by John Gillmore and Bucky Dodd In the previous installment of this series, we provided a purchasing "checklist" for setting up a green screen video production studio. Part III of this tutorial series explains the production steps for recording, editing, processing and encoding video for use in Adobe Captivate eLearning lessons. Step 1: Develop a detailed script that not only describes what the talent will say, but also what they will do while on screen. Be sure to include how the talent will enter and exit the screen and what non-verbal gestures should be performed. Step 2: Set up the studio in a room that allows all equipment to be operated properly and still allows production staff to be comfortable. In this step, the critical production factor is the lighting. The lights should be positioned so the talent is evenly lit and the solid green background is free from any shadows and also lit evenly.The talent should be positioned as far away from the background as possible, while still providing the desired frame for the video. This reduces shadows and greatly improves the quality of the end product.Step 3: Establish and test the video recorder's settings for optimal performance. For audio, make the appropriate connections with the wireless microphone system and ensure the audio levels are within an acceptable range. Next, set the camcorder's recording sessions to record the video at 720p at 60fps (frames per second). Record the talent performing the script several times.Step 4: Import the video into Adobe Premiere CS4 for editing and processing. To begin, trim the video so it starts and stops at the desired locations. Apply the Boris FX chroma key filter to the video by activating the plug-in and choosing the background color you would like to remove with the plug-in's color picker. Adjust the chroma key filter so all the background color is removed and the transparent background is free of any processing artifacts. You may find that having a still image of the Captivate lesson's interface placed behind the video will help with adjusting the video's settings and placement.Step 5: Encode the processed video by selecting File > Export > Media. This will open a dialog box for setting the encoding parameters. Encode the video content as Flash Video (.FLV) and select the option to encode the alpha layer. This allows the background color that is removed by the chroma key plug-in to remain transparent. After choosing the encoding settings and clicking the OK button the Adobe Media Encoder (packaged with Adobe Premiere CS4) will launch automatically. Select Start Que to begin the encoding process.Once this process is complete, you have a video in .FLV format where the background has been removed, leaving just the talent. This video can be used in a variety of ways to support and enhance the instructional value of eLearning lessons. ***   About the authors: John Gillmore is an Instructional Technologist with the University of Oklahoma's Center for Professional and Distance Education (CPDE). In this role, John researches, analyzes and evaluates new technologies for potential applications in instruction; promotes the implementation of technological innovations; creates demonstrations of instructional applications of technologies; and provides assistance to faculty, staff and administrators who have instructional technology needs. In addition, John teaches freshman information systems courses at UCO. John has a B.S. in Business Information Systems from the University of Phoenix and an MBA from UCO.Bucky Dodd is an instructional designer at the Center for Professional and Distance Education at the University of Central Oklahoma. His professional interests include innovation in eLearning, workplace learning and performance trends, and instructional design. Mr. Dodd has instructional design and consulting experience in both public and private organizations. He holds a B.A. in Corporate Communication and a M.Ed. in Adult Education from the University of Central Oklahoma.

View and download the webinar slides. Access the webinar recording.     Looking for online learning resources for your employees? Sign-up for a free trial here ! We provide our clients with thousands of video and eLearning courses. Whether you’re targeting leadership development, new manager and supervisor training, project management, communication, computer skills, compliance or safety, we pretty much have something for everyone. So, try out some courses…have your employees try out some courses. Just fill out the short form to the right and start a free 30-day, no risk, no obligation trial! Check out the BizLibrary Collection! --> -->

Question from a reader, hoping you can provide your thoughts: I am in the process of selecting an elearning tool that is easy to use, quick to create the demos and does not bloat the file size much. I want to create some online videos that will be a total of about 6-7 hours and upload them on my site. These videos would have software demos, screencasts and PowerPoints embedded inside them. Also every screen would have audio (voiceover with my voice) accompanying it. I will want to have a simple menu system to break up the content into chunks. And I may eventually, but not initially, want to be able to track them under an LMS, i.e., have SCORM tracking. I have been looking into various tools. Here are some pros and cons I found about them. Qarbon Pros: Less File size. Qarbon seems very easy to use. Cons: I'm finding it a bit difficult to integrate my voice with my demos and pull everything together. Creates as screenshot. To present a moving demo I need to integrate another product called Viewlet cam. Makes it a bit harder to pull everything together. Camtasia and Adobe Captivate: Pros: Heard lots of good thing about them. Cons: Worried about file size for both of them The more I am researching, the more I am getting confused. ---- There are quite a few Software Simulation Tools out there. I understand the confusion though because it's a combination of several different kinds of needs that are often addressed by different Rapid eLearning Tools. What questions would you have? What might you suggest? What would you do to find a good solution? Would you consider using a solution that integrates several tools that are possibly best of breed? eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

by Sean Stoker   Are the slides that make up your eLearning lessons text-heavy? Images are an often overlooked component of a good eLearning course. Sadly, when images are added to eLearning, they often have little to do with the content being presented or, just as sad, are of poor quality. You've probably heard the saying that a picture is worth 1,000 words. But consider this: people process information presented in an image far faster than text. According to Mike Parkinson, founder of Billion Dollar Graphics, "visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text, graphics quickly affect our emotions, and our emotions greatly affect our decision-making." Parkinson went on to say "Study after study, experiment after experiment, has proven that graphics have immense influence over the audience's perception of the subject matter and, by association, the presenter (the person, place, or thing most associated with the graphic) because of these neurological and evolutionary factors. The audience's understanding of the presented material, opinion of the presented material and the presenter, and their emotional state are crucial factors in any decision they will make. Without a doubt, graphics greatly influence an audience's decisions." Mental There's something very helpful about having a pictorial representation of the concept to hang your hat on. An image anchors a concept in a way that words often can't. While text forces you to create an image in your brain from scratch, introducing a picture gives us a jumping-off point, showing us a tangible concept which can be instantly grasped and further explored through text or audio. For many of the same reasons above, a good image can also increase a learner's comprehension and recall. Instead of trying to remember the nebulous image that they produced in their mind's eye, they can simply call up the more tangible picture that they physically saw and didn't have to manufacture themselves. Emotional Any journalist worth their salt will tell you that a story without a picture lacks the punch it might otherwise have. For instance, if I were to describe to you a natural disaster that occurred in some foreign country, you might be pretty shocked by the words alone. However, it wouldn't be quite as real to you as if I included a picture of the rubble, injured people, and all-around devastation. Similarly, I could try to tell you how much I love dogs and try all day to convince you to love them too, but it wouldn't have nearly the same impact as if I just showed you this...     How quickly did your heart melt? How long did it take for the word "awwwwwww" to involuntarily escape your mouth? Instantly, right? And now we both love dogs! (Thanks to Mike Parkinson for inspiring this example.) Punctuating the Text Finally, eLearning images also work wonders when it comes to breaking up the text and giving the eye a chance to rest. When you read, your eyes scan a wall of words trying to squeeze out each nugget of information. If done for an extended amount of time, it can get exhausting. But throw in some pictures periodically... ... and it breaks the monotony of a text-heavy lesson. *** Looking to learn to create your own eLearning? We offer several live, online classes that'll get you up and running in no time. Classes range from 3-hour mini courses to full-day, multi-day events.

View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording through Go to Webinar.         Looking for online learning resources for your employees? Sign-up for a free trial here ! We provide our clients with thousands of video and eLearning courses. Whether you’re targeting leadership development, new manager and supervisor training, project management, communication, computer skills, compliance or safety, we pretty much have something for everyone. So, try out some courses…have your employees try out some courses. Just fill out the short form to the right and start a free 30-day, no risk, no obligation trial! Check out the BizLibrary Collection! --> -->

Someone was just asking me about the big trends in learning and the implications of those trends on corporate learning and development.  I initially said - "Look at my blog," but when I looked, I realized it might be a bit harder than I thought to pull out the central themes.  So, here's a bit of a compilation of some of the things I've been talking about in my blog which points to some of the major trends in learning. Environmental Changes Some of the common trends I discuss in presentations are: Decreased L&D budgets Faster pace Increased workforce mobility Shorter job tenure Increased job fragmentation - fewer numbers in any one role Constant increase in complexity Greater concept work Need for faster proficiency Changing expectations for learning The bottom line is that Learning and Development needs to do more with less these days or they will be marginalized.  And the risk is pretty severe as described in the Business of Learning.  Trends in What L&D Organizations are Doing As a result of these trends, some L&D organizations are looking to social and informal learning.  Training Method Trends suggests that social learning tools are beginning to take off.  This will be a slow evolution.  And surveys such as Web 2.0 Applications in Learning suggest that this will be scattered. There's considerable discussion throughout my blog around topics that relate to social / informal / learning 2.0: Formalizing and Investing in Informal Learning No Informal Learning and Blended Learning Mix - CLO Panel Surprises Action on Informal Learning - Leads to Great Questions Numbers and Informal Learning The Real Challenge around Informal Learning More on the Form of Informal The Paradox of Informal Learning (Form of Informal?) Informal Learning and Learning Management Systems Informal Learning - Let's Get Real - Part II Informal Learning - Harold Tells Us Where To Put It - Now What Informal Learning - Let's Get Real Elves, Measuring Results and Informal Learning eLearning 2.0: Informal Learning, Communities, Bottom-up vs. Top-Down The whole social / informal / elearning 2.0 discussions implies some very Disruptive Changes in Learning. In Long Live, I discuss how we are not talking about eliminating instructor-led, but that organizations are looking at alternatives. The whole problem is Long Tail Learning. There is just way too much stuff that people need to learn that we have to make choices about what we spend our time publishing into formal learning events. The audience has to be large enough. As concept workers, we quickly go past formal learning opportunities. There's no course on what I do every day. And you cannot Separate Knowledge Work from Learning. One option is to say that limit of training / workplace Learning Responsibility is formal learning. Once you go beyond formal learning, then there's an immediate question of what else you will provide. I know from Data Driven performance improvement solutions that often informal learning can be very effective in driving results. To me, the answer is pretty clear. You've got to look beyond formal. The Result When you look at Examples of eLearning 2.0, none of them individually seem all that radical.  Many organizations are using SharePoint to implement these kinds of solutions. But when you look at the difference in control in Learning 1.0 vs. Learning 2.0, it's a pretty radical change. There are significant opportunities around Online Coaching.  I'm hearing more on this all the time. Examples of how social and informal learning is happening in the consumer space: Social Learning italki - Social Network for Language Learning  Social Learning Objects - Flash Cards Approach to learning strategy needs to be different: Learning 2.0 Strategy You need to think about systems quite different: LMS and Social Learning  You have to prepare workers for web 2.0 L&D professionals and organizations having changing roles and responsibilities: Leading Learning and New Skills Social Learning Designer Workplace Learning Professionals Next Job - Management Consultant Improving Personal Learning - A Continuing Challenge for Learning Professionals Other Thoughts In Corporate Training, I look at the challenges learning and development organizations face in heading towards these kinds of solutions. There are lots of possible Objections to making this happen. Social Learning Measurement is still an issue. Corporate Policies on Web 2.0 are emerging. Desired Learning Outcomes may differ based on these changes. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

by Kevin Siegel    How do you collaborate with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who aren't Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline developers? Specifically I'm talking about text content. How many times have you gone back and forth (and back and forth again) with your SMEs, changing a word on a slide here, removing a comma there. Maddening, right? Wouldn't it be great if you could export the text from your eLearning projects into Word, get your SMEs to make their changes in the document (using Word), and then import those changes back into your project? That kind of workflow is a dream, right? Nope. The workflow exists today in both Captivate and Storyline and the process is simple. Adobe Captivate Open or create a Captivate project and choose File > Import/Export > Export project captions and closed captions. In the Open dialog box, name the resulting document, specify a save destination, and click the Save button. (You will be notified when the captions have been exported.) Click Yes to open the document in Word. The captions will appear in a Word table. There will be five columns: Slide ID, Item ID, Original Text Caption Data, Updated Text Caption Data, and Slide. You can make any changes you want to the Updated Text Caption Data, but you should not change any of the other information. The Slide ID identifies which slide your edited captions go to. The Item ID identifies which caption goes with which caption data.   Make your editorial changes; then save and close the Word document. The final step is to to import the edited text back into Captivate. Choose File > Import/Export > Import project captions and closed captions. Find and open the document you edited in Word. A dialog box will appear confirming the number of captions that were imported. Not only will the edited content be imported, but formatting changes made to the Word document, such as making text bold or italic, are also retained.  Articulate Storyline   The process of round-tripping between Articulate Storyline and Microsoft Word is just about the same as it is in Adobe Captivate. Open or create a Storyline project and then choose File > Translation > Export. In the Open dialog box, name the resulting document, specify a save destination, and click the Save button.   In the resulting Word document, SMEs can make any needed content changes in the Translate this column area of the document and then return the edited document to you.   The final step is to simply choose File > Translation > Import and open the edited Word document. ***  If you'd like to learn more about eLearning, come hang out in my next eLearning basics mini course. And if you'd like to learn more Captivate, Presenter, or Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you. 

As a very interested party in the developments around online training course and technical standards, we here at BizLibrary have been watching things unfold over the last couple of years with a high degree of interest. Our clients are confused, and so it seems is most of the market.   The confusion, truthfully, is well-founded.   Current Situation Amid all of the confusion and writing about courseware standards we know a few things: SCORM 2004 never really grabbed the market. SCORM 1.2 standards are nearly 15 years old. AICC — the association that managed these standards ceased to exist effective January 2015, and these standards are two years older than SCORM 1.2. xAPI looks like the future of courseware standards, but we are all waiting on the next round of published standards. Confused? You’re not alone if you are, and to be honest, that’s okay. SCORM and AICC courseware are going to be around for quite some time. SCORM courseware is all over the market, and with so much legacy courseware and so many legacy technology platforms still using SCORM standards, don’t expect rapid migration to anything new.   However, the current situation isn’t working all that well. Here’s another way to think about it. A large segment of the training profession and industry are using courseware technical standards (SCORM 1.2, released October 2001) that were developed and published before: iPod, iTunes, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Toyota Prius, DVR, iPhone (smart phones), or iPad (tablets).   The upshot of this reality is that the prevailing and dominant SCORM standards were designed and published in a technology world that bears no resemblance at all to the technology and web environment of today. Learning today is widely dispersed, mobile, video-centric, and shorter than ever before. SCORM standards, while at one time, clearly state of the art, do not currently reflect the existing market realities of employee learning and technology.   To read the full article, click here.

by Sally Cox One of the more obscure features of LinkedIn I have come to love is Pulse, which gives you access to industry professionals and global leaders in a variety of fields. You "follow" them, much like you would on any social media platform. For example, Richard Branson is someone I greatly admire, so he was the first person I followed on Pulse.To access Pulse, log into your LinkedIn account and choose Interests > Pulse. Once you start following people on Pulse, it will automatically begin suggesting influential people for you, with an easy "Follow" button to press, if you want to follow them.In the far right column, Pulse shows thumbnails of people you might want to follow. Click See all to view the entire list. Pulse suggests industry leaders you might wish to follow, based on your prior choices. Use the + Follow button to add the person to your list of favorites.I'm active on social media so I use Pulse not only to find good content to share with the LinkedIn community, I also share on Twitter at the same time.To share an article on LinkedIn Pulse, select the Share icon (shown highlighted in the orange box below). In the Share dialog box, decide how to share the content. If you want to share with everyone, choose Share with Public. To post to Twitter, select the check box at the right of the dialog box. Add a short note if you want (as long as it's within the 140-character limit for Twitter). LinkedIn Pulse AppI love the Pulse app for reading articles on the go, but I can also follow and share via the app as well. The interface is clean and easy to navigate. Above, the Pulse app in my Social Media apps folder. Below, I can swipe horizontally to see all the articles from people I follow. Sharing articles to social media from the Pulse app is a breeze... just choose the venue you want and press Share. Overall, Pulse is a useful feature if you like to read and share good content and is especially helpful if you're active on social media. ***If you like Sally's articles, you'll love her mini classes. Join Sally online for Mobile Photography Basics: Taking Better Photos with your Mobile Device and Enhancing Them Afterward and Building a Strong LinkedIn Profile.

From Jay Cross' Informal Learning Flow Hot List for August, fantastic video with Seth Godin and Tom Peters discussing the value of blogging. .   They sound a lot like what I say about blogging and learning.  This is going to be pretty good for an upcoming presentation to professional speakers about the use of social media. Seth Godin Doesn't matter if anyone reads it. What matters is the metacognition of thinking about what you are going to say. How do you force yourself to describe in three paragraphs why you did something. You are doing it for yourself to become part of the conversation even if it's very small. Tom Peters No single thing in the last 15 years professionally has been more important in my life than blogging. It has changed my life.  It has changed my perspective.  It has changed my intellectual outlook.  It has changed my emotional outlook. Best damn marketing tool by an order of magnitude. Both And it's free. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.