a process wherein the Instructional Designer takes the content and commits it to the chosen authoring environment to develop a prototype of the final deliverable/product. Here, reviewers can assess the prototype, visually, and propose revisions prior to the delivery of the final product.

Pros: Provides reviewers with added visual context, limits time spent developing paper-based models (e.g. storyboards), and may reduce review and revision cycles.

Cons: Rapid prototyping may not be ideal for projects developing complex interactions, as these projects may result in length review and revision cycles until the ideal design has been achieved, holding up production of future courses or modules.

Both approaches have clear advantages and disadvantages, and as an Instructional Designer, it is your responsibility to assess the content and guide your client toward an appropriate approach, based upon the client’s project requirements, scope, and budget.

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My SME and Me

March 17, 2014

I cannot tell you how long I have been wanting to write this post – years. I’m sure a musical will follow shortly…After reading an insightful article by fellow Instructional Designer, Nicole Mellas, entitled 3 Steps to Get MORE out of Subject Matter Expert (SME) Interviews, I was prompted to share my tips and experiences.

Dealing with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can be tricky. Often times, they have trouble placing themselves in the shoes of their audience and/or Instructional Designer, and on particularly frustrating days where communication has come to a standstill, I call this relationship “My SME and Me.” In the darkest moments (re: sobbing over my keyboard), it renews my faith in humanity.

As Instructional Designers it is our job to figure out how to communicate effectively with our SMEs. Effectively in the sense that you get clear (or somewhat clear) answers to the questions you have in order to ensure the most accurate content, and you do this in an efficient manner. The phrase ‘time is money’ is a very accurate one in this respect. There are often many other tasks that you could devote your time and effort to in the instructional development process, so it is critical to be able to streamline the approach you take when it comes to communicating with your SME. Another phrase I’ve come to appreciate in recent weeks – “Everything is figureoutable” – Marie Forleo – allows me to recognize that each SME is their own person and as such, they are entitled to their own manner of communicating and disseminating information and the Instructional Designer will eventually figure out how best to communicate with that particular person.

When I reflect on my annual performance, I often cite communicating with SMEs as one of my greatest challenges. While I still consider this task challenging, I walk into my SME interactions with a different attitude – one that appreciates where the SME is coming from and their area of expertise – they’re a SME for a reason, after all. This is step one.

Go into your SME interactions prepared. Pinpoint the specific content areas you want to discuss in an agenda, that you submit to the SME ahead of time, and bring relevant reference material to the meeting (or include it in the agenda email) – this will help streamline your meeting by giving the SME an opportunity to prepare themselves ahead of time.

Always keep your eye on the prize. The prize is engaging, accurate content or copy, and you need to steer the ship of conversation! If your SME begins to go off on a tangent, diplomatically get them in check, and proceed with your agenda (e.g. “That’s an incredible story about how you built the rocket, but could you tell me more about how to launch the rocket?”). Accurate content is essential for many training programs. I would say all, but something like soft skills training may be more subjective than something more specific like air traffic control training. It is imperative that you keep your SME on point.

Finally, respect your SME. When you are especially frustrated and feel like you’ve talked circles around yourself, always be polite and ensure you are respectful to your SME. In many industries, you will likely have to interact with this individual again, and not burning bridges will go a long way in your next interaction.

To summarize, my tips for successful SME interactions are:

Get your attitude in check
Come prepared
Keep the content in mind
Direct your SME and keep them on point
Respect your SME and build rapport

What have your SME experiences been like? Have you experienced cases of My SME and Me?

6 Running Must-Haves

March 14, 2014

Not too long ago I mentioned that I had registered for the Bluenose Half Marathon. I ran this race last year, and really enjoyed the course, so I registered as a motivator to get out and ramp up my running again.

At the end of summer I had a nasty running injury. After several x-rays and being checked out by an orthopeadic surgeon who specializes in running-related injuries, I found out that I have pes cavus (my arches do not look as extreme as the wiki photo). What does this mean? Well. For me it means that I often experience metatarsal pain after running, no matter how much stretching or post-running care I attempt. Initially I thought it was a shoe issue, but my surgeon told me that no matter which shoes I purchase or which gimmicks I try out, I will just need to find ways of managing the pain and impact if I want to continue running. Now that my foot no longer throbs and I’ve registered for the half, I’m trying to get my butt in gear and get ready for the race. What better inspiration than to share my favourite running items?!

From top to bottom, left to right:

Lululemon Wunder Under Crops – These are my all time favourite workout pants. They keep everything feeling secure and have a gusset, which is CRITICAL when purchasing any tight-fitting pant.

Nike Free Run+ 2.0 – This particular style of the Nike Free Run is my favourite and has since been discontinued. None of the newer versions have fit quite as well, so I’m guilt of having ordered several pairs off eBay. Typically, I fit into a size 5 shoe, which in our city is near impossible to find in a woman’s shoe. Most sneaker retailers in our area offer size 6 as the smallest size, and kids shoes won’t cut it for long distance running. I find the size 6 in this style of shoe to fit me particularly well. I never feel like they’re too loose, and they’re extremely lightweight and flexible.

Lululemon Power Y Tank – There are few things I purchase from Lululemon, but they make a pretty good (and affordable) workout tank top. I have a few different styles, but the Power Y is my all-time favourite. It doesn’t ride up into my armpits, and the shelf bra offers enough support for my purposes.

GapFit Breathe Long Sleeve – This is a fantastic lightweight long sleeve that I love wearing on my runs. It isn’t too heavy and it’s breathable, so sweating doesn’t get uncomfortable. I often toss this over my tank top when I’m on the way to the gym, or will wear it at the beginning of a race if it’s a bit chilly to start.

Nike+ Running App – I’ve only recently begun to use this app, but I’ve been enjoying it so far. I like that it starts within seconds and I don’t have to wait as long for my GPS to configure. The battery life is dependent on my iPhone, so if I leave with a full charge, I can run the app and listen to my music for at least 3 solid hours before it craps out on me. And, it’s FREE! It has a lot of settings that you can configure based on your preferences, and even has a social media hookup if you want to report your results/progress or in the event that you need some social media cheerleaders.

Garmin Forerunner 10 – This is a great little garmin that is fairly affordable and has done me well for many of my long runs. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be phased out by the Nike+ Running app, but we’ll see – I’ll report back in a few months. I love this device for the run/walk feature, but the battery drains quite fast, and I always worry that it’s going to die before the end of my run. I really do love my forerunner 10, but another negative is that it takes FOREVER to configure my GPS location. I’m not sure if anyone else has this problem, but I more or less need to stand still for 10 minutes on my doorstep to get it to make any progress. Once it’s set though, we’re good to go!

Any readers out there who are also runners? Have you dealt with injuries? Have any advice to share? Which products are you loving?

8 Instructional Design Tips

March 11, 2014

When developing courses, I tend to take the Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS) approach. There’s no point overcomplicating things that some may already find complicated.

Tip #1 – Put yourself in your learner’s shoes. While you might be the Subject Matter Expert (SME), try to present information in a meaningful way, avoiding industry jargon at all costs. When a course isn’t successful, often times the issue is in the structure and presentation of the course, not the ability of the learners.

Tip #2 – Engage the learners my providing concrete examples that may allow learners to activate their prior knowledge as a foundation for new learning opportunities.

Tip #3 – CHUNK CONTENT. The last thing a learner needs is to spend hours scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling through content.

Tip #5 – Be concise. I don’t think I can emphasize this point enough – maybe I could make a marquee banner? Learners likely spend a lot of their time scrolling through PDFs and reading textbooks or other course materials. Value your learner’s time by concisely structuring your content. Doing this will also allow you to easily chunk your content.

Tip #6 – Provide assessment opportunities coupled with meaningful feedback. Learners want to know they’re on the right track. If you allow them to apply their knowledge through assessment opportunities, you open up a door to provide them with meaningful feedback, which will likely contribute to higher academic achievement and learner satisfaction.

Tip # 7 – Add appropriate media. This is tricky because everyone has a different idea about what might be considered ‘appropriate media’. What I mean by this is engaging the learner with multimedia, when appropriate. For example, you’re teaching an individual about car doors and how they can open and close. For this example, a side-by-side static graphic of the car door open and then the car door closed would be sufficient. Creating an animation to illustrate this may enhance engagement, but is not necessary to meet the learning objective.

Tip #8 – Be smart about your use of audio. I’d like to think that most folks can use their heads here and make good judgement calls, but I’ve worked on projects where the client requested, and truly believed it was necessary, to have 1.5 minutes of audio narration for an animation lasting 45 seconds (cut to a classroom of sobbing learners). Use audio when it makes sense. You might explain a procedure in detail in the onscreen text, but in the audio you should paraphrase the procedural steps to line up with what’s happening in the onscreen media.

My Freelance to Freedom

March 7, 2014

As a member of Leah Kalamakis’ Freelance to Freedom Project Community, I was prompted to consider the reasons why I freelance, and make some suggestions as to how you too can kick start your freelance career and potentially freelance to freedom.

My Experience:

Originally, I began freelancing strictly to have an extra revenue stream and, specifically, to pay off my undergraduate debt. My freelancing wasn’t very pointed and I used popular freelancing sites to find odd jobs (proofreading, editing, transcribing…groan). While I was able to secure several fantastic clients, I often considered myself as selling out in that the content sometimes wasn’t my finest moment, ethically, and I knew that the work I was doing was a means to an end. Once I was able to pay off the remainder of my student debt, I very quickly took a year hiatus. After working full-time at my regular job, full-time freelancing, and going to school as a full-time graduate student, I was BURNT OUT. I needed to take some time to refocus myself and realize that I didn’t need this added income to sustain my lifestyle.

During this freelance hiatus, we were able to save a large amount of money in a very small amount of time and purchase our first home. Achieving this goal really made me realize that we were in a great financial state. However, once I finished my graduate degree this past May, I quickly began to grow bored and stagnate within my role. I love my job, but it’s been a labour of love and has been very one-sided. Long after considering this, I realized that I needed to be the change – If I wanted to take control of my career, I really needed to get in the drivers seat and let go of my anxieties in order to be successful.

So, what did I do?

I made the decision to think strategically about my potential business. I did this by reading a lot of books (Do Cool Sh*t,Creative, Inc., My So-Called Freelance Life, The Anti 9 to 5 Guide, Daring Greatly, and The Power of Habit – *I am in no way affiliated with any of these books, but they’re all awesome reads, so I highly recommend them!*) I made other freelance friends and observed what they were doing, I bid on projects that I was actually interested in working on, and I gained some stellar clients in industries I only dreamt of being a part of.

After awhile, I began taking more calculated risks by applying for part-time positions, asking my full-time employer about flex scheduling and the potential of moving from full-time to contract (meaning a loss of hours, consistency, and health/dental benefits). I didn’t let my previous anxieties get the best of me – a year ago, I would have cowered at the thought of asking my boss to reduce my scheduling hours, thinking they would fire me. Instead, I was met with a fairly positive outcome, and currently split my time between two roles that I love.

Most recently, I enlisted the help of Kory to get my website up and running. I had been sitting on doing this for far too long and it was just something that desperately needed to get done, and I registered (last minute) for Marie Forleo’s B-School. I’ll write about my impressions and experiences of B-School later, but I’m excited for it to begin!

Where am I going from here?

My long-term goal is to begin securing contracts and shift my freelancing/independent contractor-ship to a full-time commitment. This may be a goal that is closer than it seems right now, but I’m patient. Until then, I’m going to continue doing what I’ve been doing, and remain strategic in my approach for engaging in and soliciting new work. It’s my hope that B-School will help tremendously with ironing out all of the administrative issues with my business that I’ve been avoiding, allowing me to have a narrow, but sustainable, business focus.

What advice do I have for you?

My advice is simple – just go for it! But you should be organized and calculated about going for it. Most businesses begin before they were ready, and my business is no different. My only real words of wisdom is to do a lot of research and make some financial plans, such as saving up a reserve fund in the event that everything goes south and you need to float yourself financially for a little while (instead of ignoring the fact that finances are a part of daily life).

Did anyone find this helpful? If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask! I’m always learning and improving, but I’m happy to help out where I can!

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