There are many ways to pass information from one source to another. In fact, it happens all day long as we talk, read, listen to podcasts or the radio, watch television or YouTube… There is a large, free exchange of information happening daily as a result of our connectivity through technology. The downside to that free exchange, though, is the way information is interpreted rests solely on the recipient. If the goal is to teach something, leaving information open to interpretation is risky business, especially when stakes are high. Say you manage a team of pharmaceutical chemists, whose job depends on understanding new medicinal ingredients and how they behave in different compositions. Should they just start Googling and self-educate? Or, should they be provided with information from a true expert and delivered in a way that ensures every person understands the information fully and at the same level as his peers? That, my friends, is why good instructional design is incredibly important. Good Instructional Design is Audience-Focused and Objectives-Driven The role of the instructional designer is to take the most important information about a particular topic and package it in a way that will engage the intended audience and make the information memorable. This is done based on the latest learning theory and keen understanding of how the brain functions in today’s high-tech, distraction-heavy environment. It’s also his or her job to employ proof-points, like assessments and certifications, to determine whether the course met the identified learning objectives. If not, the instructional designer will adjust the course content to improve results. Characteristics of A Top-Notch Instructional Designer He or she... knows how to talk to subject-matter experts and extract key points to include in a course. has a knack for quickly understanding complex topics, and is able to break them down into easy-to-understand pieces. understands how to engage different types of learners. understands multimedia and technology options and skillfully chooses the best ones for an audience or subject. knows the importance of learning objectives and designs courses with them at the core. is an incredibly sharp communicator, both verbally and written. has the ability to spin a good story. provides solid direction to graphic designers and interactive developers to bring ideas to life. is endlessly creative and resourceful. is a genuine hybrid professional, equal parts left- and right-brained. creates fair and logical assessments to determine whether the course succeeded. understands the audience and clearly communicates the value of the course at the start. Don’t Waste Resources on Ineffective Training As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there are many ways to share information, but when its of utmost importance the audience actually retain it, a focused approach is key.  Could you take the information from your subject matter expert and create a handbook? A 3-day seminar? A series of PDF job aids? Sure, but how effective are those methods? An instructional designer’s job is to make sure shared information is remembered. Let us explain our instructional design framework a bit further. Let us know what time you’re available and we’d be happy to hop on a call and learn more about your organization’s need for knowledge sharing. Click here to get started! photo credit: BCOER Librarian

This week’s challenge could go so many different ways! And it’s certainly a breeding ground for the crazy that’s inside of everyone’s head. Perfect! Thanks, David! Super! The Concept Apparently the Bookseller has a Diagram Prize, which reveals the annual odd book names of the year. The more you know. As such, the challenge was based on the premise of the Diagram Prize in that we were tasked with coming up with cover pages for the oddest e-learning course title of the year. The Method First, I will say that I did censor myself. In doing that, I limited myself to some stock icons I had laying around. Gotta keep it PG, folks! I had some really awesome flat illustrative icons that I bought from Creative Market awhile back, and so I decided to go through each of them, and if something spoke to me in the way of course titles, I added the icon and a relevant course title. I ended up with a whole bunch of prospective odd course titles, and only you can be  the judge. I used some fly in and fade animations to make it a little less flat looking and added custom navigation buttons because the default buttons just didn’t look right. I also changed the default player colour theme because grey didn’t speak to my icons. The Result Click here to view the full interaction.

I know some of you folks might be done hearing about this book, but I’m really proud of it! Last year I started writing Articulate Storyline Essentials, and it gets published this week (and is available for pre-order over on Packt Publishing’s website - go check it out!) Packt Publishing has three tiers of books: Essentials, Learning (which Stephanie Harnett wrote and is a fantastic resource), and Mastering. Essentials is my first foray into book writing, and it’s been a long road to publishing, but a great learning experience. Now that Essentials has been taken care of, I’m in the middle of writing Mastering Articulate Storyline - YAY! Articulate Storyline Essentials is meant to get you up and running with Articulate Storyline, from starting a new project to publishing that project to share with your audience. Unlike Learning and Mastering there are no activities; instead, there are many screenshots that will hold your hand through the development process and walk you through tasks step-by-step. Mastering Articulate Storyline will be geared toward advanced topics, and I’m really excited to teach folks how to use some of the functions I don’t get to use as often as I’d like…most clients don’t need fancy JavaScript incorporated within their products…however, Storyline really is a powerful authoring tool and I want to teach people how they can push Storyline to its limits and learn how to do some really cool things! Writing a book has been a huge learning experience and I have been extremely grateful for the fantastic team of editors I’ve been able to work with - they’ve done nearly all of the heavy lifting, and I could only thank them more if they had the power to make me focus my attention more. Sometimes you just need to sit down and write! Again, I’m very proud of this book and I think it will serve a broad audience and compliment Packt Publishing’s other offerings within their suite of books focused on Articulate Storyline. Please go check it out, pre-order it, order it, tell all of your friends about it, and then tell me about it! I’d love to hear what you think! I’ll be presenting at Learning Solutions 2015 later this month and if the stars align, I’m hoping to have some hard copies to sell at the expo bookstore. If the stars don’t align and you’re also attending, please don’t hesitate to stop me in passing - I’d love to meet you!

There’s a fair amount of Apple geekery in the Expand office. Some of us gathered in our conference room to watch the iPhone 6/Apple Watch announcement. Our one non-iPhone user faces almost daily badgering and ridicule. And, we often look to Apple’s products and Steve Jobs for inspiration on everything from design to marketing. Jobs was a force that will never be matched and one we all can learn from. Below is a selection of Jobs’s most notable quotes, and how we eLearning folk can pull inspiration from a brilliant man. "Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected." Aren’t you always pleasantly surprised when a product or service does exactly what it claims to do, as well as it claims to do it? It’s so rare it’s almost shocking when it happens. The Apple brand has never been one of inflated claims. Instructional designers and eLearning developers hold the professional development of others in their hands. Quality is of the utmost importance and shouldn’t be limited to customer-facing aspects of an organization. "I’m as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things." Jobs was never one to settle for anything. Every draft or idea turned down should bring about a new and improved one. Innovation is an iterative process and you’ll never find the best solution on the first, second, third...twentieth...or maybe even one-hundredth time. This is true of any creative process, including eLearning. "A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." Apple’s iPad is the perfect example. Consumers were skeptical of the iPad until they saw it in action or held it in their hands. Suddenly it was a top-selling product. The same could be said for many aspects of eLearning, such as performance support. Employees might hate the sound of learning follow-up and job aids, but once they have them and reap the benefits, they’ll wonder how they ever did their job without performance support materials. "That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple." eLearning pros often work in teams, and once you’ve incorporated everyone’s ideas you can wind up with a complicated first draft. Remember to focus on simplicity, whether you’re working on a single screen or an entire course. "Quality is much better than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles." One really good course is better than 5 mediocre ones. While time is important and you have deadlines for your deliverables, avoid sacrificing quality. "Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations." Know that you probably won’t hit the nail on the head the first time with your training audience. Be sure to ask for their feedback and focus on continuous improvement. "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." At Expand, our Creative Director and UI/UX Director work hand-in-hand on every project to make sure our courses and software not only look great, but function exceptionally well and in a way that’s intuitive to the end user. "I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world." Diversity in teams contributes to the greatness of the team. Allow your eLearning team members the flexibility to explore their creative sides and contribute their unique perspectives to each project. If you share our passion for all things Apple, we might make great partners! Check out a couple short videos that explain who we are and how our software platform is like an LMS, but better. photo credit: _DSC2263

  Content Map Many people associate content maps with mind maps, but not me. For me, a content map is a defined structure of a course or project based on client-furnished information and overall learning objectives. I would liken it to creating an outline for an essay. Remember how your high school English teacher always made you write out (and usually submit) that damn outline for your essay? It may have been annoying, but it was important. The same way content maps are important. It’s a lot easier to modify the structure of a course in the design phase, when you’re mapping out your content and the structure of the entire course. Here, feedback can be provided, and you won’t have to go into each and every module to make modifications. Sure. It might seem like an unnecessary step, but in the long run, it will save you time. A content map will typically include, but is not limited to, the following elements: High-level course objectives Timing per module Module information, including sub-modules and topics Assessment information (e.g. type of assessment items to use). Some folks might call this design documentation, but it’s really just a small portion of the design documentation. In the Defence sector, it was not uncommon to walk into a room and see a wall full of post-it notes. This industry referred to these walls as ‘Scalars’, which provided overall scaffolding for training programs. At the smaller scale, these scalars are really just enormous content maps. If you haven’t started using content maps, you should make this documentation part of your development process, even if it’s not a deliverable and even if it’s written on a post-it or napkin. In the end, it’s going to guide you and keep your project structured, which stands to increase the overall effectiveness of the training you’re developing.

Today I wanted to share a little video demo and I decided that I would show you how to create custom feedback layers in Articulate Storyline 2. Storyline provides you with default feedback layers, and they’re nice enough…but once you’ve seen them several times over, they get start seeming a little less than exciting. Additionally, you may have clients who want a customized look and feel to their product to set them apart from their competitors. Most people like pretty things. Creating custom feedback layers is very easy. You essentially create the elements you want to include on a new layer, add in a continue button (which I copied from the default feedback layer in this demo), and it’s as easy as that! If you want to check out the Storyline file I’m working in (some folks are more hands-on learners), I’ve uploaded it for you to download - Click here to download the .story file. Check out the video demo, below, and don’t hesitate to comment if you have any questions or concerns! Also feel free to request other video demos. I’m more than happy to share them. Custom Feedback Layers in Storyline 2 from Ashley Chiasson on Vimeo.

This week’s term was inspired by an acronym-laden course I had the opportunity to recently review. Oof! What is a Glossary? A glossary is a list of acronyms, terms, or phrases used within a certain context. If you’re reading a book, you’ll often find a glossary of terminology in the back pages of the text. If authors feel that it’s necessary to include a glossary for their text, why shouldn’t course developers feel a similar urge? Why would I want to add a glossary to a course? Every industry has their phrases and acronyms, and these acronyms might mean something different to different people. Good courses will want to avoid this confusion, and a glossary is a fantastic way for doing just that. One good example of how a glossary can be helpful: the military often uses the same acronyms across divisions (e.g. Air Force/Navy/Army), yet these acronyms change meaning - not always, but often. For individuals who have trained in multiple divisions, this can be extremely confusing, and a glossary will help ensure that the terminology used within the course is clarified, as necessary. Resources 5 Easy Ways to Add a Glossary to Your E-Learning Course by Tom Kuhlmann

For those of you who are regular visitors to this blog, you know that I’m a total ThingLink addict. In my (humble) opinion—I believe it is one of the most useful, dynamic, all-inclusive web tools currently available for both teachers and students. I love, love the many ways that an interactive image can be integrated into the curriculum to actively engage students in the learning process. And with a variety of new features—video options, customized and active icon sets, the ability to embed a live Google form and most recently, a partnership with Tackk—another web tool in which can create virtual flyers—to say that the possibilities are endless is really no exaggeration. So, of course, when I saw this collection of ThingLink images based on interactive vocabulary instruction—compiled by ThingLink Education Community Manager and edtech rock star Susan Oxnevad—I knew that sharing it far and wide was a no-brainer. If you’re not yet a ThingLink believer, I’m pretty sure you’ll be drinking the Kool-Aid after you check out this super cool resource! Created with Padlet The full screen version of this collection can be found here.

This week’s term was inspired by the need to streamline and become more efficient. Hopefully it will help open your eyes to one of the many ways in which you can streamline your development process. Slide Masters? Slide masters are a view in Microsoft PowerPoint and Articulate Storyline (and possibly other products I’m not considering right now) that allow you to design slide layouts for use in content screens. They allow you to structure slides and add placeholders for text/images/video, etc. They became a thing for me when I began using Microsoft PowerPoint, and to be honest I didn’t really use them much until I started working in Articulate Storyline. Once I began using slide masters in Storyline, I quickly saw how they could streamline my development process. I liken the process of creating slide masters to an argument organizations often engage in when debating the benefit of training - yeah, there’s a pretty good initial ‘cost’ of development, but the Return on Investment (ROI) will be even greater! Another benefit - if you’re working on a project with multiple developers, designing slide masters will enhance consistency, especially when it comes to positioning of elements (e.g. title text). I suppose this isn’t so much a definition as it is a recommendation…so go forth and master the slides!

Yep, it’s another post about the value of Twitter. Yes—Twitter. If you haven’t yet adopted this social media platform as one of your go-to places for professional development, you really don’t know what you’re missing! And it’s not just the latest celebrity drama! Seriously, despite the 14o character minimum, tweets—articles, thoughts, opinions, inspiration, quotes, images and more—allow like-minded individuals (you and me) to connect, collaborate, discuss, exchange and even debate all sorts of ideas with virtual colleagues. Whether it’s best practices, instructional strategies, the latest and greatest tech tools or an innovative project, invaluable information is just a hastag away! Check out the infographic below for additional info about why you should build a PLN on Twitter. Who knows… Maybe it will inspire you to become a "cereal" tweeter! A shout out to edu rock star Krissy Venosdale for creating and sharing yet another very useful and motivational infographic!

As many of you know, I wrote a book - Articulate Storyline Essentials. I’m at Learning Solutions Conference 2015, it’s my first time being here, and to share my excitement of both of these things, I’m giving away two copies of my book! All you have to do is enter, and I’ll be drawing a winner over the weekend. Maybe it will be you!   a Rafflecopter giveaway

As Quincy Jones once remarked, "I’ve always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, "Ain’t that the truth." That said, Edu-fun Friday is a series devoted to adding some humor to the lives of teachers who visit this blog. After all, there’s nothing better than ending the week on a positive note! Plus, do we have the best topics to provide us with some comic relief or what? As much as I love, love my devices, there are times in which I still prefer to use one of these low maintenance fossils. How ’bout you?

I’ve been at Learning Solutions Conference 2015 all week long, have met some fantastic people, have attended some amazing sessions, and have reconnected with some old pals. I also presented for the very first time at LSCon, and it went really well! I was really nervous, but the session attendees were great, and it went really well. My husband is also here, for vacation purposes, so we’ve been trying to squeeze in some fun activities. We went to the Magic Kingdom, and had never been…and decided very quickly that it was a horrible experience and we’ll never go back (how do people handle that place?! I need to know the secrets), but we did find an amazing mini golf course, and had a lot of fun doing that. Don’t forget to enter the contest (in the post below) for a chance to win a copy of Articulate Storyline Essentials! Here is the slide deck from my presentation on building your e-learning portfolio; if you don’t have an e-learning portfolio…GET ON THAT!  

I read a fantastic article on Active Learning, written by Christopher Buddle, in University Affairs this morning, and it served as inspiration for this week’s terminology Tuesday. Active Learning According to Buddle (2015), "Active Learning is a philosophy and an approach in which teaching over beyond the "podium style" lecture and directly includes students in the learning process." With the millennial students and those to come, this seems to be a teaching strategy that will become increasingly popular. When I consider myself as a student, I learned a lot from the traditional teaching approach, but it was more akin to the professor making deposits into the student’s mind. You go to the lecture, you’re talked at for an hour or more, and even if you don’t have issues plaguing your attention and focus, you’ll likely get distracted sometime within that hour. This is why active learning will be important when it comes to enhancing student engagement and overall academic achievement. Active learning strategies discussed in the Buddle (2015) article include: The teacher becoming the student Teacher poses questions to students drawing from material taught within the lecture. Clear and muddy Students indicate areas of the lecture that were clear, and other areas that were muddier or more confusing; in the next lecture, the teacher spends some time re-explaining the more universally muddy components. Groups Students are placed in groups to discuss a particular question and they report their response to the entire class. Instant feedback Students are provided with instant feedback in the form of scratch-off cards. I have to admit that this seems a bit more complicated an approach, so the uptake by other teachers (unless the cards are provided by the institution) may be slow. However, instant feedback is very important, and can be provided through other means (e.g. online quizzing). Pair and share Students pair up and discuss the teacher-posed question with one another. The great thing about these strategies is that they force the students to become more engaged with the material. Students may initially find these approaches uncomfortable, but in the long run they will likely lead to increased information retention, and ensure that students are actually paying attention to the lecture instead of zoning out mid-way through.

A few months ago I wrote a post about the value of utilizing Google Forms in education and shared a super cool resource containing 80+ ways to incorporate them into the classroom. Well, I’m back again… With more reasons why you should become a fan of this edtech gem… Yep, this geeky girl love, loves this particular component of Google Apps for Education. Why? Because forms can be created quickly and easily for an unlimited amount of purposes: assessment, polls, surveys, questionnaires and so much more! And the best part? There is no need to have advanced technology skills to make forms an integral part of your digital toolkit. That said, whether you are a forms believer or not, check out the interactive image shown below—one I developed with ThingLink for a professional development session I facilitated last week in my district. It not only includes a ton of resources related to developing and using this tool to support learning, but it also demonstrates how forms can be used as a bell ringer and/or exit ticket. Be sure to hover over the image to reveal the really good stuff! And by the way—no, you are not seeing things. Forms work seamlessly with ThingLink. All you need is the link and a live form appears right within the image! A full screen version of this image can be found here.

There’s a section of my next book that I’m working on, and one sub-section discusses asset management (my editor will be pleased to hear that I am in fact at least thinking about writing). While at Learning Solutions Conference 2015, I attended a morning buzz session on Content Curation, wherein asset management was discussed…A LOT. It seemed as though many folks either didn’t know what the heck ‘asset management’ meant, or how to go about managing their assets, so I saw an opportunity for a great Terminology Tuesday topic. What can I say, I’m an opportunist…when it comes to blogging at least. Asset Management Asset management is just what it sounds like - managing your assets. Now, your ‘assets’ may come in many forms. For example, Media Assets (images/video/audio), Customer Furnished Assets (files provided by the client, which could be images/video/audio/PowerPoints/Word documents, etc.), Content Output (outputs from whichever authoring tool you’re using). If you’ve worked on large projects, you will likely relate to how unwieldy these assets can become if you don’t have a system in place for keeping everything organized. This is where the ‘management’ element comes into play. What I like to do to manage my assets is to set up a folder structure. I’ve adopted a folder structure based on that of an organization I worked for previously…because it made sense and was easy to follow. It looks something like this: Project Folder 100 Project Management Depending on how large the project is, this folder may have sub-folders; for example: Meeting Minutes Action Tracking Risk Management Contracts Invoices 200 Development This folder typically contains sub-folders related to my development; for example: Client-Furnished Information (CFI) Scripts and Storyboards Audio Narration Media Video Audio Scratch Audio Final Audio Images Flash Output Quality Assurance 300 Client This folder will include anything sent to the client for review; for example: Delivered Review Comments Final Within these folders, there may be other sub-folders, but this is the general structure I follow. When it comes to filenames, I either follow a file naming convention dictated by the client, or will follow an internal file naming convention I’m accustomed to, which indicates the project, type of media, asset number, and version number. For example, PROJECT_A_001_01 (which indicates Audio file 1, version 1). If there are multiple or courses for one project, I will also add an arbitrary course number so that I can keep everything in check, and I will maintain these filenames within a spreadsheet, housed within the main 200>Media folder. Now…I get that all of this may sound super detailed and overwhelming, but when you get used to operating in a somewhat-organized manner, it really helps streamline your workflow and make you more efficient. It also makes it a lot easier to call up course assets in the event you need to re-use them (e.g. if you’re working for a client with multiple projects that may have shared elements). Basically, you just need to commit to a structure, and then keep using that structure and process whenever you begin work on a new project. It can be a pain in the butt to set up sometimes, especially if you’re really busy and especially if you cringe at the thought of doing ‘unpaid’ administrative duties for your business, but believe me…you will thank me later. When you aren’t spending even more ‘unpaid’ hours digging through external hard drives or flash drives looking for some obscure storyboard you worked on two years ago. Can I get an amen?!

With Halloween—one of the craziest days of the year in a school—rapidly approaching, many teachers are looking for some fun activities to share with all of the ghosts and goblins that live in their classrooms. If you’re one of these educators trying to preserve what’s left of your sanity at this time of the year, then check out some really spook-tacular collections of Halloween-themed resources that are sure to creep out your students—in a good way, of course! Whether it’s writing prompts, science experiments, Halloween candy math, Edgar Allan Poe videos or haunted vocabulary, there’s something ghostly awaiting you below on my recently updated Trick or Tweet greatest hits list: » The History Channel: The History of Halloween Bet you didn’t know Halloween is one of America’s favorite holidays, but what’s the real story behind the tricks and treats of Halloween? Find out by exploring this site filled with cool facts, figures, videos and interactives. » Scholastic: Halloween Trick or Treat for Facts and Fun Get your classroom in the Halloween spirit with these math and science activities, writing ideas, and crafts. Plus, use the Halloween-themed book lists to find a perfect read-aloud title or scary stories to share with your students for independent reading. » 7 Halloween Themed Educational Activities A collection of Halloween-themed games and activities curated by Richard Byrne, author of Free Technology for Teachers—apps, math adventures, safety games, typing activities, a web hunt and more! » It’s Halloween! A Pinterest board containing 90+ Halloween sites to celebrate Halloween by Edutopia. » The Best Sites for Learning About Halloween A collection of all things Halloween by Larry Ferlazzo—A visual history, slideshows, vocabulary and spelling games, cloze activities, Halloween Around the World and Mia Cadaver’s Tombstone Timeout, one of the most favorite games found on the BBC site and more! » Halloween Activities A variety of educational sites for Halloween by 19 Pencils. Classroom Connection: Use these resources to teach and learn about the Halloween holiday.

When I was drafting my presentation for Learning Solutions 2015, I added a section that I think is of relevance to most people, and if not…stay gold, pony boy.  Anyhow, this section was related to letting go of fear, and I thought it might be appropriate to share my insight on this topic with a broader audience. Fear will only hold you back, and you really need to just let it go. I know that’s easier to say than do, but it’s true! What do you have to lose? If you would have told me three years ago that I would be speaking in front of large audiences, many individuals of whom I respect and idolize, I would have told you that you were out of your friggin’ mind! I was the university student who would take zeroes whenever and oral presentation was required, but I’m slowly conquering that fear. People who know me are often surprised to find out I have a fear of public speaking, but it’s a fear that held me back when I was trying to grow my business. My rationalization for being afraid of public speaking was that I was sharing my thoughts with a jury of my peers, and all I could think about was how judgmental they would be. This fear kept me from engaging in communities and from sharing my work, because what authority was I to be subjecting folks to my garbage? But that’s just it. My thoughts, and ideas, and samples, and interactions aren’t garbage. Sure, they might not always be the best, but someone will find the information of value. And really, you’re your own worst critic. Once I began to let go of this fear, I was able to speak somewhat intelligently to individuals on topics I’m passionate about, and I was able to share my work, grow my portfolio, and grow as an e-learning professional. Without being able to let go of fear, I would never have previously considered sharing silly glimpses into my ridiculous mind. You need to let go of fear to grow as an individual, and don’t sell your ridiculousness short - someone will appreciate it. I promise. It’s okay to open up feelings of vulnerability. We’re all vulnerable. But you don’t need to let that hold you back!

As Quincy Jones once remarked, "I’ve always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, "Ain’t that the truth." That said, Edu-fun Friday is a series devoted to adding some humor to the lives of teachers who visit this blog. After all, there’s nothing better than ending the week on a positive note! Plus, do we have the best topics to provide us with some comic relief or what? TGIF! Fact.

Yesterday I had a discussion with the university about something I’m very excited about. It’s really the potential that I’m excited about, because it’s too early to tell whether anything will come of it or not. As part of my take away, I will be conducing a needs assessment, and as part of that needs assessment, I will need to conduct an environmental scan. Environmental Scans Environmental scans are a means of data collection aimed at gathering information on internal and external factors related to whatever it is that you’re researching. Environmental scans allow you to compare what other organizations/institutions, etc. are doing and where they’re doing it. Are they doing something comparable to what you want to do? If so, what is their target audience? Will their program deter individuals from participating in your program? How much competition is there? What does the target audience want? These questions can easily be answered by conducting a thorough environmental scan. These scans will help you determine whether there are any needs or gaps and how you can meet those needs or fill those gaps. Furthermore, an environmental scan may help you prioritize. For example, if I wanted to create a new program on How to Bathe a Cat, I would look at what others are doing, how they’re doing it, and whether their audience or instructors are experiencing any gaps. My priority would be to address any gaps identified in the environmental scan within my program to ensure that I maintained a competitive advantage. Resources Environmental Scanning - What it is and how to do it by Thinking Futures Environmental Scanning by James L. Morrison What’s the purpose of the environmental scan and how do we get this? By Nonprofit Answer Guide

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve shared anything e-learning challenge related, but I really enjoy using icons, so I whipped up a quick Storyline file with some themed icons. The Challenge This week’s challenge was to create a set of icons, buttons, or stickers to share with the e-learning heroes community. The Method I decided to keep the concept fairly simple, use a standard shape with a drop shadow and then add icons from The Noun Project. I’ve long been a fan of The Noun Project, and if you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, click the link and go check them out! I decided on several themes: Space, Animals, Office, Transportation, and Food, and sourced icons for all of these themes. Once sourced, I added the icon to the shape, grouped the shape and icon together for all icons, and then added a ‘show layer’ trigger to all of the buttons. Prior to publish, I added credits under the Resource tab for all icons used. The Result Check out a quick demo by clicking here. Download the Storyline file to snag all of these icons by clicking here.

First off, I have to address something I didn’t pick up on until this morning - last week was one year of Terminology Tuesday posts. Sure, I didn’t hit every single Tuesday as I had intended, but there have been 52 terms discussed (53 today), and that’s just bananas! This week, I wanted to talk a bit about the concept of reusability in e-learning, and perhaps veer from the traditional concept discussion that’s often related to SCORM. Reusability in E-Learning When I think about reusability in e-learning, I think about objects and content that can be reused in a variety of contexts. Developers often run into this when working on large projects or in industries that involve trade-specific courseware development. My first experience with reusable assets was working with clients in the Defence sector. Often times we were working on projects for the same aircraft (although perhaps several years between projects), and it became quickly beneficial. For instance, one client had provided us with a 3D model of the aircraft, whereas another client several years later did not have access to this same model. We were able to reuse the initial model to suit the needs of the new project. Reusability also came in handy when developing component installation courses and then removal courses (we simply had to reverse the interaction, but could use the same objects). Being mindful of reusability is critical as it can save you time and money in the long run. Reusing previously established assets (for the same client, of course - in the Defence sector example, the end client was the same, whereas the contractor may have been different, so the end client ‘owned’ all of the assets) will reduce the amount of development various departments and/or individuals have to spend. Best practices for reusability might include creating your own content repository and defining a file naming convention that will make it easy for you to find what you’re looking for. If you’re extra savvy, you can create a coded database, but that might require a lot more effort than you have time for. If you work in a specific authoring tool, it may save you time on a new project to have a repository of developed themes and/or interactions; this can help shave time off in the initial prototyping phase, and provides you with an arsenal of ideas for what you might be able to do from a design perspective, and can prove invaluable if design is not your forte.

An apple a day is great, but a recent PBS national survey revealed that what teachers really want—besides an all expense paid trip to Aruba—is more access to technology in the classroom. But not just any technology—educators want web-based tools that motivate students to learn and reinforce content being taught. The biggest barrier in making this wish a reality? Cost; therefore, pointing to the need for free digital classroom resources such as online sites, tools, interactives and games. Check out the infographic shown below illustrating that teachers really do understand the value of integrating technology into classroom practices. A shout out to PBS LearningMedia for sharing this cool visual!

I’ve presented on How to Build Your E-Learning Portfolio several times over the past year, and it still amazes me how few e-learning portfolios I come across online. For this reason, I’ve decided to take a four-part approach to sharing what I know about building your e-learning portfolio. The Importance of an E-Learning Portfolio For e-learning professionals, and for many folks working in other ‘visual’ industries, a visual portfolio is essential. I said it. Essential. A portfolio will help you out if you eventually seek to change jobs, roles, or move into a freelance/contracting role, and it will quell the inevitable question from prospective employers/clients, "can we see some work samples and/or your portfolio?" Portfolios should be considered the cornerstone for every e-learning professional. In my opinion, there are three main reasons why having a portfolio is important: It highlights your capabilities; specifically with visual technologies; It can act as a visual resume. Most Instructional Designers have had a Subject Matter Expert review their Word storyboard only to say "but, I just can’t visualize it." As an ID, you know that the next phase is developing the content and media assets, but the SME just can’t get past the storyboard phase. This problem is similar to one that prospective clients have when trying to visualize how you and your abilities could work for them and their needs; and It can lead to an increase in job offers. Once prospective clients can see what you’re capable of doing, their confidence in your abilities will increase, which can help you reduce the amount of hustling you have to do. My portfolio started out with just a few items, but once it went live, I saw a dramatic increase in the amount of prospective client inquiries I had. You will never stop playing the sales person as a small-business owner, but you can significantly reduce the amount of hustling you do, and will likely be able to enjoy the luxury of being able to choose who you want to work with. Since tossing my portfolio online, I’ve been able to focus on working with clients I’m passionate about doing work with instead of scooping up anything and everything. It’s also allowed me to funnel work into the hands of other hustling independents to keep their revenue streams open when mine is at capacity. With all of that being said, I would consider investing time into building my portfolio to be a direct correlation with an increase in my quality of work life and overall job satisfaction!