eLearning Brothers

JUNE 28, 2010

I met Cris “the Thrifty Trainer&# at eLearningDevCon the other day and liked free eLearning resources that he has on his website. I also like his tag line, “Good training doesn’t have to be expensive. Cheap training doesn’t have to be bad.&#. It’s typically not the tool that makes good eLearning, it’s the creativity and instructional design.

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eLearning Brothers

APRIL 9, 2010

Ever been bored out of your mind while taking an online course? Of course you have. There comes a point in everyone’s life when they have to take a compliance course that they don’t like. There are 2 ways to look at this problem: 1. The learner should be responsible and find ways to motivate themselves to complete the training. 2. Course designers should create courses that are more engaging and relevant.

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eLearning Brothers

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

There is a step in the design process that seems to be rushed-over at times: Brainstorming. Many times we are presented with information that needs to be trained. We’ve probably done a similar course in the past and/or covered a similar topic. We probably have standards, templates, colors, and other various course assets in place so that we can build content more quickly.

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eLearning Brothers

JULY 12, 2010

Here is a set of 50 symbols that are used across the globe to help passengers and pedestrians. These could come in handy as you look for symbols/icons to use in your next online course. Take a look at these Universal Symbols. (They are free to download and use.). Add Flash Activities to your next course. Tags: Featured Tips & Tricks graphic design images.

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eLearning Brothers

JUNE 3, 2010

Everyone is always looking for ways to make their eLearning more interactive. There are many ways to do this. Here are just a few: 1. Interactions. There are many times when you have various concepts or “chunks&# of information on a page. You could break it into multiple pages or divide it into sections. For example use tabs and dividers so that the user only sees small parts at a time.

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eLearning Brothers

JULY 20, 2010

Maybe spelling correctly is overrated. Does it really matter if a few letters are “mixed up&# ? Isn’t the most important thing that the concept/information is transferred? In fact we’ve probably all done the activity where only the first and last letter of each word are correct and the ones in the middle are mixed up and we can still read it just fine.

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eLearning Brothers

OCTOBER 11, 2010

We’re always looking for ways to improve our eLearning content. I came across a post on eLearningWeekly about “ 5 Ways to Improve Bad eLearning &# that I wanted to share. Here are his main points and my comments on how to improve bad eLearning: 1. Open up the Navigation. I like the idea of letting the users control their own navigation. There are many times when we should just let the learn get what they want and get out.

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eLearning Brothers

JULY 7, 2010

We’d like to announce our latest interactive Flash template set: iStyle. Have you ever wanted to have a library of pre-made Flash interactions and activities? Templates that look great and could be easily integrated with your eLearning authoring software? (i.e. Articulate, Captivate, Unison, Lectora, etc.) Do you also want the source files so you can edit anything that you’d like?

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eLearning Brothers

MARCH 31, 2010

Video is really taking off in the eLearning world and can add to the effectiveness of content. However, when using video there are many things to think about. Typical steps to get video into an online course: Script the video on paper. Record (sound and audio). Edit. Compress/Render. Insert into eLearning authoring tool. Place on server. Open up access to the learners.

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eLearning Brothers

JANUARY 25, 2010

There is no doubt that graphics and images greatly improve online training content. The question is how to properly use them. I’ve come across some good articles lately and thought that I’d compile and list them here. (the list also includes some posts on graphics that we’ve done in the past.). Realistic Graphics and Learning: What’s most effective?

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eLearning Brothers

DECEMBER 14, 2010

Video can add a lot of impact to your online training. However, at time it seems a bit overwhelming to start creating and implementing video. There are a lot of things to think about: editing software, cameras, compression, streaming, storage, audio, etc. Here are a few articles that can help: Ten Myths about Video in eLearning. Tips for Using Video in eLearning.

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eLearning Brothers

JUNE 15, 2010

We are shallow people! Let me explain why I say that… The other day I was on an airplane and watched the person next to me “read&# a magazine. He basically flipped quickly through the pages and stopped occasionally on a pretty picture and usually started flipping again. At one point he stopped and seemed to read a bit. When we create eLearning we should remember that people don’t read…they scan!

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Scanning eLearning Articulate Instructional Design 114

eLearning Brothers

NOVEMBER 23, 2010

I’ve written various blogs about why gratuitous eLearning images are bad. Our images should be relevant and be used as a teaching aid. It has always been interesting to me how many “bad images&# are used in eLearning. Especially since many of us are primarily visual learners. This probably happens because typing text is a lot easier and faster than creating meaningful images.

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eLearning Brothers

AUGUST 30, 2010

Your course goes live and you’re done right? Wrong…there are always changes and updates. I really don’t like spending tons of time “maintaining&# course content. How can course updates be minimized? Here are some ideas: Speak in the Now – If you’re creating a course for something that will happen in the future why not talk about it as though it has already happened?

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eLearning Brothers

AUGUST 12, 2010

Every once in awhile I get asked, “How do I use Articulate with Moodle?&#. Well…now there’s a great answer online. MoodleTuts.com - A bunch of short video tutorials to help you with various Articulate and Moodle questions. Thanks to Dave Mozealous for starting this and also to Joe Deegan for contributing. Here are some additional design tools/resources for Articulate: Articulate Skins.

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eLearning Brothers

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

Is PowerPoint the most widely used tool for eLearning development? Should it be? It seems that everywhere I go in the eLearning world I run into PowerPoint. Most of the new authoring tools either use PPT as their backbone or offer the ability to import slides. Interface creation, navigation buttons, LMS tracking, and testing abilities are then typically added to the PPT functionality.

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eLearning Brothers

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

The look and feel (branding) of your online training is VERY important. Benefits of a good course brand. Makes an impact – Learners want courses that look good. It gives an impression of professionalism and expertise. Attracts attention – We look at things that attract our attention. Once we attract attention a learner may actually start to read our content.

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eLearning Brothers

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

I’ve come across various posts lately about handwritten fonts and they can be a great addition to an online course. Examples of handwritten fonts being used: Here are some free Handwritten Fonts: Articulate. Da Font. TripWire Magazine. Instant Shift. Great Post: Tom and the Rapid eLearning Blog on when to use handwritten fonts. Tags: Featured Instructional Design Tips & Tricks graphic design.

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eLearning Brothers

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

Master slides in PowerPoint are very powerful and they are easier than ever to do with PPT 07. When using a rapid e-Learning authoring tools that runs off PowerPoint I always start with a template that uses master slides. (or I build one to use throughout the course.). Why do I like master slides: Templates – You can create a bunch of master slides and then save it as a template.That allows you to chose from many different layouts with just one click.

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eLearning Brothers

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

Great photos help create fun and engaging training. We have recently put together packs of eLearning stock photos to help you design better training. Here are some layouts that we created to “get your creative juices flowing&#. The examples are a combination of PowerPoint course styles , Cut-Out People , and eLearning stock photos. Tags: eLearning eLearning Tips People Pictures power point backgrounds stock photos.

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eLearning Brothers

AUGUST 6, 2010

Sometimes it is very effective to add people pictures to your online courses. They could be used as a guide/narrator that directs the learner through the course or you could use people to create scenarios and graphics. Below are a few simple examples and layouts for using cut-out people pictures in eLearning. The pictures are copied into PowerPoint using pre-build eLearning course styles.

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eLearning Brothers

MAY 10, 2010

The other day I participated in a networking group and we helped other start-up companies brainstorm their businesses. One of the speakers shared ideas on branding. Branding is very important to a new company and I’d like to extend that to eLearning courses as well. Branding a course is more than just putting a logo in the corner. It’s also more than just some pretty colors.

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eLearning Brothers

OCTOBER 25, 2010

1st, 2nd, or 3rd person? Which style of writing better “connects&# with the learner? I’ve worked on a lot of courses and this question comes up quite often. Some organizations want to be formal and think that a conversational tone is unprofessional. My thought has always been that self-directed learning is a “personal&# activity. It’s just between the computer and the learner.

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Conversation eLearning Instructional Design Audio 107

eLearning Brothers

SEPTEMBER 28, 2010

We are excited to offer this free Articulate Skin! We hope you enjoy it! All we ask in return is that you spread the word. Share the link to this free Articulate skin blog post with others. Shoot out a tweet, update your status on Facebook, or if you’re feeling adventurous… publish a blog post. Here is a close-up of the free Articulate skin.

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eLearning Brothers

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

Many designers use PowerPoint to create eLearning courses. Here are some simple tips to think about when building an online course: Don’t Cram So Much Text onto a Slide. It is widely known that people don’t read online, they scan. If a user sees a bunch of text on the slide they will almost always ignore it. They need to be “enticed&# to read it.

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eLearning Brothers

JULY 7, 2010

I never thought about text expansion/contraction until I needed to have a course translated. Headings, titles, and buttons that worked fine in English suddenly ran out of space when getting translated. When creating a course that will be in multiple languages you must plan upfront for the “room&# that each language will need. Here is a great chart that gives some guidelines for text expansion/contraction.

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eLearning Brothers

APRIL 27, 2010

Need pictures of cutout people and narrators for your online course? Well, you’re in luck! We just launched 30+ new series of business people. Each pack: contains 75+ layouts. is “clipped out&# and ready to drop into your course. has multiple layouts both looking at and away from the camera. is high resolution allowing you to zoom in and still maintain quality.

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eLearning Brothers

MARCH 26, 2010

The eLearning Guild did a great job putting on this year’s Learning Solutions Conference. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth and visited my learning session. (Don’t forget about the special conference discount code to purchase our eLearning Templates.). Here is the presentation for Top 10 Do’s to Create Awesome eLearning. (There are many basic foundations of eLearing design/dev that we need to remember and think about.

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eLearning Brothers

APRIL 20, 2010

Life has “necessary evils&#. For example, yesterday I was with one of my little boys in the front yard and we were looking at the blossoms on the cherry tree. There were bees everywhere and he did not like that. To him bees were “evil&# but as we all know they are necessary. Do eLearning courses have necessary evils? I believe that they do…it’s TEXT.

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eLearning Brothers

APRIL 2, 2010

When I first got into eLearning is was all about AICC. Everyone was trying to figure out how to easily make their courses AICC compliant so that they could communicate with the Learning Management System (LMS). Then SCORM came along and AICC seemed “old school&#. Everyone was finding ways/tools to be SCORM compliant. In the end I really didn’t care which one was used as long as my courses passed data to/from the LMS.

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eLearning Brothers

SEPTEMBER 2, 2010

We’d like to work with you to create AWESOMENESS! If you want to toss around some ideas for your next online training course go ahead and contact us. Brainstorming with the Brothers is always free! Tags: Sponsors eLearning.

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eLearning Brothers

AUGUST 5, 2010

8 Flash games, 1 PowerPoint eLearning course style theme , 1 Flash Interactions Pack included in this bundle AND 1 Articulate Presenter Course Skin! These are PowerPoint and Flash based templates that are super easy to update. Each template is fully customizable in Flash and PowerPoint (we give you the source files). Easily integrate into your Articulate Presenter course.

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eLearning Brothers

MAY 21, 2010

Add a fresh, new look to your Articulate course! We are happy to announce the launch of our new Articulate Player Skins site! Many eLearning designers use Articulate Presenter software to create eLearning courses. Articulate has a standard Player (or Skin) that it uses to “wrap” the course content. A skin has all of the buttons necessary to navigate and use the course.

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eLearning Brothers

MAY 14, 2010

David Anderson over at Articulate has been doing some great screenr videos! Just watched a few on adding some great zoom and motion effects to PowerPoint. Also watched a great way to insert an Engage.swf file as a Flash object. Check out his Articulate videos. Thanks Dave! Want to spice up your Articulate courses? Try flash interactions , cut-out people pictures , and PowerPoint backgrounds.

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eLearning Brothers

APRIL 5, 2010

Everyone is asking for more training and knowledge. (Oh and by the way, it all needs to be customized for each person and be available at any time. One last thing….don’t spend any money on it either.). Well, we might not be possible to meet all of the expectations above but we can try. There has been a major shift in Learning over the past decades. Companies have gone from 100% formal classroom training to more of a blended approach.

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eLearning Brothers

MARCH 4, 2010

Do you have a glossary of terms that you’d like to have in every course? When there are additions and edits would you like to change one file and have it update every course? We’ll…if so you’re in luck! Below are the steps that I take to build Global (or Universal) Glossaries. Overview. The basic concept is that you create a glossary in Engage and then export it as a website.

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eLearning Brothers

JANUARY 26, 2010

A recent article on eLearn Magazine talked about how to make eLearning stick. At the end of the article Susan Doctoroff Landay posts her “ eLearner’s Bill of Rights “ Her point is that we need to remember our eLearner’s expectations when creating courses. Every learner has expectations but the challenge with eLearning is that we can’t see the participants and they have many different tools/ways to access our content.

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