Lately, I’ve been getting several requests from academic professionals for tips on how to cross over to the Learning and Development (L&D) arena. My first reaction to these requests was “Really? Why would you want to do that?”, I find it interesting because I’ve always been attracted to academic environments. After thinking a bit through […]
Games and gamification have been around for hundreds of years. Last week I had the pleasure of participating as a panelist to discuss common barriers to games and gamification in organizational learning at DevLearn 2017 in Las Vegas. I shared the floor with Marci Morford and Nick Floro who are well known practitioners of gamified learning […]
Video editing is perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of what an eLearning designer does. The reality is eLearning designers need to know the basic of several disciplines to create highly engaging learning experiences. Video production and editing skills are priceless for the effectiveness of any multimedia eLearning project. […]
Explainer videos, you have seen them all over the place. Explainer videos are animated shorts presented in video format and about 3 to 5 minutes long What’s makes them so special and why should you, the learning professional, care? Well, this post answers those questions, gives you a sample and leaves you with a […]
Instructional Designers or IDs are in need of several skills which are often not developed in academic programs and are only gained by work experience. Even then, IDs have a propensity to be “techie” in their talk about project requirements and may often mimic the behaviors of an Information Technology or IT professional. You know, […]
The worst Learning Management Systems (LMS) in the world are likely the top-selling ones. Why are they the worst? They are the worst because you didn’t purchase a LMS, you purchased a small integrated portion of a Human Capital Management System or HCMS. I’ve used, implemented, managed and played with several systems and thus far […]
Synapse is a learning experience design tool for documenting the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation or ADDIE process of instructional design. As an instructional designer, I always struggled with limited resources to document all stages of a learning project. Often this meant having to manually deal with content versions, shared drives, spreadsheets, and other resources. In […]
eLearning authoring tools have come a long way from the days we called it Computer Based Training or CBT. Today we have some great authoring tools that empower anyone with a few skills and lots of imagination to create highly engaging interactive experiences. There’s only one issue, many of the most popular tools like Adobe […]
Best practices have a common popularity among business people. This is a great way to incite quality work but, it’s also easy to see how Learning and Development (L&D) may have trouble identifying what those best practices consist of. Therefore, in good StyleLearn fashion, here are some great worst practices with the hope of enabling […]
If you haven’t heard, Articulate360 is out and with it the new Storyline360- SL360. Storyline2-SL2 gave us Sliders for great interactions and SL360 bring Dials! Dials allow for many interaction design concepts where we can have users turning dials or knobs between zero to 180 and 360 degrees. However, just as we were able to […]
Instructor Led Training (ILT) is still vibrant and dominating the Learning and Development (L&D) landscape. However, there are many reasons ILT is the worst, most inefficient and effective way to transfer knowledge and skills. The only edge ILT has on any other learning medium is the human aspect and the ability to ask questions ad […]
Mass shootings are a sad reality of our times and can happen to anyone, anywhere. Recently, active shooter courses have become a staple of compliance training for many companies. Last year, I designed an active shooter elearning course which was my submission for LSDemoFest at LSCON16. Even though it was not a winner, the feedback given […]
This post was inspired by the ELH Community Screencast Challenge #11 which is all about timeline techniques. One of the key advantages of working with elearning authoring tools like Storyline2 (SL2) is the use of of several time-related features. There are many adjustments and controls that can be implemented affecting a user’s experience by simply changing […]
Last week I submitted a project for Elearning Heroes’ Challenge #126 which has several video backgrounds. In some of the videos I created a panning and motion illusion using Storyline2. Panning is when a camera moves with the frame creating a motion effect. Panning is best achieve with video editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro or […]
Last week I read a post from JD Dillon on “Why we should stop using the term “learner” when we refer to those folks we serve through our Learning & Development (L&D) initiatives. JD’s position on the topic clearly reflects why learning in the workplace is the best industry to be in from a vendor perspective. […]
If you have Storyline2 you already have the power to gamify elearning templates. You can easily gamify your quizzes by making a few adjustments and implementing simple gamification mechanics like badges, timers and points. Implementing these enhancements requires ZERO programming skills; all you need is creativity and this blog post. Here we’ll discuss the elements […]
A few days ago I created a PowerPoint slide deck on gamification that I published on SlideShare. However, an animated introduction of the title was created to mimic the game of Tetris as shapes would fall down and form the name of the title. This post discusses the creative process to replicate the same effect […]
One key thing every elearning design should have is an easy-to-follow player. Therefore, your choice of elearning tool should let you customize these settings. Customizing player settings gives you the power to enhance the user interface. Luckily, Articulate Storyline2 has a very easy setup for you to do just that. Changes can be made to remove […]
This week’s Elearning Heroes Challenge #114 highlights the use of zooming and magnification of images with Storyline2 (SL2). I put together a sample which shows an image of London which allows the user to zoom into specific sections for a closer look of the city. The “Zoom Region” feature in SL2 makes the creation of […]
For most of my career in Learning & Development or L&D, I’ve been a frustrated spectator at an individual contributor level. I would watch endless attempts to provide effective training which merely stopped at content delivery. Not matter how I tried to influence my previous leaders, we would encounter unsurpassable barriers ranging from lack of […]
A scenario using First Person Role Play (FPRP) is a great way to engage learners from the start in e-learning courses. If we think of it, the idea of playing a character in e-learning scenarios aligns very well with the notion of adults being self-directed learners. In the gaming industry, games that apply this concept […]
One key advantage of Articulate’s Storyline2(SL2) is the ability to control interactions from a slide master. This makes changes and updates a painless and automated approach which would save you a ton of hours. Slide masters are usually helpful to standardize design elements such as fonts, image placement, formatting, backgrounds, etc. They are essential for […]
Online training or Virtual Instructor Led Training (VILT) has gained tremendous popularity for its cost reducing advantages and the ability to accommodate large audiences across geographical boundaries. However, here’s yet another learning technology that has been abused and poorly utilized to maximize learning opportunities. In most instances, VILT is delivered as a passive learning experience […]
Gamification is a hot topic in the L&D industry today. To be honest, I think I always used gamification before it got its name. From early childhood we learned to love games because they are fun, they have rules and they are challenging. In other words, games are everything school is not. As an […]
In a world where most businesses use many computer applications to document and track transactions; trainers often struggle to provide effective software training. The most common occurrence explaining why this happens is the appointment of a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in the application to conduct the training. SMEs tend to view the world through their our […]
I’m super excited about this post because it’s about a powerful authoring tool named Quizlet. First, let me explain my excitement for this awesome online FREE elearning tool. The year was 1989 and I had just arrived in Miami, FL from Venezuela without any knowledge of the English language. I joined the school system and learned […]
Robert Gagné (1916-2002) gave us many concepts surrounding the learning process in adults. However, his most significant contribution to all of us in the Learning and Development (L&D) world is known as “Gagné’s 9 Events of Instruction”. Whether you are a Subject Matter Expert (SME) who is or wants to become a trainer, any training course […]
Instructional videos have always been considered a great way to convey knowledge or illustrate concepts. This week I did a bit of quick green screen video editing to create a mock TV show dubbed “eLearning Legends: Atsumi”. Why? Another awesome ELH Challenge of course! This week’s challenge #101 was inspired by the presence of Atsumi […]
ELearning Heroes Challenge #100 is here and it’s all about “Before and After” visual comparisons and contrasts. By the looks of it, we might get 100 responses to the 100th challenge! In this post, I cover a bit of the method behind two slider samples I built for the challenge. The first slider sample was […]
Time is the only commodity we can’t buy, we can only use it or it’s gone. When I’m not defeating elearning evil (that is, preventing ineffective and\or boring learning from happening) I usually develop learning solutions for call center personnel. So, what’s so relevant about that? Well, call center professionals have everything “timed” on their schedules. Therefore, […]
