It All Starts with Clear Goals

Make sure that when you work with your clients you have very clear goals.  What do they hope the course will accomplish?  From that conversation, you’ll be able to discern what the learning needs are.  This helps you build your objectives.

The main area of focus is to understand where you currently are and where you need to be.  Then map out the activities and learning experience to get from one point to the next.

Create a main objective 

Start by creating your main objective and then use that to drill down to the additional content you need to meet it.  Basically, your objectives are built on three critical questions.

• What needs to be learned?
• Who needs to learn it?
• What do they need to know before they can start?

What needs to be learned?  What you teach should be linked to real performance.  Essentially it’s all about what the learner is going to be able to DO with what they learn from the course.  Avoid using words like “understand.”  That’s not clear.  Find the basis for understanding and then build your objective around that.

Here’s a common type of objective: Understand how to edit time cards. 

This is vague because it is not aligned to a real measure.  What does “understand” mean?  A better objective is to state what the learner will be able to DO with the new information.  If they understand something, how would you know it?  Build a measurement around that.

Who needs to learn it?    Who are your learners?  Who is going to take the course?  By including this in your objective you are able to qualify potential learners and tell your client who is being taught.  Are they new employees?  Managers?  At this point you don’t need to do a full analysis of the learner.  You only want to identify the audience for the course and what they’ll be able to do after completing it.

What do they need to know before they can start to learn?  All elearning courses require some prerequisite understanding or experience. By identifying what that is, you avoid some assumptions about the learner. You can either require it prior to starting the course or you need to create the additional content to get the learner to the prerequisite level.

Think of it this way.  I give you a map and tell you to go to Seattle.  First you locate Seattle (your goal) and then you figure out where you’re at (prerequisite) so that you can chart your course.  You can’t reach your goal, if you don’t know the starting point. In the same sense, it’s difficult to teach your learners without knowing where they’re at.

Once you have your main objective, you can start to drill down.  What assumptions does your objective require you to make?  Those assumptions become the foundation for your sub-objectives.  Let’s look at the example below.

You know who is going to learn (front line managers), what they’ll learn (edit time cards), and what they need to know to learn it (ACME payroll system).

Editing time cards assumes that the learner knows how to use the ACME payroll system. Thus, if you want your learners to be successful at editing time cards, they need to know how to use the payroll system.  So you can create another objective that includes learning to use the ACME payroll system.  From there, the prerequisite might be that the person knows how to collect the time card data.  Or perhaps they need to understand the company’s timecard policies.

The key is to continue to drill down and ask what the learner needs to know prior to learning this new information.  At that point, you determine if you make it a requirement to take the course or if you’ll teach the additional content in your course.  Once you have your objectives, you can begin to collect and sort your content to meet them.

You have a lot of latitude in how you write your objectives.  You’re not stuck in any particular model.  What’s critical is that the objective is performance-based and that who the learner is and what she needs to know prior to starting is clear.

By following the approach above, you’ll align your course objectives with the overarching goals.  You’ll also communicate to your client what the course accomplishes.  And your learners understand what’s in it for them.  Once you have your learning objectives, you can begin to build the course.

When you build you courses, what do you do to determine your learning objectives?  Feel free to share that by clicking on the comments section.

Become an e-Learning Hero at Articulate Live ‘09

Get the tips, tricks, and best practices that will take your Articulate e-Learning courses to the next level at Articulate Live ‘09 in Orlando on March 9, 2009.  We’ll also be announcing the winners of our Gurus Awards 2009.  Learn more here…

Capture your subject matter expert’s expertise

Here’s a common scenario.  A subject matter expert gives you a PowerPoint that he’s used for classroom training and expects you to use that for your elearning course.  While the content may be good, it’s usually not complete.  Typically, there’s a lot of missing information trapped inside the expert’s brain.

To collect some of that information, I’ll ask the person to review the slides and then add whatever he can to the notes section.  It doesn’t need to be perfect or require a bunch of formatting.  Just review the slide and do a brain dump.  We can sort it out later.

I find this approach works well because the slides serve as a great mental trigger and outline of what they need to share.  The informality of the notes section makes it stress free and doesn’t require that the expert hand in a polished report.  Later I’m able to use that information to pull the course content together.

Create a course transcript

Some learners will not be able to hear the audio in your course.  They might have hearing disabilities or be in a work environment where listening to audio isn’t practical.  Others just prefer to read a transcript and not listen to the audio.  In those cases, you can use the slide notes section to add a transcript to your course (which a lot of people already do).

One of my favorite parts of our new software is the text formatting in slide notes.  In the past, the formatting was limited which made the transcript not as practical.  However, now you can add a lot more formatting.

If I do create a transcript, I’ll change the title of the notes tab section from “notes” to “transcript.” Depending on the type of course, I’ll also set the transcript tab to open by default.  This way the learner can see it right off the bat.

Create a glossary to define new terms on the page.

Sometimes you want to define a word or two on the slide, but you don’t want to build an entire glossary.  In those cases, use the notes section as a glossary.

In the demo below I changed the defined word color to teal and then added the definitions to the notes section, which I changed to read “Glossary.”  If you have a transcript in the notes, just put the definitions at the end of the transcript.  It’s a quick way to define words without a lot of extra work.  The user can quickly look up a word or term and you don’t have to spend any extra time to build a glossary.

Working with Slide Notes

• Use the slide notes master.   The slide notes master in PowerPoint lets you set the formatting for your slide notes that are applied across all of the slides.  This helps keep the notes consistent.  Here’s some information on how to format your slide notes in PowerPoint:
  • PowerPoint 2003
  • PowerPoint 2007
• Format notes from notes view.  Most people seem to work in the default PowerPoint layout and access the notes that way.  One of the problems with this is that a lot of the formatting you do in the notes section isn’t evident in PowerPoint. 

  Look at the image below.  If you change the font color and style, you can’t see the changes in the default “normal” view.  However looking at the same text in “notes” view, you can see the formatting.  This is the same as what you’ll see in the published course. 

• Turn off the text’s auto fit feature which will scale your text to auto fit into the text box.  Doing this will save you some time and frustration.  You can learn to do so here.  There’s nothing worse than publishing a 45-slide course only to find out that the font size in the notes section is different because it was scaled to auto fit.

The secret to rapid elearning is getting the most out of the tools you use.  Today’s tips should help you make more use of the slide notes.  If you have any tips feel free to share them with us by clicking on the comments section.

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The new hires didn’t have a problem with the job.  Instead they were all intimidated by the machine.  Every day, they were told, “This is a million dollar machine, don’t break it.”  This created so much pressure to not mess up that it slowed down their work.

It caused me to change my approach to the course.  Most of the course focused on the machine and less on the details of the job.  They learned a lot more about the parts of the machine and how it worked.  We spend the entire first week doing preventive maintenance.  By the time they actually started doing real work, they were very comfortable working on the machine.

Initially, the client scoffed when we pitched our ideas.  They wanted us to focus more on the job tasks.  However, the results were that within the first two weeks, almost all of the new hires were performing at the desired level.  

I would never have known to focus less on the job and more on the machine’s intimidation had I not spent time with the learners and better understood their world and the pressures they face.

That event was one of my best learning experiences.  It reinforced the need to meet with learners and understand their world.  It also opened my eyes to think beyond the obvious.  A big pitfall is that we tend to rest in the familiar. Without the time on the floor, I would have built a functional course, but missed the opportunity to make real improvements on their performance.

Here are some other pitfalls we can avoid if we spend some time with our learners.  

• Screen after screen of information irrelevant to the learner’s needs.  This is the biggest problem with elearning.  We have a tendency to present information rather than have the learner process it.  A more engaging approach is to drop them into real-world situations where they have to make decisions that require the use of the course’s information.  You won’t know what the best use cases are if you don’t spend time with your learners.  They’ll give you insight in how they use the information.
• Rely too much on your own intuition or experiences and end up building courses that don’t fit the learner’s needs.  This is especially common if you’re the subject matter expert.  Sometimes we lose sight of how much we know and the experience required to get there.  Hook up with new or recent learners to get a better feel for the course design. 
• Create a big course and all they need is a cheat sheet.  I’ve worked on a project that took months to complete.  By the time we rolled it out, the employees had already created simple cheat sheets and they were off to the races.  They didn’t need what we built.  Keep it simple and give them what they need when they need it. 
• Elearning doesn’t replace the need for legitimate performance support.  One of the biggest disconnects with elearning is that we tend to use it to replace the time a person needs to learn from others in a social context.  Sometime people don’t need training.  Instead they just need to be connected to others.  
• Our learners have needs we’re not aware of.  This could mean that the learners have technological limitations, physical disabilities, or a work environment that’s not conducive to taking elearning courses.  Trust me on this one.  There’s nothing worse than rolling out a big elearning project and finding out that none of the computers have sound cards.
• Miscalculate the motivations of the learner.  While we enjoy the elearning courses we produce, odds are that the learners are not quite as enthused.  Find ways to tap into the learner’s motivation.  A good starting point is to focus on performance and helping them to do something better.

To know your learners doesn’t mean that you have to canvas the floor with people in clipboards and lab coats.  At the very least, spend a few minutes talking to the people who will take the course.  If you can, talk to recent learners to get a sense of what worked for them and what insights they have to improve the process.

By getting you know your learners, you’ll avoid many pitfalls and build better courses.  Poorly designed training wastes time and potentially disrupts the work environment because it’s not really addressing the performance issues that typically instigate the training in the first place.

What pitfalls do you recommend that we avoid?  Share your ideas by clicking adding them to the comments section.

Your rapid elearning software makes it easy to record your narration.  Most of the time that works for you.  However, there are times when recording your own narration doesn’t make sense.  Today we’re going to look at when it makes sense to consider professional narration for some of your elearning courses.

A Good Voice Doesn’t Equal Good Results

“Why pay for professional narration?  Joe and Samantha have good voices.  Let’s get them to do it.”  On the surface, this sounds like a good plan.  But that might not be the case.

• Joe and Samantha have good voices but they aren’t professional narrators.  It takes more than just a good speaking voice to get the inflections and tone right.  Because of this, using Joe and Samantha requires a lot more time and retakes to get it right. 
• Your recording equipment consists of a headset microphone and a less-than-state-of-the-art laptop.  And your “recording studio” is a spare conference room.  There’s a lot of ambient office noise and a really loud air conditioner. 
• Since you’re probably not an audio expert, you are less efficient when you record.  You can’t monitor the audio while you’re recording, so you only record a portion at a time.  Stop.  Listen to it.  Re-record.  Stop.  Listen to it.  Re-record.  And so forth.
• You publish your course and send it out for review.  Despite mentioning the limitations of using in-house talent, you find that your client is not pleased with the quality of the audio.  It turns out that Joe suffers from the “popping P’s” and Samantha the snake hisses with her S’s.  On top of that, the air conditioner added a distracting hum throughout the entire audio track.  Your choice is to re-record or spend a lot of time trying to “edit it out.”

These are typical issues when recording your own narration.  Using in-house talent will usually cost you more time and produce lower quality.  For some projects, that’s OK and you can live with the results.  However, it’s not always the best course of action.

Here’s How Much Your Narration Costs

Sometimes your hands are tied and you have to work with what you have.  While your client or manager might think they’re saving money, the fact is that they probably don’t know for sure.  Many places don’t do a good job tracking the real costs of projects.  If you don’t know what you’re spending, how do you know if you’re saving money?

Rapid elearning development has a 33:1 ratio in development time.  For every finished hour, you’re probably spending about 33 hours of work in labor.  I’m just going to keep it simple and say that it takes you a week to do a project.  That’s 40 hours.  At $100* per hour, the company is spending about $4000 per project.  That’s just for your labor.

Now let’s look at the recording session.  Let’s say you get all of the recording done in two hours (a very low estimate).  It’s just you and your voiceover talent.  While you have two hours of recording time, you also have to factor in the time to prepare and some incidental time.  It’s not like you just stop your work and teleport to the conference room and then teleport right back.

We’ll say that the two hours of recording also includes an extra hour of prep time.  So, two people at three hours equals six hours of labor.  At $100 per hour, you’re looking at $600 just to do the recording.  This doesn’t include the lost productivity of using in-house talent.

Because you’re doing the recording yourself, you’ll have increased edit and review time.  If you run some quick estimates, I’m sure that you’ll find that you’re easily spending over $1000 for your free narration.   And you’re still making compromises on the quality.

How Do These Numbers Compare to Hiring a Pro?

It used to cost a lot more to get professional narration.  That’s no longer the case.  Today you can use a number of online services to post projects, screen the talent, and hire just the person you need.  And you can do so at a great cost.

In fact, most of the projects I’ve done recently have come in well under $500.  I found that not only am I getting good narration, I’ve eliminated a lot of labor because I don’t have to edit a bunch of audio files.

Most of the sites have a very simple and straightforward process.  You submit a project, set a budget, and request an audition.  I’ve had a lot of luck finding good vocal talent at very reasonable costs.  And the turnaround is very quick.

You can set a budget limit to make sure you don’t spend more than you can afford.  You’d be surprised.  I’ve submitted some projects that had a very low budget, but it seems there’s always someone willing to do the work.  Not only do I control my costs, most of the time I get the audio back within a day or two.

Of course the cost of your narration depends on how long it is and what you want.  I have submitted large projects and small projects.  Most of the smaller ones have been well below $500.  However, some of them have been much more.  Submit a script, give them your budget, and then see what happens.

When Do You Go with a Pro?

The main consideration is your project scope.  If it’s a short course with a limited audience (and the narration quality is not an issue), then it makes sense to keep it in-house.  Why spend money you don’t need to?  However, if it’s a course intended for a larger audience, then it makes sense to consider using professional narration.

If it’s a course that is going to reach your customers or go outside of the organization, I recommend getting the best narration you can afford.  An exception is if the narrator is a personality or authority that the audience expects to be part of the course.

Another benefit to working with a professional service is that it forces you to be more disciplined with your script.  You won’t have the luxury of doing multiple retakes because it will cost more.  And speaking of retakes, if you find you want to do audio edits down the road, having the pro audio makes it easier to seamlessly blend different recording sessions because the audio levels and quality is controlled.

Once you do a few projects, you’ll develop relationships with some regulars.  Because we know each other (and they know I will pay), I find that I get the projects faster and a little less expensive.  I can shoot off a quick email and get a bid in no time at all.  I trust them and know that I’ll get a quality product.  That saves me a lot of time.

It’s true that professional narration isn’t an option for everyone. Plus, some of you are quite capable and able to handle the audio recording yourselves.  However, I think you’d be surprised when you look at your real costs and compare it to what you can get with some of today’s services.  You might find that professional narration isn’t as expensive as you originally thought.  On top of that, you end up with a much higher quality product which probably lends itself to a better learning experience.

What do you think?  Do you agree?  Disagree?  Feel free to share your thoughts by clicking on the comments link.

Assessing the learner’s progress is important.  How else can we provide the best feedback or certify that the learner’s met a certain level of understanding?  That’s why we need to ask the right questions.  Avoid the following mistakes and you’ll create a more effective learning experience.

Here’s a simple quiz that demonstrates some of the mistakes I discuss below.

Click here to view quiz demo.

The questions are either too easy or downright stupid.

We’ve all seen them.  You take a quiz and there’s one good answer choice and all of the rest are obviously not right (or plain silly).  It’s like the course designer just went through the motions.  This type of quiz question does nothing to measure the learner.  What’s the point of the quiz?  Why’s it even there?  Put some thought into the quiz and make it meaningful.

• Get better wrong choices from your subject matter expert.  Sometimes the reason these types of questions exist is because you don’t get enough viable wrong answers from your subject matter expert.  So you make up stuff as filler.
• Use fewer choices.  Instead of a four or five multiple choices, just use three.  Or better yet, make it a true or false.  That means a little less work and you’re less likely to have to come up with a wasted choice.
• You don’t always need a quiz to end your course.  Not all courses require a quiz.  If you have no interest or reason to assess the learner, create an easier way to end the course.

The questions are set up as "gotcha" questions. 

I worked on a project once where the customer gave me a list of questions and half of them were trick questions.  His rationale for the trick questions was that if the learner really understood the content, they’d pick up on the nuances of the questions.  That’s nonsense!

• Don’t be an elearning fascist.  The goal’s not to make your learners look stupid or to trick them.
• Align your questions to your objectives.  Start with clear learning objectives.  Then determine how you will know that the learner has met them.  Now you can create quiz questions based on that criterion.
• Sometimes a quiz question is not the right way to measure understanding.  Don’t assume that the learner can work through all of the nuances of the new content.  If you really want them to learn the nuances, use simple scenarios or case studies instead of quiz questions. 

Questions ask about content that’s not covered in the course. 

Sometimes there’s a tendency to pack more teaching into the question.  We figure that we only have access to the learner for a short period of time, why not just add more content as we ask a question.

• Keep it simple and direct.  Use the question to assess where the learner is at that moment.  Don’t confuse the learner by adding more course content in the question.
• If the content is important, put it in the course.  Going back to the first point, if the content is critical to the learner’s understanding, then put it into the course prior to the quiz.  If you can’t find a place for it, perhaps that’s a good indication of whether or not it should be in the course in the first place.
• Use the answer feedback to build a little more understanding.  Based on the learner’s response, you’re in a position to provide more information.  If you want to give more to the learner, this is a better place than in the question.

The questions are way too wordy and make it difficult to understand. 

This is a common issue with policy training or courses that deal with regulations.  Questions that could be simple look like they were written for someone taking a bar exam.

• Limit the question to one sentence.  Try to keep the questions simple and concise.  Avoid paragraphs and adding a bunch of fluff.
• Use standard question prompts to start the question.  Who?  What?  Where?  When?  Why?  How?
• Don’t try to show off your fancy vocabulary.  Your learners come to the course at various levels of expertise and understanding.  Unless you teach certain words or concepts in the course, understand that not all of the learners will know the "fancy words."  Your best bet is to use simple or common words when possible.

The learner doesn’t know what to do to answer the question.

This issue is less to do with the question and more about providing enough direction to the learner.  Think about what you put on the screen and the directions you give the users. 

• Be consistent in how the learner interacts with the screen.  I’ve made the mistake in the past where some of my text boxes look exactly like my buttons.  This confused the learners.  Make sure that those parts of the screen used for navigation and buttons are distinct and easily recognized.
• Get rid of the junk.  The rapid elearning software gives you a lot of options and features.  If you don’t need them, get rid of the noise.  For example, if there’s no need to have a drop down list of questions, then consider turning it off.  There’s no reason to have your learners clicking around the interface when you want them focused on the question.
• Tell the learner what to do.  The user interface might seem obvious to you, but I’ve seen plenty of people get frustrated because they’re not sure what to do.  For example, if you have a drag and drop question, let the user know that they need to drag the answer to a specific location.

The goal is to assess your learner’s understanding of the course content.  By avoiding some of these common mistakes, you’ll create better quiz questions.  What are some mistakes that you’ve seen in the quizzes you’ve had to take?  Share them with the rest of us by clicking on the comments sections.

Tidbits:

• I’ll be at two conferences this week:  Learning2008 and Educause2008.  Feel free to swing by the booth and say, "Hi!"
• Flash Player 10 was released last week.  This can impact some of your older courses.  If you’re an Articulate user, check out Gabe’s post on the Word of Mouth blog.
• It’s not too late to cast your vote for your favorite elearning software.  Elearning! Magazine has opened up voting for best elearning software.  You can read more about it here and cast your vote.

Here’s the deal with return on investment (ROI).  It’s tricky.  I find that the concern is really less about ROI and more about how instructional designers can promote their value to the organization.  And considering our economic climate, that’s not a bad idea.

Here are three easy ways to help you determine your ROI and promote the value you bring to your organization.

Customer Satisfaction = Success 

I hired a neighborhood boy to mow my lawn.  I didn’t hear the mower running, so I looked outside.  He was sitting on my porch with his laptop entering data into a spreadsheet.  I asked why he wasn’t mowing my lawn.  He told me that he was trying to figure out the ROI.

"Look! I know the ROI.  I am paying you $20 to mow my lawn.  If you mow the lawn to my satisfaction, you’ll prove your value.  I don’t need you to create a bunch of charts and spreadsheets."

The same goes for elearning. Assume that the customers know what they want.  If you do what you agree to do and the customer’s happy, you have your ROI.

ACTION ITEMS

• Make a detailed agreement on what you’ll deliver.  A common problem is that we use the same words but we don’t always mean the same thing.  When working with your clients, set clear expectations and measures of success. 
• Establish a timeline that is realistic.  From my experience, this is an area that trips up a lot of projects.  The timeline is fuzzy and with that so are expectations.  Fuzzy expectations lead to a less than stellar end result, which ultimately leads to an unhappy customer.  Assume that when all is said and done, you’re to blame.  So it’s in your best interest to set a clear timeline and work to meet it or beat it.
• Do a post project debrief with your client to measure their level of satisfaction.  If you wait until the end of the year, their enthusiasm will wane and they’ll be bombarded by other people looking for end-of-year feedback.  I make it a habit to follow up right after the project is complete.  I want to know what went well and where I can make improvements for the next project.

Align the Course Outcome to a Measurable Goal 

The challenge for a lot of courses is that they aren’t tied to real performance goals.  They might have value to the organization, but it’s not always clear how.  So you end up with a lot of information-dumping and no focused performance improvements.  Your job is to get the course focused on performance.

How do you measure the ROI of a new hire training course?  If it’s an information dump, that’s hard.  However, if you tie the information to a performance goal then you have a metric to hang your hat on.  For example, new employees need more hand holding for initial IT support.  Suppose your course teaches them how to self-serve their IT issues. You can measure a drop in call frequency or IT help requests.  That is a measurable improvement and shows the impact of your course.

Ideally your course is built around a real performance goal.  If you’re not quite sure what that is, help the customer sort through their expectations.  The key question here is, "How will you know you’re successful?"  You’re looking for some metric that they use as proof of success.  Then you want to build your course to change that number.

ACTION ITEMS

• Find a metric you can use.  There’s always something.  Even if it’s taking a 30 minute course down to 15 minutes. That’s a 50% decrease in time.  Multiply that over 10 people and you’ve saved 150 minutes. :) 
• Make sure the metric is meaningful.  As you can see by the example above, percentages can be deceiving.  No one cares if you save 150 minutes.  Besides, you have to save a lot more than that if you want your CEO to get his bonus.
• Learn to be a performance consultant so you’re better able to help your clients focus on the right things.  Robinson’s book, Performance Consulting, is a good place to start.

Lower Your Production Costs 

Sometimes you have no access to the metrics that measure success.  And even if you did, trying to prove your ROI becomes too costly.  Instead of focusing on what you can’t control, focus on what you can, such as your production time and the resources needed to create a course.

I’ll benchmark my courses.  For example, a simple elearning course can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 depending on what you do.  I just split the difference and set my baseline cost at $8,000.  My goal is to bring my simple courses in under that cost.   It’s not a completely accurate number but it is a good place to start.  Your ultimate goal is to cost less than your competition.  In these tough economic times, you want to demonstrate that you are a cost-effective solution to meet the organization’s needs.

ACTION ITEMS

• Find out what your courses cost.  You don’t need to be an accountant.  Ball park the figures.  If someone challenges your numbers, let them do the math for you.  The main goal is to know what you cost the organization.  Without that number you won’t be able to prove your value.
• Benchmark your courses.  Low-end courses are usually less than $10,000.  Many of the high-end courses can costs hundreds of thousands.  It makes sense to figure out where you fit in comparison.  In tough times, training is usually an early casualty.  You want to demonstrate that you are a cost-effective solution.
• Cut production costs.  Make one of your performance goals to cut your production costs by 20%.  You’ll save money and probably find ways to become more efficient as a team.  In an earlier post, I outlined my production strategy.  I start with rapid elearning software and move up from there.  It saves time and money and frees up my more expensive multimedia programmers to do what the software can’t. 

When it comes to return on investment, you have two goals.  You want to bring value to the organization and you want show that YOU bring value to the organization.  You can do this by meeting your customer’s expectations, aligning your projects to real measurable objectives, and controlling your production costs.

I look forward to your feedback and comments.  Feel free to share them by clicking on the comments sections.

Tidbits:

• Flash Player 10 was released this week.  This can impact some of your older courses.  If you’re an Articulate user, check out Gabe’s post on the Word of Mouth blog.
• Elearning! Magazine has opened up voting for best elearning software.  You can read more about it here and cast your vote.

The subject matter experts know the content and understand the work environment.  Because of this, much of your project hinges on their time and the commitment they make to the project. The challenge is that our subject matter experts are like the rest of us and just don’t have a lot of time to spare.

Since it is so critical to your success, now’s a good time to look at some ways to manage the relationship with your subject matter expert (SME).

Don’t expect your SME to be an expert at learning theory.

I’ve been in meetings where the elearning design team goes round and round with the SME about "real learning."  They’ll throw out names like Gagne and Bloom.  A brave one might even slip in learning theorist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.  That’s not going to work.  We don’t want to come off as elitist know-it-alls.  Instead, we want to create great elearning.  Skip the name dropping.

Most likely your subject matter experts’ understanding of elearning is driven by two things:  their gut and a course structure they’re familiar with.

The biggest issue isn’t their gut instincts.  They might not know all of the ins and outs of learning theory, but they’ll have a general sense of what works and what doesn’t.   The challenge for you is that most people copy what they’re familiar with.  So you’ll get a SME who probably wants a course that looks and feels like all of the other elearning courses they’ve taken. 

Considering that a lot of elearning courses are basic click-and-read they might not be expecting more than that.  So the odds are that the course they envision is heavy on information and light on interaction.  The good thing is that most people don’t like that type of elearning, even the SME.  They just don’t know the difference.  That’s where you come in.

Present some good examples of what you think will work.

Most likely what they know about elearning is based on the elearning they’ve taken.  By showing them examples of different types of elearning, you’ll be able to shape their understanding and help create expectations for a different approach.  If you want more than a click-and-read course, you have to show them an example of something different.

Ideally you want them to focus less on the information and more on making the information meaningful.  So, don’t focus on the multimedia bells and whistles.  Instead focus on relevant interactivity.  Show them examples that demonstrate how the learner learns more through the interaction. 

But don’t expect them to sit through a 30 minute course.  Instead, point them to what you like and why you think it will be good for their course.  Also, don’t bombard them with 20 things.  A good rule of thumb is to present three treatments so that they can get their heads around the ideas and not feel overwhelmed.

Everyone is working for the organization’s success. 

The organization defines success by reaching it’s goals in a cost effective and efficient manner.  You can contribute to this.

Fundamentally, instructional design is about crafting a learning environment that produces successful results.    This means more than just converting a PowerPoint slideshow to Flash.  Success comes when you can connect the course content to the learner’s world so that the learner is able to do something new or better.

One of the best ways to save time and money on your projects is to establish clear expectations.  Like you, the SME typically doesn’t have a lot of time.  Many times, they’re not even part of the project team; they’re just told to give you information.  So working with you is an excursion away from their normal responsibilities and a drain on their limited time.  You can control the time requirements by setting clear expectations that include agreed upon timelines and action items. 

People like to be recognized.  A great way to get the SME attention and support is to send a glowing email to the person’s manager and CC the SME.  This has never failed me.  Doing this will help you when you need some of the extra time from the SME for reviews or follow up.  

Make sure that your efforts make sense.  Early in my career I was working on a course in a production environment.  As I was wowing them on the production floor with all of my fancy ideas about learning, one of the senior technicians facetiously asked, "You’re one of those college educated people, huh?"

I got it.  I over-engineered the elearning.  I tried too hard to make it "fancy" and not hard enough to make it a good course that met their needs.  Ultimately this impacts how people view your contribution.  Instead of being seen as a valued partner, you’re seen as someone they have to tolerate or worst case, a nuisance because you don’t bring real value and waste time.

A critical facet in managing your elearning project is managing the relationships with people who support it.  If you want your project to be successful, you need to establish a good working relationship with your subject matter experts.  They play a key role in the content you need, how you design your course, and whether the course succeeds or not.

What are some things you’ve done to help manage the relationship with your subject matter experts?  Leave a comment here.

So far we’ve looked at:

• How to Be More Productive When Using PowerPoint to Create E-Learning Courses
• The Hidden PowerPoint Shortcut Everyone Should Know
• 5 Must-Know PowerPoint Tips That Will Save You Time
• Build a Puzzle Animation in Just a Few Simple Steps

In today’s post, I am going to show some time-saving tips to use when working with PowerPoint shapes.  You’ll learn to apply various formatting features, make custom edits, and create the shapes you want.

Sizing Shapes

When you click on a shape, you get anchor points on the sides and in the corners.  You can click and drag these anchors to resize your objects. 

• Scale object: If you want to resize the image or object (and not mess up the aspect ratio), then press SHIFT and drag from the corners.  You’ll see that the shape resizes, but the aspect ratio stays the same.
• Resize from all sides: Holding CTRL down and dragging the mouse, resizes the shape equally from the opposite side.  Go ahead, try it.
• Perfect circle or square: If you want a perfect circle or square, select the oval/rectangle object, press SHIFT and then drag the object onto the screen.

Moving Shapes

You can move shapes on the screen with the mouse or keyboard. 

• Maintain alignment: What if you want to keep the shape in the same alignment?  Click and drag the shape while pressing SHIFT.  This allows you to move the shape up/down or left/right aligned to its current position. 
• Copy and align shapes: I use this feature a lot when I make quick duplicates of a shape.  I press CTRL + SHIFT and drag the shape to make a copy that is already aligned to the current shape. 
• Nudge objects: Instead of using your mouse, use the arrow keys.  Select your shape and then press the arrow key.  However, if you want to just nudge the shape a little, press CTRL and then the arrow.  To get more precise, zoom in and do your nudging.

Format Painter

There are a number of formatting options in PowerPoint.  For example, you can change the fill color, line color, and line style.  I won’t cover those because they’re fairly straightforward.  However, what I will cover is the format painter.

The format painter is a handy tool because it allows you to copy the formatting of one object and apply it to another.  This will save a lot of time because you can create just the right formatting for one object and with a few clicks apply it to all of the others.

Filling Shapes

When filling shapes you have a number of options.  You can fill with color, a texture, pattern, or picture.  In addition to filling the shape, you can change its level of transparency.  Today, I want to focus on two fill elements.

• Use gradient fills to create depth and visual interest.  Instead of sticking with a solid color, use a gradient fill.  This can add depth to your screen which creates more visual interest.

The image above is from a tutorial I did earlier this year.  I used a gradient fill on the brown background.  It’s a rectangle that goes from brown to white.  I also used a fill on the egg shape to give it some depth. 

• Fill shapes with pictures.  Filling shapes with pictures opens up all sorts of possibilities.  Here are some before and after images.

Create Custom Shapes

PowerPoint gives you quite a few options when it comes to shapes.  Most of the time, those are plenty.  However, there are times when you want a certain type of shape and it’s just not available.

If you want a custom shape, you can draw one using the freeform tools.  Just click on the tool and then start drawing.

Another option is to use the edit points.  It works a little different in PowerPoint 2003 than it does in 2007.  However, the basics are generally the same.  Create a shape and then modify the edit points.  You can create straight or curved edges and make as many points as you need.  It takes a little practice, but you’ll find that you’ll never lack for shapes again.

Here’s a simple example to show how you could use a custom-made object.  In this case, I wanted to add a simple curved border.  So I just converted a rectangle to a freeform object and edited the points. 

There are a lot of things you can do with the PowerPoint shapes.  The more you practice using some of these techniques the more creative you can be.  In addition, you’ll find that it speeds up your production time because you’ll be able to quickly make edits right inside of PowerPoint.

If you have some tips and tricks feel free to share them in the comments section.

There are some simple things you can do to improve your production process.   A lot of it has to do with organizing your assets, like clip art, images, and other graphics.  In this post, I’ll show you a few techniques that I use to make my production easier.

As you’re working in PowerPoint, you move objects on and off the slide.  You change fonts, align shapes, and experiment with different colors and layouts.  When you make these types of edits on your real slides, you can run into problems.  It’s easy to accidentally mess things up which cause you to spend more time fixing mistakes. That’s why I use the following techniques.

Move Objects Off Screen

Your actual slide area is only so big.  The good thing is that you’re not limited to working in just the slide area.  You can always move objects from the main slide off to the side.  When you publish your course, you won’t be able to see those objects that are not in the slide area.

So, when you want quick access to some objects or pictures, just load them on the slide and move them off to the side.

Create a Staging Area

I like to create an extra slide (or two) that I put next to the slide I am working on.  I use it as a staging area.  This allows me to work in the staging area and not mess up my real slide.  This really comes in handy because working with layers in PowerPoint can be a challenge.

For example, if I need to ungroup an object:

• I’ll create a new slide.
• Move the object there.
• Make my edits.
• Move the edited object to my real slide. 

Using the extra slide as a staging area gives you the freedom to work without messing up the real slides.  It’s not unusual for me to have multiple blank slides that I use to work on my graphics and animations.  They’re just temporary slides, so when I am done, I just delete them….OR…

Hide Your Slides

Because PowerPoint lets you hide your slides, you can create as many extra slides as you like without deleting them.  When you publish your slides, the hidden slides are not published.

• Select your slide(s)
• Right click and select "hide slide" from the menu.
• Hidden slides will be faded out and there is a slash line through the slide number.

The benefit to hiding slides is that you can create as many extra slides as you like.  You can us slides to create an instant access library.  For example, put all of your clip art and graphics on a series of easy-to-access slides.  Then hide them.  You have access to the slides when you need them and they never show up in your published course.  That saves you the time of doing a bunch of inserting of pictures and graphics.

This is also a good way to pass those assets on to someone else.  All of your graphics and images can be stored on extra slides within the project. 

Another benefit to the hidden slide feature is that you can have multiple versions of the same course.  For example, suppose you have a course for production workers and one for their supervisors.  Essentially, the courses are the same; however there are some differences that are covered in extra slides.  Don’t create two courses.  Instead, hide and unhide the slides you need and then publish the two courses from the same PowerPoint file.

Here’s a quick tutorial to show you how what I covered in today’s post works.

Click here to view the tutorial.

Using these simple tricks will help you save time and manage your project assets.  By creating hidden slides with all of your graphics, you never have to worry about losing them or messing up your real slides.  Develop the habit of using staging area slides and the hide slide feature and you’ll find that your production process becomes a little faster.

If you’re like me, when you use PowerPoint to build your rapid elearning courses, you end up doing a lot of copying and pasting of objects.  Or you seem to be inserting the same images over and over again. Well, here’s a tip that’s going to save you time and make your life a whole lot easier.  Your family will love you, coffee will taste better in the morning, and "three little birds will line up on your door step, singin’ sweet songs of melodies pure and true."

Understand the Clipboard

When you copy an object, it gets loaded into a clipboard.  The clipboard is a temporary area that holds the copied information.  This allows you to go to a different location and paste the clipboard object.

Use the Clipboard as a Temporary Library of Objects

Most people already know how to copy and paste objects on the screen.  In fact, my guess is that it is one of the most frequently used features in PowerPoint during the production process. 

What most people don’t know is that the clipboard can hold up to 24 items.  This comes in handy because you can preload it with all sorts of content.  Then when you need it, open the clipboard and paste it on the slide. 

The steps are real simple:

• Click on and copy your object: CTRL+C.  This loads it into your clipboard.

• Open your clipboard. You can find the clipboard by pressing ALT+E, then B.

• The clipboard is open and shows you all of the objects that are loaded in it.  When you need one, click on it and it will paste onto screen.  It’s as simple as that.

Check out the Tutorial

Click here to view the tutorial.

If you find that you’re always copying and pasting the same stuff, this is a time saving tip.  To really get a sense of how ii works, just watch this quick tutorial that I put together.  It gives you an idea of how using the clipboard can make production a lot faster.

Feel free to share any tips and tricks that you use by clicking on the comments section.