Many eLearning content developers have grown into their current state through evolution. You initially started by using stand-alone tools, such as Microsoft PowerPoint or other slide presentation tools to create your training courses. Then, you may have acquired other “add-on” tools and apps to enhance your authoring capabilities. At some point, the law of diminishing returns takes over: The more tools you add on, the less productive your team gets! Sadly though, sometimes it’s hard to notice that your existing eLearning authoring tools aren’t working for you. Signs that tell you that new tools are overdue You and your team have been using your existing eLearning authoring tools for several years now. Your team might feel very comfortable with the features and functionality they provide. And, because many of your authors and developers have become “experts” in using those tools, there might be a general feeling that there’s no need to change. And there lies the … [Read more...] about How to Tell If You Need to Start Looking for a New ELearning Authoring Tool
Adobe Captivate
3 Effective Ways To Prototype ELearning Courses
In the last post, we talked about storyboarding. In this post I want to get into prototyping. While storyboards are very useful for visualizing a course, they only work well for linear courses. Because many eLearning lessons are non-linear, storyboards can be rather confusing to both SMEs and programmers. Sometimes it is excessively difficult or even impossible to describe all the interactions, non-linear navigation, scenarios, simulations, and other media-rich content in words. Storyboards do not always allow to fully capture all the nuances of the design, especially when it comes to games and interactions. Therefore, many instructional designers turn to rapid prototyping to develop an interactive model of their eLearning course. In addition to all the information found in storyboards, prototypes contain the overall course layout including buttons and navigation. There are three prototyping styles: Nonfunctional prototypes – Do not have any functional elements but still have … [Read more...] about 3 Effective Ways To Prototype ELearning Courses