The latest and greatest on training and learning.
For this week’s Elearning Heroes Challenge #78 the mission was to share some icons that would be used in elearning projects. So, I refreshed some old school PowerPoint tricks to draw vector icons for this challenge. PowerPoint has some cool features that can make designing these icons a fun a creative exercise. On this […]
It has been a week since the eLearning Guild’s 2015 Learning Solutions Conference ended and life is not the same. Or is it? In this NOOB review, I give you my take on the conference as a learning experience and also a first-timer’s overview of the GREAT and MEH moments of the event. There are […]
Learning objectives are a critical piece of any course or learning activity involving adults. They are preliminary statements providing adult learners with clear guidance (when written effectively) about the expected outcome of their involvement in the learning activity. One can then assume that their primary purpose is to inform the learner. However, learning objectives have […]
A couple of days ago I wrote a post on LinkedIn titled “3 Ways to Develop Better Presentations”. Today I offer a follow up with three more “hidden treasure” techniques in PowerPoint for my fellow trainers and presenters who want to sharpen their design skills. Do you find yourself always “building” PowerPoints from scratch? Do […]
Adobe Captivate CS8 and Articulate Storyline2 are considered the leading elearning authoring software tools due to their ability to generate great learning interactions. Captivate has been in the “game” for about 11 years while Storyline’s first version was released in 2012. I get often asked this question at work: “Hey Alex, we are going to […]
Elearning Heroes Challenge #71 was all about teaching math concepts with elearning. My submission was a military-inspired game where learners solve math problems and blow stuff up. Nothing wrong with “safe” mortar training and engaging learners by testing basic math skills. For this sample I used a combination of vector drawings built with Adobe Illustrator […]
One of the great features available in Articulate Storyline2 (SL2) are the Slider Controls. So, for the Elearning Heroes Challenge #70 which involved creating a Valentine’s themed elearning interaction. I wanted to create an interaction where Cupid, the fabled roman god of love lend you his bow and arrow so you can answer questions on a […]
Once again, I had the pleasure of partaking in this week’s ELearning Heroes Challenge which was to create an elearning experience for football training. For my global friends I mean American Football and since the Super Bowl was yesterday, this was an exciting sample to build. The concept I came up with was very simple […]
Instructional Designers are a very misunderstood occupational breed, That’s why I was glad to see that this week’s ELearning Heroes Challenge #67 was to record a podcast to answer a set of questions driven to provide new insight to those not familiar with the skills and responsibilities of an Instructional Designer (ID). Traditionally, IDs have […]
Many of us always dreamed of having our own business and making it BIG. Many of you reading this blog may have done just that and I respectfully bow to you for your awesomeness. A huge part of conducting business is billing. Invoices are the main drivers for getting PAID and blissfully managing your Account […]
If you develop your elearning courses with Articulate Storyline there’s no better way to start the year honing your skills and creativity by completing an ELearning Heroes Challenge (ELH). This week’s challenge was a tough one and it forced me to come up with creative ways to combine three awesome templates into one unified design. To […]
Nowadays, the average learner spends as much as 30% of their day interacting with a mobile device. According to ExactTarget.com’s 2014 Mobile Behavior Report “Smartphone users spent an average 3.3 hrs and tablet users 3.1 hrs per day on their respective devices”. Talent, training and learning development professionals can maximize on the focus and attention […]
Recently I was approached regarding an interactive chart I developed on Articulate StoryLine2. The inquirer was a Lectora user and was interested in achieving the same functionality with Lectora. I downloaded the free trial version of Lectora Inspire12 and immediately got busy on duplicating the SL2 chart with this tool. Lectora Inspire12’s navigation panel looks […]
It has been a couple of weeks since I was able to participate in Articulate’s E-learning Heroes e-learning challenges. This week the challenge is to create an interactive chart to find engaging ways in which to display data using Articulate Storyline2 (SL2). The source of my data was a chart from the Association for Talent […]
Family Feud is a very popular game and TV show. I love the game and it was the inspiration for this elearning version developed in Articulate Storyline2 that can be applied to various learning scenarios. In this version, I chose to make it an individual challenge in which the learner has 10 seconds to answer correctly […]
My fondest memories as a kid had to do with three things: Play, play and more play! Learning games have been around for many years but, now we have the capability of creating games with elearning authoring software such as Articulate Storyline. This post is about the development of a game sample named Cowboy Bomber, an […]
Happy Halloween Feud! Enjoy Halloween with this Articulate SL1 game mimicking the popular “Family Feud” game. You can play it here or download the source files to enhance it at your will. The game has a very simple structure and it’s not a fully developed one. However, if you are eLearning dangerous (like me ; […]
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m passionate about creativity and learning. I’m also fascinated about electronic music and of course, I had to try it out. So I did some research and I found Native Instruments’ Maschine products which are (for lack of a better word) machines known as “groove makers” as well as […]
It’s hard to find ways to continue to learn about Information Technology (IT) without going bankrupt or settling for old (outdated) training at an affordable price. If you are like me and learning is the joyful process of jamming as much knowledge as possible in the vast storage space that we have for brains; then […]
Would you like the opportunity to test out SharePoint2013? How about Windows Server 2012? No problem, for at least 15 to 20 days you can get away with testing these technologies free of charge on Windows Azure. Azure is a Platform as a Service (Paas) allowing you to build Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and […]
That’s right! Are you taking advantage of the Shareable Content Object Reference Model or SCORM on your Learning Management System (LMS)? SCORM is the protocol by which multimedia courses can report their results to the LMS. Why is it important? Courses that are developed in Captivate 7 or Articulate Storyline can be configured to be […]
Here’s something to share with my fellow Trainers and Instructional Designers out there. PowerPoint slides can be creatively used to compliment your training environment and help interact by providing the following: Timed Q&A slides for quick answers on the spot Exam slide counting down from 45 minutes Other timer slides counting down from 20, 15 and […]
Are you aware of the cognitive load your training materials place on your adult learners? Cognitive Load Theory or CLT has been around for at least 25 years but, after reading this you may reconsider the structure of your training curriculum. Sweller and CLT John Sweller is an Australian educational psychologist who brought forth the notion […]
