Everyone loves a good story. We are surrounded by stories in social media, movies, advertising and the news. People love to share anecdotes and jokes as a way to connect with each other. The best presenters use stories to capture the audience’s attention at the start.

What about eLearning designers? Do we need to be good at telling stories? Some people would say – ‘no we are creating courses not stories’. While that is true, there are many things eLearning designers can learn from the art of storytelling.

Storytelling is defined as “The telling of a happening or connected series of happenings, whether true or fictitious; account; narration.” (Denning, 2005)

In this post we look at elements of a good story and how we can apply these to eLearning design.

1.  Good stories are cohesive and well-structured.

There are conventions in the way stories are structured – the opening to hook the reader, the middle to develop the story and the end to reach a satisfying resolution.

An eLearning course also needs to be cohesive and well-structured. When planning a course, ask yourself:

• ‘What elements will hold the course together?’.
• ‘How will I hook the learners on the first few screens?’
• ‘What is the most logical way to sequence the course content?’

Certainly visual design is important to create a cohesive look and feel. But what about the course structure? Do your screens jump from topic to topic with no common thread? Is there a story that you could use to hold the topics together?

For example if you are designing a course ‘Provide Coaching and Mentoring’, you could introduce two characters at the start – Jan, the mentor, and Sara the mentee. The characters can introduce each new topic and talk about their experience of the mentoring process…how they met, how they planned their first meeting, how they set goals with each other and so on.

I like Articulate Storyline because it encourages eLearning designers to think in terms of ‘telling a story’. It features ‘Story View’ where the designer sees an aerial view of the course (the story), including scenes (the chapters) and slides (the pages). This helps to make sense of how the course is going to fit together. Screens and scenes can be easily rearranged. Story View encourages creativity because there are so many different ways that you can structure the course; for example using branched scenarios.

2.  Good stories are memorable.

Usually it is the people in a story that we remember the most. You can certainly design an eLearning course without people in it, but it might not be very engaging.

I like the way Articulate’s Storyline provides characters that you can insert quickly and easily. Sure the learner might not remember the characters like they remember Harry Potter, but at least they are more likely to relate to the character and this can assist learning.

Here is an example from the Articulate 360 content library. The characters come in a range of poses and expressions so you can use the same character throughout the course.

If you are designing a course for the health sector, insert images of a nurse or doctor in different poses throughout the course. Give the security expert a name and put him or her in different work situations that the learners are likely to face. Talk to the Subject Matter Expert if you need details to make the situation more realistic.

3.  Good stories are often about overcoming problems.

We are social creatures who like to relate to other people. This is why scenarios are so fantastic for eLearning courses. For example a workplace scenario typically presents a challenge or problem that the character faces – and then the learner is asked ‘What would you do?’. This encourages the learner to think for themselves. All the best stories are about overcoming problems!

Imagine you are creating a course about Equal Employment Opportunity. You could think of a central character who faces a struggle. The obvious one is that she faces discrimination on the basis of her disability. Introduce the character to learners and insert an image of her. Return to her throughout the course. Describe her experience at job interviews. Ask the learners questions about how prospective employers communicated with her. And if you like, make it a happy ending where she finally lands her dream job. The learners are likely to remember the character in your course.

Final Word

Of course story telling is not going to be appropriate for all eLearning courses. It will depend on the purpose of the course, the target learners and other considerations.

I would like to finish with two quotes about the power of stories:

“Over the years I have become convinced that we learn best – and change – from hearing stories that strike a chord within us.” John Kotter, Harvard Business School Professor

“Stories are how we think. They are how we make meaning of life. Call them schemas, scripts, cognitive maps, mental models, metaphors, or narratives. Stories are how we explain how things work, how we make decisions, how we justify our decisions, how we persuade others, how we understand our place in the world, create our identities, and define and teach social values.” Dr Pamela Rutledge

Interested in learning more about writing brilliant stories using Articulate Storyline, visit our Certified Articulate training webpage here 

There is no doubt that eLearning designers need strong problem-solving skills. In the early stages of any design project, we need to wear our analytical hats and work out how to transform training content into an engaging learning experience.

When faced with 100 slides of content from a client, it can be a daunting task to organise the material and then build an eLearning course. Then again, some of us just love a challenge!

Here are three design challenges that I have faced and the steps I took to meet the challenge.

Condense large amounts of learning content provided by the client.

Recently I had a client provide material that included 6 PowerPoint slides covering all the legislation that learners needed to know. If I just added a few images and kept the content on 6 different screens, imagine how the learner’s eyes would soon glaze over reading screen after screen of legislation. My challenge was to present the material in a succinct way and to keep the learner’s attention.

Using Articulate Storyline, I condensed all the content into one interactive screen with tabs to reveal a layer for each piece of legislation.  The result is an interaction that is far less daunting for the learner (one screen of legislation looks better than six!). In addition, learners are more likely to get involved by clicking on the various elements on the screen. If the client insists that the learner reads every item on the screen, you can set the interaction so that she or he has to view each item before progressing to the next screen.

Create consistency in the eLearning course without making it dull.

As the saying goes, variety is the spice of life. But when it comes to eLearning course design, too much variety is confusing for the learner. Imagine an online course with 10 different fonts, 10 different characters, 10 types of animation and every colour of the rainbow. How would this affect the learning experience? Most likely it would confuse the learner as the course would appear disjointed and hard to follow.

The best practice is to design with consistency in mind. Here are some ways to create a cohesive course:

• 1 or 2 fonts only – We like to use one font for the screen titles and another for the body text.
• Templates – Player templates and slide masters create a cohesive look and feel (while saving you time).
• Colour scheme – Stick to 2 or 3 key colours for elements on the screen.
• Activity boxes – Keep the same colour and format for special activity boxes in the course.
• Symbols – This is a good way to provide recognisable markers for learners (e.g. a question mark icon to indicate a discussion question).
• Main character – Introduce your character at the start and bring them in throughout the course, but not every screen.

Encourage the learner to stop and take a closer look.

Adult learners are usually time-poor and so they might be tempted to rush through an eLearning course. The challenge for the designer is to create courses that encourage learners to slow down, interact with the material and to think more carefully. There are many ways to do this—case studies, scenarios, quizzes, activities. The key is to draw the learner into the course through interaction.

Let’s say the learning material includes a flow chart. You could just copy and paste the flow chart onto the screen. Using this approach, some learners would stop and read through the flow chart; but many would just skip the screen because there is nothing to draw them in. The challenge here is to create an interactive screen. Again using Articulate Storyline the learner can click on each of the flow chart elements to read about that stage of the process. This is a great way to encourage the learner to take a closer look and digest the information at a deeper level.

Final word

If you are ever stuck with a design problem and need help or inspiration, I encourage you to go the E-Learning Heroes website. The E-Learning Heroes community has over 700,000 eLearning professionals who exchange ideas, solve problems, share resources and inspire each other.

If you are not already part of the community, it is easy to join up and find the help and inspiration you need. For a more formal training approach you could also try B Online Learning’s eLearning Design Essentials Course or our Certified Articulate Training.

Years ago when I was learning to be a teacher, I was quickly thrown in the deep end to teach a group of adult learners. ‘Prac teaching’ can be a daunting experience.  I still remember the feedback from the teacher who observed my first lesson; she said I needed to be more ‘learner-centric’.

It took me a while to truly appreciate the difference between a teacher-centric and a learner-centric approach. In this post I would like to explore the difference, and in particular how it can be applied to eLearning design.

Teacher-centric approach

With this approach, the teacher is thinking about ‘what content do I need to deliver in the lesson’ and the goal is to cover everything by the end of the lesson. In essence, the lesson becomes like a presentation. The teacher does most of the talking/presenting and the learners are more like passive recipients of the information.

Designer-centric approach

When it comes to eLearning design, there is also the risk of being so preoccupied with organising content that we overlook the needs of the learners. The focus is on pushing out the content, rather than pulling in the learner. In the field of eLearning, perhaps we could call this approach ‘designer-centric’ or even ‘SME-centric’.  This approach often results in courses that look very similar to presentations.

Learner-centric approach

Here is a useful definition of the learner-centric/student-centric approach:

“In student-centred learning, students are active participants in their learning, they learn at their own pace and use their own strategies….learning is more individualised than standardised. Student-centred learning develops learning-how-to-learn skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking and reflective thinking. Student-centred learning accounts for and adapts to different learning styles of students.”

Teachers and trainers who use a learner-centred approach are able to tune into the individual needs of learners and do their best to meet those needs.

How can eLearning designers be learner-centric?

With the latest technological advances in authoring tools, it is becoming easier for designers to create engaging courses that cater to individual needs and preferences.

Here are a few suggestions for being more learner-centric in eLearning design:

1. Think of the course as an experience for the learner. If you realise that your eLearning course is starting to look more and more like a presentation, then it is time to step back and imagine you are the person taking the course. Would you enjoy the learning experience or would your eyes soon glaze over?
2. Use scenario-based learning. This involves presenting a realistic situation to the learners and then asking them to apply knowledge by making a choice. Each choice branches to a screen with different consequences. This is a great way to encourage the learner to actively participate in the course. You are asking them to think for themselves and make their own decisions.
3. Give learners choices where appropriate. For example if you are including a research activity, give the learners a choice of three websites to go to. Another option is to give them a choice of topics to research. This will make the learning experience more enjoyable.
4. Provide a range of mediums for people to learn from – videos, podcasts, documents, graphs, charts, lists, quizzes, activities and so on. This will help you to cater for visual learners, auditory learners and so on. For example you could provide this instruction: Read the PDF document attached. Alternatively watch the video which covers the same information.
5. Give learners additional resources to branch off and explore a topic further if they need to.  Remember that each learner brings her or his own pre-existing knowledge and skills to a course. Some learners will need more information than others. I like the idea of boxes throughout a course entitled – ‘Want to know more?’ or ‘Need more information?’ – and then you can insert a link to a document or website with more details. This is not for essential course information; instead it is for supplementary material. Some people may read the additional information out of interest, others out of necessity and others may ignore it. The point is you are recognising potential differences and catering for those differences in the course design.

Final word

Of course at the most basic level, a learner-centred approach means you must have a good understanding of who the learners are. Before starting the storyboard, it is worth doing any necessary research about the ages, abilities, attitudes and expectations of the learners. With a clear learner profile in mind, it is easier to design a course that meets their specific needs.

This post is adapted from a webinar – register here to view the recording.

They say for eLearning to be engaging, it needs to be interactive. Interactivity is the key that keeps the learner’s interest, and assists them in embedding new knowledge once they have completed a learning module. It also helps to make the e-learning experience a little more fun! So how much interactivity do you require for your content?

Great question!

How interactive your module needs to be, comes down to the definition questions you asked prior to entering into the development phase of your module.

Questions such as:

• Who are your learners?
• What are the expected learning outcomes?
• What do they need to be able to ‘do’ as an outcome of this module?
• Are we talking simple tasks, or complex skill sets?

An interaction is a learning activity where an individual is presented with a problem or scenario, and must work to achieve an outcome or goal. Interactions should be designed to maintain the learner’s interest, and if required, allow them to practice the task or skill they are learning.

If the learner is able to apply their knowledge through interactions, it will assist them in processing the information in more depth, and they will have a higher likelihood of recalling the information and transferring it to a real-world setting.

Articulate 360 has many tools available to assist you in crafting your interactions, and in encouraging your learners to interact with their computer screens.

No matter what type of interaction you are after, you can be guaranteed that one of the tools out of Articulate Rise, Storyline 360, Studio 360, Replay 360, Peek or Preso will be able to assist you in building your interactivity. Bet you never would have guessed that even Articulate Review and the Content Library can help promote interactivity in your e-learning? Curious? Read on to find out how.

But first the big question…How interactive does your interactivity need to be?

Over the years that our industry has been around, research has supported the finding that there are generally four levels of interactivity available to you, when crafting your e-learning masterpiece.

Level 1 – Passive Interaction

The first level (conveniently named Level 1) is your entry level interactivity. The level of interactivity is relatively passive. In passive interactions, the learner reads information on the screen, and navigates backwards and forward throughout the course. The types of things you would expect to see at this level include text, images, diagrams, auto-played videos/animations; and the standard next and previous buttons. Nothing too ‘flashy’, fairly minimalist and functional. Level I interactivity is great for simple information.

For example, here is module I whipped up about a breed of dog called the Alaskan Malamute. It’s an overview of the breed, their key features and some videos and images to support the information. A quick little Level 1 passive interaction.

The primary thing to keep in mind about Level 1 interactions is keep them super short, with free navigation for your learner. This means they can jump in and get the information they want and spend as long or as little in the module as they want without the risk of boredom and disengagement kicking in. Level 1 is also great for short updates or ‘Just in time’ information.

Articulate Rise is a superstar for this kind of interaction! Here’s why:

1. It’s extremely easy to work with, copy and paste your content into any one of its pre-built lessons, or use its custom lesson blocks for a bit more control and variety
2. Upload your own videos, or embed videos from a number of different websites
3. Most importantly, Rise content is automatically optimised for any device used to view it. So no matter whether your learner is viewing the Rise course on a desktop, smartphone or tablet; it’s going to look amazing

Rise is not alone in its superstardom though! If you want to grab a quick screen capture of an app to share with a learner, or coach someone through using a new software application, you can also use Articulate’s Peek to grab your screen capture or use Replay to grab the capture and add picture in picture footage of yourself as a coach, virtually guiding your learner through the program. But wait! You can also import your Replay and Peek output videos into Rise enabling further content to support your learning objectives, all automagically responsive to the screen it’s viewed on. Want to capture a quick level 1 interactive informal training course on your iPad? You can do that with Preso! Working directly on your iPad’s screen with annotation tools on a series of PDFs. You can share that via a link anywhere or publish it to Articulate 360 and it becomes a downloadable SCORM compliant presentation for you LMS. Again, if you want you can upload it to Rise for further enhancement and responsiveness

How cool is that!? Articulate is already killing it, and we haven’t even got to Level 2 interactivity yet!

Level 2 – Limited Interaction

Level 2 is mostly the same as Level 1 but the learner can also interact with multiple choice exercises, pop-ups, simple animations and even the occasional drag and drop activity. Limited interaction examples include interactive timelines, drag and drop activities like matching, sequencing and so forth, application simulations that follow a procedure or process, quizzes, interactive games/stories and audio narration.

You can crank Articulate Rise up a notch to Level 2, and add all sorts of interactivity via its pre-built lessons or custom blocks. It will allow you to add timelines, interactive markers, matching activities, multiple choice quizzing, sorting activities and processes, all again fully responsive and looking gorgeous for your learner.

The other option is using Articulate Studio 360. As e-learning developers we are often given slide decks to convert into self-directed eLearning modules. Now, not all slide decks deserve to be converted, in fact most eLearning developers would cringe and shy away from just converting a slide deck and handing it back as an eLearning module. Not a great experience for the learner! And that process has significantly contributed to the bad wrap our industry gets!

But what if the slide deck is well designed and already follows some good instructional design processes? It can be converted easily to a Level 2 interactive eLearning module using Presenter and some instructionally sound Engage interactions.

Engage will give you the interactions you need like conversations, FAQs, guided images, labelled graphics, processes, timelines, tabs, checklists etc.

Then using Articulate Quizmaker you can add any number of interactive knowledge checks like multiple choice or multiple response answers.

Got a great Level 1 interaction you want to include in your module? Using the Web Object feature of Presenter you can pull it in and use it as well. All those Peek, Preso and Replay videos can be reused easily by importing the video outputs. Why reinvent the wheel when you don’t need to?

With Level 2 interactions you can hold and maintain your learners interest a little longer than Level 1 because you’ve got them, as Tom Kuhlmann says touching the screen and interacting with the content. You can usually push the time of your module here out to 10-15 minutes or so.

A good rule of thumb is to get the learners to interact with the screen every 3-4 slides. This assists in maintaining interest and reducing the boredom factor.

Level 3 – Complex Interactions

The learner will make some of the responses in Level 2 but in addition, they will also be expected to enter text and experience consequences for wrong answers.  Scenario-based branching logic is introduced at this level. Branching logic allows the learner to experience some kind of penalty for incorrect responses, and their progress is determined by their decisions. Complex interaction examples include branching scenarios, viewing video and identifying faults, problem solving activities etc.

Want to create a course with decision-making scenarios, custom interactions, and quizzing that is highly interactive?

Calling Articulate Storyline 360. You’re up.

By using Storyline’s layers, states and triggers, you can create complex interactions easily, and by using SL360’s variables you can personalise courses by capturing and tracking the learners inputs and actions, creating a dynamic experience for the learner.

By combining all these feature you can build fully immersive scenarios that draw in and engage your learners. For example are you teaching counselling skills? By using Storyline’s triggers you can not only get text feedback on how you are going, but the body language of your virtual client can also change from positive to negative and back again depending on the choices you select. A great way for a would be counsellor to practice their skills in a safe environment with coaching and feedback available for their actions.

Storyline is also quite capable of producing Level 1 and 2 interactive experiences, but its power really shines when you are creating more complex situation for you learners.

Again, you can import and reuse Rise, Replay, Peek and Preso content via a web object, and if you’re really keen, you can push Storyline created interactions even further by utilising JavaScript.

Level 4 – Full Animation or Real Time Interactions

This is the ‘top end’ of interactivity when it comes to eLearning development. Real time interactions include enhanced gaming technology, real life 3D simulations, virtual/augmented reality, interview/interrogation simulations with extensive feedback and multiple branching options, interactive spreadsheets, solving a mystery, interacting with a virtual product and so on.

Level 4 interactions can look good and be extremely high-tech, but that doesn’t necessarily always produce a ‘meaningful learning experience’ as they may have been created by animators/coders etc. who don’t have instructional design experience.

Level 4 interactions can be awesome, but are usually quite expensive and time consuming. They may also rely on technology that learners do not have access to e.g. VR goggles.

Again here Storyline can assist you in achieving this level of interactivity. Take the above counselling interaction to another level by adding multiple branching outcomes based on each and every decision you make, keep the decision by decision coaching or leave it out until the very end of the interaction and receive a personalised ‘report card’ based on how you went, with suggestions for improvement and reinforcement of the correct skills used.

You can also use a high level animation app like Vyond to create videos to import into Storyline.

Additionally, want to make it even more real time? Add a countdown timer to put the pressure on and mimic an actual consultation time frame. If you aren’t done by the time the counter reaches zero, the client will walk out on you.

Further customisation can be added with Storyline’s variables, giving the course a personal feel for the learner, including lost opportunities if information isn’t followed up on (True-False variable), a personalised experience where the client refers to you by your actual name (text variable) or even a ticking clock showing time remaining for a successful consultation (number variable).

Did you know that Articulate Review can also support a Level IV interaction? Articulate Review is great for garnering feedback from stakeholders via its comment system, but what if you used that comment system for a Level 4 interactive, asynchronous learning event?

Upload a module to review that poses a number of questions or review a particular learning skillset, and encourage your learners to comment on the learning presented, or answer the questions you have posed in the module. Learners can also respond to other’s comments on Articulate Review creating a real-time interaction for learning.

In rapid eLearning the ‘sweet spot’ to aim for, is a level of interaction set between Level 2 and 3. This is usually achievable with regard to time, money and resources and still obtain a quality output that addresses learning gaps.

Articulate 360 can help you with whatever level of interactivity you want. If you’re dry on inspiration have a look at the Articulate Content Library which is available with the Articulate 360 subscription for some ideas. Or check out any of the links below for interactive inspiration.

Want interaction? All you need is your imagination and Articulate 360, and you have the winning combination.

Handy Links

E-Learning Heroes https://community.articulate.com/

E-Learning Challenges https://community.articulate.com/series/e-learning-challenges

Why you need the tools in Articulate 360 and when to use them – Nicole Legault (Community Manager E-learning Heroes)

https://community.articulate.com/articles/why-you-need-the-tools-in-articulate-360-and-when-to-use-them 

Articulate 360 https://bonlinelearning.com.au/articulate/articulate-360

Articulate Rise

• https://bonlinelearning.com.au/blog/articulate-rise-responsive-authoring-like-it-should-be/
• https://bonlinelearning.com.au/blog/articulate-rise-got-questions-we-got-answers/

Articulate Peek Vs Replay

• https://bonlinelearning.com.au/blog/articulate-peek-vs-replay-360/

When I tell people that I make my living as an eLearning Designer, some people have a blank look on their face. So I usually ask ‘Have you ever done an online training course at work?’. And the response is usually ‘Oh yes, you write those courses do you?’. This inevitably leads to a discussion about what it was like learning online and whether it was a worthwhile and interesting experience. But more and more, I have been asking ‘Did the course make sense?’. It is a simple question, but it is ultimately one of the most fundamental questions to ask when measuring the effectiveness of an online course.

In the classroom setting, teachers and trainers have the advantage of asking the learners questions like:

• Is that clear?
• Does everyone understand that?
• Are there any questions?
• Would you like me to explain that again?

In other words, when we are training face-to-face we can check that the learners are keeping up and understanding the learning material.

How can we do a similar thing in eLearning? If we use a blended approach, learners can complete an online course or module, then meet face to face or in a webinar to check understanding and engage in discussion. This is probably the ideal situation for many learners.

But here I would like to focus on those courses that are designed purely for online delivery. In this case, the onus really is on the eLearning Designer/Instructional Designer to create a course that makes sense. We need to make sure the learning experience is meaningful and that learning objectives are met.

It may help to imagine that you are the teacher or trainer standing up in front of the class. What instructions do the learners need? What is the most logical way to present the learners with information? How can you explain something as clearly as possible? These are all useful questions to bear in mind.

Here are ten ways to design courses that make sense to learners.

1. Always include a navigation screen at the start, even if you think the learners have done eLearning before. The navigation screen should have clear and simple instructions so any learner can easily progress through the course. By making navigation easy, learners can focus on the course content.
2. Free up navigation. Make sure learners can easily go back to previous screens if they need to revise any material for a better understanding.
3. Pay attention to the layout of each and every screen. Avoid cluttering screens with too much information. The screen should be pleasing to the eye and designed to draw the learner’s eye to the most important information.
4. Draw on the experience of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Many of them have experience teaching the material face to face, and so you can ask them questions like ‘What did the learners struggle to understand the most in this section?’
5. Include a glossary. Never assume that the learners will understand jargon, technical terms or acronyms. The glossary should be comprehensive and explain key terms in plain English. I like Articulate’s Engage Interaction Glossary because it places it at the top of every screen for easy access.
6. Include regular quizzes or case studies to check the learners’ understanding of the content. Instead of having one huge test at the end of a course, it is better to have shorter tests at regular intervals throughout the course. Regular tests and quizzes are a good way for learners to measure their own understanding and build their confidence.
7. Give learners the option of finding out more information if they need to. You could include a box on some screens saying “Want to know more? Click on this link to learn more about …..”
8. Provide a contact person for questions. If the learners do have questions, is there someone they can contact? For example you could include the email address of the training manager within the organisation.
9. Ask another person to check the course to see if it makes sense. If you have access to proofreaders or quality controllers, they can point out any content that is unclear. Alternatively you can ask a pilot group of learners to go through the course. Ask them specific questions such as ‘Was there any content that didn’t make sense?’
10. Engage in continuous improvement. Even when you have published and released your course to learners, there is still the opportunity to gather feedback and make improvements to the course. You could include a survey asking learners if there was anything they found unclear. This is a great way for you to keep learning about the learners’ perspective and to remind yourself that you are designing courses for real people.

Looking for more ideas to design your eLearning courses, check out our Certified Articulate Training and eLearning Design Essentials workshops.