Learning on mobile tablets is becoming a popular way to access elearning material. Users want easy accessibility and touch screen capabilities to learn from. Below are five articles on ideas you can use when creating tablet-friendly elearning courses. Christopher Pappas: 7 tips for creating tablet-friendly elearning courses Did you know 82 million people in the United States now own a tablet? If your elearning courses are not tablet friendly, you may be missing a good percentage of your target audience. In this article, Christopher shares seven tips to make your elearning courses tablet friendly. Read Christopher’s seven tips on creating tablet-friendly elearning courses Training Zone: Move over to tablets for elearning In the professional world, tablets are no longer just for entertainment purposes. They have become an integral part of the learning and development process in organizations all around the world. In this article, Trading Zone shares the main reasons for this revolution in mobile and tablet elearning. Learn more about tablet elearning Nikos Andriotis: mEnable your elearning - 6 things to consider when creating tablet compatible courses Mobile capability in elearning frees the learner from having to be situated at a desk using a computer. Classes can be had anywhere and material can be learnt anywhere there’s an internet connection. In this piece from Nikos, he shares six concept you must consider when building your tablet-friendly courses. Read Nikos’ six tips to creating tablet compatible courses Elearning on tablets - What, Why & How? (Slideshare) Amit Garg and Alan Samuel explain the current state of tablet use in the elearning industry. Click through the slides to learn how and why tablets are being used in the elearning industry. Intel Case Study: 21st century elearning soars with tablet computers   This comprehensive case study by Intel explores the exponential use of tablet learning in schools. Intel shares reasons why people prefer tablets to learn from and some ideas on what tablets are best for different levels of schooling. Read the case study by Intel   Try these ideas when creating tablet-friendly elearning coursesClick To Tweet   The post 5 ideas to help you create more effective tablet-friendly elearning appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Elearning Superstars is a curated list of inspiring elearning examples, published every Tuesday. Subscribe to get weekly updates via email. This week we have some great elearning by Vodafone, KMI Learning, and Train4TradeSkills. Showcase your elearning: Have you created a great piece of elearning that you’re really proud of? Showcase your elearning here to win awards and get published on Elearning Superstars. Vodafone: Netpolis is an educational knowledge and strategy game about mobile telephony Business continuity training for financial services firms Train4TradeSkills: The Virtual Reality House let’s trades trainees - i.e. plumbers - practice their skills in a safe ‘walled garden’ setting The post Elearning inspiration: Vodafone, KMI Learning, Train4TradeSkills appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Are you having trouble developing your eLearning quickly? Have you found that the bottleneck involves your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)? Here are some ideas to help speed up projects by involving Subject Matter Experts throughout the entire eLearning development process. You’ve jumped through hoops to get an eLearning project scheduled with your busy team and they are all ready to run, but your Subject Matter Expert hasn’t yet come up with the content. Or, you’ve busted your bones turning around a great eLearning project in record time only to be left with your team waiting idly to get the review back from your Subject Matter Expert. Sound familiar? If you’ve been in the eLearning industry for even a short amount of time, you’re probably nodding knowingly. If Subject Matter Experts are holding you up, this article will give you some ideas on how you can speed up production by involving them more effectively. 1. Empower Subject Matter Experts to add content directly inside your authoring tool Allowing your Subject Matter Expert to create courses themselves can help you save time and keep costs down. If you are concerned about instructional and design standards, there are eLearning tools that let you easily create courses from a Master Theme (template). Since these themes are already designed and developed, Subject Matter Experts have the structure needed to produce high-quality eLearning that is consistent with your other courses. This will help you create more projects quickly and reduce the costs associated with hiring additional staff. Later, during reviews and iterations, instead of having to copy and paste new content or amendments, ask your Subject Matter Expert to add it directly to the course themselves. This saves you from having to repeat the work that they have already done. Cloud-based tools, such as Elucidat, help make the process easy. Simply give your Subject Matter Expert access to edit the course and they can jump online from their own computer. There’s no need for you to package the files up and send them via email, nor is there a need to manage multiple versions of the course. All changes are automatically saved and synchronized so anyone working on the project is always using the latest version. 2. Keep Subject Matter Experts in the loop throughout the entire project Instead of just bringing Subject Matter Experts in when you need them, involve them early so you can make sure they clearly understand your eLearning development process, your project goals and your objectives. Early collaboration can help your Subject Matter Expert buy in to what you’re developing. By involving Subject Matter Experts early, they will feel more like a part of the team. This will make it easier to keep communication channels open and avoid any mistakes. 3. Embrace online collaboration Subject Matter Experts are busy people with full-time jobs. You’ll often run into delays when you’re waiting for your Subject Matter Expert to review your projects. To keep costs under control, you should try to remove any bottlenecks. It can be particularly challenging when you have two or more Subject Matter Experts working on one project. To ensure you keep everyone on track, make sure you use tools with inbuilt review and feedback functionality so you can track changes and monitor version control. If you’re still asking stakeholders to review eLearning in a Word document with screenshots, you’re wasting valuable time and money. This process is difficult to track and manage. Instead of relying on email and Word docs, use online tools to collaborate, review and share feedback in real time. Related: Why online collaboration is the answer to your team’s efficiency problem Final Suggestions To Help You Better Involve Subject Matter Experts Make sure everyone reviewing the project has access to the most up-to-date version. The best way to do this is to use an eLearning tool that automatically updates and keeps the project current. Use a tool that tracks and manages review cycles and changes. For example, Elucidat has an easy-to-use comment tool that lets Subject Matter Experts add notes for the rest of the team. You can quickly see what changes or additions have been made and who made those changes. Use a tool that lets you sign off on changes inside the project itself. This makes it easy to keep the updates and changes together in one place. Stay on top of the latest eLearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. Join the conversation about this article on Twitter Tweets about https://blog.elucidat.com/are-subject-matter-experts-slowing-down-your-elearning-production-process/ The post Are Subject Matter Experts Slowing Down Your Elearning Production Process? appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Are you frustrated by the amount of time it takes to create and modify elearning? If you’re fed up with your lengthy delivery times and cumbersome processes, this article is for you. Steve Penfold shares three ideas on how you can create a nimble elearning team that can react effectively to fast-changing business environments. The rate at which the business landscape changes today is as rapid as it’s ever been. Global competition, informed customers, ever-changing technology, and a fluctuating economy are all powerful forces that push and pull at business markets, changing them continually. L&D teams need to be nimble to respond to these changing business needs. But how can you create a quality elearning product in this dynamic environment? Here are three ways to ensure that your L&D team is well placed to respond quickly to changing demand. 1. Extend your L&D team—and use everybody Your organization is probably chock-full of people who know how to do their jobs well and have tips and stories about the best way to accomplish the tasks they do, i.e., Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Wouldn’t it be great if all of these SMEs were capable of creating elearning to share their expertise? Wouldn’t you love to include them as part of the L&D development team? The truth is, you can, and you should. Modern elearning authoring tools, such as Elucidat, give non-technical team members the ability to enter materials (knowledge, tips, anecdotes, etc.) into template-driven interactive screens for online deployment. The templates in these authoring tools keep content authors on track by providing placeholders for text and images to be entered. Interactivity that may be part of a template, such as a popup text, an image panel, or a drag and drop functionality, can appear automatically as part of that screen template, removing the need for technical expertise. Empowering SMEs to create content also minimizes production bottlenecks and content errors that can occur in a more segregated and protracted SME/production team development model. 2. Embrace online collaboration Quick, accurate communication is vital in a nimble development process. Without this, miscommunication (and missed communication) can cause bottlenecks or content errors. Inbuilt collaboration mechanisms in the form of review and comment panels on each content screen can make for a streamlined review and comment process. Here are four benefits of inbuilt collaboration in your authoring tool: Gives concurrent, online, multi-reviewer access to course deliverables Provides a simple way of giving project feedback that everyone uses Allows reviewers to see what others have already recommended Allows the developer to see what recommendations have been requested and exactly where they should be made (directly inside in the authoring environment) 3. Use the right tools In addition to using a simple-to-use elearning authoring tool, being nimble comes from leveraging additional tools to help get the job done. I have compiled a list of tools you can use for your elearning projects. Most tools listed here have free trials and are available for the PC, Mac, or web-based browsers. Tools for taking screenshots Sometimes, it’s necessary to show your learners an image of a computer screen or a video of a screen interaction sequence. If you need this functionality, consider these tools. Snagit: This is a really powerful tool for screen-capture videos and static screen images. Screenr: This is a web-based screen-recording tool, so no downloads, which can be handy if IT won’t let you install software! Very powerful for its price tag—free! PrtScn: If you just want a static image of a computer screen, use your PrtScn keyboard key. Use the Alt + PrtScn key combination to capture the active window rather than the entire desktop. PrtScn copies an image to the Windows clipboard. From there, you can paste it onto a PowerPoint slide and export the slide as a PNG or JPG file. Tools for designing graphics Here are some sites to get images and inspiration for your elearning layouts: Canva: I like Canva for graphical layout inspiration or making title page-style graphics. PowerPoint: Recent versions of PowerPoint have powerful and flexible graphics capability. Here’s one example. The Internet is full of others. Free Images: This website can be a source of royalty-free and free images. Unsplash: Another source for royalty-free and free photographic images. Easelly: If you’re looking for infographic inspiration and a tool to help create them, this is a useful site. Tools for designing mock-ups These are useful if you’re looking to design a webpage, user interface, or mobile app-style piece of content. They let you quickly draw a wire-frame (lower detail) design for discussion and idea sharing. Balsamiq Cacoo Tools for capturing and editing audio Audio can be very powerful in elearning, for example to provide your audience with different stakeholder perspectives, provide information via a simulated phone call, or just to provide workplace sound effects to immerse the learner and contextualize the learning. Audacity: This is the go-to tool for most non-professional sound recordists. Twisted Wave: This is a very simple sound recorder. Its advantage is that it’s web-based, so no downloads or installs. Tools for editing video You can use common mobile devices to capture quality video, but trimming or getting the video into a format you can use in your elearning authoring or editing tool can be tricky. These tools can help with this problem. Video Cutter: This web-based tool is useful for chopping segments out of a video or trimming it. Any Video Converter: This is really useful for converting video and audio from one format to another, perhaps so you can import it into another tool or project that doesn’t support the video’s native format. Conclusion The pressure is on your L&D to create elearning faster than ever before. You are also required to make changes and adapt to business needs quickly. By involving more of your team, embracing online collaboration, and using more effective tools, you can give yourself—and your L&D team—the ability to be nimble and meet the challenges that lie ahead. The post 3 ideas to help you build a nimble elearning team that can react effectively to changing business needs appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Instructional Designers design instructions, right? So, why not free up your learning experts to concentrate on what they’re good at? How? Simple: give them tools so they no longer need to be highly technical or experienced in eLearning. Are your Instructional Designers… spending too much time repeating tasks like GUI (Graphical User Interface) design, setting up templates, or fixing bugs screen-by-screen? If this is happening, it’s likely that your Instructional Designers are struggling too much with the technical side of eLearning. How can you take the "technical" out of "Instructional" Design and let your team get on with what they’re good at? Read on to find out. In the beginning My first job as an Instructional Designer in an eLearning role required me to be experienced in designing instructional material as well as the technical infrastructure (we used "Authorware"). It was as much a technical role as it was an Instructional Design role. I was essentially a "solutions architect". I needed to spend six months getting fully up to speed with the tool (it was a lot like Photoshop; I needed to put in the hours to get really good at it), and even then, most of my time was spent working out technical issues rather than working on the design and implementation of great learning. Clearly, this wasn’t very productive. Rapid elearning tools With the onset of "rapid" tools, designers and writers could become developers, too; first with form-based tools and then with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) tools that let you build screens on the fly exactly as the end user sees them. Designers got faster, needing only days to understand the tools and weeks to become proficient. These desktop tools are great for experienced designers who understand both web design and Instructional Design. But many people whose skills we need and want on our teams don’t have the experience or confidence to switch to eLearning. These people typically include: Classroom trainers. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Writers and content people. Learning and Development professionals. I’ve spent most of my career working closely alongside these stakeholders to design great courses from their content. But, time after time, these stakeholders struggled to understand the eLearning tools and could never become great eLearning designers. Why? Three Reasons: The barrier to entry with the toolset was too high - they found learning the tools challenging. They became fixated on the look and feel - spending hours making the screen look pretty instead of concentrating on designing challenges, interactions, and stories that would bring the learning to life. They became frustrated, because they spent so much time tweaking things to fix bugs or make the content consistent. Modern elearning tools Modern eLearning tools can help to remove these challenges. These tools have stripped back the technical tasks and simplified the workflow so that even people who have no technical experience can create and deliver eLearning quickly. By making it easier to learn and use eLearning tools, you can empower more of your learning experts to get involved in delivering eLearning quickly and easily. Here are three benefits of modern eLearning tools: Build once, develop many. Instead of investing hours of time and money on technical IDs that craft designs each and every time, build master courses and reuse elements across multiple projects. Ask your technical team members to build a course master (template) that your Instructional Designers can use repeatedly for all of their courses. "Master courses" offer full brand and structural control so you can set the interface with all the navigation, branding, and layout features you don’t want the IDs to worry about. For example: buttons, logos, color schemes, and menus. Easy to use, no training required. Instead of spending weeks training IDs on hard-to-pick-up software, use tools that are simple and intuitive for beginners (like Elucidat). Simple tools enable point-and-click course creation and editing. Don’t let your learning professionals waste time assembling each layout screen by screen. This is inefficient. Instead, use tools that let you build from ready-made courses where team members can just click and edit. Multi-device compatible. Instead of spending hours worrying about how your courses look on different tablet and mobile devices, modern tools take care of scaling automatically. For example, Elucidat scales content and lets you preview your content on phone, tablet, and PC screens as you build it. See how your course looks on different device sizes and tweak as you go. Free up your Instructional Designers from the technical stuff by choosing a solution that takes care of responsive delays automatically for all device types. Final thoughts Choose a tool that empowers Instructional Designers to focus on content rather than technical stuff. This will remove a lot of the sticking points that Instructional Designers experience when they start creating eLearning content. By involving more of your Learning and Development team in the eLearning production process, you will be able to create more high quality eLearning for less. Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends, and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. The post You Don’t Need "Technical" Instructional Designers. Here’s Why. appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

The King is dead, long live the King! As HTML5 jockeys for Flash’s coveted top spot as eLearning darling, we take a look at what the inevitable demise of Flash means for eLearning professionals. It’s been five years since Steve Jobs wrote Thoughts on Flash, an open letter setting out the reasons why Apple would not be supporting Adobe Flash technology in their products. The most critical of those products would be the iPad, which was blazing the trail in tablet technology. Since the publication of Steve’s letter, even Adobe has abandoned mobile development for Flash, and it seems the end is now finally nigh for Flash, with TechCrunch posting their Farewell to Flash article. The article sets out what a Flash-free world will mean for us all. What’s Up With Flash? Way back, when I worked with a well-known agency on the South Coast of England, our insightful CEO fought hard against the advent of Flash into the industry, citing security and accessibility issues. At my last company, a blue chip Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), we had fierce debates about whether to make the switch to HTML5 despite our clients’ lack of enthusiasm for the new technology, and we had to convince a few clients that we could be more agile in our eLearning development if we made the shift early. In reality, we in the eLearning industry have always worked with HTML, given the problems of deploying in Flash: Clunky - long load times, doesn’t render text clearly. Doesn’t satisfy accessibility criteria. Requires a plug-in (possibly the biggest headache in sectors where learners do not administrate their work PCs). Shackles learners to desktops when mobile is more expedient (think anytime, anywhere learning). Hinders agile project management due to time-consuming bug fixes, updates, and maintenance. Why Do We Like HTML5? The eLearning industry has been waiting for tools that would allow us to build in HTML with all the interactions we liked in Flash. With HTML5 and JavaScript now maturing, pretty much anything we once did with Flash is achievable using these media. What’s more, the results are often better and are generally slicker than they were with Flash. HTML5 is conducive to the direction eLearning and content consumption are heading, and it will positively affect learners’ experiences. It also requires less bandwidth than Flash to run, making it much more efficient for the battery life of learners’ mobile devices. The switch to HTML5 also helps decrease development time. How You Can Prepare For A Flash-Free World Here are a few guidelines to help you prepare for the demise of Flash: Consider adopting eLearning development tools that allow you to build and deploy easily in HTML5, rather than forcing you to convert. Tools such as the cloud-based Elucidat are built on HTML5 technology to let you focus on creating beautiful, interactive user experiences for learners on mobile as well as desktop devices (something Flash could never support). If speed is your priority, look out for tools that provide pre-built themes and screen types, which have already been coded by professionals and adhere to the very latest industry and design standards and best practices. If your learning makes use of video, you avoid Flash, the limitations of which include high levels of energy consumption (not good on mobile devices) and potential security risks. Conclusion: A Few Points To Keep In Mind In this article, we’ve broadly described why the advent of HTML5 in eLearning is to be applauded. However, there are one or two points to bear in mind when deploying eLearning in HTML5: HTML5 is not supported by some legacy browsers. I know it’s hard to imagine, but for reasons that can be quite complex, some organizations may still be using older browsers in which HTM5 won’t run. The final demise of XP and -along with it- IE6 has fast tracked many of the organizations still clinging to their old browsers. But, it’s worth doing a quick tech spec of your environment into so you can ensure compatibility with HTML5 eLearning products. If 100% of eLearning in your company takes place on desktop machines, and your existing toolset is Flash-based, it may not be worth your while to switch right now. HTML5 comes into its own on mobile devices, where it uses less energy resources and is supported across all platforms. Whatever your conclusion happens to be; it does seem inevitable that Flash will soon be confined to the annals of history. So, you may want to start thinking beyond its funeral and start considering your insurance package for the future of eLearning development. Stay on top of the latest eLearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. The post Flash: Is It Time We Mourn Its Demise In Elearning? appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Simulation-based elearning provides learners the opportunity to safely explore and practice applications before actually working on them. Here are three ideas to help you create effective simulation-based elearning material. Marina Arshavskiy: Simulations and games can make learning fun! In most simulators and games, the objective is to win. To win, learners naturally need to discover and learn the "system" in order to beat it. This approach to learning can be much more enjoyable than boring slideshows and videos. In this article, Marina covers the different types of game-based learning and which tools can be used to build this interactive content. Read Marina’s ideas on simulation and game-based learning  Arunima Majumdar: The value of simulations when creating elearning solutions for application training Traditional approaches to application training generally involved text-based handouts in classroom settings. While the learners may gain theoretical knowledge with this method, they end up lacking hands on experience. This is where simulation elearning can better prepare the learner and help them master the application or program before they actually use it. Read Arunima’s take on the value of simulations for application training Jae Curtis: Your simulation training needs to be adaptive. Here’s how you do it. In this article, Jae explains why adaptive simulation can create better learning retention. By adapting the simulation to the learner’s level of understanding and experience, the learner can receive a more personal and applicable elearning experience. Read Jae’s ideas on making your elearning simulators adaptive Try these simulation-based elearning ideas in your next projectClick To Tweet The post Can these simulation-based elearning ideas help you? appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Elearning Superstars is a curated list of inspiring elearning examples, published every Tuesday. Subscribe to get weekly updates via email. This week we have some great elearning by Pearson Education, Video Arts, and Filtered. Showcase your elearning: Have you created a great piece of elearning that you’re really proud of? Showcase your elearning here to win awards and get published on Elearning Superstars. Pearson Education: The Maths Factor helps thousands of children learn mathematics Video Arts: A library of interactive video courses designed for effective self-study Filtered: Personalized online training teaches knowledge works technical skills The post Elearning inspiration: Pearson Education, Video Arts, Filtered appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Too many instructional designers are creating content that meets design standards, but bores learners. Steve Penfold believes this type of average elearning is significantly impacting information retention. He shares three ways you can add a bit of spice to your courses and in turn, help learners retain more information. Stop sending your learners to sleep Are the instructional design techniques and materials you’re using keep learners engaged? Let’s look at three instructional design tips that can make your elearning more engaging, and therefore easier to consume and absorb. 1. Use Branching to Give Your Audience Control Any quality elearning authoring tool will provide you with the ability to create branching paths through your learning material, i.e., giving the learner options to take different routes through content screens. This is in contrast to a rigid linear path that starts at screen one and moves sequentially through to the last content screen. Here are two examples of how simple branching can be applied in elearning: The Branching Scenario Imagine that a business scenario is presented to a learner; then The learner is offered three possible options that he or she thinks the scenario’s protagonist should take next; then When one of the options is selected, the learner is taken to a sequence of screens that shows how the chosen option plays out—perhaps good, perhaps bad; then The learner is taken back to the scenario so that another option can be selected and explored. Multiple Viewpoints Imagine that a new procedure that is being implemented across your organisation is presented to a learner; then The learner has the option of seeing the impact of that procedure from various up- and down-stream stakeholders in the organisation; then When one of the stakeholders is selected, a series of screens is presented to the learner showing the impact of that procedure on that stakeholder—why it’s important to the stakeholder, how it applies to the stakeholder, and how it ripples across the organisation; then Once that perspective screen sequence is finished, the learner is routed back to the initial procedure screen so that another perspective can be explored. The engagement in these two examples comes from the learner having some control and being able to explore the content in a way that is meaningful for him or her. Imagine how boring these examples would be if the learner was simply told to do this or don’t do that on a linear series of screens. Related: Joe Burns shares how to design and create non-linear (branching) content Cathy Moore explains branching scenarios 2. Use Relevant, High-quality Images to Better Communicate Your Ideas Visit Elearning Superstars and take a look at the world-class elearning on showcase. Despite the diverse nature of the examples you’ll see, you’ll notice that one thing they share is quality graphics that help support learning objectives. There’s no magic formula about what will, or won’t, make certain images work in your context, but consider these guidelines. Images that you use should: Support the learning or learner directly, e.g., a demonstration or labelled graphic, or indirectly, e.g., nurtures or guides the learner using emotion or a visual cue. Images in your learning are like words; if they don’t support the learning, don’t use them. Be placed meaningfully close to any text that relates to them. Be aligned with other elements on the screen, e.g., top of the image aligned with the top of the text. Use a consistent treatment across the course, e.g., have consistent styles, backgrounds, textures, color-casts or borders, and be of consistent high quality. Not contravene copyright. Make sure you understand any copyright restrictions on images you use. Just because an image download site says their images are copyright or royalty free, that might only be for certain purposes—and your commercial project may not be one of them! Here are a few sites that you might want to look at for images or inspiration: eLearning Art eLearning Brothers Free images Deposit Photos 123RF 3. Use Clickable Images to Make Navigation Easier Think back to the branching example I mentioned earlier in this post, where a learner could explore other stakeholders’ views on a new procedure. One way to achieve this would be to have a series of photographs of faces, each representing a different stakeholder, maybe a manager, a couple of peers, and a customer or two. Each face could have a button or hyperlink underneath it inviting the learner to select it to see that person’s perspective. This technique is powerful because it shows the learner that the procedure has a ripple effect beyond them just having to do it, and it shows different aspects and tells a story about the procedure—and who doesn’t love a story? But an even better approach would be to allow the learner to select the photo directly, rather than use a button or hyperlink. There are two reasons: Fewer objects on the screen means less clutter, which is always a good thing; and The learner has a more direct route, both physically and metaphorically, between the face (the thing he or she selected) and the perspective (more information about that thing). By adopting a "learners can click on that object to see more about it" graphical navigational metaphor, you’ll simplify your user interface and create a more intuitive, immersive environment for your learners. Related: Out My Window is a great example of elearning that uses clickable images In Conclusion Too many elearning websites and platforms take raw content and just present it to learners. Is it any wonder that learners don’t remember or act on the messages they contain? By using the approaches in this article, you’ll immerse your learners in a more engaging experience, and your learning objectives will more likely be met. Stay on top of the latest eLearning ideas, trends, and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. The post 3 Ways to Spice Up Your Average Elearning, Fast appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Are you looking for ways to create innovative eLearning? In this article, Li Whybrow shares five tools that can help you create innovative elearning that engages and delights your learners. Can These Tools Help You Create Innovative eLearning That Keeps Learners Engaged? Plenty of tools can help you develop your eLearning faster, but do you know which tools can help you create innovative eLearning? You know, eLearning that makes your learners’ eyes pop and keeps them engaged. But Wait - What Do I Mean By "Innovative"? Let’s be clear, innovative tools and innovative eLearning are not the same. Before I get started, here’s the premise for this article: the tools I review here are neither complex nor cool, but they are simple to use. When I say "innovative", I’m taking about the output; the eLearning. Instead of creating boring click-through, page-turn eLearning designs, the tools I list here will help you create engaging and stimulating eLearning that your learners will love. Related: Is your eLearning boring? Spice it up with these 3 innovative eLearning ideas Create Better Presentations With Prezi eLearning should be interactive. People learn best when they are doing, but it’s also appropriate to show them first before you ask them to have a go. Therefore, presenting information should form a key part of your eLearning design. The lo-fi method presents information as text. This is good for eLearning that is online and depends on a slow Internet connection. The hi-fi approach, such as video, is good for offline viewing or viewing on a mobile device. As a rule of thumb, try to present information in small chunks, with narrative where possible. Follow the mantra of a picture tells a thousand words. You don’t have to be Botticelli, just a few sketches or a diagram can be a powerful way to present concepts or demonstrate a process or flow. 1. Prezi You may be familiar with PowerPoint and Keynote for presentations, but have you considered Prezi? Prezi lets you create animations that are different from those you use with other presentation software. By using panning and zooming features, you can demonstrate concepts that are "inside" one another. For example, think about the anatomy of the body and how you might want to zoom in on parts of the body. Embed Prezi presentations into your eLearning, but make sure your end users have internet access when viewing your course. Otherwise they won’t be able to see it. I like Prezi, because it helps me design information intuitively in chunks. It forces me to keep presentations short and specific. Show Your Audience How Something Is Done With Screenr And Jing A key part of eLearning design is showing your audience so they can see how something is done, e.g. showing them how to use software or use a system. People learn best by seeing someone demonstrating, so being able to capture your screen at the same time you provide a narrative (text or audio) is better than simply telling using text. If you want to get started with screencasts, try out Screenr and Jing. 2. Screenr and 3. Jing Screenr and Jing are web-based screen recorders. Both are easy to use -just click and record- and let you capture anything happening on your screen. Each tool limits your recording time to five minutes at a go, which is good enough, because anything longer than that isn’t recommended for eLearning. Both tools help you to produce eLearning that is succinct. Note: it’s worth creating a script before you record. I like to practice a run-through so I don’t end up having any delays or awkward transitions that might make my material appear amateurish. How Jing works https://1481d.wpc.azureedge.net/801481D/origin.assets.techsmith.com/Videos/ua-tutorials-jing/take-first-capture.mp4   Both tools output a SWF file (Flash), so be aware that they will need to be embedded in a web page or imported into eLearning software that can render them in HTML. This will ensure your audience can access the videos on their iPad or iPhone devices. Design Better Looking eLearning With Aviary And Elucidat  It may seem obvious, but you want to make your eLearning look good so it keeps learners engaged. One way to do this is to wrap it in a clean and beautiful design that uses graphics to convey meaning and concepts. I use Aviary and Elucidat to design great eLearning. 4. Aviary Aviary is a photo editing platform that is quick and easy to use and can make the dullest of images look professional and engaging. It includes plenty of features, such as overlays, highlights, shadows, tints, and fades. It also lets you choose from a range of artistic impressions. For example, you can use Aviary to take a photo shoot of some colleagues and then render the images into a comic style effect to create compelling visual stories and scenarios. Aviary can be downloaded as an app or integrated as an image-editing component in eLearning authoring tools, such as Elucidat. This is really cool, because it gives you the ability to edit images directly inside your authoring tool without having to switch applications. 5. Elucidat Elucidat is an eLearning authoring tool that lets you select ready-built themes that you can apply quickly and easily to all of your eLearning courses. Choose from dozens of pre-built templates that let you swap in your own content and images or design your own templates from scratch. It both cases, Elucidat automatically renders the published file so it looks great on both desktop and mobile devices. Remember to choose images that are relevant to your learners. Places, faces, and situations are best represented in images. For example, if you are providing orientation eLearning, make sure you include actual images of your building or office. Securing royalty-free or copyrighted images can be costly and may not be relevant to your context. Elucidat comes packaged with thousands of pieces of artwork and images from eLearningart.com. If you can create your own images, they can help you make your eLearning more innovative. Conclusion: Innovate More With These Tools Innovative eLearning is the kind that breaks the mold or rethinks traditional design for the purpose of improving the eLearning experience. I have mentioned a few tools here that can help you take your first steps toward creating more innovative eLearning. Try them out, and if you have any other tools you recommend, share your experiences in the comments section below. Stay on top of the latest eLearning ideas, trends, and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. 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