we love Storyline, and we love Rise, both are amazing tools, but quite different. If you are using Rise regularly, but haven’t yet tried to build something beyond capabilities of Articulate Rise, adding a Storyline block is one of the most obvious choices. We have lots of Storyline blocks that have been designed specially for Articulate Rise. We removed the navigation as Rise has its own navigation (meaning next, back, menu buttons etc). And we have made text larger and overall objects and buttons larger, so when you import them into Rise, they look great even on the phone screens. And the buttons are easily clickable even with my fat fingers :).
Yeah, so Articulate has made it very easy to bridge these two tools together. Here is a 40 second clip on how to easily import Articulate Storyline blocks into Articulate Rise and make your Rise courses more interactive and fun:

And here is a simple video on how to work with Storyline blocks and how to update the texts, images etc to make them align with your course and brand design. And also what is also important, how to import those Storyline blocks into Rise.

And if you have read so far, congratulations we have a treat for you Check out these two Storyline blocks for Articulate Rise.


Articulate Storyline block for Articulate Rise – Tabs interaction.



Articulate Storyline block for Articulate Rise – Accordion interaction.

And you can download them for free here:
Free Storyline Blocks for Articulate Rise

The post How to use Storyline blocks in Articulate Rise? appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

About a month ago, Articulate started their external experts webinar series, and I was really happy to be the first guest in a webinar hosted by one and only David Anderson from Articulate. It was really a lot of fun. And this time I tried to show what is under the hood of FasterCourse templates, and dive a bit into the whole template creation process.

You can watch the webinar in full on Articulate website here:
https://community.articulate.com/kb/storyline-tips-tricks/going-under-the-hood-of-a-fastercourse-storyline-360-course-template/1225602

However, if you prefer reading rather than listening, here are a few main points from the one hour webinar.

1) FasterCourse when creating templates, use a team of graphic designer and Storyline developer, and so far those have always been two separate people. It is possible to find people who are great at graphic design AND development, but that is not super often. So our process starts with graphic designer creating sketches, getting them approved, and then preparing production files, that include sketches with notes, icons, pictures and other assets for the development. Here are a couple of examples of real life sketches. We are Latvians, so some of the notes are in Latvian, some in English as sometimes it is easier to convey the message, as Storyline is in English and sometimes in broken English :).

2) We love to use Slide Master for Menu pages. Sometimes people cannot find where we hid the Menu page, and how to change it. Well it usually is in the Slide Master in a separate layer.

3) A great feature in Articulate Storyline, that we like to utilise a lot is “Object States”, we love to play around with the “Hover” and other states to create visual effects needed. Here is a screenshot of a real life example, where several object have been added to “Object States”.

Bonus Question

I was asked why we don’t use Powerpoint for graphic design. And to be honest I was surprised, because it never occured to me that Powerpoint is used as a graphic design tool, because in our humble opinion that is not its strongest suite. Of course if you like doing it, please continue, whatever works. But to answer the question, designers are used to Adobe Illustrator and other graphic programs like Figma, as they are easier to work with, they are more precise, and work in pixels, rather than inches. I consulted our designers about this, and here is brief answer from our design team:

Even though Powerpoint has been developing a lot lately, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe products are still the industry standard for graphic design, as they are very convenient to use, to creat logos, infographics, iconography, posters and other visual materials, that require scalability and precision, that you cannot achieve in Microsoft Powerpoint. Adobe Illustrator and similar programs allow much better control over forms, lines, text etc. Toolset allows to create simple and also sophisticated illustrations, by using gradients, masks, effects, and other tools. Illustrator works well with Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, and other Adobe Creative Cloud tools, that can be critical in complex projects, where different file types are used, and files need to be delivered to end client in a format that is convenient for him or her. Our suggestion is also to experiment with new tools like Figma for elearning design creation. As Figma has become a really logical choice, as it is one of the leading tools in the industry due to its ease of use and pricing model. However, we believe it is still easier to create illustration in Adobe Illustrator, but for the User Interface design – which is essentially elearning design, Figma is absolutely great.

Btw this is not an advertisement, meaning Adobe or Figma does not pay us for this :).

Thank you, let me know if you have any questions.

Best Regards,

Karlis

The post Going Under the Hood of a FasterCourse Storyline 360 Course Template appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

we wanted to let you know what we are up to these days. There are several new templates on their way to FasterCourse e-learning library. Here are are releasing first sketches of two of them. First one is a template set that was created from our previously released Storyline blocks for Articulate Rise, you can see them here. This template set is called Dark Rise. Partly because similar style blocks for Rise were called Dark, and partly because we already have Storyline and Captivate templates called Dark. So Ladies and Gentlemen here are the Dark Rise template set first sketches.

And the second one is a completely new template set idea, and we call it Skills template. You can see the first sketches below.

We will let you know once these are ready to download, currently they are still in the production phase! But hey, at least you know now, what is coming quite soon.

Karlis

The post New templates in the production pipeline appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

We have now more than 50 Illustrated characters available for FasterCourse users. You can see them all here: https://fastercourse.com/elearning-templates/illustrated-characters/

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No matter how creating an eLearning course ended up on your to-do list – if you are new to this, it’s very likely that you feel concerned and confused.

There’s so much that goes into producing e-learning, starting from technical aspects and ending with creating content. However, once you break it down into segments, you may find that your ‘mission impossible’ is much easier to achieve than you thought.

WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN?

A good place to start is to think about needs. First, consider the needs of the people who’ve asked you to create the eLearning course. This should be done to make sure that a course is actually necessary to achieve their goal. Sometimes it’s best not to create a course at all. Sometimes all you need is to put a poster on the wall, or make some changes in internal procedure to make the process more intuitive, rather than to drag people into mandatory training.

So, if you actually believe that you need to create a course, the first thing to consider is the goal of the course.

Ask yourself – what do you want to achieve? Be as specific as you can. For example, improving support ticket answering time by 7%, increasing customer satisfaction indicators by 10%, complying with legal obligations, making sure that 100% of all employees take and pass AML/GDPR/Food Hygiene or some other mandatory training your organization might have. If it’s not clear what the actual goal is, you should definitely work towards narrowing it down before you go any further.

Then you can move on to the needs of the learners. Think about who they are in terms of age, background, proficiency etc. as well as how they will access the eLearning. For example, whether or not they’ll want to access the training from their mobile devices, will they be able to hear audio (bandwidth, headphones etc). This knowledge will play an important role both in selecting the right technology and producing appropriate and engaging content.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CONTENT CREATION AND DELIVERY

The first thing beginners usually mix up is content and platform. A platform is also called Learning Management System (LMS), Learning Experience Platform (LXP) and other names.

A learning platform ensures user logon/authorization, tracking, assignment of learning activities or allows users to choose the learning path themselves. LMS allows all user management to be done. There are many LMSs that also include some content creation capabilities. Some of them are OK, but we advise you to consider whether they really are the best tools for this task. As in the old saying, if something is designed to work for everything, it usually is not truly exceptional at anything.

So, our suggestion is to use LMS for user management and tracking and create content in an environment specifically built for this purpose.

I will explain what I mean by that in just a second.

How to choose an LMS

Before we move on to content creation, here are 7 factors to consider if you need to select an LMS. There is a whole science behind it, but these, in our opinion, are the most essential:

1. Usability – You definitely don’t want an LMS that’s complicated and confusing, as this will have a negative impact on the learning experience.
2. Accessibility – Think about the devices and browsers that your learners will use and make sure that the LMS supports their needs.
3. Support – If the LMS is hosted by the provider, they ensure user support as well as saving and backing up data. If the LMS needs to be hosted by you, you need to be able to provide sufficient infrastructure and support internally.
4. Compliance – It’s essential to select an LMS that is compliant with the type of content objects that you want it to host (for example, SCORM).
5. Reporting – You need to consider what information you want to receive in terms of learner progress and performance. Make sure that the reporting that the LMS provides is sufficient for your needs.
6. Features – There is a variety of features that you may (or may not) need for your eLearning, such as integration of other systems, social features, visual customization and so on.
7. Pricing – Of course, affordability is also always a factor. Don’t rush into a decision before doing proper research and evaluating several options.

HOW TO CREATE E-LEARNING CONTENT?

Ok, we have now covered what an LMS (platform) is and how to select it if you need to, and, to be honest, in 9 cases out of 10, your organization already will have an LMS (platform), be it Moodle or any other, so you can manage users, and see their progress. But wait – what about the learning content? We also need to populate the LMS with actual learning content, right? Buckle up, we will cover the content creation options next.

The first thing people usually do when they have just had their LMS installed, is upload internal documents like internal procedures, guides etc, usually in PDF or Powerpoint formats.

However, let’s be honest – not many people will jump in excitement and cancel their date night to read a 50 page PDF about AML. This is where you guys come in, and say “Hold my beer, legal department with your PDFs and compliance documents! I will create something more meaningful, solving business learning needs without boring our learners to death.”

So, we have understood that nobody, and I really mean nobody, looks at Powerpoint presentations and PDFs on LMS, unless they absolutely have to.

And even if they do, usually they don’t get at least 50% of the content, as the presentations were meant for instructor led training, and without an instructor present, half of the content is not clear as there is no one who can provide context. Once we have passed this phase, we usually remember that somebody was telling us about a cool interactive course their organization had. So, we start to wonder how to create something more engaging and interactive. And then we are ready for some fun :).

Historically, the majority of the content was created by custom development, either in Adobe Flash, Javascript, or any other programming environment.

This allowed flexibility in terms of what needs to be built and how it should work. E-learning developers had all the control and could create amazing courses. The only downside was, you had to be a programmer to do it, meaning you needed to know how to code.

Another side effect was that e-learning development took forever and, even now, if you want to create e-learning from scratch you need to plan for many many developer hours in the budget, which frankly is not what everyone can afford.

Our guesstimate is that 1h of e-learning content created from scratch, by custom development in Javascript or Adapt (10 years ago we would put Flash here) will take around 200h of development time.

The rise of the authoring tools

So, the question was how to develop e-learning more affordably, faster and allow non-technical developers to participate in the process? Welcome to the world of authoring tools.

The most popular authoring tools are – Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate and Lectora. You can also take a look at iSpring, DominKnow, Evolve, Gomo, Knowbly and others.
Authoring tools come in all sizes and shapes, but, to narrow them down and put them in some common box, and trust me I am not trying to come up with a scientific definition here, Authoring tools allow non-technical developers to create interactive e-learning, with tests, click and reveals, games, drag and drops, video pages and other interactive pages that facilitate the learning process, and they also allow the e-learning course to be published in SCORM or xAPI (Tin Can) format.

A course that has been published in Scorm (or xAPI) can be uploaded to LMS, and your boss can see who has finished the training, when have they done it, how much time they have spent learning, and what was the result of the test, etc. xAPI allows lots and lots of variables to be tracked, but that calls for another blog post, so I will not go into details now.

What you need to know is that Authoring tools allow you, a non-technical developer, who does not know how to code, create amazing, fully functional and interactive e-learning courses. And, in addition, you will be able to publish these courses in SCORM or xAPI format and track your learners’ progress. Wow, let’s take a pause here!

That is quite powerful, and that has been the core of e-learning technologies for the last 10 or 15 years. It is changing now, with new more flexible approaches, but it is still very much true.

So, Authoring tools allow you to create interactive content faster, and you don’t have to be a programmer. Our guesstimate is that 1h of e-learning content created by authoring tools will take around 60h of development time.

Responsive elearning

Before we go further I wanted to clarify one more thing regarding e-learning content – Responsive courses. What the heck is that? Well, it’s quite easy actually. Historically, I mean 10-15 years ago, when we were developing e-learning content for usage on computers only, everything was very simple. Nowadays we have computers, but we also have tablets and phones, and many learners and organizations demand e-learning to work perfectly not only on desktop computers, but also tablets and phones. Which sounds great, but it also means more work for you, as you need to make sure the courses work great on those devices. Basically, any course will show on a desktop, tablet and mobile phone, the difference is, will it be Responsive or not.

So as you can see Non Responsive courses sometimes look not that great on mobile phones. Everyting is there, but sometimes it is a bit difficult to read.

via GIPHY

Responsive authoring tools

Articulate Rise is probably the most widely used Responsive authoring tool, developed by Articulate to give Articulate Storyline users and Articulate clients in general a quick way to produce good looking simple responsive courses. Adobe answered with the Adobe Captivate New version. Sounds great right? The only problem is that these are not really proper authoring tools, but more like Google forms, where you select options you like from predesigned and preprogrammed options. So basically no options for customizing unless you call changing colors customizing. You want more answer options or a different type of drag and drop, you cannot get it. Want several layers in your page, you cannot. Unless you import good old Storyline files. Articulate Rise allows Articulate Storyline object import. That allows Rise courses to be modified a bit more, and creates some kind of hybrid solution. Regarding New Adobe Captivate and previous version Adobe Captivate 2019 also known as Captivate Classic, you cannot really compare those products, Captivate 2019 is a powerful tool, a bit buggy sometimes, and takes a lot of computer resources, but gives you lots of options. New Captivate is extremely limited, you can choose from the options Adobe thought you will need, and if you want something else you cannot get it.
Going back to Articulate Rise, it is a great product, the problem with it is, you can learn to use it in 1-2h, because it is SO BASIC. There are 2 problems with it, first it is a bit weird to charge clients for using a simple google form type product, and second all Rise courses look the same. If you need to develop something really fast and it is a really basic single course – great, go with Rise. If you want to product 10, 20 or even 50 courses, please don’t use Rise, as they all will look the same. They will look ok, but the same. Here is an example.

And of course there are no external templates available for Articulate Rise or Adobe Captivate New.

Elearning templates

Returning to our discussion on how to build e-learning, building from scratch sounded fun, if you are a techie, using authoring tools, much easier, but still quite a lot of effort.

“OK 60h for 1h of e-learning content is still quite a lot, and btw my boss asked me to roll out 35 courses in the next 3-6 months, and I am a learning & development department of one, and they want me to switch to this new tool, for which they bought a license a year ago, and I have no clue how it works.”

Sounds familiar? Well, you are not the only one, we encounter these situations almost every day. What if you could build e-learning 3 times faster? And your entry to the new tool would be made easier by having preprogrammed pages that you could use, and just adjust texts, audio and video materials to your needs?

E-learning templates – allow much much faster course development, and can be a source of inspiration and learning if you are struggling with developing everything on your own.

Our experience shows that using e-learning templates is the fastest and cheapest way of building e-learning content. PERIOD.

E-learning templates are predesigned and preprogrammed pages that you can use to build your course faster, usually you just need to copy / paste texts, add audio and video materials, if you have any, delete the parts you don’t need, adjust color scheme, change logo and you are good to go.

Layers, triggers and actions have all been done for you, design has been created by a professional designer. Sounds too good to be true? Well, it is pretty good. If you have a simple course to build, or a series of simple courses, definitely consider using a template.

If you want to get a better idea of what templates look like, you can check out our library here.

The downside to using templates is – you don’t get to build from scratch, which creates some limitations to what you can do, without extensive manual rebuild of the course.

Sometimes this is good, as it limits your SMEs (Subject Matter Expert – SME) – if they need to work inside the template framework, it really speeds up the storyboard development. But, on the other hand, sometimes you want that creativity going wild, and then templates will not be your best option.

TIME FOR SOME INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Once you know how your eLearning course will be produced and where it will be hosted, it’s time to start working on content.

First, you need to collect information – depending on the situation, you may receive a document or PowerPoint presentation with information that you need to use as a starting point. Alternatively, you may have to interview subject matter experts (SMEs) or do some additional research on the topic.

Whatever the source of information, it’s likely that you’ll end up with a lot of text and little understanding of what to do with it.

However, at this point, you’ll probably have a general idea of the content that needs to be included, so the next step usually is to put together a simple structure of the course – this will give you a vague idea of what the flow of the training might be. We suggest using post-it notes, and writing a page title on each of the paper notes and sticking them to the wall. This allows for easy rearrangement of pages if you at some point will understand that the course flow needs adjustments. In our experience every course needs some kind of adjustments, so this is just a really easy way of visualizing the course structure and flow, and the adjustments can be done instantly.

Once you’ve done that, you can move on to adding bits and pieces of info to each of the topics. It doesn’t have to be elegant at this point, so try not to overthink too much and just do.

As you go through this sorting phase, you’ll already see some things that don’t fit in or seem to be missing. You can then start refining the text – editing, adjusting language (again, think about who you’re talking to) and so on.

Finally, you can start building a storyboard. This is a document (.docx, .ppt, .xlsx or any other format that you prefer) that contains not only page titles and text but also information about layouts, images, interactivity, navigation and any other details that need to be addressed before production. Click below to get a free e-learning storyboard!

Instructional design is a wonderful, yet challenging discipline, but there’s plenty of resources that provide useful tips on this subject. We have also shared some insights on instructional design issues in the FasterCourse blog.

WELCOME AND GOOD LUCK!

Whatever your journey in the eLearning world has been so far, we just wanted to let you know that it’s a great place to be!

We hope that this brief (sort of) overview has been useful and will inspire you to explore the various tools and resources that can help you produce wonderful eLearning. If you have any questions drop me a line: [email protected] and if you liked the article please share it on social media by clicking the buttons below.

The post How to Create Elearning Courses – A Beginner’s Guide appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

As instructional designers, we always want to create training that’s both useful and engaging. However, sometimes we’re very restricted in what we can do because of the content that we’re asked to deliver to our learners. In fact, the content can be so lengthy (and we’re not allowed to cut anything, of course) and complicated, that the training becomes a good alternative to counting sheep.

via GIPHY

So, even though I’ve touched on some of these aspects before, I want to look into some ways to deliver challenging elearning content without losing the interest of our learners.

GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO LOOK AT

Reading bulks of text for several pages in a row can really turn you into a zombie-like creature who’s slowly losing brain power and hope. So, your task is to make sure that you do all that’s in your power to give the learners something nice to look at.

The simplest way would be to add some images. I know there are people who believe that images can be a distraction, and it can definitely be the case if they are over-used and have nothing to do with the elearning content. However, I find that a nice image here and there can really bring some much-needed relief. Of course, it needs to be related to the content, even if it’s in an abstract, general sort of way.

It’s even better if your complicated content allows for some visualisation, such as a chart, depiction of a process or a cycle. If you have appropriate content and the capacity to turn it into something visual, seize the opportunity!

MIX IT UP

Even though adding images can be helpful, this alone might not be enough to avoid monotony. The next step would be to list all your planned page layouts in sequence and see if it doesn’t look like somebody has accidentally pasted the same thing over and over until they ran out of space.

Image by Aleksandar Cvetanović from Pixabay

Even though I know that ‘Text+Image’ or ‘Text only’ can be quite tempting options, look for ways to provide some variety in how the elearning content is placed on each page. This doesn’t have to be anything ground-breaking. For example, if the text on the page compares two approaches, you could have them side by side in two columns (an icon next to each column title could be a nice touch). If a paragraph feels like additional, good-to-know information, maybe you can exclude it from the main text and have a button that opens a pop-up. If you think about it, there are actually quite a few things you can do.

MAKE THEM DO THINGS

To take it a step further, you can go for more interactive layouts that demand the learner to click and reveal the content. This could be a page with tabs or hotspots, or even a slider, for example. This will not only make the learner do something, thus decreasing the chance of them falling asleep. It will also serve as a good solution for breaking up longer text and making the page much more good-looking and easier to perceive.

MAKE THEM THINK

At the end of the day, the goal of any training is to help people understand and learn something, so that they could become better at doing something. So, apart from thoughtful use of visuals and page layouts, you need to enable learners to check if they understand and remember what they’ve learned so far.

I am, of course, talking about knowledge checks. I believe that, especially when it comes to lengthy and/or difficult courses, it’s essential to strategically place interactions that will make the learner switch from passive into active mode of learning. Ideally, these interactions shouldn’t be just about checking if the learners remember what they read 3 minutes ago. It should be about remembering and being able to apply the knowledge.

So, whether it’s a single choice question or a more complicated gamified interaction, I strongly encourage you to think of ways you can link the information to what the learners will encounter in real life. If you’re teaching a practical skill, look for possibilities to simulate it in your elearning. If the training is about soft skills, include some realistic situations and decision-making. Although it’s nice to list some objectives at the beginning of the course, it’s these interactions that will actually show the learners how they will benefit from what they’re learning and motivate them to go on.

DO YOUR MAGIC

I am absolutely aware that the material you’re basing your elearning on may not always allow for much creativity. However, I hope that I’ve managed to show you that there’s always something you can do to make the learners’ life easier. Just start by making simple changes and additions, and I’m sure your elearning will transform into something much better than you thought it could be!

Use interactions and games

Explore hundreds of pre-built interactions, games, click & reveal, info pages and add them to your e-learning course to make it more engaging. Click the button below and see all e-learning templates!

The post How to Create Engaging Elearning Content appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

Thank you and watch this space as new stuff is coming.

Kārlis

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I believe that many of us still associate learning with a certain level of formality – the voice of a serious-looking, strict teacher, a silent classroom and the sound of people typing or writing things down. And, without even knowing it, we sometimes create the same atmosphere in eLearning. However, it’s becoming more and more clear that we can and should find ways to appeal to our learners and make them engaged in the learning process. So, let’s have a look at a few things that can help us create a more informal elearning environment.

LANGUAGE MATTERS

One of the simplest ways to make your training more relatable and easy to understand is to provide information in a language that people actually use. Of course, there are times when the content is highly technical and doesn’t leave room for more casual communication. However, if that’s not the case, there might be no need for formal words and expressions or long and complex sentences. The learners shouldn’t be spending their time trying to figure out a rarely used word or expression, or re-reading a sentence because they’ve forgotten how it began. This can be very frustrating and doesn’t help learners in any way.

Here you can see an example from one of our branching scenarios, where we’ve recreated a job interview. We tried to make it as close to reality as possible by using short sentences, exclamations and contracted forms.

A PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCE

Another aspect to consider is how you can make your learners feel like it’s made just for them. When I talk about personalization, I’m thinking about a variety of features. To begin with, you can simply have the learner enter his or her name and use it to address the learner throughout the training. Similarly, you can also offer them to pick an avatar, a theme and so on.

For more advanced personalization, you can adjust the way content is delivered. For example, you can offer a short survey or pre-test to determine which parts of the training are needed for each learner. This way, more advanced learners will be able to skip ahead and won’t have to click through content they already know.

In this fun little template that we created for Valentine’s Day, we allow the user to select one of four characters to take on a date. The content that follows is different for each character.

COMPANIONSHIP

Finally, you can create a sense of companionship by introducing a character who can be a mentor or a fellow learner. For additional motivation, the character can even be somebody who needs the learner’s help. I find that a well-thought-out character can really do a lot for learner engagement, making the learning process less dull and impersonal.

In Mission Bird, we enhanced the experience with a character who needs the learner’s help. He provides emotional responses to the learner’s choices and motivates them to do better.

THERE’S NOTHING TO FEAR

I know that some people are afraid that as soon as they will make use of a character or even slightly less formal language (e.g. contracted forms), the training won’t be taken seriously. However, I believe that none of the features that I’ve been discussing will make the training silly. If used thoughtfully, they will help the learners relate to the content and understand it better – which is our main goal!

Explore all e-learning templates

This is only a small part of our E-learning template library. Explore hundreds of course starters, games, click & reveal, info pages and test templates. Click the button below and see all of our e-learning templates!

The post Friendly Elearning: How to Build an Informal Elearning Experience appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

TO BEGIN WITH…

 
I find that the most challenging stage of elearning script writing is the moment when you’ve done your research and compiled all the information that you could get and actually need to start shaping content that can be used for your eLearning course.

Based on thoughts offered by other instructional designers as well as my own experiences, I’ve narrowed it down to three steps:

1. Just write

We’ve all heard about the infamous “writer’s block” and are haunted by it from time to time. There are sure to be as many approaches to banishing the “writer’s block” as there are instructional designers. I find that one of the simplest and most effective suggestions I’ve come across is – just start writing. Sounds silly? Maybe, but it really can help. Just think about it. If you’ve done your research, you probably already have some idea about the topics that you’ll need to cover. So, just pick one and start writing – it could be anything, and it doesn’t have to be logical or eloquent. Just keep in mind that paper (or a Word document) can bear anything – it will not start complaining about your content or send it to your colleagues, so there’s nothing to be afraid of. Whatever is wrong with your text, you can fix it later.

2. Some things must go

Something I personally struggle with is getting rid of unnecessary material. The hard truth is that not everything that is ‘interesting’ or ‘good to know’ will benefit your learners in any way. Try to be really honest with yourself and consider whether the piece of text that you’ve become so attached to really contributes to your course objectives. If it doesn’t – let it go.

3.Move stuff around

It’s good (even necessary) to have a rough outline of your course early on. However, at least for me, everything can get a bit more messy when I start writing bits and pieces of texts for my courses. When this happens, I like to bring some order into my creative chaos by color-coding the topics and then going through the texts one by one and attributing the corresponding color to each of them. After that, it’s just a matter of moving some stuff around!

FIND YOUR TONE

Another interesting aspect of script writing is how our ‘voice’ comes through in the texts. Of course, sometimes you may have strict regulations on what language should be used in a particular training. However, sometimes it’s up to you to decide how you want to talk to your learner.

I believe that there’s nothing wrong with being a bit more “stiff” and formal, just as there’s nothing wrong with being friendly and approachable, as long as your manner of writing isn’t in direct contradiction to your target audience. For example, if you’re addressing young adults, you might want to use a slightly less formal language to make the content more relatable.

However, what I find more important than the formality level you decide on is consistency. If your text is mostly formal or neutral, it’s best not to throw in a few exclamation marks or “friendly” phrases in an attempt to make it more “natural-sounding”. This is something I sometimes have difficulty with, and I find that it’s best not to force it – it’s better to be a bit more on the formal side than to leave an impression that the text has been created by several clashing personalities.

At the same time, if you don’t have a problem with producing informal writing, you shouldn’t be afraid of it. For example, there are still quite many people who believe that using contractions will make the course seem less serious. Still, others, such as the wonderful Cathy Moore, fight back, saying that using informal language can actually improve the learner’s ability to learn.

GIVE YOUR TEXT A MAKEOVER

Finally, I would like to touch on making texts easier to perceive for learners in terms of visual presentation. There are many instructional designers that stand by the idea that you should utilize all options of presenting text in more engaging ways, and I definitely agree.

However, I’m also aware that sometimes larger pieces of text are hard to avoid. Still, there are many simple things you can do to help the learners process the information you’re offering them. Here are a few things that you should always consider if you have quite a lot of text in one page:

Slice it up. Something we all know, but sometimes forget – a long text will seem much less daunting if you split it into several smaller paragraphs.

Highlight keywords. I find that using Bold formatting for important words in the paragraph makes the text a bit more user-friendly and easier to process.

Use bullet points. If you are making several points about a topic, use actual points to show it visually.

Of course, if you have access to different layouts or templates, don’t hesitate to use them if they match the content of the page. For example, if you’re describing a process, why not use a process type of template to visually improve what would otherwise be a numbered list? It’s even better if you can include a bit of interaction, such as click-reveal, when presenting information – this will encourage learners to think and become more engaged in the content.

That’s it for now, but I’ll make sure to share more thoughts on scriptwriting another time!

Use our templates for inspiration

We have built hundreds of layouts and interactivites in the past few years and we provide all demos for free. This is fantastic collection that you can use while creating script for your e-learning course. Click the button below and browse through our template demos to find some inspiration!

The post Simple Tips for Elearning Script Writers appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

Plans change

I thought that our most recent course templates – Negotiation Process and Negotiation Skills – would make for a good subject for this little case study. The interesting thing about writing content for these two templates was that initially it was intended to be a single course on negotiations. Of course, this is a big topic with many different issues to discuss. So, when the first draft of the content was finished and reviewed by a couple of my colleagues (always a good idea by the way!), the verdict was clear – this thing was just way too long. How long, you ask? It was around 80 pages and would take more than an hour to complete!

However, we did not despair (not for very long, anyway). After reviewing the material, it became clear that almost all of it was interesting and relevant, but there was just too much information to absorb in a single session. So, what we ended up doing was sorting the content into two logical batches – one describing the negotiation process and the other addressing skills that are important for a good negotiator. All it took was some time, a wall and a lot of sticky notes.

Once we had done that, we felt very relieved – the two course templates were much more digestible and the content flow improved significantly. This just goes to show that sometimes you have to change your initial plans for the benefit of the learners – and that’s okay!

Storyboarding

Once the content issues where sorted, we could move on to working on a detailed storyboard. Of course, storyboards can come in many different formats, but we usually use a simple template that you can download for free by clicking below.

At this point, our instructional designers had to figure out what layouts would best suit the content, what interactions we wanted to have and so on. So, they would first structure the text into blocks as required by the template (titles, base text, pop-ups etc.). They would then add instructions for the developers, so that they would have a clearer idea of what the end result should be (object placement, interactions, button states). This is especially important to do in cases of modified or new layouts.

Templates

In general, we strongly rely on our Light template set for our course templates because it’s clean and modern and can lend itself to a variety of topics. Furthermore, it’s also one of the richest in terms of different layouts, starting with simple info pages and ending with a wide selection of interactive pages.

There are many templates that we used just as they are. One type of content that we had to deal with on multiple occasions was bulleted lists, collections of short tips or characteristics etc. For this, we were happy to make use of such layouts as hotspots, timelines and sliders.

Another challenging case was handling content-heavy pages. Luckily, we had some good choices in our Click-reveal set, which offers a variety of tabbed interactions.

The content also inspired us to adjust some existing layouts to our specific needs.

Finally, we even came up with a few new layouts just for these course templates, such as a Case 3 page (inspired by our Corporate Mind template set), a Summary page and a Scenario intro page.

In general, we found that the templates offered us many great options and even helped us figure out what the best way to structure the content would be. However, sometimes a layout just isn’t a perfect fit, but a small adjustment can make all the difference. Of course, very specific content can also call for a custom layout, and that’s OK – after all, you already have a solid design that you can refer to when creating something new.

Images

Once the layouts are agreed on, our designer is tasked with finding images for the training. This means that he has to go through the course slide by slide and come up with images that would complement the content. Of course, if there are some tricky cases, we help him out with ideas!

We often select images for our templates and courses from online libraries that allow people to use their photos for free, both for noncommercial and commercial purposes. For the Negotiation course templates, our designer found everything we needed on Unsplash and Burst. These and many other sites really offer some great high-quality images that will make your E-learning look beautiful and professional. If you want to learn more about this, take a look at this little blog that I wrote a while back.

Final thoughts

Looking back at the process, it’s fair to say that we had our struggles. However, I find that, if you look at what you’ve done and you have a feeling that it’s just not turning into the great learning experience that you want, don’t be afraid to make changes and good things will happen. There are always new things you can try and many helpful resources that will inspire you and help you along the way!

Sounds interesting?

Do you feel like course templates might come in handy when building your next e-learning course? We have course templates about popular topics like Sale skills, Customer Service, Workplace Harassment, Data Protection, Negotiations, Business Ethics, Fire Safety, etc.

Click below to take a closer look at all course templates we’ve produced so far, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!

The post Producing an E-learning Course: A Case Study appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

This has been no easy feat, but we’re getting close to publishing our first customizable e-learning courses! So, I thought I might share some insights on what I find interesting and also challenging when working in instructional design.

Research and planning

Of course, the first step in designing a learning experience is to compile information. Well, normally the first step would be to have a discussion with the client and determine what is the goal of the e-learning, what problems need to be addressed and so on. For us, this was not the case, as we don’t have a particular client in mind. Our goal is to provide a course on a certain topic (determined via survey) that anyone could adjust to their particular needs.

Now, I have to admit that this makes things a bit complicated. When you are faced with a lot of information and have to decide what are the things you want your potential learners to know, you may feel somewhat overwhelmed, especially if the learner is a mysterious creature from an unknown place.

via GIPHY

When there is little to go on in terms of goals and limitations, I find that if I can understand the material and can learn from it, others might be able to do so, too. So, after narrowing down the information to a digestible amount, I look at it and think – what would feel like a good place to start? How are these aspects linked? What feels more basic and understandable and what requires in-depth explanations? This helps me get a clearer sense of the structure that I want the course to have, I start seeing mental images of lovely titles and subtitles floating in the air.

I also start thinking about things that would make the content more relatable. What would be the best tone to use? Maybe there are simulations or small tasks that will help more than paragraphs of plain text? In other words – anything that would help me make sure that I not only see, but also understand the material.

Of course, this is nothing new, but, when there are too few rules and conditions, I find it best to put myself in the potential learner’s shoes and imagine what information could be relevant to me, no matter what business I represent or what my role in that business is.

So, I have an info dump. Now what?

I believe that all of us are scared of presenting learners with a so-called ‘information dump’. Despite my best efforts, I sometimes end up with a lengthy, academic-style document that in no way represents the type of e-learning I want to create. Furthermore, I start doubting everything – my lovely titles and subtitles, the structure, the tasks, all of it. Does it really make sense? Or does it make sense only to me?

via Know Your Memes

This is the time to stop being a lone wolf and ask for help. A set of fresh eyes can really do miracles for your e-learning. Even if you can’t get to anyone from your target audience, it’s worth showing what you’ve done to a neutral third party who has no idea what you’re up to. If this third party just happens to be very proficient in the language that your course is written in, that’s even better – maybe they can point out some of those pesky typos and punctuation mistakes!

Templates to the rescue!

I also find that having a set of templates to look at can help a lot in terms of structure and editing. I’m definitely not saying that you should design content for a template, but having the template encourages you to make improvements. For example, if the content you wanted to show on a single slide barely fits and looks so bulky that you don’t want to read it, it might be a sign that you need to do something – remove some irrelevant words or sentences, visually emphasize the main points, split the text into smaller sections, maybe even transfer some of the content to a separate slide.

A template can also help you realize that something is missing. For example, your content is perfect for a click-and-reveal type of page, but it demands you to provide a title for each paragraph – you come up with the subtitles and suddenly it becomes much clearer what the message of each paragraph is.

In other words, templates can give you that extra motivation to take a step back and edit your course content to make it more user-friendly. So, I’ve come to see templates not only as nice layouts that contribute to the visual impact of your elearning, but also a useful instructional design tool that can improve the structure and quality of your content.

It all comes together

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that looking through your finished course is exciting and gives you a feeling of accomplishment that never gets old. The plain text has taken shape, the content flows and takes you on the experience that you set out to create – if everything falls into place, it’s really like a bit of magic! Of course, there are always challenges on the way and sometimes it is up to us to find that new approach that will help us overcome them.

What are your biggest struggles in instructional design and how do you overcome them? I would be very happy to hear about your experience!

The post Instructional design challenges appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

first of all thank you for being FasterCourse blog readers, and many of you also FasterCourse subscribers, thank you! We have lots of news coming, and I want to share our plans for the upcoming months with you, but before I do that, here is what has happened in the last few months.

New templates delivered

So far this year we have delivered several template packages for both Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate, first in the very beginning of January Freedom Valley Test arrived, you can see a screenshot and demo below.

Afterwards came not one, but actually two template packages with almost the same name “Forest” and “Forest Test”, they included everything you need to create a great looking course, course starter page templates, hotspot templates, click to reaveal templates, and other explanatory type template pages. And also amazing test templates, like single choice and multiple choice templates, as well as different kinds of drag and drops and text entry templates. See for yourself below:

Lots of new Freebies

We have to be honest, most of the new freebies came for the Articulate Storyline users, because we are active in the e-learning heroes challenges (e-learning heroes is Articulate community), and it just made sense to share them with everyone. You can see some of those here:

You can see and download all of them in our Storyline freebie section right here: Storyline freebies.

But Captivate users, you got less templates number wise, but you did get a super super nice and very useful freebie, that includes some amazing pages, like video page, single choice page and course starter page, meet the countdown freebie.

Download this one and other Captivate freebies here: Captivate freebies

Future Plans – Amazing stuff coming soon

We have lots of stuff in the development pipeline and I will try describe all of them here.

Articulate Storyline blocks for Articulate Rise

Many of you use Articulate Rise, and it is an amazing tool, super easy to learn, Responsive and quite powerful, however, no as powerful as Storyline. Besides all Rise courses look a bit similar, try building more than 10, and I am sure you will agree. But there is an easy way to improve the situation, by spicing up the Rise courses with Storyline blocks. As you might now, there is an option to create an interaction in Articulate Storyline and then import it to Articulate Rise. And we want to help you in this process by designing and building a library of Articulate Storyline blocks for Articulate Rise. They look great and we plan to launch them very soon.

Escape Room Game for Articulate Storyline

Hell yeah, this is a wonderful creation from our development team, Artis came up with a crazy idea, and Līga helped with the design, and the result is frickin awesome. You will be able to give this baby a try very soon. This game will be available in Storyline, as it is super complex and it would be very difficult to create it in Captivate.

Two Roll the Dice games for Articulate Storyline

Additionally we are working on two new games with similar game dynamics, they will be “roll the dice” type of games. Both will be for Storyline as it is quite hard to replicate this game mechanics in Captivate.

Space Quiz game for both Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline

This game is similar to “Who wants to be a millionaire?” type of game, except no millions involved, but very much fun anyway :).

New Illustrated Characters

As you know, we have not only templates and courses, but also Illustrated Characters, and there are new characters coming, you can see a preview of them here.

New Courses

Additonally we are working also on adding two new courses to our course library, these will be called “Project Management” and “Emotional Intelligence”.

As you can see lots of stuff in the pipeline, which makes us excited, and hopefully you too. We will let you know once we start rolling out these projects.

Thanks for reading and have a good day!

The post Future Plans and what we have<BR>accomplished this year so far appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

This template package will be for both Articulate Storyline 360 and Adobe Captivate. The idea with this template package is the same as for other our templates, they predesigned and preprogrammed, so you just need to copy and paste in your text, add your images and content, and you are good to go. Super fast and super efficient.

Here are some screenshots from the upcoming templates.

The post New e-learning templates coming soon – Forrest appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

We at FasterCourse are excited to announce the launch of our new elearning templates, Freedom Valley! These templates are perfect for your corporate or other training needs and are filled with amazing countryside images that give off a western vibe. But if you are not into the farming business, no worries, you can easily change all images as well as all texts of course, as these are easily modifiable templates. These templates are built for both Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate, making them versatile and easily accessible to a wide range of users. Here are some screenshots and even a demo video.

Screenshots and videos are nice, but would you like to try a full demo of the templates, and click through them by yourself? If yes check out the demos.

We understand that creating elearning content can be time-consuming and challenging, which is why we have designed these templates to make the process as easy and efficient as possible. With Freedom Valley, you can focus on creating great content while the templates take care of the design aspect. These templates come with a variety of features such as interactive elements, animations, and more, to make your elearning content more engaging and effective.

We believe that these templates will be a valuable asset for anyone looking to create high-quality elearning content. With the Freedom Valley templates, you can create a unique and visually appealing elearning experience that is sure to capture the attention of your learners.

We hope you enjoy using them as much as we enjoyed creating them.

Best,
FasterCourse Team.

Explore all e-learning templates

Explore hundreds of course starters, games, click & reveal, info pages and test templates. Click the button below and see all of our e-learning templates!

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If you’re new to e-learning, it may be difficult for you to grasp all the different options and how you can use them to bring your e-learning course to life. That’s where we come in! We’ve compiled a list of all the various template types that we use in our e-learning projects. We hope that this will be just what you need to get your creative juices flowing, so that you can create amazing e-learning!

Info pages

Course title page

Of course, everything starts with a title. The course title page layout usually contains the title as well as brief information about the training. As you know, first impression matters, so this is also your chance to grab the learner’s attention with some eye-catching visuals.

Help

One of the first things that‘s available to the learner is the Help page. The purpose of this page is to show the learner how to navigate and interact with the course content. Usually, this page features essential interactive elements and their explanations.

Menu

Another important feature is the Menu that allows the learner to see what chapters the course contains. The Menu can come in all shapes and sizes, starting with a minimalistic dropdown menu and ending with an elaborate Menu page that may feature icons or even images.

Chapter intro

The chapter intro page is used to introduce the topic and explain the overall purpose of the chapter.

Text only

Pages that feature only text can be useful if you just need to present the information and it can’t (or shouldn’t) be enhanced by visuals. However, this doesn’t mean that the page needs to be boring – it can still be arranged in ways that make it pleasant-looking and easy to perceive.

Text and image

A classic layout that features text and a complementing image. Although the concept is very simple, there are still ways you can play with this layout, for example, by adjusting the formatting of the text and the size or placement of the image.

Text and image – variations

There are also many other ways you can update the text-image layout, for example, by adding several images.

Key points

If you need to highlight just a few (usually 3-4) important points, this layout is just what you need. The key points can be separated from one another by using text formatting, text box formatting or other visual elements.

Timeline

Timeline layouts are perfect for showing the sequence of events as well as providing information about each of them. These pages are very diverse, and they can be static or feature exciting click-reveal interactions.

Process

Somewhat similar to timeline, you can also present the stages of a process in a nice way that’s easy to understand.

Hotspots

Hotspot interactions are great for providing several brief chunks of information on one topic. They’re also very useful for pointing out and providing explanations for areas on an image. The pop-ups can be of various sizes and can even include images or videos.

Case study

In these pages, you can present some general information as well as a case study or two contrasting studies/opinions.

Slider

Slider interactions are a bit more complex, but they are great for displaying a series of text chunks and, if necessary, accompanying images. If done right, it’s a wonderful interaction that the learners are sure to enjoy.

Video page

A video is a great way to engage learners, as you can communicate your message or show something in a way that text and images just can’t. Apart from the actual video, a video page can also feature some introductory text.

Simple data pages

If you need to present some data, it’s much better to show it visually instead of just describing it in the text. This is where a variety of simple, yet effective data page layouts come in.

Complex data pages

You can also add various click and reveal interactions to charts and tables, allowing the learner to explore the data in more detail.

Click and reveal – info menu

The so-called info menu layout allows you to split up a lot of content into smaller chunks. These layouts are extremely useful, as they enable you to present big amounts of text and images on one page, without overwhelming the learner.

Click and reveal – tabs

Another great way to split up text into subsections is by creating an interaction with tabs. You can experiment with the placement of the tabs as well as the size of the pop-ups to create a layout that works best for your content.

Click and reveal – other layouts

Apart from tabs, there are many other ways you can arrange clickable elements and reveal additional content. The options really are endless and will enable you to organize your content in a neat and logical way.

Glossary

If your e-learning contains a lot of terms that need to be explained, it’s very convenient to use a glossary layout where you can arrange all terms alphabetically and add explanations or even images to clarify their meanings.

Summary

If your e-learning exposes the learner to a lot of new information, you can help them process it by adding a summary page after every chapter or at the end of the theoretical part of the course.

Assessment page

Assessment pages allow the learner to reflect on certain issues or opinions.

Test pages

Test intro page

Test intro pages are usually variations of chapter intro pages that signal that the learner is about to start the practical part of the training. This is your chance to let the learner know what type and number of tasks they will need to complete, and what are the conditions for successfully passing the test.

Single choice questions

A classic way of checking knowledge – a question followed by several options, only one of which is correct.

Multiple choice questions

These are a bit more tricky for the learner, as several options can be correct.

True or false

Another way of checking your learners’ understanding of the material is to make them evaluate statements and decide whether they are true or false.

Task – choosing

There are also interesting variations on a multiple choice question. In these, the learner has to pick the right items (text blocks or images). It can be a ‘pick one out of these two’ type of question, but you can also fit quite many (for example, 9 or 10) options to choose from.

Drag and drop tasks

Developing drag and drop tasks can definitely be a bit tricky, but they can really challenge and engage the learner. There are many great options here, such as arranging items in the correct order, matching or sorting items, and even putting together puzzles.

Scenario tasks

You can also enhance the classic single choice question by adding some more information, for example, a brief dialogue, before posing the question.

Text entry

A good way to make the learner really think rather than guess is to make them type in the answer to a question or to fill in the missing words.

Hotspot quiz

You can also mix things up by combining a hotspot interaction with a series of questions. This means that the user can click on a marked area of an image and then answer a relevant question.

Video quiz

You can take the hotspot quiz a step further by integrating videos in it.

Video chat

Another interesting way of ‘dressing up’ a classic single/multiple choice test is to add modern elements to it, for example, by turning it into a simulation of a video chat.

Test results page

In this page, you can show the learners how well they’ve done in the test. If necessary, you can include their score and offer some options, such as to retake the test.

Course outro page

The final page of the course informs the learner that they have finished the training. This page can also include some useful links, contact information, as well as options to repeat or leave the course.

And then come the games…

Now that we’ve looked at all sorts of templates, starting with simple content pages and ending with complex interactions, let’s take a peek into some ideas for gamified e-learning content.

Branching

A branching scenario is great for simulating real-life situations. Usually, a branching scenario consists of a situation description, followed by a series of questions. The upcoming questions depend on the learner’s previous answers. The outcome will also differ, depending on the overall amount of successful choices. You can add a character and/or a progress bar to indicate how the learner is doing. Although a branching scenario is quite complex from an instructional design point of view, it can be a really useful learning experience for the learners.

Ice cream game

Another fun way of entering an answer to the question is by putting it together letter by letter. Get a letter wrong, and there will be consequences (as we’re not fond of violence, we replaced the classic ‘hangman’ with ice cream).

Troubleshooting

If you need your learners to properly evaluate situations, determine causes and select the best solutions, this type of interaction might be just the thing. It begins with an introduction that informs the learner about their role and the problem that they need to investigate. Then, the learner can look at some tips to gather more info. However, this needs to be done strategically, as each tip costs points. Once the learner determines the right cause, they can move on to selecting a solution.

Trivia games

‘Back to Zoo’ is one of our most colorful and fun games. It’s a trivia game where the learners need to collect as many points as they can by answering questions in 4 categories. They need to get at least 2000 points to win the game.

We’ve used a similar principle with different page layouts and overall feel in our Purple Trivia Game.

Gustav’s trip

In ‘Gustav’s trip’, your objective is to help the main character collect items for his hike. The game is basically a series of single choice questions. You gain one item for each correct answer. You need to collect all items to succeed.

Guess the words!

As the title suggests, this is a word guessing game. In the game, you are given a question and you need to type in the answers. Each answer is worth a certain amount of points. To add some pressure, there is a time limit and you can only get it wrong 3 times.

Dating game

This little game is not only adorable, but also contains several nice elements that you might find useful. First, you can select a person (in this case, a date) and read some background information about them. Then you need to pick the best things (gift and date location) for this particular person. Feedback after each selection lets you know if your choice matches the description you read earlier. This type of game is great if the learner needs to recall facts and make informed decisions.

Sports matching game

The objective of this game is quite simple – prove your knowledge by matching each piece of sports equipment to the corresponding field.

Trip around the world

This game is interesting because it features badges as a reward. The more questions the learner gets right, the better the badge that they’ll receive.

…But there’s always more!

Well, that’s it for now. We hope that you found this template list useful and inspiring! E-learning is so great because it keeps changing and offering new and exciting features all the time, so you can expect further updates to this list in the future. All the screenshots are from templates that are part of the FasterCourse template library. If you feel like seeing all of them in action you can take a look at demos.

Explore all e-learning templates

This post covered all template types, but not all templates, we have hundreds of template design variations that were not featured here. Explore hundreds of course starters, games, click & reveal, info pages and other test and quiz templates. If you want to see all the demos and explore FasterCourse template library click below.

The post E-learning Template Types appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

In this hazard’s discovery memory game, you will find several templates inside, that all support the game play, this is a flash cards game template, consisting of 18 flip cards, 9 out of them have hazards related icons, that need to be matched with the corresponding explanation, so for example “dangerous for the environment” hazard sign, needs to be matched with the corresponding explanation

There are 4 templates for Storyline and 4 templates for Captivate users, introduction page template, flash cards game template, try again page template and success page template. The built-in and custom graphics are easily adjustable to your brand colors.

Flash Cards Memory Game template – What is inside?

There are 4 template pages, first is the introduction page with the Start button. Then comes flash cards game template with 18 flash cards, lined up in 3 lines, with 6 flash cards in each line. Once you click on one of the flash cards it turns around and you can see what is hidden on the other side of the card, it is either an icon of a hazard or a name of a hazard. The Flash Card Memory games goal is to match the right pairs, so for example dangerous for the environment name, should be matched with the right icon. If you get the pair correct, it stays open and your task becomes easier, as there are less cards hidden, but if you guess wrong, the flash cards turn around again and you need to try again to open them by clicking. Usually it takes 3-5 times, till you get all of them right in the time given for this challenge. And finally there are two results pages, one with try again option if you have failed, and one success page template. If you feel this game is too challenging you can change the time limit, and add more time, and of course this is a game template, so if you don’t need 18 flash cards, but need less or more, you can adjust the game for more or less flash cards as well. And of course also all the design is customizable. So you have full control over this game template.

Flash Cards Memory game screenshots

See Full Demo

Want to see it in action? Click the button below to see a full demo of this game template!

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In this plant-themed set you will find single and multiple choice, drag & drop and text input pages with an adjustable timer functionality in each. It also includes Menu, Help and Result page templates.

There are 17 templates for Storyline and 16 templates for Captivate users. The built-in and custom graphics are easily adjustable to your brand colors. And – in case you love the design but are not into the idea of a timed test, the timer can be removed altogether! Check out the full demo or keep reading to find out more.

Single choice templates

There are 3 different single choice templates to choose from – a classic single choice layout or two variations for horizontally distributed answer options.

Multiple choice templates

Continuing on, the template offers two templates for multiple choice questions – a two column option, and a classic layout.

Drag & drop templates

If you are into interactive knowledge checks, we’ve got you covered! There are 5 drag & drop layouts in total for you to choose from – sorting, matching, and more!

Text entry templates

We also created some text entry templates, and we love the result! There are 2 text entry templates for Storyline users and 1 for Captivate users. We adjusted the design in each to suit the software, and both results are equally beautiful!

This is the Storyline option:

And this is the Captivate design:

Results slide template

Of course, no test template is complete without a results slide! Depending on how well they did on the test, the learner will get a success or fail message, and an option to try again!

Menu and Help templates

And last but not least, we created custom menu and help pages that match the theme of the template. As always, the contents of the pages can be changed and adapted to your needs!

See Full Demo

Want to see it in action? Click the button below to see a full demo of this template!

Psst… If you haven’t given into the houseplant craze this year, then this template set will definitely change that!

Explore all e-learning templates

Explore hundreds of course starters, games, click & reveal, info pages and test templates. Click the button below and see all of our e-learning templates!

The post Elearning Test Templates with Countdown Functionality appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

You can read the whole release details here.

But let’s get back to why are we so stoked about this one! Do you think it’s 360° images? They are cool and we actually took a careful look at them. But we’ll get back to that later on as it isn’t the thing we were most excited about!

Modern player customisation

Yepp, that’s right, that is the most exciting thing for us and hopefully you too! When we started to use Storyline, switching to the custom navigation and menu was the first thing we did. Simply, because we felt the player didn’t go particularly well with the visual style and content of our courses and templates. However, our mindset changed when we started to use SL360 and got introduced to the Modern player.

Modern player has great features that we appreciate and want to use, for example, accessibility tools and built-in menu. Mostly, it has a sleek, minimal and, yes, modern design. We must admit, if the Classic design stood out, the Modern one blends beautifully with almost any course.

However, as it had just two options – Dark and Light, sometimes it felt too bold. Mainly – we felt that the white one is more appealing but we also tend to use plain white background a lot. The white slide background blending in with the player wasn’t something we looked for.

The new customisation options allow us to combine the sleek look of the modern player with any course or template theme colours.

360° photos

We admit, at first we didn’t really understand or see the appeal of 360° photos. However, we played with them a bit and now we can see how they can play a significant role in engaging learners. We quickly created a few slides, exploring the options new update lets us enjoy.

You can see our quick creation below:

So, now the most important – what is great and what could be better?

We know this is a Beta function at this point. Most likely, we can hope for improvements or changes when the final version is released. We also know we haven’t tested and played with this function for a long while – just a day or two, so there can be a lot of space for us to still learn new functions or broader scope on how to use the ones we’ve discovered. However, here is our summary of things we have discovered so far:

What’s great:

• 360° images are a quick way to make awesome stuff!
• Built-in markers and hotspots allow creating effortless popups in seconds.
• Triggers are a nice addition, however, they are quite limited. We hope there will be more triggers that could interact with 360 images.
• The Content library has a huge collection of different icons to use within 360° image.
• It is nice that markers and hotspot popups can be adjusted. However, the scope of the settings could be improved.

What’s not that great:

• It seems Ctrl+Z or Undo/Redo aren’t working in the “Edit 360° image” view.
• Published course loads rather slowly and sometimes you see a blank screen where the 360° image should be. It doesn’t have this problem if a course doesn’t contain 360° images.
• Currently, it seems that only font type, size and colour can be changed for the built-in popups. It would be great if multiple text blocks or media blocks could be inserted in one popup.
• It is not possible to select multiple popups or multiple elements when editing content within 360° image.
• Right now it is not possible to add other elements in the 360° images, only on top of it. When doing this, those elements (like custom navigation or button for another popup) do not stay in a specific position within the image, but always hover on top of it.
• It is possible to choose icons (for the markers) only from the ones Storyline offers, it isn’t possible to add our own. As we typically create our own icons, this isn’t the greatest news for us.
• Formatting options are sort of confusing and lacks broader choices. Right now because it is not possible to style elements differently within one 360° images.  It is not possible to change colours of individual popups, only choose between light/dark themes or rounded/sharp corners for all of them. But you can change colours or icons for separate markers.
• There is not an option to change the ring around the marker – to remove it or at least change transparency or size.
• If the marker or hotspot is placed on the lower side of the image, sometimes it is impossible to see the full popup text.
• Looks like the built-in popup title will always stay bolded even if it was taken off.

Overall conclusion

As always, we are excited when Articulate introduces new products or features within their products. Articulate Storyline 360° is one of the main tools we work with on a daily basis, therefore we welcome updates with open arms. Modern player customisation was long-awaited, same as with some very needed bug fixes. Of course, accessibility improvements are always a must!

However, not surprisingly the most noticeable change is the 360° images. Also, as previously mentioned, we understand 360° images is a beta feature right now, so it could look quite different later on. It is likely (and hopeful) that in a year or so none of the items in the “Not that great” list would be still relevant!

The post What’s new in Storyline 360 and what we think about it appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

1. Leave ‘white spaces’ in text areas

If you open any of our responsive Captivate templates, you will quickly notice that most text fields are larger than the actual text in it. And that’s not an accident!
When you don’t leave additional space in text areas and the project is opened on a device with an unconventional screen size (i.e. a screen that is not defined as a breakpoint), the text field will be scaled and some of the text could be cut off.

For example, if you would leave a text field like this in a Desktop breakpoint that is 1000px wide:

On a screen that is 900px wide, it could turn out looking like this (‘with section’ has gone missing):

We avoid this by leaving a white space area in the text field.
In the source file it looks something like this:

As a result, it’s not cut off on a screen that is 900px wide:

2. Don’t overcrowd the slide

Filling the slide with as much content as possible can cause you to run into issues such as some objects overlapping others when they are scaled. Even if you can fit all of the content on a large screen, it might not be the case on smaller screens. We always make sure to leave enough empty space in the slide canvas.

If we were to fill the slide with a lot of content like this:

On a screen that is 800px wide, it would look like this:

Definitely not the look we want!
Shorten your content or move objects around to make some space.

We highly advise to plan the layout beforehand. Choose a slide template that matches the amount of text/content you plan to add in. If you choose a simple text image slide, yet have loads of text to input in the slide, a simple text & image template might not be what you are looking for!

Consider solutions such as:

• Sliders,
• Hotspots & popups,
• ‘Read more’ or ‘More info’ button,
• Tabs,
• Info menu,
• Flipcards, etc.

Sometimes changing the template can help you avoid these issues altogether!

3. Pay attention to object size settings

In non-responsive courses, the object size settings are pretty straightforward – pixels! In the case of breakpoints, Captivate offers 4 options: %, px, Auto and % Relative.
Size settings can be set to something different in each breakpoint. For example, you might want the picture to be scaled according to the screen size in Desktop breakpoint view, but leave the size unscaled in the Custom Mobile and Mobile Portrait breakpoints.

With time, using these settings becomes very intuitive, as you learn what works best for different objects and slide layouts. Here are some practical examples on how to choose size settings to achieve the desired result.

Object is scaled according to screen size

If you’d like the object to be scaled according to the screen size, set width to % and height to Auto.

With these settings, the object proportions will remain the same but the size will depend on the screen width. This would be recommended for images and illustrations that must be shown in full on all screens.

Object size remains the same

If you’d like the size to remain unchanged, set both width and height to px.

Both the object proportions and size will remain the same, regardless of the screen width or height. This would be useful for small objects, such as buttons, navigation bar objects, images that are just for aesthetic purposes, such as background images, or small text boxes, such as titles with just a few words. Setting the width to px and height to Auto will achieve the same effect.

Object width changes but height remains the same

If you’d like for the height of an object to remain the same but for the width to change, set the width to % and height to px.

This setting would be recommended for smartshapes that are used as a background (either for text or the entire slide) and most importantly – text boxes. Setting the text box height to px and width to % can often save you from a case of text being cut off (keeping in mind tips Nr. 1 and 2). These size settings would not be recommended for images or icons, as they can look wonky and stretched out as a result:

4. Use Smart Position anchors

In non-responsive courses, you simply set an object to be positioned at X and Y coordinates. Breakpoints make it a little more fun. In the Position tab, you can find a Smart Position checkbox. When it is enabled, you’ll see two anchor points next to each object.

You can either choose to set the anchor points against the sides of the slide or against another object. It might seem that it wouldn’t make a lot of difference but it does! For example, if we set the red box to be positioned against the left side of the slide like so:

On a screen that is 800px wide, the box will not behave exactly the way we would like:

Instead, we should position it against any of the shapes on the left:

As a result, the position of the smartshape remains correct, regardless of the screen size:

The slightest tweak in positioning can have a significant impact on the end result. With trial and error, you’ll find the correct settings and you’ll find it easier with every new slide!

5. Play around with object placement

Sometimes you might find that the content fits in the slide in the Desktop breakpoint but as the screen size gets smaller, it’s almost impossible to fit it all. That’s where slide height settings and vertical distribution comes in!
While the device height is the same in the entire project, slide height can be changed slide to slide. And it doesn’t have to match the device height.

This allows you to vertically distribute the content and insert all of the objects that otherwise would not fit in. The learner will use a vertical scrollbar to access any content that is outside of the defined screen height.

This is only the tip of the iceberg for working with breakpoints but we hope that these practical tips will help you navigate the world of breakpoints a little better. If you find yourself struggling, don’t give up on it! Play around with the objects, layouts and settings until you get the desired result. With breakpoints practice truly makes perfect!

If you are looking for amazing templates for Captivate, look no further, click on the link below!

The post 5 Tips for Working with Breakpoints in Captivate appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

Interactive maps

As the name says, this Elearning interaction contains clickable or differently interactable maps. They can be a great way to present various content. For example, locations of stores, routes, territory borders and as well as any other information that can be put on the map.

Our example

At first, for us, the maps primarily associates with travelling and journeys. You can see, travelling and adventures are close to our hearts, we already have a few adventure games in our portfolio. This time we wanted something historic. Therefore, we chose two unique historic travels and…one modern one to give the challenge more of today’s breath. Moreover, as we are proud of our Latvian roots, it seemed very fitting to praise one of our own.

How it’s built?

The template has three main views:

• intro
• selection view
• map view.

Keep reading to find out more about them in detail!

Intro pages

Intro view has a slide transition to move to the next slide – selection view. Then, the selection view contains three clickable icons with normal, selected and visited states.

Maps

The map contours are pre-made images. However, the routes are drawn in Storyline, using the Curve tool and then styling them as needed.

On the mouseover, markers display a piece of popup information. Popups are made with Storyline built-in shapes and adjusted as the content demands.

Everything is styled with some custom ship (or boat) images and Storyline animations to give it a nicer transitioning effect.

Feel free to explore the full template and use it for your own adventures!

Download for free

Want to learn more about how we built this example? Feel free to download the source file, explore it and use it for non-commercial purposes. If you would like to use this Storyline template for commercial use, please consider subscribing to the FasterCourse Storyline template library.

The post Interactive Maps Storyline 360 – An Example appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

To create this, we used Figma – it’s browser-based and a powerful design tool. And it’s for free! Therefore, we thought you would like to see in detail how our design team created the stunning backgrounds.

Step-by-step guide in the Figma

1. Set up the background

First, you’ll need to go to the Figma, log in and create a new file.

Then, draw a Frame (you can use shortcut F).

Select the desired size. In our case it is 1280px x 720px.

Choose the desired picture for background and drag it into the frame. It’s great if the picture is in the same size as the frame, but that’s ok if it’s bigger. Make sure it’s placed within the frame, not above the frame.

2. Add the shape for the effect

Make a rectangle (R) of the desired size. Enter exact dimensions on the right side of the window.

3. Format the shape

Round the corners (we entered 40).

Choose Linear gradient for fill.

Enter colors for your gradient. On one side it will be 70% transparent FFFFFF, and on the other – 10% FFFFFF.

Drag upper anchor point of the gradient to the left corner, and the lower anchor point to the right corner.

Change the Fill transparency to 70%.

4. Add the background blur

Add background blur to the rectangle from Effects panel.

Change the blur amount to 30.

5. Export the image

Select the frame.

Head to export. Enter desired values if needed and choose the file type and click Export Frame 1. It will be downloaded to your computer.

And there you have it!

We hope you enjoyed this and it will inspire you to some awesome glassmorphism-themed artwork as well!

The post How to create glassmorphism effect in Figma appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

Glassmorphism – who’s that?

Glassmorphism is a design trend that has been around a while (even since Windows Vista times!), but it has gained recent popularity. It is a blurred effect that gives an impression of frosted or blurred glass over an object behind said glass.

Artwork by Ekaterina Kaurkina on Behance

Glassmorphism and Storyline

Sadly, at this moment Articulate Storyline built-in options do not give enough reach for creative vibes to create high-quality glassmorphism effect.

Storyline can make objects transparent or semi-transparent, but it lacks the blurring options. Therefore, graphic files need to be prepared elsewhere. There are various ways to get the desired result, for example, Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, as well as various online tools.

How to create glassmorphism

As mentioned before, there are various ways how to create stunning glassmorphism examples. If you are interested in tweaking our template or making your own, we have created a guide about it. The step-by-step instructions are for awesome free online design tool – Figma.

Click here to see the blog post about it.

Our example

As told previously, the glassmorphism background effect wasn’t created in Storyline. Our design teams tools of choice were Adobe After Effects, Illustrator and a pinch of Photoshop to make everything look like we wanted. But, as said earlier, you can use also other tools to achieve same result, including Figma. We imported the final graphics in Storyline and together with some built-in objects achieved the result you can see underneath.

So let’s discuss it more in detail, shall we?

We wanted to show a different approach to the effect than previous submissions, therefore we chose video in the background and the ‘glass panel’ in front of the video.  For that, we used After Effects. The glass panel also works as a background for the text and interactive buttons. Buttons lead to the respective page where user can read more about each subsection.

Subsection pages have still glassmorphism effect and a couple of additional buttons – to navigate between subsections and to return to the menu screen. This glassmorphism effect was achieved by using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop but you can do it also in other tools, like free-access online design tool Figma. How so? Import the desired background image, add an object that will have the glassmorphism effect, on top of the background image. Add background blur to the object above the image and you are mostly done! Just tweak the blur and round the corners, add drop shadow or frame if wanted.

Rather simple and minimal Storyline build-up but what a visual! We definitely enjoy looking at those spectacular Monstera’s leaves slowly swaying so gracefully. Hope you do too!

Download for free

Want to learn more about how we built this example? Feel free to download the source file, explore it and use it for non-commercial purposes. If you would like to use this Storyline template for commercial use, please consider subscribing to the FasterCourse Storyline template library.

The post Glassmorphism Storyline 360 – An Example appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, keep reading to see some highlights as well as a full demo of info and interactive pages as well as test pages.

Education-themed info templates

We created various text and image templates, so you could find the most appropriate one for each occasion. We put special effort into finding the right images that would better suit students and we created multiple icons that you will be able to reuse throughout the course.

Education-themed interactive templates

Starting from timelines to hotspots and interactive tasks – you will find a lot of educational elearning templates in this set. All slides have modern look and they are easy to navigate and use.

Education-themed statistic templates

You will also find templates to show some data to your students. They are well integrated with the overall design and will allow presenting your data in a beautiful way. All visible charts are created with inbuilt shapes, so it would be easy for you to edit them.

Education-themed resources templates

We put an extra effort into creating multiple options for adding resources to this elearning education template set. Inside the menu, you will find additional slides with a glossary that you can update with your terms; an instructions slide to help students navigate your course, and also a resources slide where you can add external links, audio files, video files, and other downloadable files that your students might need.

Education-themed test templates

Here you will find beautifully designed test layouts for any task. Together there are 15 test slides including various drag and drops, fill-in-the-blanks, multiple choices, etc. All question slides are complemented with relatable images that you can easily replace. See some test template examples below and the full demo here.

For Educational Themed Elearning Projects

As always we provide full demos of all our templates. If you use Articulate Storyline you can see full demo of Storyline University Info pages and Storyline University Test pages.

If you use Adobe Captivate, then you can check out responsive versions of Captivate University info and interactive pages and Captivate University test pages.

Explore all e-learning templates

Explore hundreds of course starters, games, click & reveal, info pages and test templates. Click the button below and see all of our e-learning templates!

The post Elearning Education Templates for Storyline and Captivate appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

1. Monday Info Storyline Template

We are happy to see that the Monday template set has won so many hearts! The minimalistic design approach combined with various modern new layouts is exactly what our users have been looking for. This template set allows your learning content to stand out providing clean and tasteful slide layouts for all types of information.

2. AML Storyline Template

Our Anti-Money Laundering template set has been going strong for several years in a row, proving that this specific theme is still topical for elearning. This template set is a smart choice if your training deals with finance-related topics and requires you to present lots of information as well as great amounts of data.

3. Corporate Mind Template

Another one of our newcomers has made it to the TOP! This template set is a great choice if you plan to create courses about banking or finances, but it will definitely look good with any other topic too.

4. Emerald Island Template

This is one of our most extraordinary template sets and I’m happy to see that our users are not afraid to stand out! You can easily change the emerald green color to any other color and it will still look great.

5. Adventure Orange Template

This template set is staying in the TOP for the past few years and there is no wonder why – not only is it good-looking and will lend itself to any topic – it’s also very practical, providing great options for presenting different amounts of text and images as well as some engaging test templates.

6. Vectors Template

This year we updated Vectors – one of our all-time favorite template set with some new interactions and layouts and we are happy to see that it has won your attention! This template set is a smart choice for any course development because it offers many layout variations and test slides aswell.

7. Adventure Purple Template

Although the orange version is a bit more popular, the Adventure Purple is not far behind. We created two versions of our popular Adventure template and we are happy to see that both of them got into the TOP list of our most used template sets this year!

8. Early Morning Template

Last year’s number one template set has found its way into this year’s list as well! And it’s no wonder – these beautiful and vibrant templates offer many great options for structuring information in interesting and engaging ways. The set also includes several test templates, making this a great choice for any elearning project!

9. Urban Walk Template

Urban Walk is a popular choice among our users ever since we launched it and this year we upgraded it with more slides and interactions. There’s undeniably something special about the look and feel of these templates, and with so many layouts to choose from, you are sure to find something that’s perfect for your elearning content.

10. Glossary Template

Finally, the Glossary template set takes the final spot in the Storyline TOP 10. Apart from the extremely useful glossary template that gives the set its name, there are also many other wonderful and unique layouts that are sure to inspire you when creating your elearning projects.

STAY TUNED

That’s it, folks! Did your favorite make the list? Or maybe you’re still looking for that perfect template set? If so, feel free to explore hundreds of templates in our Storyline library!

The post Top 10 Storyline Templates 2020 appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

1. Corporate Mind Template

This has been one of the most downloaded template sets this year among all our users and we are really happy to see it on this TOP! It definitely attracts attention and gives any elearning course a professional look.

2. Monday Template

This beautiful template set has won many hearts including mine. The subtle tones combined with bright accent color truly brings out the best in every slide. This is a great choice for any responsive Captivate project you might have planned this year.

3. Light Fluid Boxes Template

It looks like quite a few of our Captivate users are enjoying the fluid box feature. With that in mind, we designed our Light Fluid Box template set, and we’re happy to see that many of you find it useful!

4. AML Template

Our Anti-Money Laundering template set has been going strong for several years in a row, proving that this specific theme is still topical for elearning. This is a non-responsive version, but we also created a shorter version of this template set for responsive projects, so you would be able to choose what’s best for you.

5. Early Morning Template

This template set won our last year’s Captivate template TOP and it is still going strong! Many beautifully designed layouts created in a responsive Captivate version will help you create outstanding elearning courses for all learners out there.

6. Urban Walk Template

Another template set that has been getting a lot of love for the second year in a row! This year we upgraded the Urban Walk template set and now it has even more interactive slides that you can use to build mobile-friendly courses in Captivate!

7. Vectors Template

This year we also updated Vectors – one of our all-time favorite template set with some new interactions and layouts and we are happy to see that it has won your attention! This template set is a smart choice for any course development because it offers many layout variations and test slides as well.

8. Emerald Island Template

This is one of our most extraordinary template sets and I’m happy to see that our users are not afraid to stand out! And can you believe it’s also responsive? It indeed was a challenge, but our talented developers managed to keep the beautiful design even on the smallest mobile devices.

9. Card Game Template

This is our newest game template for Captivate users and we are happy to see it has made the TOP! This is a simple drag and drop game that you can easily adapt to your own needs.

10. Mission Bird Template

Our lovely Mission Bird template set has also got into this year’s top! We added a little gamification to this template set, so you would be able to create engaging and personalized activities for your learners!

STAY TUNED

That’s it, folks! Did your favorite make the list? Or maybe you’re still looking for that perfect template set? If so, feel free to explore hundreds of templates in our Captivate library!

The post Top 10 Captivate Templates 2020 appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

We sometimes get this question – ‘If I am a subscriber to FasterCourse template library with an active subscription how do I download the latest additions to the template library?’

So we made a quick guide, see below:

1. Sign in to your account

When you purchased the template library you received login information to your inbox (check the spam folder if you can’t find it). Feel free to change the password under Profile / Settings.

2. Click Profile / Download files

Under your Profile, you will see a new link – Download Files. Click on and it will take you to a new page. This page is only available when you are logged in and have an active subscription.

3. Download template files

Here you will find all downloadable files that are available for your subscription plan. Scroll down to find all categories and click on the DOWNLOAD button to get the template files.

4. Extract the files

Download the templates that you need and you will find them in your Download folder. Template files are zipped folders, so extract the folder to access the template files.

5. Template files

Inside the template files you will find the source file for the chosen tool and design files. Design files consist of font that is used in the template and a folder with SVG files. SVG files allow you to easily edit colors for specific design elements (icons, unique shapes, etc.) There is also a guide on how to edit SVG files that might help you.

That is it, if you have any questions you are always welcome to drop us a line at [email protected]!

The post How to download the new templates appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

In this template set, you will find various versions of informative pages where you can add information about your company values and goals as well as floor plan and company policies. We also included some interesting test questions and scenario templates that you can use to test your new employees.

Together there are 25 slides available for Storyline and Captivate users, that you can easily edit and adjust to your company brand guidelines. If you haven’t checked it out yet, keep reading to see some highlights as well as a full demo.

Onboarding info templates

Here you can see the introductory slides that you can update with your company information.

Onboarding interactive templates

Introduce your colleagues and managers to new employees with a simple and easy to use slider that consists of an image and a short description for each person.

Allow learners to learn more about the workplace with these handy templates! We created one template to show the building plan, one to show a single floor plan, and one that can be used to show divisions of your company.

Onboarding scenario templates

We also included some question templates that you can use. With this one, you can create a scenario with a following question and by answering the questions, the learner will receive either correct or incorrect feedback with our lovely character.

Onboarding test templates

You will also find a few test questions that will help you see if the learners have mastered the content.

Onboarding resources and menu templates

We created a custom menu slide and special resources slide where you can add external materials that would be valuable for the learner.

See Full Demo

Did this brief overview catch your attention? Click the button below to see a full demo of this template!

Explore all e-learning templates

Explore hundreds of course starters, games, click & reveal, info pages and test templates. Click the button below and see all of our e-learning templates!

The post Onboarding Elearning Templates for Storyline and Captivate appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

Here are the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2020 deals that will help you create better elearning designs and will allow you to learn new elearning skills.

Create outstanding elearning designs

Here are the top deals that will help you come up with a modern design for your elearning courses. Suprise your learners with modern design elearning courses by using interactive templates or creative graphic assets.

FasterCourse – 40% off annual subscription

You can get more than 2000+ interactive elearning templates and games for Storyline, Captivate, and Lectora with a 40% discount to the annual subscription. All templates are designed and pre-programmed, so you can just place your content and create interactive elearning courses with no hustle.

Check out FasterCourse Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from fastercourse.com

FasterCourse Course Templates – 40% off

This Cyber Monday you can also get lifetime access to all course templates with a 40% discount. Course templates are filled with valuable content about popular elearning topics to help you create courses for your clients much faster.

Check out FasterCourse Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from fastercourse.com

Adobe Creative Cloud – 25% off annual subscription

We are using Adobe Creative Cloud applications daily to create designs and illustrations for elearning courses. This is a great chance to get a cheaper subscription and save 25% if you work individually and 70% if you are a student or teacher.

Check out Adobe Creative Cloud Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from adobe.com

Freepik – 55% off annual subscription

Freepik offers a huge library of graphic resources for all elearning developers. This Cyber Monday you can get 55% off the annual subscription that allows you unlimited downloads and you will be able to use all resources without attribution.

Check out Freepik Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from freepik.com

Flaticon – 55% off annual subscription

Flaticon has created a library with icon collections that you can easily edit to match your brand and then export them to use in your elearning project. Flaticon and Freepick are created by the same team, so you can also get annual subscription for Flaticon library with 50% discount.

Check out Flaticon Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from flaticon.com

Iconscout – 50% off annual subscription

Icounscout offers two yearly subscriptions with a 50% discount – you can get vectors library or a full library with vectors, illustrations, and 3D assets.

Check out Iconscout Black Friday & Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from icounscout.com

Envato Elements – 40% off

This Cyber Monday Envato Elements offers up to 40% off unlimited downloads! This includes millions of creative assets, stock photos, and courses. Unfortunately, this offer is only for new customers only.

Check out Envato Elements Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from elements.envato.com.com

Envato Market – 50% off certain items

This Cyber Monday Envato Market offers you to save 50% on more than 600 best-selling and trending items. You can browse through graphic templates, video templates and royalty-free audio samples.

Check out Envato Market Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from envato.com

iSpring – 30% off annual subscription

This Cyber Monday iSpring offers you to get their elearning authoring tool subscription with a 30% discount. The offer comes with a huge content library and collaboration option for teams.

Check out iSpring Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from ispring.com

Techsmith – 25% off all products

This Cyber Monday Techsmith offers 25% of their popular products like Camtasia, Snagit and others! We have been using Camtasia and Snagit for years and we love their programs! This is a great deal to get popular programs among other instructional designers for a lower price.

Check out Techsmith Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from techsmith.com

Learn new elearning skills

This is a great time to learn new skills that might help you take your elearning career one step further. Check out online training courses that offer Cyber Monday deals this year.

Adobe Captivate Training – 40% off subscription

Adobe Captivate is one of the most popular elearning authoring tools and by finishing this training program you will be able to build advanced courses in Adobe Captivate. It offers 90 lessons with bite-sized videos and exercise files for each task.

Check out FasterCourse Training Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from fastercourse.com

Skillshare – 40% off annual subscription

Only this Cyber Monday Skillshare offers you to get their annual subscription with 40% discount! This is a great option to master your skills in design, instructional design, freelance business building, marketing, photography, etc. Use your chance and learn from the professionals!

Check out Skillshare Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from skillshare.com

Udemy – all courses for $9.99 each

Even though Udemy offers similar discounts quite often, you can use this chance to learn more about Instructional Design and pay no more than $9.99 per course. Only this Cyber Monday you can buy 2 courses from Udemy and get a special promo code.

Check out Udemy Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from udemy.com

Domestika Courses – all courses for $9.90 each

Domestika offers all online courses for $9.90! With these courses you can learn more about design, illustrations, photography, marketing and many more interesting topics.

Check out Domestika Cyber Monday offer here.

Screenshot from domestika.com

Summary

These are huge discounts that might not be available for another year, so take your time and explore the options to better understand how they could help you improve your instructional design skills.

We will continuously add new deals, so if you found something that could be part of this list, leave a comment below!

Updated on November 30th, 2020.

The post Best Black Friday and Cyber Monday Elearning Deals 2020 appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

We want you to be able to unlock your full potential and with course templates, you will have more time to focus on creating unique solutions for your clients rather than spending 70% of your time on finding content, building course structure, and putting it all together.

How do the course templates work?

We created a short video demonstrating what you can do with course templates and how you can use them to supercharge your freelance elearning business.

Popular Elearning Topics

Course templates have various topics that you can use to build courses for your clients. You can easily adjust the content and personalize it to any organization. We continuously work on new course template topics, so you would have the ability to build an extensive elearning course library from our course templates.

Here you can see the topics that you can use to build elearning courses in Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate –

Sales and Customer Service Course Templates
Sales Skills
Customer Support
Negotiation Skills
Negotiation Process
Conflict Resolution

Leadership and Management Course Templates
Efficient Meetings
Team Management
Conflict Resolution
Presentation Skills

Compliance Course Templates
Data Protection
Workplace Harassment
Business Ethics
Sustainable Workplace

Health and Safety Course Templates
Fire Safety
Manual Handling
Mental Health: Remote Work
Food Safety (coming soon!)

Leave a comment if you have some ideas of what should be the next course templates topic and preview short demos of all course templates by clicking below!

The post Course Templates: How do they work and what’s inside appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

Here are the questions from our clients –
1. Can I change the content in course templates?
2. Can I sell the course templates to my clients?
3. Are all the images and icons in course templates free for me to use?
4. Are course templates included in the elearning template library subscription?
5. Do I have to pay a yearly usage rate or subscription to use course templates?
6. How can I adjust the course template to match my client’s needs?
7. Can I use the course template for more than one client?
8. I can’t find the topic I need in the course template library. Can you create it?
9. I’m a beginner. Will I be able to use course templates?
10. How can I sell course templates to my clients?

1. Can I change the content in course templates?

Of course! Even though we have added all the necessary content about the topic, these are still templates. You can delete the content you don’t need and add anything that you would find useful for your client. All texts and images are easily replaceable and you can change everything on our course templates.

2. Can I sell the course templates to my clients?

Yes, you can use course templates to create courses for your organization or you can create courses for your clients too, there are no restrictions. Here you can see a cutout from the course template usage license.

You are licensed to use the Item to create multiple End Products for yourself or for multiple clients (a “multi-use” product ), and the End Product may be sold.

We don’t want to put any restrictions on you, so feel free to use the course templates as you would normally do with other elearning templates. The only thing you can’t do is to sell them as course templates to others. That wouldn’t be cool.

3. Are all the images and icons in course templates free for me to use?

Yes, all images that are used in the course templates are free – under CC0 license and can be used in any project without contribution or payments, so you don’t have to worry about licensing or image replacement. All icons and illustrations are created by our talented designers and you can feel free to use them to build your elearning projects.

4. Are course templates included in the elearning template library subscription?

Unfortunately, course templates are not included in our Elearning Template Library subscription. Course templates are separate products from the Elearning Template Library and they have their own library. So if you have purchased the Elearning Template Library and want to get access to course templates, you will have to buy each template separately or you can purchase the Course Template Library.

5. Do I have to pay a yearly usage rate or subscription to use course templates?

No. If you have bought course templates or a course template library, then you have access to use them as long as you need. You don’t have to pay anything extra now or never. If we will update the content for the course templates, you will be able to receive it with no additional payments.

6. How can I adjust the course template to match my client’s needs?

We suggest changing the design to match your client’s brand guidelines and also you should add some information that is closely related to the organization – case studies related to the client’s industry; company policies that would apply to the employees working in the company; local legislations that match your client’s location and so on. If you focus on these things then you will be able to deliver tailored solutions for each client and each of them will look completely different from each other.

7. Can I use the course template for more than one client?

Yes, you can use the course templates to build countless projects for any amount of organizations. Feel free to reuse the content as many times as you wish.

You can sell and make any number of copies of the single End Product.

This means that you can buy a single course template and use it for all your clients. This will allow you to save your time, earn more and with each client, you will know better what unique solutions you can offer to add for other clients.

8. I can’t find the topic I need in the course template library. Can you create it?

Yes, of course! If the topic is something that would be relevant to more instructional designers, then we would be happy to create the course template about the topic you need. Our clients have also reworked some of our course templates to match their client’s expectations. So for example, if your client needs ‘Sexual Harassment Training For Employees’ then you can take our Workplace Harassment course template and add the necessary things to match the topic. Or you can take our Sales Skills and Customer Service courses and adjust them to match any industry you need by changing images and scenarios. You just have to be creative and think of ways how you can reuse the content you have.

9. I’m a beginner. Will I be able to use course templates?

If you have used Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate the process will be easier for you, but if this is your first time, then we can help you get started and you can feel free to contact us and ask questions about how to edit course templates any time. Our customer support is always happy to help you achieve the best results, so don’t be afraid to contact us. We usually respond within 1-2 working days.

10. How can I sell course templates to my clients?

Once you buy the course template library, you can offer the course topics to new or existing clients of yours. For example, if you have a client for whom you have worked previously, you can email him offering to create any topics from the course library personalized to his organization. Your client will be happy for quick service, you will earn more than you usually would by creating everything from scratch and both sides will be satisfied. You can also show course template demos to your potential clients and offer them your services on personalizing and adjusting the course template to match the client’s needs.

Explore all course templates

Do you feel like course templates might come in handy when building your elearning business? We have course templates about popular topics like Sale skills, Customer Service, Workplace Harassment, Data Protection, Negotiations, Business Ethics, Fire Safety, etc.

Click below to take a closer look at all course templates we’ve produced so far, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!

The post 10 Most Common Questions About Course Templates appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

We have created a course template library that you can use to build your courses. Course templates are like off-the-shelf courses that you can simply personalize to your or your client’s needs. The best part is that you can use them forever and for as many clients as you need.

We gathered the data about how much time we use on each step of the elearning development process and how it could be optimized by using course templates.

How you can earn $375 per hour creating elearning courses from course templates

In this video, FasterCourse founder Karlis will explain how you can easily optimize your development process and earn more by using course templates.

Development time

We have been recording data about our elearning development processes for about 5 years now. Of course, each elearning project is different and unique, but most of the time the development time is distributed like this –

60% Instructional design
15% Graphic design
20% Development
5% Delivery and LMS testing

Course templates allow you to start your elearning development with 95% ready content that you simply need to adjust and personalize to each client. This way you will be able to create a course that would usually take about 200 hours of development, in 40 hours and your hourly rate will significantly increase.

So for example, if you have an elearning project with a $15 000 budget, usually you would spend around 200 hours on development and your hourly rate would be $75. If you use course templates, then you need to spend around 30 hours on development and 10 hours on testing and delivering the course to LMS. This means that your hourly rate increases to $375 per hour. Easy as that.

What are course templates?

We created course template library for freelance instructional designers who want to start their own business. Traditional elearning templates only provide layouts that you can use to build your e-learning. Off-the-shelf courses have all the content, but you can’t do anything to adjust them. Course templates fall somewhere in the middle – we’ve provided relevant content and visuals, but you can make any changes you want in your authoring tool (Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate).

This means that you can use the product as it is, but you don’t have to. Want to delete, add or rearrange something? Or maybe change the colors or images? Need to make the content more specific to your company? Feel free!

With our course templates, we aim to help you and save you lots of time, but we don’t want to limit you in any way. This means you can still work your magic and make each course exactly what you want it to be!

How does the course templates work?

First, you choose which course template you want or you can purchase the whole library and use all of them. Then you download a source file in Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate. You can freely edit any content and add your own information and branding. Then, once you are done editing, you can export the course template to SCORM, xAPI, HTML or any other format and send it to your client. It’s easy and fast!

What our clients say about course templates

We have wonderful clients who have shared their thoughts about how course templates have helped them. They appreciate the simplicity of the course templates and how easy is to edit and use them.

Stellar product! I am really impressed with the instructional design that went into the courses. It only took me one look through to see how you’ve built the courses and I greatly appreciate their simplicity. I think you all did some exceptional work with these course templates!

Amanda

All of our clients are pleasantly surprised about the instructional design we have put in our course templates and how quickly they can be adapted to their or their client’s needs.

The courses already have a solid ID and expertise content that allows our customers to quickly enrich their elearning catalog and even use them in blended programs.

Hugo

Of course, you can buy each template separately (although you can get 15 course templates for the price of 5), but if you need to create a course about a specific topic that you can find in our library, then it will still save you a lot of time and money and you will be able to deliver a complete course in days.

The high-quality course templates from FasterCourse are great for rapidly customizing pre-built courses according to your individual needs.
As a company specialized in digital learning we have high quality demands, which were fully met by the FasterCourse Fire Safety template!

Michael

We are happy to see that our course templates have helped so many instructional designers to kickstart their own business with a complete elearning library. Join our customers and explore our course template library with 15 different topics like Sale skills, Customer Service, Workplace Harassment, Data Protection, Negotiations, Business Ethics, Fire Safety, etc.

Click below to take a closer look at all course templates we’ve produced so far, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!

The post How to earn $375 per hour creating elearning courses appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

Tips from Karlis on how to save time on creating elearning content

In one of our previous webinars we talked about how to supercharge your freelance elearning business and FasterCourse CEO Karlis shared his tips on how you can create elearning content more effectively. Watch the video and learn from our experience!

5 Ways How To Create Elearning Content

These are our suggestions that might help you effectively create elearning content for your next project.

1. Ask experts

Try to get input from subject matter experts, specialists, or anyone else who might have a different way of looking at your content. People who have created training about specific topics will probably know best what you should include in yours, so try to contact them and see if they can help you.

2. Research the field

Try to do research by finding what information would be useful for the training. Maybe you can create a survey or interview your clients or employees of what they would want to see in the training. You can also read blogs about the topic to better understand the problems that you might need to solve with this training.

3. Buy content

Consider buying content. I know at first it seems that you can probably find the content somewhere for free on the internet, but it takes time and effort. If you buy a pdf or a book about the topic, then you will already have organized and researched content that you will be able to use to create your elearning course.

4. Explore online courses

If the topic is not too specific, you can try to find similar training in online course libraries like Udemy. The courses usually are not expensive and you will be able to see what content others are presenting about the topic and how could you use it in your elearning courses.

5. Use Course Templates

If you need to create a compliance course or you want to create workplace soft skills courses, then you can take a look at our Course Template Library. It’s the fastest way how to get elearning content and you will also gain extra time on development because the content is already placed in an elearning course.

The post How to effectively create elearning content appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

In one of our elearning webinars, I talked more about specialization and how finding a niche can help you grow your freelance elearning career and eventually your income too. Watch the video below where I shared my examples from our experience and explain why finding a niche can make you a better elearning specialist.

4 reasons why finding an elearning niche is necessary

We truly believe that finding a niche and becoming a specialist in a narrower field can make a big impact on your professional career. So here are our top four reasons why finding a niche is the best way how to step up your freelance elearning business:

1. Build your competence

If you find a niche and create projects that are specific for this niche, you will understand their needs and problems better than anyone else. We have worked with multiple local banks and for the first time, we didn’t really know what they need and how we could meet their needs. After creating multiple courses for one bank, we grew our competence and next time when we had to create elearning for another local bank, we already knew what they might need and we could show our expertise in creating similar training courses.

2. Easier to find clients

Once you found your niche, it’s easier to find your target clients. If you create courses for pharmacies, then you probably already know a few potential clients who you could talk to. So now that you have a niche, you also have a prospect base that you can target and approach. Quite often people working in one industry share their knowledge and this is also an opportunity for you because if you work with one pharmacy, then they might have contacts with other pharmacies and they can suggest your services to them.

3. Become a specialist

With every project, you will become a better specialist in this field. After working for a few months in a specific niche you will know what pieces of training do they actually need, what are the main problems in this field that you can solve with your elearning courses. Once they see that you understand very deeply and in great detail the challenges they face in their business daily, they will trust you more and you will be able to convince them to choose the right solutions.

4. Build a Course library

During these years when you have focused on one particular niche, you will probably create dozens of elearning courses related to the industry. Eventually, you will have a library of courses that you can offer to the next clients or sell on your website.

What’s your experience?

These are only a few reasons why it’s worth considering finding a niche while working as a freelance instructional designer. If you have an example of how finding a niche has worked out for you, feel free to share your experience in the comment section below!

The post How to build a successful freelance elearning career appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

Even though you might feel hopeless at the beginning, we want to encourage you to don’t give up on the first try. We can offer you a few simple ways that you can try out without breaking any rules.

Our experience on how to share non-disclosure elearning projects with clients

Here you can see a short video from one of our elearning webinars where FasterCourse founder Karlis shares his experience of showing non-disclosure elearning project examples to our clients.

Ask permission to show examples

You can simply ask the company permission to share some parts of the project. Sometimes it’s enough to show your client a few pages to give them an idea of how the course looks and feels. Usually, they don’t even want to see the whole 1-hour long course with 40 slides anyway, so this would be a perfect solution for you.

Screenshots

If you don’t get permission to show some slide examples, you can try to ask if you can share some screenshots. You can blur the parts that you can’t show, but the client will still be able to evaluate the work you have done.

Live meetings

We also have had some strict non-disclosure agreements, but usually they agree that we can show some examples and screenshots in meetings with clients. Either it’s a live meeting or a virtual one, you can try to get permission to show the examples in person. Just make sure you don’t place them anywhere public and don’t send them to your clients, this might violate the agreement.

Change the content

You can also take the course example you have created and change the branding and content. This way you will be able to show the functionality of the example and you can tell how you built it and for what cause. It will take some time to think of new content that would work with the interaction, but if the example is good, it will probably be worth it.

Take samples

Usually there are some parts of the elearning project you are more proud of. Take them out of the context and use them to build a different example. Either it’s a cool menu or fun hotspot interaction, you can still use it to show your skills – just take out any content and relation to the company.

Give it a try

With these few simple steps we wanted to encourage you to take action and don’t waste an opportunity to fill your portfolio with great examples that you can truly feel proud of. Ask for permission and if you can’t get one – find another way how to show your best work examples on your resume.

The post Elearning Projects with NDA: How to share them with your potential clients appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

For the past few years we have been using Trello for many purposes – for project management, for elearning project quality assurance, and also for managing our sales leads.

Trello is a free tool that allows you to easily organize your projects. If you are a freelancer or run a small company, then you probably have a few dozens of sales leads you need to keep track of and then our solution is perfect for you.

Follow the steps and you will have a simple and free CRM system in 5 minutes!

Create Free CRM System in 5 minutes

Here you can see an example of Sales Trello board which is identical to what I use daily. Due to GDPR I couldn’t show you mine, but this will help you understand what lists I use and what Trello features you can use to keep everything organized. Below you can see how you can create the same system in few simple steps.

Step 1: Register to Trello

You can register in Trello totally for free and use all the necessary tools without paying a cent. Follow the link and create your profile here – www.trello.com

Step 2: Create sales board

Create a board in Trello and now you will be able to add new lists and cards to your sales board. Here you can see the beginning of our sales board that represent our sales cycle. I usually start with the ideas list where I add anyone who contacts me and then I move them across the lists until they reach either the Won list if they agree on the project; the Lost list if they don’t accept my proposal; or they end up in the Long list of ideas where I place leads that didn’t work out this time, but who has the potential to become clients in the future.

Step 3: Add your sales leads

Now every time someone contacts you, you can add them to your sales board in Trello. This is a simple way how to keep your sales prospects organized and this way you won’t lose any potential sales leads.

The post Free CRM System for Elearning Freelancers appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

1. Relevant content

You will find no lorem ipsum or insert title here in our course templates – all pages have been pre-filled with relevant content like you would see in an off-the-shelf course. And the best part is that what you do with this content is completely up to you. You can keep the content as it is, or you can edit it to fit your needs. In other words, you have a solid basis for a course, but you’re not obligated to use it just as it is.

2. Custom graphics

All images used in our course templates are relevant to the corresponding topics. Furthermore, we’ve even created some custom icons and illustrations for you to play with. Again, feel free to use them as they are, or replace them with your own graphical materials!

3. Professional design

We stick to a simple and clean design for all our course templates. This makes it easier for you to update the look and feel of the course to match your company’s visual identity. Don’t hesitate to change colors and text formatting, add your logo – whatever you need.

4. A real time-saver

The goal of these templates is to give you a head start when producing your course. We have put in the hours so that you don’t have to! Our team has already come up with course structure, put together relevant content, designed all layouts and built them in two authoring tools- Storyline and Captivate. All you need to do is add details that will really make this course your own.

5. Unlimited number of users

There is no limit to how many projects you can build from one course template or how many organizations you use them for. The course template license allows you to deliver the courses you create to as many learners as you wish.

via Giphy

Sounds interesting?

Do you feel like course templates might come in handy when building your next e-learning course? We have course templates about popular topics like Sale skills, Customer Service, Workplace Harassment, Data Protection, Negotiations, Business Ethics, Fire Safety, etc.

Click below to take a closer look at all course templates we’ve produced so far, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!

The post 5 Benefits of Using Course Templates appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, keep reading to see some highlights as well as a full demo.

Text and image slides

We created a bunch of variations for text and image slides, so you could find the most appropriate one for each occasion. Here are a few examples.

Interactive slides

We also included various interactive slides like image gallery, click and reveal, hotspots and others. This will allow you to complement the visuals with additional information.

Test slides

At the end of the template you will find knowledge check section with single and multiple-choice as well as drag and drop slide. We also included assessment slide with four options, that you can use to evaluate the course or anything else.

See Full Demo

Did this brief overview catch your attention? Click the button below to see a full demo of this template set.

Explore all e-learning templates

Explore hundreds of course starters, games, click & reveal, info pages and test templates. Click the button below and see all of our e-learning templates!

The post Vintage Themed Elearning Template Set appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

We want to guide you through the elearning content creation process step-by-step, so we created a small guide to help you better understand multiple factors that are closely connected to elearning content creation. As we have been working in this field for quite some time, we know how important it is to follow each step before you even get to content creation.

We will try to explain why it’s important to set specific goals for your elearning course and how you can better understand the audience who will be learning from your course. Then we will show you three ways how you can create elearning content.

This is part of our webinar “Elearning development 101” and you can learn more about the elearning content creation process in this video.

Goals of the elearning course

First, you need to understand the aim of the elearning course. Try to think about what you want to achieve with this elearning course, what learners will gain after completing the course and what changes that could bring to your or your client’s organization.

When thinking of aims of the course, try to be as specific as possible. For example, use data that can be measured. This way you will be able to tell if the elearning course was successful and it will be easier for you to explain management the results of the elearning course.

Example of good elearning goal

We had a client which is a big mobile gaming company with around 100 billion users worldwide. They usually have around thousands of support tickets daily. One of the most typical support ticket the company received daily was about logged-out users who need to log back into the system. If for some reason the user couldn’t log back into there account, the support team would need to verify if it’s the real user and not a fraud.

The aim of the course was to train the support employees to better distinguish real users from fake ones. Before we created the elearning content, we talked with the client about the problem that they wanted to solve and we defined that the aim of this training will be to decrease the time employee spend on one support ticket by 7% and improve the user satisfaction by 5% after a support ticket has been answered.

This way the company will be able to see if the elearning course had a positive effect and if the new training course helped their employees understand the process better.

Why is it good to have measurable goals?

Here are only a few examples of why it’s good to set goals for your elearning that can later be measured –

1. You will be able to tell if you have achieved the aim of the elearning course or not;
2. You will be able to tell if the elearning course helped you solve the problem;
3. It will be easier to present the results to the management;
4. It will be easier to get permission and money from the management for other elearning courses you might want to introduce to your employees;
5. If you work as a freelancer, it can help you get new clients if you can show that the elearning course you created helped organizations to reach their goals.

Audience

Another essential aspect you need to consider is the people who are going to learn from the course. What will be the audience of the online training you are going to make? It’s good to ask your client about the target audience for the course especially if you are responsible for the content. Questions that might help you get the right information from your client –

• Are the learner familiar with the topic or this is the first time they hear about it?
  This way you will know whether you need to include all basic information or learners already know that.
• Is this is their first elearning course or are they used to take online training?
  If this is the first time your audience is taking elearning, you might want to describe what the buttons do and how they can navigate through the course.
• What devices will the learners use to learn?
  Do they have computers or tablets in their workplace? Maybe you need to provide a mobile version of the course as well?
• Can you use informal language or better stick to formal type of content?
  Usually, compliance courses are built using formal language, but for some topics, informal language works better.
• What technologies can they access?
  This way you can decide if the course needs audio or maybe that can be optional and users who don’t have earphones can turn the audio off.
• Does any of the learners have disabilities?
  Then you might need to adapt your course to screenreaders or provide an audio version for those who can’t see that well.

Try to get as much background information as possible about the audience and you will be able to make better decisions regarding the elearning content.

Responsive vs Non-responsive

This is really an important point you need to know before you start creating content. After you have asked all the questions about the audience, you might better understand whether you need to build a course that is accessible only from computers or you need to build a course that can be viewed from all mobile devices.

Responsive course means that learners will be able to open it on desktop, tablet, and mobile device and it will work and look as expected. Non-responsive courses can usually also be opened on mobile devices, but the content will be small and not adjusted for mobile screens. Here in the image below you can see the difference between a responsive course and non-responsive course.

Do you really need a responsive course?

Even though we spend a lot of time on our mobile devices and the trend for responsiveness is growing every year, we still ask our clients whether they really need a responsive course. Because creating a responsive course usually takes more time and resources and if only 0.5% of all company employees are using the course on their mobile devices, it might not be necessary to spend twice as much money on a responsive course.

Also think about the content you are going to provide – if it’s an elearning course about how to use a software on your work computer, then I guess the learners have computers in their workplace and they can learn from them.

Example when you should choose non-responsive course

We once had a client that created training to help employees navigate better in the software they were using at work. So the client provided screenshots of the software and wanted to add clickable elements to add some information. No need to mention that it was impossible to use the slide on a mobile screen and therefore the training was useless on a mobile device, but we still needed to create all slides responsive. So try to think about the content before you decide to create a responsive course.

Example when you should choose responsive course

Different case was when we needed to create elearning games specifically for mobile devices because it was an electricity company and they had employees all around the country that wasn’t sitting at their desks all day. So they needed online training that everyone could use on their own mobile device. That’s why we created a simple trivia game that didn’t take up much space and could be played everywhere even if you didn’t have good internet connection.

Also, use tools that are suitable for building a responsive course – maybe the tool you are used to doesn’t provide an option to create a responsive course and you might need a different tool.

Storyboard

Once you know all the answers about audience, goals, and responsiveness, you can actually start working on a storyboard for your course. There are multiple ways and techniques on how you can create a storyboard.

Sticky notes system

We sometimes use a sticky notes system, where we type all section names and page names that we plan to include in our course and we placed them on a whiteboard or wall. Then we can easily rearrange them until we feel like we have a complete course structure. This might help you get started as you don’t have to think about details at the beginning and you won’t end up staring a the blank page for hours thinking about what you need to do. Here you can see an example from our office –

Detailed storyboard

Then we place the content from sticky notes in a document and we start working on a detailed script of our course. A storyboard is the most important document of your elearning development process. It contains all of the information about your course and it will help the client better understand what the elearning course will look like. Place as detailed information as you can, like what icons will be used in this slide; what audio will be playing in the background; how the interaction will work, etc.

Once it’s ready you can send it to your client for review and only after that you can actually start thinking of developing the course. If you want, you can download the storyboard template that we use to build our own courses –

Creating elearning content

Now we are finally ready to explore the options on how to create elearning content. Even though this is the main part of the elearning development process, it’s really important to address all the aspects mentioned above. It will make the development process easier for you and your clients.

1. Creating elearning content with coding

The first option is to create everything from scratch by programming. Historically a lot of courses were created this way and you can still create a course by writing code in Javascript or using frameworks like Adapt, but this takes a lot of time and knowledge. Nowadays, as the elearning market emerged, the need for programming skills slowly disappeared and now everyone can make elearning without knowing a single thing about programming. Of course, there are a lot of benefits if you are familiar with coding, because that allows you to build more complex interactions than other tools in the market may offer.

2. Creating elearning content with authoring tools

Authoring tools allow you to create elearning content without any programming skills. An elearning authoring tool is a software that allows you to create online training content, that can later be converted into an elearning format and placed on an LMS (Learning Management System) or website. This makes the process easier, but you still need to get acquainted with the tool to better understand how you can create interactions, quizzes, and games to be able to build interactive elearning content.

Popular authoring tools

There are a lot of tools that can help you build elearning content. Here are some of the most popular authoring tools that you can use –

Articulate Storyline and Rise
This is currently the market leader as it provides various tools that allow you to simply create responsive and non-responsive elearning content. They provide a lot of free resources and help, so it would be easier to get started.

Adobe Captivate
This is also the big player in the elearning market. Captivate allows you to create responsive and non-responsive elearning content as well as VR content and provides great tools for screen recording.

Trivantis Lectora
This tool allows you to build more advanced content and also provides the option to create responsive and non-responsive courses.

There are other excellent tools that you can use to build elearning content like iSpring, Dominknow, Adapt, GoMo, Evolve, Elucidat, etc.

Community and support

One thing to consider when choosing an authoring tool is the support and community behind it. Once you start creating courses with the chosen authoring tool, you might have a lot of questions and uncertainties, so it’s great if the tool has provided some FAQ pages or the people who use the tool are active in the community and help each other solve problems.

3. Creating elearning content with templates

The third way how to create elearning content is by using templates. Templates allow you to focus more on the content because they are already designed by professionals and all interactions are already set. Of course, you will still need an authoring tool to use the templates, but you will be able to get started faster because all actions and triggers that are used to create interactive content will already be set for you.

You can use templates provided by template creators like us, but you can also use your own templates. We actually believe that everyone uses templates because if you have created more than one course, you will probably reuse some of the pages from previous courses to save time. Therefore, templates are great if you need to build complex pages or you want to save time by using designs that are already built.

Summary

So in order to create great elearning content, you need to be aware of all other aspects that might change the direction you need to take. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to your client and try to be as specific as possible, it will definitely pay back at the end. The better you are prepared before you start creating elearning content, the better the result will be, trust me.

The post How to Create Elearning Content appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

Both are core elements of elearning and you can’t have one without another. Of course, you can…but there is no point of that.

At first, we are going to dive into the elearning platform and then explain more about the content.

This is part of our webinar “Elearning development 101” and you can learn more about the difference between elearning platform and content in this video.

The simplest explanation is a cargo ship. The platform is the ship and the content is cargo containers, carried by ship. Simple and easy! Ok, maybe not that simple and easy, but you get the idea!

Let’s dive in to find out more!

Platform, LMS, LXP

As you can see from this subheading, “the ship” is known by many names. Some of the most popular are:

• LMS, meaning Learning Management System
• LXP, meaning Learning Experience System
• Platform, Elearning platform.

Various names, but the idea is the same – it is a virtual place all the elearning content is stored, used and interpreted.

Core functions

All of the different names normally ensure the following core procedures:

1. User authorization

It means that only authorised users can see the content stored inside the platform. Users also can have restricted access to the content.

2. Content curation

The content curation aspect shows who is learning what and when. Some of the platforms can suggest other courses for their learners based on the courses they have visited. Some give users access to new content after they have completed the required parts.

3. Tracking

This takes us to the next – tracking. In this instance, it is meant by progress tracking and shows the information about who has studied what, when and for how long. It can track either if the user has completed the course or left it in the middle. If the content is made as a test exercise, the platform can show how well the learner did in the test. It can show both if the learner passed or failed the test as well as the exact score.

Understandably, tracking part is the one with the loudest buzz around it. It is extremely important for compliance courses where every participant must be familiar with the information. Also, in general, it is informing and useful tool for management. Tracking allows to see employee progress as well as give insights about the content. It can show that maybe the test is too challenging as people can’t pass it or content is too dull and makes people quit early on.

4. Content creation

Some learning management systems have the option to create the content inside the program, so you wouldn’t have to purchase extra licenses for content creation tools. Even though it sounds like a good option, the content creation options are usually quite limited. You also have to keep in mind that if you change the learning management system there might be a chance that you will need to create them again in the other system, so most of the cases it’s better to create and store the content outside the LMS.

How does it work?

As you have figured by now, it all needs some magic (let’s call it engineering) to function like this. And this engineering magic is called compatibility standards. There are many, but the most popular are:

• SCORM
• xAPI
• cmi5
• AICC

We could write blocks and blocks of technical information, explaining the core differences between them. However, probably the simple point is enough – those standards are sets of information within the content put on the elearning platform. You’ll ask how does the information get to that content? I have the answer for you: the content needs to be published with tools who can apply the standards. By publishing elearning content in those tools (elearning authoring tools), you can define which standard to use. Then it creates a ZIP (compressed file folder) file. This file contains all the necessary information to communicate with the platform after the file upload.

Based on the standard and settings, different tracking options are available. Not all of the platforms share the same settings and requirements, same goes for the content creation tools. You need to dive in research to make sure your desired platform can understand and interpret the data exactly as you want. Same goes with your content creation tool – make sure you choose the right one so the content is viable within the platform of your choosing.

Content

Here comes the interesting part! If the platform is brains, content is visuals. It is all of the information meant for the learner – images, texts, PDFs, videos, courses, documents, … All the ways somebody can express knowledge and information.

Usually, it all starts plain and simple – with some good old PowerPoint presentations, PDF documentation and such. However, after a time it is clear that hundreds of pages of plain text or text and schemes can be rather a sad cluster of information.

Tracking info also reflects that user engagement in those materials.
Usually, somewhen around this time is the point management tries to make those materials more engaging.

And, oh boy, there are plenty of ways how to create engaging content!

Probably the fastest way is to use already pre-made templates for different types of pages and interactions. In this case, you only need to change the textual content and graphics to the ones you need. This helps to rather effortlessly create multiple courses with the same design and structure.

You can see some examples below – these are course templates we have created, based on our own template sets.

If the budget is friends with the imagination and designers, you can create some awesome custom stuff too. Those can be precisely tailored interactions with a spot on visualisations, games, created for this single instance and much more. Is all of the content equally interesting? Probably with the right budget and development team – yes! However, some types of content are more challenging than others.

Content types

There are two general types of content in elearning – compliance training and skill-building training.

Compliance training

Compliance training is a major part of elearning. It can be about various subjects – anti-money laundering, GDPR, food safety, hygiene and so on. The conjunctive element being – they all are obligatory training to comply with the legal requirements. It means sets of laws, rules, regulations and legal phrases. Sometimes the rules are firm and absolutely all of the legal terms needs to be on the front page and with all of the legal wordings. Other times, there can be compromises between legal requirements and user engagement in visually pleasing and easy readable courses.

Skill building

In general, skill-building courses are easier alterable and they have more space to stretch. By those, I mean all the soft skills, sales skills, improvement and educational courses. The content in this type of courses usually is more appreciative for engaging formats like games, simulations, VR’s and much more.

Conclusion

As you can see, both platform and content are inseparable. They work together to give a meaningful learning experience and data about the process. The platform keeps care of storing the content and giving access to it to whom needed, as well as follows their journey and gives out information about process and results. The content is the materials learners are dealing with. By investing time and imagination, those materials can become amazing stories, captivating learners.

Continue next

Next you can learn what’s important to know when creating an elearning course and what are the next steps in the process in our blog post – How to Create Elearning Content. There you will learn more about what you need to know before you start creating content and why it’s important to have measurable goals.

The post What’s the difference between elearning platform and content? appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

This is part of our webinar “Elearning development 101” and you can learn more on how to decide whether you need an elearning course in this video.

The big turnover

Of course, right now when the world has turned upside down (yes, Covid19, I’m talking about you), we all are trying to find the new normal. For many of us, it means remote work for a shorter or longer period. Who knows, perhaps even shifting entirely to remote work… So elearning seems like a must-have solution. However, it is neither the only solution, neither the easiest one. Therefore, the decision should be well thought and considered.

Does the content fit the tool?

Some topics are great for elearning, and some benefit from different presentation tools.
We don’t want to discourage you from your decision, no, no! We strongly believe that you don’t require the elearning for the sake of having elearning. It should be solely because it is the best for your learners! Therefore, you always should think first about the learner – is the information presented most suitably or is there any better alternatives?

Sometimes it feels like the subject is so time-consuming and complex. However, with a fresh look at it turns out a simple infographic with key phrases flawlessly shows all the steps or logic. Perhaps all of the necessary information can be fitted into a well-structured email so there is no need for course opening, introduction, objectives and summary… Some subjects, like soft skills training or complicated procedures, benefit from engaging elearning. However, not all topics are the same. Elearning about laws and rules or procedures that are updated every few weeks perhaps isn’t the best idea. Especially, given the time to make all the edits and re-publishings and re-uploads.
Maybe, just maybe your learners don’t particularly enjoy written information. Perhaps they would normally go for the video format, so…is it possible that video would be the best solution for your case?

The point I tried to make here – different topics and subjects ask for different approaches and there isn’t a single solution which fits all.

Be prepared for the time and expenses 

Elearning courses can pay off and eventually save a lot of money for the company. However, it is a reasonably time-consuming and costly process. It takes a bit of sweat to start with a blank page and end up with a fully functional and engaging elearning course. This process involves script writing, instructional design, graphic design, development, testing…you get the idea. It takes approximately 250 hours to create a 1-hour long elearning course. Therefore you should be fully committed to this relationship before you dive in.

Some other things to take into consideration

Depending on your company and its development team, you have two options. You can create the courses in-house or ask somebody to develop them for you. In the case of the latter, it seems like a money-saving option. Elearning authoring tools can cost up to more than 1000usd/year. Therefore, if you plan on having just one or a couple of courses with stable content, it may be easier to ask somebody to make it for you. However, if you decide to go for this step, you will need to outsource every change, even the slightest. Eventually, it can take up more time and money than initially planned.

Sometimes the management also thinks the elearning solution would be the best just because. In the end, it turns out that everyday procedures are more “hands-on” and people don’t use computers or other devices as frequently as thought. Therefore, possibly a printed solution would be the best. Maybe even some posters on the wall so everybody has the information effortlessly accessible all the time!

Same goes also for the phrase “but we had elearning before”. It is great and you are one of us, however, the question still is the same. Is the elearning the best way for this particular situation? If yes, then sure, go for it!

Continue next

Next you can learn more about elearning content types and how you can deliver the content you have created in our blog post – What’s the difference between elearning platform and content? There you will learn more about what is LMS and what are the two types of content the most popular in elearning.

The post How to decide if you need an elearning course appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

Here you will see only a part of the template set and it consists of 25 info pages with new interactions that will help you explain medical-related topics much easier. We also created 17 test templates that might help you build knowledge checks about medical topics much faster.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, keep reading to see some highlights as well as a full demo of info and interactive pages as well as test pages.

Medical Themed Interactive templates

For this medical themed template set we tried to come up with new layouts and solutions that would work best for various health related topics. We also created custom icons and illustrations that you can freely use in our templates.

Medical Themed Info templates

We created various options for text and image templates as well, so you would be able to present your information in easy and understandable way to all learners. We used blue and light green colors as we thought that they would work great for any health related topic and the bright blue color would work great as an accent color.

Medical Themed Test templates

Here you will find beautifully designed test layouts for any medical-related tasks. Together there are 17 test slides and you can choose the ones that fit your topic the best. We created various drag and drops, fill-in-the-blanks, multiple choices, scenarios, etc. All question slides are complemented with relatable images that you can easily replace. See some examples below and full demo here.

For Medical Themed Elearning Projects

Did this brief overview catch your attention? As always we provide full demos of all our templates. If you use Storyline 360 you can see full demo of Storyline medical info and interactive pages and Storyline medical test pages.

If you use Adobe Captivate 2019, then you will be pleased to check out our responsive versions of Captivate medical info and interactive pages and Captivate medical test pages.

We have also created illustrated characters for medical-themed elearning projects and you can find all of our characters here.
 

Explore all e-learning templates

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Gustav’s trip

Let’s start with Gustav’s trip. This Storyline game template is great if you already have some storyline to follow and want to examine user by giving some questionnaire. Right now the game has a storyline of a guy getting ready for a camping trip. Introduction slides are followed by 4 questions. If the user answers correctly, he is rewarded with an item, valuable for the trip. Therefore you can use the template as it is, just adding all the necessary questions and information or, with a bit of creativity and customization, you can alter it for different situations as well – hospital stay, business trip, construction place, banking transactions…

FasterCourse Gustavs’s trip template

Trip Around The World

This one is a similar game to Gustav’s Trip, but in this case, you have to answer questions correctly in order to get a golden badge! There are 3 types of badges in this game and depending on the correct answer amount the user will get on of the badges at the end of the course. This is only one aspect of gamification that could improve the motivation for the user to finish the course with the best result to get the best prize. You can easily change the questions in this free Storyline template and the option to get a badge will still have the same functionality no matter how many questions you will add.

FasterCourse Trip Around The World

Ice cream

Most likely, this game rings a bell for most of us in the form of a stickman hanging down from the end of the rope in case of unsuccessful letter guessing. We believed that hanging someone for the sake of creating more exciting e-learning content is a bit too cruel, so our version includes simple, but delicious looking ice cream. For each incorrect letter, a chunk of ice cream is eaten. Also, this design may not suit all the needs and scenarios, but you can always choose different graphics for each step and replace ours. For some of our custom projects, we have created variations of this game, including mobile phone losing network coverage, battery draining or even an electricity cable being pulled out of power outlet.

FasterCourse Minimal Ice cream template

Word guessing games

Like the previous game emphasizes on one word, this one gives you the chance to focus on eight words. Perhaps check if the learner can remember all the items in a specific category or listing? Or maybe all the team leaders or managers in the company? Milestone dates? Your imagination is the key, just remember that these games work best if the answer is only one or two words. Since you need to validate all the possible answers, it could get a bit messy if the answers would be overall expressions with five or more variations on how to paraphrase them. Hence better just stick with cities, countries, terms, names, numbers, colors and all the other things that can be described as short and as concise as possible.

We also have a couple of designs for this type of game – they will work with most of our e-learning templates. And, as always, you can customize them to completely suit your needs!

FasterCourse Popular choice gamification template blue

FasterCourse Popular choice template grey

FasterCourse Popular choice gamification template

Trivia

What if you have plenty of questions to ask your learner? Though you don’t desire to create a scenario and storyline like Gustav’s game. And you don’t fancy the idea of having a bunch of questions followed one by one. Then we may have a solution for you – the Storyline trivia game!

This e-learning template allows you to create 16 questions which are divided into 4 categories and 4 different values for correct answers. Of course, division by categories isn’t mandatory. We just believe that it brings some more color and structure. The same applies to scoring (right now it is 100, 200, 300 or 400 points for the correct answer and minus 100 points for the hint) – you can modify it to suit your needs.

For this gamification template, we also have a couple of designs and color schemes. Just choose which fits you the best and adjust it to fully match your needs.

FasterCourse Zoo template

FasterCourse Trivia template

FasterCourse Trivia Game Purple

Einstein’s riddle

Have you played this game? Actually, we hadn’t had that much experience with it before. Nevertheless, we gave it a try and found out its pretty great game – so we made it and right now it is available for free. To solve this one, your learner will need some logic and deduction skills. To make it a bit easier, he’ll also have 7 hints. The objective is to figure out which vehicle each girl used, which gift each bought and which beverage each drank.

The game has wonderful pastel tones, a lot of designed elements and a set of icons for each button. You can easily change these icons, using Storyline 360 stock library or your own assets. With a bit of work, you can also transform them into text or numbers.

FasterCourse Einsteins riddle gamification template

Card Game

This is a simple game where you have given cards with facts and you have to decide if they are true or false. You can easily change the drop areas to anything else (Yes and No, Wrong and Right, etc.) and make this game about anything. With each dropped card learner will see if the answer is correct or wrong and will move on to the next card.

FasterCourse Card Game

Troubleshoot templates

We also have an e-learning template set ideal for troubleshooting problems and finding the right cause and solution for them. This template provides you with intro page where you can describe rules and the situation learner should research. Then he can use additional tips to find the right cause to the description or he can skip right to the cause options. After the correct cause is chosen, the learner can prove that he knows also the right solution. This template is great for technical problems and situations as well as for various situations with communication skills.

FasterCourse Troubleshoot template

Branching templates

The importance of decision making can’t be understated when creating great e-learning courses. With that in mind, we made the branching templates. These templates allow you to set following questions, based on previous answers. For each correct answer, the character gets a bit happier and for each wrong answer, the learner is upsetting the character a bit more. Of course, as with the ice cream game and other of our e-learning templates, you can change the graphics so they suit your needs.

FasterCourse Branching template

FasterCourse Branching Construction Template

FasterCourse Branching Business Template

Explore all Storyline templates

This is only a small part of our Articulate Storyline template library. Explore hundreds of course starters, games, click & reveal, info pages and test templates built specifically for Storyline. Click the button below and see all of our Storyline templates!

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Today I wanted to take a closer look at some templates from our newest sets. In particular, I will talk about various interactions that we’ve designed for the purpose of elearning knowledge checks.

1. Drag and drop tasks

Lately, we’ve been exploring different ways to use the drag and drop functionality, and we’ve come up with several types of fun drag and drop tasks.

A rather simple way is to drag the answers to the corresponding questions or definitions. We have used this principle in different layouts, as you can see below.

From Monday Test Template Set

From Corporate Mind Test Template Set

From Monday Test Template Set

Another approach is to match answers to images. This type of task can be used to check if the learner recognizes different types of items, for example, warning labels.

From Emerald Template Set

A fun task that we’ve also included in some of our previous template sets is to match descriptions to parts of an image. This could be very useful for technical training, where the learner needs to recognize parts of a device or know in what sequence the parts need to be interacted with.

From Monday Test Template Set

Another type of drag and drop exercise that we really enjoy is sorting items into categories. In the Monday Test template set, we also experimented with feedback by immediately marking the correctly sorted items green.

From Urban Walk Template Set

From Vectors Template Set

Finally, you can also drag items to create a sequence of events or a process, like we did in this example from the Urban Walk template set.

From Urban Walk Template Set

2. True or false

This is surely one of the most classic elearning knowledge checks ever. However, there’s always room for experimentation. Here you can see a simple True/False interaction as well as a less traditional one and another one with multiple statements.

From Monday Test Template Set

From Corporate Mind Test Template Set

From Early Morning Template Set

3. Select one

‘Select the correct option’ – sounds familiar? The concept is simple, but there’s more to it than that, as you can see in these examples. In the first one, each option is complemented by an image. In the second case, there’s room for more text as well as an illustrative icon.

From Corporate Mind Test Template Set

From Monday Test Template Set

4. Text entry

‘Fill the gap’ or ‘Type in your answer’ tasks are great for making the learner really think rather than guess. We have produced various text entry layouts over time, and have even combined text entry and dropdown selection fields in our latest template set.

From Emerald Template Set

From Emerald Template Set

From Monday Test Template Set

5. Choose five

Allow the learner to find the correct answer between 10 answer options. We call it ‘Choose five’ but you can easily change the correct answer count and decide whether you want the learner to know how many correct answers there are.

From Vectors Template Set

From Early Morning Template Set

There’s always room for innovation

I hope you enjoyed this small overview of elearning knowledge check tasks from our newest template sets. As you can see, even if the functionality itself is not new, there are always creative ways of using it to make your e-learning exercises more diverse and fun!

via Giphy

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However, let’s get back to this template!

It is a wonderful example of good old elearning basics – click and reveal interaction. We have refurbished it by making it into a 6-piece puzzle. You want to ask – why puzzle? Because we strongly think that puzzles are always great!

We chose a camping theme, as we feel it a great way how to explore outdoors. Therefore, also the content – safety tips for camping. Undoubtedly, you are king or queen of your elearning so you can change it to a theme which fits you and your vision!

About the template

This template gives you all the necessary information to create a short and interactive story. It contains:

• Title page
• Puzzle
• Large popups

Title page has a dedicated place for your company logo as well as enough space for instructions about what’s next. Of course, it also contains a nice image. As we chose the camping theme, then for us it’s a late autumn/early winter forest with some wildlife. Let’s not forget one of the most crucial items for camping – camper’s tent!

The puzzle itself

After the introduction, the learner is brought to the puzzle part. As visible below, it contains 6 pieces of the puzzle. Each one is numbered and leads to a popup about the corresponding subject.

After the learner has clicked on a puzzle piece, he sees a rather spacious popup. There is a place for the image on the side and plenty of text next to it.

When learner returns to the puzzle view, the corresponding piece has disappeared and reveals part of the image underneath. By clicking each piece and reading the following information, learner reveals full image underneath. Pretty neat, isn’t it?

After the whole image is uncovered, the learner sees a popup text. It informs that puzzle is complete, he has learned all the tips and he is all ready for future journeys. Here is also a button to return to the beginning and start it all over again.

Modifications and usage

This is a rather graphic example – right now it contains a picture in each popup as well as intro picture and, of course, the image behind the puzzle. Therefore, be ready to look for multiple graphics when you adjust it for your purposes!

As for the texts – of course, you can change them, I don’t think I need to explain that part.

If you are up for a challenge and your imagination feels trapped in a cage or, the very the opposite, is wondering in a boundless forest, then you can change other things as well. However, we would recommend sticking with the layout and puzzle count we have used in the template.

When thinking about the content, possibilities are endless as long as it can be separated in 6 parts. You can adjust it about the medical procedures, steps in training program…Fire safety, maybe? If your field is K12, then it would fit greatly with numerous school programs and classes. As said before, it contains just the texts and images, so the possibilities are rather wide.

The best thing

It is available for free in the Adobe webpage! Yes, you read correctly – it is a free template, available for everyone. So…download it, make the magic happen, share the joy of guessing the puzzle pieces… Or just read it, spread the word and go on a camping adventure!

Explore our Captivate templates

Explore hundreds of course starters, test, click & reveal, info pages, and game templates. Click the button below and explore more than 700 Adobe Captivate templates and games!

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Medical themed elearning template sets

We had a lot of requests from our users for a medical-themed template set and we are finally getting really close to delivering a whole new set of medical-themed slides! There will be two template sets – one with content slides like text and image, sliders, dials, click and reveal, etc. and the other template set will consist of test slides. Both of them have the same design, so you would be able to combine them as you like!

Medical Info Template Set

Medical Test Template Set

University Themed Elearning Template Set

We wanted to create something for our clients who work in the educational sector and we created a university themed template set with a modern and bright design. There will be around 40 pages with various info slides, interactions, dictionary, resource slide and multiple test slides as well.

Lifestyle Elearning Template Set

This one has a little bit of nostalgia feeling around it, we called it a Lifestyle template. It has bold texts combined with colorful images. We created 25 pages including info slides and a couple of test slides as well.

Onboarding Elearning Template Set

This one we designed to help you create online training that would give a warm welcome to your new employees! We designed around 25 pages with various interactions that would be useful for training new employees.

Explore all e-learning templates

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How to edit SVG in Adobe Illustrator source file
How to open and edit SVG in Adobe Illustrator
How to edit SVG with Gravit Designer Free App
How to edit SVG with Figma
How to edit SVG with Inkscape
How to edit SVG with Powerpoint
How to edit SVG with Notepad

If you have Adobe Illustrator

Being our customer you have probably noticed that, besides the actual template, we provide an AI file with all the corresponding vector graphics. We will show you how to change the color of an element in AI. But before that we suggest you watch few short tutorials about navigation and the simplest actions in AI. Some of the suggested tutorials – Adobe Illustrator CC for Beginners or Illustrator – Tutorial for Beginners in 10 MINUTES!

Changing color in Adobe Illustrator source file

1. Locate the AI gui file in your folder and double click on it.

2. A workspace with the appropriate content opens. Should look something like this:

3. Every graphic is placed on it’s own artboard. Every state of the buttons should be placed on it’s own artboard. There may be files where states are in different layers. In this case you will have to enable the appropriate layer when editing and exporting the graphic.

4. Locate the necessary graphic and select the area which requires the color change.

5. Double click on the Fill color box on the left hand side. A Color Picker window opens. Use the color picker or enter the desired color’s code. Press OK.

6. When you are done changing colors go to File (upper left corner) – Export – Export for screens.

7. In the Export for screens window choose the necessary artboards, location, file formats and settings you need and press Export Artboard.

For more information about exporting settings watch Adobe Illustrator for Beginners Guide: Saving and Exporting. If you need to change color to multiple objects, you can do it in a matter of seconds. For more info click here.

Changing color of a SVG object in Adobe Illustrator

1. Locate the SVG file that requires color change and open it with Adobe Illustrator (right click – Open with – Adobe Illustrator).

2. Double click on the Fill color box on the left hand side. A Color Picker window opens. Use the color picker or enter the desired color’s code. Press OK.

2. When you are done changing colors, close the file to save the changes.

If you don’t have Adobe Illustrator

Below we have put together some options for editing SVG files using Notepad or free apps. This is helpful if you are not used to working in Adobe Illustrator or you simply don’t have access to it.

1. Web based app Gravit designer

1. Go to designer.io/en/. Click on Get started (it’s possible you will have to wait a bit).

2. Create an account (don’t worry, it’s free and quick).

3. The app opens. Go to File (upper left corner), click on Open local file, choose the SVG you want to edit.

4. The SVG file is opened. Click on the detail that requires the color change.

5. On the right-hand side of the app window choose a color or enter the desired color code.

6. Go to File – Export and choose one of the options (SVG, PNG, PDF or JPEG).

7. Your edited SVG has been downloaded.

2. Figma

1. Go to figma.com.

2. Click on Try Figma for free and sing up.

3. The app opens. Go to the upper right corner and click on the Plus icon (New file).

4. Find the SVG you want to edit and drag it to the app.

5. Click on the detail that requires the color change. On the right-hand side of the app you will find Fill.

6. Enter the desired color code or use the Color finder. You can change solid color to different types of gradient too.

7. When you are done, go to the upper left corner and click on the frame (named wrong 1 for now).

8. Go to Export.

9. Choose the desired file format and scale (if necessary).

10. Under the Export window is a Preview window. Click it to see what your export will look like. Click on Export “file name” and save it in the desired location.

3. Inkscape

1. Open the app.

2. At the upper left corner click on File – Open and select the necessary SVG.

3. Select the detail which needs the color change.

4. On the right-hand side choose from different types of fill and color modes. Make the changes.

5. Go back to File – Save to update the SVG or Save As to choose a different file format or destination.

4. Powerpoint

If you have Microsoft Office 365 then you can use PowerPoint to edit SVG graphics. This will be an easy way how you can edit SVG graphics without downloading or using any new programs.

1. Open up PowerPoint and import an SVG image.

2. With the right mouse click select Convert to Shape.

3. Then with the right mouse click select Group / Ungroup.

4. Now each object in the SVG file is separated and you can edit each individual part.

5. To recolor objects, you need to click on it and choose a color from Fill option like in the screenshot below. If you want to delete some parts of the image, just select it and click Cut from the right-mouse options.

6. Once you are done, you need to select all parts and regroup them back together.

7. Then you can select Save as Picture… and choose the format you want to save. Powerpoint offers all usual formats like PNG, JPEG, SVG, etc.

5. Notepad

This is a very quick way to edit colors in a simple SVG. This method won’t work to save the file in a different format or to edit very complex SVGs (like the character above).

1. Choose the SVG, right click and select Open with Notepad. This time we will edit a radio button’s colors.

2. Something like this will open.

3. Let’s change the button’s stroke color from #1a50fc to #3a3a3a.

4. And the center’s color to #f91ccf.

5. Close and Save. This is what we have achieved.

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Click and reveal magic

This week’s challenge was the core element of almost every elearning course – click and reveal interaction. I can quite surely say everybody has something in mind when they hear these words. In this particular challenge, the focus was on labeled graphics or as we like to call them – hotspots interaction. It uses an icon (called “marker”) and a popup with information that opens after the user has interacted with the icon. You can learn more about how to add and edit markers in Storyline here.

Our example

We decided to go for Articulate Storylines built-in functionality for this task and use built-in markers for this challenge. It is a remarkably quick and painless method to create fast and engaging e-learning content with minimal effort. And what a better theme to a peaceful challenge than a cup of coffee! When I’m writing those words, I can practically smell the gorgeous dark roast aroma! I think no doubts about me being a coffee lover!

It all begins with a rather dull-looking scene. By hovering over markers, the user discovers the tips to make that perfect cup of coffee. To make the interaction more engaging, whenever the user hovers over the marker, the corresponding object is coloured too. Hence, after reading all the tips, the coffee journey can conclude with a vivid coffee scene.

As we used the built-in markers, we did just some minor alterations to them. We adjusted them to fit our desired design by removing outline and border.  We also changed the marker icon to one we prefer. Additionally, we added the hover state with a different icon to make it a bit more visually entertaining. Here below you can see how the object looks before it has viewed and how it changes when user hovers over the marker.

The hardest task was to adjust popup text as this built-in element doesn’t follow the regular text positioning options. So we used a bit of creativity and let the text indentation and some extra spaces do the magic.

Download for free

Want to learn more about how we built this example? Feel free to download the source file, explore it and use it for non-commercial purposes. If you would like to use this Storyline template for commercial use, please consider subscribing to the FasterCourse template library.

The post How To Use Markers In Storyline 360 – An Example appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

1. Hyperlinks

If the resources are available online and refer directly to what is mentioned in the text, a hyperlink might be a good idea. This allows you to avoid unnecessary buttons or explanations, as users usually don’t have a problem with recognizing hyperlinks as clickable items. However, you should be careful about the amount of hyperlinks within a page – if many words on the page are hyperlinked, it doesn’t look that great. So, if you need to provide links to many resources, you might need to consider a different option, such as a list of resources in a separate text box or resource page.

2. Downloadable resources

If the resources in the course are files, such as .docx, .xls, .pdf and so on, you may want to enable the learner to download them from within the course. This is advisable in cases when you want the learner to be able to save information that they find useful and keep it in a convenient location. This may also be necessary if you expect the learner to print the resource (for example, a useful document template, a job aid, a certificate etc.).

3. Resource list

If your e-learning course contains many resources, it may be a good idea to have a page at the end of each chapter/module that provides a list of all resources used in that section. This will make it easier for the learner to find these resources, as they can go to specific pages rather than search the whole course page by page.

via IMGUR

4. Images and screenshots

Sometimes you might find that the best way to present a resource is to simply include it in the course as an image. These could be application forms, tables, visual representations of data etc. However, you need to be cautious and always check quality and readability – the quality of the image may suffer when you publish the course, or, if the course is responsive, it might be too difficult to see all the details on a smaller screen.

How do I choose?

When you have external resources that need to be integrated in a course, a good place to start is to think about how important these resources are for the learner. This means considering if:

a) You want the learner to view the resource immediately
b) You want the learner to know where they can find certain information
c) You want the learner to always have quick and easy access to these resources
d) You want the learner to print or download the resource.

Your answers should point you in the right direction and enable you to select the best option.

Explore all e-learning templates

Explore hundreds of course starters, games, click & reveal, info pages and test templates. Click the button below and see all of our e-learning templates!

The post Including external resources in your elearning course appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

So, if you’re looking for some new and interesting layouts and interactions for your next e-learning project, check out these free Storyline 360 templates!

1. Best office ever

This office-themed course starter pack is proof that sometimes less is more. These simple, clean and modern info pages will work well with any topic. And, even though this pack contains only a few layouts, they are very versatile and offer some great options for different types of content, starting from short key points and ending with more detailed descriptions and case studies.

2. What should I watch?

There’s more to this tabbed interaction than just good looks. In fact, it contains a web object that gives you more freedom when choosing the type of content that you want to insert under each tab. For our topic, we went for links to useful resources as well as some video content.

3. Train timeline

Boy, did we have fun making this one! Complete with sound effects, this interactive timeline is a fun way to present chronological events, one wagon at a time.

4. Fun facts about Tarantino

This bold and vibrant template set is sure to catch everyone’s eye, and it contains some great info layouts as well as a True/False interaction. However, the most interesting feature is the slider at the top of the page that points to the topic you’re currently viewing.

5. Space dial

A dial can be a wonderful tool for presenting information in an interesting and interactive way. Inspired by space travel, this template really is out of this world.

6. Team managers

This interaction allows you to explore a problem and then reveal what the best solution would be. The situations are personalized by adding characters that change appearance once their problems are solved.

7. What would you do?

The goal of this scenario is to allow the learner to look at a situation from different points of view. After reading about the situation, you get to select one of the people involved, choose how they will react and see the consequences.

8. Layers of Earth’s Atmospheres

In this free Storyline 360 example you can learn more about the atmosphere of the earth and what types of flying objects you can find in each layer. Slide the slider and learn more about each layer!

9. Food Print

This is a small example about foodprint to help you learn how our food choices influence our carbon footprint. Each product has a description and you can choose which ones you want to add to your plate.

10. Up in the Sky

In this example, you will learn some interesting facts about airports. We created an e-learning course example using Storyline 360 motion path triggers, so you would be able to learn how they work.

Found something you like?

As you can see, we let our imagination go wild in some of these, and we hope that exploring them will inspire you to try out something new and fun in future e-learning projects. Enjoy!

via Giphy

Explore all Storyline templates

This is only a small part of our Articulate Storyline template library. Explore hundreds of course starters, games, click & reveal, info pages and test templates built specifically for Storyline. Click below and see all of our Storyline templates!

The post 10 Free Storyline 360 templates appeared first on E-learning Templates - FasterCourse.

So, I thought I could briefly discuss why soft skills training is necessary and what challenges they pose in the context of e-learning.

Why do soft skills matter

Soft skills fall into several categories, including communication, teamwork, work ethic and critical thinking. Looking at these categories, it’s not difficult to grasp the importance of soft skills in our daily work.

An individual can excel in hard skills, but it won’t do much good if they fail to effectively plan their time, communicate information to others, understand other people’s point of view, etc. The reality is that hard skills will seldom be enough, as we don’t work in isolation – how we work also impacts our colleagues and clients.

Why should employers care

Some types of soft skills training are usually mandatory, for example, anti-harassment and information security training. However, employers should look beyond compliance demands and look for opportunities to further improve other soft skills that can benefit the company. Why? Here are just a few reasons:

1. Task automation

With continuous improvements in technology, administrative tasks can (and are) being automated. This means that employees will be required to turn to more complex tasks that machines can’t accomplish.

2. Productivity

Soft skills can have a great impact on productivity. Good communication between employees, management and clients can ensure clarity in regard to expectations and deadlines.

3. Efficiency

Such abilities as time management, collaboration skills and decision making also strongly affect how efficiently employees can accomplish their tasks. This will allow your team to work smarter, not harder.

4. Loyalty

Employees want to improve their soft skills and will appreciate the opportunity. This leads to improved morale and employee retention. A lot of employees would love to learn and improve their skills while working, but not everyone has the chance.

5. Career

Soft skills training can help prepare employees for more responsible roles that require leadership abilities. Allow your employees to learn and improve their skills and after a while, they could become great leaders for your employees.

Therefore, employers should consider investing in other types of soft skills training, such as team management, conflict resolution, negotiation skills, self-management, self-motivation, etc. These investments may not show immediate results, but are sure to pay off in the long run.

Training challenges

So, we’ve established that soft skills are important. However, it’s difficult to tell whether or not an individual possesses these skills. As opposed to hard skills, there is no simple way to measure soft abilities.

Therefore, when it comes to training, a series of single choice questions is unlikely to give you a clear picture of an individual’s ability to apply soft skills. You need to learn how the employee will evaluate and deal with various complex situations, and this requires a lot more thought in terms of instructional design.

Our experience

When it comes to e-learning, we’ve found that the best way to help people understand and improve their soft skills is by simulating real-life situations. Here are just some types of interactions that could be useful for soft skills training.

Scenarios

In scenarios, the learner is put in a situation where they can make choices and see the impact that their choices can have.

Here below you can see an example from our Efficient Meetings course template, where the learner is introduced to a situation and has to make a decision based on what he learned previously in the course. After that, he receives feedback and can move on to the next scenario.

Thinking exercises

When it comes to soft skills, quite often there is no single correct answer. To demonstrate this, you can create simple exercises that ask the learner to consider an issue and then receive feedback which explains the issue, but doesn’t claim that the learner is right or wrong.

Here below you can see an example from our Workplace Harassment course template, where learners are asked to decide whether these phrases that they might have heard in the office can be justified or not.

This is a starting task in our Data Protection course template where learners are introduced to the topic by asking what could cause a data breach in the workplace. Even though all of the answers are correct and each of the activities could cause a data breach, user get’s a positive feedback that informs that event the ones he didn’t mark can be a possible threat to data security.

Interactive tasks

For a more playful and engaging approach, you can introduce interactive challenges to the learner. We created a phishing email example in our Data Protection course template where user had to find all warning signs for a phishing attempt.

EXPLORE MORE

Looking for more ideas for your soft skills training? Our course templates might be just what you’re looking for. Click below to take a closer look at all course templates we’ve produced so far, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!

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