The Rapid Elearning Blog

The Rapid E-Learning Blog - beats Jeopardy

Many of the rapid elearning courses I see use whiteboards or chalkboards.  You can buy stock images of these, but it’s easy enough to create them in PowerPoint.  So today, I’m going to share a few simple ways to create your own boards.  Even if you don’t need to use them, there are some good PowerPoint tips that you could apply to other projects.

Blackboards and whiteboards are made up of a few key elements.  There’s a frame, the board area, and the assets like erasers and markers.  If you do a search online you’ll see that whiteboards typically have metal, wood, or black plastic frames. And chalkboards usually have wood frames.

These are all easy enough to create in PowerPoint.  When creating these, the key is to not get too detailed.  Too much detail can get noisy; and means you have to spend a lot more time producing the graphics.

Here are a few tutorials on how to create some display boards with a few extra production tips.  I’ve also included everything for you to download.

Tutorials:

Free Downloads

The Rapid E-Learning Blog - free downloads

Fonts of interest: here are a couple of fonts that you can download for free from other sites.  They’ll work great with the display boards.  Be sure to check the license restrictions before using.

The Rapid E-Learning Blog - free whiteboard font

Whiteboard font

The Rapid E-Learning Blog - free chalkboard font

Squeaky Chalk Sound

Hopefully, these free assets come in handy.  If you do use them, let me know.  I’d like to see what you do.

Events

Free E-Learning Resources

Want to learn more? Check out these articles and free resources in the community.

Here’s a great job board for e-learning, instructional design, and training jobs

Participate in the weekly e-learning challenges to sharpen your skills

Get your free PowerPoint templates and free graphics & stock images.

Lots of cool e-learning examples to check out and find inspiration.

Getting Started? This e-learning 101 series and the free e-books will help.



26 responses to “Create a Chalkboard Template with These Simple Tips & More Than 40 Free Graphics”

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Paulo Simões, Brian Batt, Ryan 2.0's blogroll, Daniel Taylor, Justin Tymm and others. Justin Tymm said: Justin on the wire: Create a Chalkboard Template with These Simple Tips & More Than 40 Free Graph…: Many of th… http://bit.ly/eSdDsZ […]

Great ideas!

Another quick option would be… for iPad users… to use a website: http://chalk.37signals.com

Draw up your image on their HTML5 supported chalkboard. You can then email yourself the image, or snap the page by holding the HOME and SLEEP buttons.

Another awesome post! You have incredible ideas. Thank you so much for sharing your talent and skills.

[…] Read more here: Create a Chalkboard Template with These Simple Tips & More Than 40 Free Graphics » The Rapid eL… […]

December 14th, 2010

You never cease to amaze…so simple, and yet, so interesting looking – rather than those lame built in templates. Thanks so much for all you do for the community.

December 14th, 2010

I love this idea! Especially useful in an educational setting. I am thinking of using it with my next teacher in-service day training in January. I think I will show the teachers how to use it for their own classroom. Of course all the credit will be given to you, Tom!

Tom – thank you once again. I have been subscribing to this blog for nearly four years now. In that time my graphics skills have gone from being able to manipulate clip-art – to actually creating my own graphics from scratch.

I have a number of graphics programmes on my home PC – but I now develop about 90% of my graphics within PP just because I have learnt so much from you.

My mind is already spinning with ideas for a key project where I can combine ideas reaised in last week’s hand drawn graphics with this week’s black board tip!

The idea of clipping a photo of a blackboard to create my own blackboard graphic – genius!

Thank you once again – I wish you, your loved ones and all who read this blog a safe and happy holiday period!

December 14th, 2010

Brilliant!

Lots of ideas and lots of tips in a single post… Thanks Tom.

Thanks again Tom, great stuff!

Wow! Both fonts look great. I have saved them to a folder in my hard drive, now how do I use / access them?

[…] Tom Werner on December 15, 2010 Tom Kuhlmann shows how to create chalkboard and whiteboard graphics in […]

@Jennifer: here’s a tutorial that explains how to install fonts. http://screenr.com/qI7

[…] Traduzione autorizzata tratta dal post originale di Tom Kuhlmann sul “Rapid E-Learning Blog”. Il post originale è disponibile qui […]

La traduzione autorizzata in lingua italiana di questo post è disponibile qui:

http://www.mosaicoelearning.it/blog/?p=415

WINNER – Well Done Tom, for winning an edu-blog award! Well deserved mate:)

@David: thank you

Tom,

These are great resources, thank you so much!

I’m going to share them with some family members who are educators, and who use PPT a lot. I’m hoping to encourage them and their schools to get an educational license of Studio.

What a nice holiday gift, and I’m looking forward to a New Year filled with more Articulate Awesomeness.

@jenisecook

December 19th, 2010

I appreciate your direct and practical information. It is very practical and better than the courses I have taken. Thanks!

[…] Create a Chalkboard Template with These Simple Tips & More Than 40 Free Graphics […]

December 22nd, 2010

Why won’t the Screenr videos play on my computer?

@Terry: it’s possible that Screenr is blocked by your site. You can contact IT and see if they’ll whitelist the sie. Some servers block MP4s from streaming. But your IT group should be able to tell.

Hi Tom,

Thanks for this great resource. I’ve put together a presentation using the graphics provided by you and I really happy the way it looks now. Here is the link http://slidesha.re/dEFV0U

Thanks again
Sam

I’m not able to view the Screenr videos, and IT says no… am I able to view them somewhere else???

@Helen: Perhaps you can get your IT to white list the videos if you can show them the value. Many IT groups just block all streaming sites by default. At previous organizations I’d submit a request with our IT for review and I’d get them to unblock the site.

I want to thank you very much for the PowerPoint templates and the graphics. I actually used them in a blog post and a video that I created. The video series is called “SEO Chalk Talk”. Here is a link to the video: http://youtu.be/-zysRo7Dgyg

I gave you credit at the end of the blog post and at the end of the text below the video. Going forward I will include a shout out to you at the end of the videos.

Much appreciated…

Regards!