Experiencing eLearning

MARCH 19, 2024

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links about once a month here on my blog. This post includes links related to chatbots, storytelling, AI literacy and prompts, character images, and closed captions. I’m experimenting with AI image tools to create images for my blog posts. This was created in Playground and edited in Affinity Designer.

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Experiencing eLearning

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

It seems counterintuitive. How do you make money by sharing expertise for free? Wouldn’t it be better to hoard your knowledge and only give it out when people pay for it? After all, you can’t pay your bills with “exposure.” While that’s true, I’ve also found that sharing generously ends up growing my business. I’m more successful as a consultant because of the reputation I’ve built by sharing my knowledge.

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Experiencing eLearning

JANUARY 16, 2024

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links about once a month here on my blog. This post includes links related to AI tools for video storytelling and summarizing research, character images, competency mapping, and task analysis. I’m experimenting with AI image tools to create images for my blog posts. This was created in Playground and edited in Affinity Designer.

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Experiencing eLearning

DECEMBER 12, 2023

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links about once a month here on my blog. This post includes research on stories and memory, games for learning, scenario-based learning, a definition of LXD, and a few AI image tools. I’m experimenting with AI image tools to create images for my blog posts. This was created in Playground.

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Experiencing eLearning

OCTOBER 10, 2023

When I present about branching scenarios, one common question is, “How do you collect feedback on branching scenarios?” That’s especially true when I talk about Twine. While I love how much time and effort Twine saves me in planning, writing, and prototyping branching scenarios, the review process has always been a little clunky. What I really wanted was something similar to Articulate Review: a way to give my reviewers a link where they can review the branching scenario and gi

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Experiencing eLearning

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. This post includes links on AI image and video tools and tips, pricing elearning and ILT development, and how to grab the attention of learners. AI image and video tools and tips Here’s a Quick Course on Creating & Editing AI Illustrated Characters Tom Kuhlmann has been posting tips and what he’s learning while creating illustrated characters with Midjourney.

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Experiencing eLearning

JULY 25, 2023

How can you use AI to write scenarios for learning? I am not an expert in AI by any stretch, but I have been experimenting with ChatGPT, Bard, and other AI tools. So far, I have found these tools helpful in generating ideas, writing first drafts, and summarizing. They work better for general knowledge tasks than really specific topics unless I provide more details to them, which makes sense.

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Experiencing eLearning

JUNE 27, 2023

When you build branching scenarios in Storyline, one of the decisions you need to make is when to create new slides and when to create layers. In my work, I find that layers are effective for feedback in a gauntlet or constrained branching structure. For everything else, I build new slides for the consequences of each choice. Using layers might seem like it saves some development time, but it can actually create more complexity (and hassle!

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Experiencing eLearning

MAY 23, 2023

How do you respond when stakeholders ask you to measure how fast learners respond to questions? How do you train for fluency when the speed and accuracy of performance truly matter? During my recent webinar on crafting better feedback for scenario-based learning, I talked about the benefits and drawbacks of using time as feedback. Measuring and assessing users on fast they respond to questions seems like good idea, right?

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Experiencing eLearning

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

Last week, an ID asked me about my writing process. Specifically, she wanted to know how I get from content like a SME “brain dump” to a finalized storyboard that’s ready for elearning development. Prior to our call, she had reviewed a number of other resources and books. Most sources she found sort of jump from “you meet with the SME and gather information” to “you write the storyboard” without explaining the thought process.

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Experiencing eLearning

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. This post includes links on AI tools, games, freelancing, top learning influencers, copyright, and more. AI tools 17 AI Tools Other than ChatGPT More options for AI tools beyond ChatGPT Tome – The AI-powered storytelling format This says “storytelling,” but it’s really an AI tool for quickly creating presentations and video.

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Experiencing eLearning

JANUARY 3, 2023

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. The links in this post include resources from two online events I attended in December: IDEAL (The Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility for Learning Conference) and the Learning Guild’s online conference on Video and Visuals for Learning.

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Experiencing eLearning

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

A reader asked, “Should you include voice over and video in branching scenarios?” As with all things instructional design, the answer is “it depends.” Most of the time, I don’t use voice over or videos for branching scenarios because it adds a lot of complexity to the development and revision. However, there are exceptions when including voice over or interactive video works better.

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Experiencing eLearning

SEPTEMBER 28, 2022

Mark Parry recently interviewed me for his podcast, Perspectives in Parryville. We talked about branching scenarios and Choose Your Own Adventure stories. Mark is an instructional designer based in Australia. His audience is primarily teachers, so this interview connects ideas from workplace training and education. This includes some discussion of the way feedback is used in branching scenarios, since feedback is an important topic for teachers as well.

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Experiencing eLearning

SEPTEMBER 20, 2022

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. This post includes links on story design, visual design and usability, tools, and templates. Story design. Strategies for Humanizing Training. Rance Green summarizes the structure for instructional story design. To sum up this structure, it looks like this: STORY > REFELECT > SOLVE > FEEDBACK Tell the story first.

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Experiencing eLearning

AUGUST 9, 2022

I recently had a lovely conversation with Dr. Luke Hobson for his podcast. We talked about everything freelance: knowing when to start, time tracking, finding clients, creating an LLC, pricing projects, making sure clients are the right fit, and more. Listen to the podcast. You can listen to the podcast here. If the player doesn’t appear below, try listening on Luke’s website.

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Experiencing eLearning

AUGUST 2, 2022

For the past several years, I’ve been using Twine to write and prototype branching scenarios. The upgrade to version 2.4 included some significant changes to the Twine user interface. While I know additional changes are planned to continue to improve the application, I upgraded to Twine 2.4.1 this week to get some first impressions. Mostly, I like the changes and new features, although I’m hoping for some additional improvements in the future.

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Experiencing eLearning

JUNE 28, 2022

Last week, I attended and presented at TICE 2022 ( Training Industry Conference & Expo ). This is the first time I have attended any Training Industry event. It was also the first time the conference has been back to in person since the beginning of the pandemic. This is a local conference for me, hosted in Raleigh, NC, about 30 minutes from home.

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Experiencing eLearning

JUNE 21, 2022

In the pilot of my Build Your Branching Scenario course, several participants picked DEI topics as the focus for their branching scenarios. This makes sense, as DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) is both a popular topic for a lot of training right now, and a topic that often involves nuanced conversations. However, DEI topics pose some particular challenges for training, especially for branching scenarios.

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Experiencing eLearning

MAY 10, 2022

Last year, I built a simple Twine chatbot in 2 hours. It simulated a customer service chat conversation. In preparation for my demo in the TLDC eLearning Tools Summit , I revisited my chatbot and made some improvements to make it look more like a real customer service chat. This is a rules-based chatbot, where users pick from a few pre-programmed choices.

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Experiencing eLearning

MAY 3, 2022

I recently had the pleasure of speaking in a webinar on instructional design careers and trends. On the panel with me was Val Quezada , ISD at Takeda Los Angeles. We answered questions about both instructional design career pathways and where instructional design may be heading in the future. Val’s background and career journey is quite different from mine, so I think it was helpful to have our different perspectives.

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Experiencing eLearning

MARCH 22, 2022

I have several upcoming events scheduled for the next few months, both online and in person. Most of my speaking engagements are related to scenarios for learning, but I also have events on workflow learning and instructional design careers scheduled. Learning Solutions Conference April 19-22. I’m speaking several times at the Learning Solutions Conference in Orlando.

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Experiencing eLearning

MARCH 15, 2022

I’ve been updating all of my posts on how to write effective voice over scripts. This review checklist summarizes all of the tips from the previous posts into a single Word document you can download and use yourself. Download the Voice Over Script Review Checklist. What’s included. Here is a summary from the checklist: Writing and Flow Read aloud the script Script flows well; no awkward or clunky sentences No overly complicated sentences Variety of sentence length No grammar errors C

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Experiencing eLearning

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

When we, as instructional designers, write scripts that are easy for voice over talent to understand, they can record and edit those scripts faster. We’ll also end up with a better end product. Following a few formatting tips for voice over scripts can make our our writing clearer and easier to use. This is part 2 in my series of posts on tips for creating voice over scripts. 1: Voice Over Scripts: Writing Style Tips 2: Formatting Tips for Voice Over Scripts (current post) 3: Voice Over Sc

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Experiencing eLearning

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

Enrollment is now open for my Build Your Branching Scenario course. Over the course of this 8-week course, you will create a branching scenario from start to finish. You’ll start with a business need or performance problem to solve. I’ll guide you through each step along the way, from planning and designing through writing, developing, and refining your branching scenario.

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Experiencing eLearning

DECEMBER 28, 2021

Today, I’m sharing two categories of my top posts of 2021. The first category is the top posts that I wrote and published this year, excluding updates of old posts. The second category includes the top posts by overall views, regardless of when I actually published them. Catch up on anything you missed during this year, or see the highlights from my archives.

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Experiencing eLearning

DECEMBER 21, 2021

Have you heard any of these objections to stories for learning? “Not everyone can be a storyteller.” “Stories are a waste of learners’ time.” “Stories don’t work for all kinds of training.” Maybe you’ve even raised some of these objections yourself. Here’s how I would respond to each of these objections. “Not everyone can be a storyteller.” Imagine you’re on the phone with someone explaining a bad day and everything we

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Experiencing eLearning

DECEMBER 14, 2021

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. This post includes links on games for learning, video captions, and how to handle “pick your brain” requests. Games for learning. “Game Making for Dummies” | HiEv Heavy Industries on Patreon. While this is about making more complex games in Twine, much of this could apply to building more complex branching scenarios and simulations too. 6 Things Video Ga

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Experiencing eLearning

NOVEMBER 9, 2021

In response to my last post on Scenarios for Boring Training Topics , Dan Epstein asked a great question : Is storytelling overkill for elearning? [Someone else in the field] says storytelling is overkill when it comes to e-learning. He proposes [very short stories] that drop learners right into the part of a story where the tension is high with only a very short introduction that sets the context.

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Experiencing eLearning

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. This post includes links on Twine, storytelling, branching scenarios, freelancing costs, resources for new IDs, and recorded conference sessions. Twine. Twine in higher ed. Lesson plans – Teaching with Twine. This post includes lesson plans for teaching students how to use Twine, either in a single 50-minute session or in two days with extra time for practicing in the tool.

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Experiencing eLearning

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. This post includes links on scenario-based learning (SBL) research, working with Twine, learning experience design (LXD), 360 images, VR resources, and elearning development time calculators. Scenario-based learning (SBL) research.

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Experiencing eLearning

SEPTEMBER 21, 2021

I had the pleasure of speaking with Sandhya Lakhanpal on her new podcast, Redefine Instruction. She launched this summer with Tim Slade as her first guest. Our conversation focused on storytelling for L&D. We discussed a range of options for using storytelling and scenario-based learning. We also talked about my journey from teaching to instructional design.

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Experiencing eLearning

AUGUST 17, 2021

It has been several years since I last added my top 10 tools for learning as part of Jane Hart’s annual survey. Some of these are my personal learning tools; others are what I use to create learning for others. You can vote for your top 10 tools for learning until August 26. These tools aren’t ranked, but they are categorized based on whether I use them to create learning for others or as a tool for my own personal development.

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Experiencing eLearning

AUGUST 10, 2021

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. This post includes links on instructional design research and principles, productivity, video, animation, visual design, an elearning example, and my article on scenario-based learning for TD Magazine. Instructional design research and principles.

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Experiencing eLearning

JUNE 15, 2021

While I often use Twine for simple text-based prototypes of branching scenarios, it’s also possible to create a more polished look and feel. With some work on the visual design, you can use Twine to create branching scenarios for end users without migrating the content to another tool for final development. In this post, I’ll build on the basics for formatting that I explained in my previous post on the Harlowe Story Format for Twine.

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Experiencing eLearning

JUNE 8, 2021

I received a question from a classroom teacher who is hoping to make the career move to instructional design. Specifically, she wanted to know how to prepare for an interview and what instructional designer interview questions to expect. Any sage wisdom? I’m brushing up on ID jargon, but want to be as prepared as possible. What questions might they ask?

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Experiencing eLearning

MAY 4, 2021

The Harlowe story format for Twine provides a number of built-in features to make it easier to enhance your stories, even if you have no experience with HTML, CSS, or Javascript. The toolbar makes these features easier to access, providing simple ways to format text, set conditional states, or manage variables. However, Harlowe has so many options that it has its own learning curve.

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