In addition to being an e-learning developer, I am a magician. No, really, I am.  Yes, that kind. Mind you, you won’t find me pulling a rabbit out of a hat or anything, but I’ve been known to work a few feats of prestidigitation into some of my recent conference presentations. It’s all about matching the effect with the content of my presentation. That’s what a good corporate magician does.

I recently attended a magic lecture where the magician talked about grips, lines, and looks.  Those are the three vital components of every illusion, every trick, every effect.  As an e-learning developer, I’ve learned that grips, lines, and looks are equally important. Allow me to explain.

GRIPS – In magic, grips are all about the way you hold an object. Are you palming a coin or a sponge ball? If so, you need to hold it in such a way that your audience cannot see it.  In e-learning, grips are all about the way you share information, present it, and how you engage your learners.  It’s about how you chunk your content as well. Do you present it in one huge block so that your learners feel like they are drinking from a firehose? Or do you break it into small, manageable nuggets that your learners can gradually sip. Secondly, grips are also about how learners grasp the information and use it after they complete your course. When designing online instruction, consider how you will present the information for your learner to grip it in the most effective way possible. Finally, grips include the devices learners will use to receive your information. The type of screen your learner will use may help determine how you present the course content.

Captivate is awesome when it comes to helping your learners grip the information. You can begin with the Captivate Draft application to design your storyboard so that you engage your learners with the content, then continue developing your course in Captivate itself. You can design your course for desktop use only, or you can incorporate fluid boxes so that it can be viewed from any device. And when it comes to software simulations, you decide on “show me, tell me, let me try” or even all three methods to help your learner grasp what they need.

LINES – In magic, lines are all about the way you move an item through the air. Watch any magician and you will see that part of his presentation includes moving items gracefully through space with elegant curves. In e-learning, lines are all about the way learners experience the content throughout the course based on the way we developers have organized it. It includes interactivity as we consider whether the content presentation will be a straight line from beginning to end (linear), or if the content the learner is seeing is based on his or her actions in the course (branching). Do you provide remediation immediately after the learner makes a choice (either good or bad), or do you let the learner go down the rabbit hole (even if they’re wrong) so they can experience the ramifications of the choices they make in the course?

Captivate makes it easy to think about lines, especially when it comes to interactivity. You can achieve a high degree of interactivity even with the most basic actions included in Captivate. And as you get more proficient with the product, you can incorporate some more advanced actions to achieve an even greater level of interactivity which will allow you to create some great simulations, learning games, etc. The sky is the limit!

LOOKS – Magicians depend on direction. A lot! When they look in a certain direction, it’s because they want you to look in that direction too. It may be because that is where the magic is happening, or it may be misdirection. When they point to their right hand, it’s because they want you to look there so you don’t see what their left hand is doing. In e-learning, looks are important. I’m not talking about graphics or the “look” of the course – though those things are important. Rather, I’m talking about focusing the learner’s attention where I want them to look. If I’m creating a software simulation, looks are extremely important. Zoom features, callouts, arrows – these things are essential to show the learner exactly where they should be looking as they engage with your content. If I’m creating a soft skills course which incorporates characters changing facial expressions, I draw learners’ attention to those changes, so they can get that intrinsic feedback. If learners select the wrong item, I place the “remediation” callout next to the item they should have selected. Looks are about knowing not just what items to place on the screen, but where to place them so that they immediately draw your learners’ attention.

Captivate excels in this. Just look at all the shapes you can use for callouts. Look at all the various characters available to you to display emotion for soft skills simulation or for other course feedback. Look at how easily you can zoom into a screen, or the myriad of ways you can design your course so that learners look where you want them to look.

So, the next time you design a course in Captivate, keep these three words in mind: Grips, Lines, and Looks.  If you do, I assure you you’ll be creating Captivate magic!