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Tag: eLearning

Working with Images in eLearning (part 1)

As eLearning developers we regularly work with images in our projects and while we aren’t all graphic designers, it helps to have a basic knowledge of the terminology around image properties and file types which is what this post is about.

A ‘pixel’ is the unit of measurement used for digital images and when you see the size of an image, let’s say 450 x 300, the first number is always the width and the second is the height:

The resolution of an image is different and is usually expressed as pixels per inch (ppi) or dots per inch (dpi) and this describes how many pixels there are in a liner inch. When sourcing images from a photo website I look for a high ppi or dpi number:

In this example I’d choose the medium (or maybe the large) over the small as it would be a higher quality and better for resizing.

There’s two main categories of images – Bitmap and Vector – and here’s the difference between the two:

Bitmap images are made up of pixels of different colours, they often have large file sizes and when you resize a bitmap graphic larger than the original, it tends to lose quality and become grainy or pixelated.

Vector images use mathematical expressions to represent the image, they tend to have small file sizes and are scalable so when you resize them larger, which means that they don’t lose quality. However, vector images typically require software to create and edit. You may be able to edit the vector image in PowerPoint as Tom Kuhlmann describes here.

It’s also handy to know the differences between the most common image file formats so that you’ll be able to use the right type depending on your purpose.

Types of bitmap image formats:

JPEG or JPG (stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group) – supports millions of colours and are used for displaying digital photos in a compressed format. You can’t have a transparent background with a JPEG and they tend to lose quality the more times you edit and save them.

PNG (Portable Network Graphics) – an alternative to GIF images and can support millions of colours as well as transparent backgrounds.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) – only supports 256 colours but they can have a transparent background (one colour can be transparent) and can also be used for creating simple animations.

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) – great for when you want to display high quality images for printed documents.

Types of vector image formats:

EPS (stands for Encapsulated PostScript) – this format supports both bitmap and vector images and are created with drawing programs like Photoshop.

WMF (Windows Metafile) – also supports bitmap and vector images and was used for Microsoft Clip Art. These files can be edited in PowerPoint.

SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) – this is a newer format for web graphics that support interactivity on newer web browsers and is also good for animations.

So that’s a brief overview of image terminology and file formats. If you’re interested in learning more about image formats as well as visual design, Connie Malamed has a great book called ‘Visual Design Solutions’ which I referred to in putting this post together. In part 2 of working with images, I’ll share some tips (and a video) that I’ve found useful when working with images in Storyline.

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March 20, 2017
10 Blogs Every eLearning Professional Should Read

Recently my friend Ryan Tracey posted a list of 10 journals every e-learning professional should read in response to my list of 5 Books Every eLearning Professional Should Read which was in response to his 5 papers every learning professional should read (this feeling like the blogging equivalent to a game of tennis).

So I’m returning the ball with a list of blogs that are worth checking out if you are an eLearning professional and you are looking to improve your craft as each blog is written by someone working in the field. They’re a mixture of writing styles and content – sharing practical tips, showing their work and lessons learned, looking towards the future of online learning and some offer reflections on their own personal learning. Many of these folks can also be found on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The one thing that each blog has in common is that the author is making a positive contribution to the wider eLearning field (IMHO).

Here’s each of the blog authors listed in alphabetical order (click on a name to go to their site):

Kristin Anthony – Kristin also has a podcast series called ‘Dear ID’ where she interviews instructional designers

Helen Blunden – Activate Learning Solutions

Donald Clark – Plan B

Tom Kuhlmann – The Rapid E-Learning blog

Melissa Milloway Mel’s Learning Lab (Mel also writes articles via LinkedIn)

Cathy Moore – Saving the world from boring training

Clark Quinn – Learnlets

Mike Taylor – Ask. Learn. Share

Will Thalheimer – Will at Work Learning

Christy Tucker – Experiencing E-Learning

I’m also adding Ryan Tracey himself whose blog I came across a few years ago and s one of the first I started to read on a regular basis.

Feel free to add to this list via the comments below.

Image from Morguefile.

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February 19, 2017
Looking Back at 2016

Another year is almost over and it’s time to look back on the year that was. At the beginning of 2016 I chose a word for the year which was ‘Build’. Specifically, my aim was to build my skills in some different areas which I’ve listed here as well as some reflections on what I did and didn’t quite do:

Coding

I stared an online HTML 5 coding course via Code Academy which I began in earnest. There we small lesson that started with some simple programming and gradually built from there. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep up with it and it fell by the wayside but it’s still on my list of this to learn about for next year.

Webinar Delivery

My role at work changed and as a result I didn’t deliver as many webinars as I thought but before this happened I bought a copy of Donald Taylor’s ‘Webinar Master’ eBook. It’s got lots of practical tips and advice from someone who has delivered many webinars himself. It’ll be my go to resource when I start presenting more webinars.

Screencasting

Earlier this year, David Anderson ran a few screencasting challenges via E-Learning Heroes and the timing was just perfect as it gave me a chance to build some skills in this area. I wrote some initial reflections in a post Learning About Screencasting. I’ve also found that a good way to build skills in screencasting is to watch others do it and make notes – what works well, things to avoid etc.

Since the challenges ended I’ve continued to record screencasts on using Storyline and I also discovered that if you have a Google account, you also have a YouTube channel which is where I upload all my recordings. You can take a look at what I’ve created at my YouTube Channel. I plan to record more next year but include other topic areas such as learning theory and design tips.

Learning Theory

This will continue to be an area to explore for me and I came across a presentation by Donald Clark called ‘2,500 Years of Learning Theory’ which has given me some avenues to pursue.

Curation

I keep seeing curation being mentioned as an L&D skill but at the time of writing this not being able to find many examples of curated content. I started to think about curation in this post: Getting Started with Content Curation.

In a follow-up post Continuing with Content Curation I curated some posts on content curation.

I’ve also curated some content via topic area in this case accessibility in eLearning for Everyone.

I have been experimenting with some curation apps – Anders Pink, Pocket and Flipboard – they’re ok but I find that they filter the content they show so will keep playing with them because maybe I’m not using them properly?

Build Connections

This is something that I always want to do and while the number of my connections has grown I’d like to deepen those relationships by more face-to-face meet ups. I didn’t do much of this in 2016.

Fitness

My goal was to complete the City2Surf run in Sydney and while I didn’t train as hard as I should have I still completed the 14km run!

So a mixed bag in terms of building in all areas but I’m happy with the progress I’ve made and having a focus does help. I already have a word in mind for next year.

This year, I didn’t complete as many ELH challenges as I wanted to focus on other areas but here’s a couple of posts about ones that I did participate in:

4 Ideas for Combining Text and Images in eLearning

Sliding Along with the Force

Looking Closer at Images

How I created a custom Quiz style Interaction (not a challenge but Storyline related)

I also started the year with a post called Happy Same Year!? and I wonder if much has really changed at all in the world of L&D…

Thanks to everyone who has read or commented or liked or shared something from this site, I really appreciate it and I hope it was helpful. I’d like to wish you all the best for the festive season and I’ll catch you in 2017 🙂

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December 12, 2016
4 Ideas for Combining Text and Images in eLearning

E-Learning Heroes Challenge #152 – Combining Text and Images in E-Learning. The brief: This week, your challenge is to share an example to demonstrate how text and images can be used in e-learning.

For this challenge I shared four simple ideas that were all created within Storyline. Click the image below to see what I shared for the challenge:

Slide 1: Text coming out of the image

For the title page, I wanted the text to look like it was coming out of the skyline and to create this effect, there’s actually two of the same images placed exactly on top of each other. However, the image at the front has been cropped:

In the timeline, the complete image is at the bottom and the cropped at the top:

Placing the text box in the middle creates the effect that it’s coming out from behind the buildings but really it’s just coming out from behind the cropped image. There’s a ‘Fly In’ animation on the text with the duration set to 3.5 seconds and coming in from the bottom (set in Effect Options).

Slide 2: Text overlay 1

This slide full screen image with a rectangle shape containing some text) placed to the right. The shape has a ‘Fly In’ animation (1 sec duration and coming in from the right). I also made the shape slightly transparent by right-clicking on it, selecting ‘Format Shape’ and adjusting the transparency to 25%.

Slide 3: Text overlay 2

On this slide, I coloured the background pale grey, and positioned my image at the top of the slide. Then I added a rectangle that slightly covered the image and didn’t completely fill the space at the bottom. The text itself sits in a text box on top of the shape and I applied a fade animation (1 sec duration). From the ‘Effect Options’ dropdown I chose ‘By Paragraph’ which makes each paragraph of text appear separately.

Slide 4: Question

This slide wasn’t built using a quiz slide (but it could be) which meant I needed to create everything from scratch. I started with my background image and added two new states – a correct and incorrect:

For each of the new states, I went to the ‘Format’ tab and increased the brightness by 10% and recoloured the images:

Then I added four rectangles, one for the question and one for each answer. For the demo, Option C is the correct answer, so I also created a state for each option:

Lastly, I added a layer that contains a button to replay the demo (the trigger is to jump to the first slide when the button is clicked) and also prevents another answer being selected (go to ‘Layer Properties’ and tick the box next to ‘Prevent the user from clicking on the base layer’).

Then I needed to add triggers to each answer option to make it all work:

So that’s how I created each of my slides for this challenge. There were lots of other creative ideas shared by community members in this challenge and you if have ideas, please share them in the comments area below.

All images used in this demo came from Death to the Stock Photo.

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December 4, 2016
5 Books Every eLearning Professional Should Read

Even though we live in a digital world I still love reading paper books. This post has been floating around with me for a while and the idea for it came from a post by Ryan Tracey called ‘5 papers every learning professional should read’.

This post is pretty much the same but with books instead of papers. I’ve chosen each book because they’re easy to read (over a period of time rather than one sitting), they provide useful strategies that you can implement and they provide a great reference that I go back to.

I’ve listed them here in no particular order:

eLearning and the Science of Instruction by Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer

One of the first books I read when I started in eLearning and over time I’ve discovered that anything written by Ruth Colvin Clark is well worth a look. What I like about this book is the theory (working memory, cognitive load and related principles) is explained in a straightforward way and there’s practical examples based on research of what can be done to improve eLearning design.

Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen

This one also has a good mix of evidenced-based theory and ideas that can be implemented into your own designs. It looks at learning from a wide perspective – how we process and store information, how to design for skills and for knowledge as well as motivation and the learning environment. I’ve got the first edition but there’s a second edition now available.

The Accidental Instructional Designer by Cammy Bean

This book written by someone who started out much like I did – transitioning into the role of instructional designer. There were many times throughout the book that I related to Cammy’s experiences. She covers a lot of ground – different skills of an ID, working with SME’s, ideas for gaining attention, writing, visual design and meaningful interactivity – that includes avoiding what she calls ‘clicky-clicky bling-bling’.

Visual Design Solutions by Connie Malamed

Graphic design is a skill that I’ve had to work on (and continue to work on). This book is chock full of ideas to improve the visual element of your modules and looks at how to organise screen objects, working with images, typography and using imagery to enhance explanation and as part of storytelling.

Show Your Work by Jane Bozarth

The practice of showing your work is about making the stuff in your head, the ‘how-to’, visible for others to see and use. Find out more about what it means to show your work and see the many, many real examples shared by folks from all walks of life.

What do you think? What books would you add?

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November 26, 2016