Tips for drafting an e-learning storyboard
When you’re ready to design and develop your E-learning course, it can be a little confusing knowing where to start. When I first started as an E-learning designer, I remember spending hours sitting ahead of my computer unsure where to start. Was I supposed to start by writing a script or start by building my slides? However, I soon realized that I needed to let the content guide the design of my course. What I learned is that I needed to start by drafting a storyboard, which is just a document that outlines your content slide or screen by screen. So, here are three practical tips that will assist you with successfully drafting an E-learning storyboard. Tip favourite, Use the format and tools that employment best for you. Too often, folks get trapped trying to work out which format or tool is best for creating a storyboard. Should you create a written storyboard in Microsoft Word or do you have to create a visible prototype in PowerPoint? The truth is, there’s no single format that you simply should use. You should do whatever works best for you and will help you get the job done.
Tip number two, review your storyboard together with your stakeholders and material experts early and sometimes. At its core, an E-learning storyboard may be a tool that allows you to plan how the content of your E-learning course will flow. And just like a blueprint for a house, it’s easy to make changes to a storyboard before you start the development process. Because of this, it is vital that you simply are regularly getting feedback on your storyboard from your stakeholders and material experts. Use your storyboard to make sure they fully understand the E-learning course you’re building before you build it. And finally, tip number three. Make your storyboard as detailed as possible. If an E-learning storyboard is sort of a blueprint for a house, it is vital that your storyboard includes enough detail to truly design and build your E-learning course. This is very true if you’re passing off your storyboard to somebody else, perhaps another E-learning designer who is going to be liable for building your course. Okay, so those are three tips you can follow when drafting your next E-learning storyboard. Remember, the more effort you put into your storyboard, the better it’ll be to develop your course.
How to collect and organize your e-learning content
Before you jump in and begin developing your e-learning course, you would like to gather and organize the content you would like to incorporate. Now how you set about doing this relies on the subject of your e-learning course. But in my experience, there are four surefire ways in which work best. First, spend a while lecturing your material experts. They’re the ones who will be able to provide you with the most detailed information. Second, spend a while talking with those employees who have already mastered the knowledge, tasks, or behaviors you’re teaching. They can offer you good insights into the challenges they experienced and the way they overcame them. Trust me, these bits of knowledge are great to build into your e-learning course. And third, review any company policies, best practices, or procedures if they exist. This will assist you in confirming your e-learning course is teaching the items the way the corporation expects them to be completed. All right, so after you’ve collected all of your e-learning content, your fourth and final step is to organize it. Now it’s really easy to become overwhelmed with everything you’ve collected along the way. The best way to organize your content is to separate what is nice to know versus what is must know. Ask yourself, “Will my learners be unable to complete “the desired task if they don’t get this information? And if the answer’s no, then it’s probably not something you need to include in your e-learning course. Taking the time to collect and organize your e-learning content will help you provide the most critical information to your learners.
How to draft a written eLearning storyboard
Once you’re ready to start developing your eLearning course, it’s always best to start with a written storyboard. I wish to consider an eLearning storyboard as being almost like a blueprint for a house because it allows you to see how the content of your course will be laid out before you spend the time developing it. While there is no single format or tool you ought to use when drafting a written storyboard, what you would like to understand is that it’s simply a document that outlines your learning content slide or screen by screen. It can assist you in finalizing your learning content together with your stakeholders and material experts and simply make changes before you begin developing your course. Let’s take a look at an example. Here’s a written storyboard that I’m currently drafting in Microsoft Word for a replacement eLearning course I’m developing. And as you can see, my storyboard is broken up into a series of tables with each one representing a single slide within my course. Now when I’m drafting a written storyboard, there are always a few things I like to include. Let’s take a closer look at the table here for this slide. As you can see, here at the top, I’ve gone ahead and identified the title of the slide, and in this case, it’s slide number two for the main menu. This will help my stakeholders and subject matter experts navigate my storyboard as they review it and provide their feedback. Next, you’ll see that I’ve included two columns here, one for my audio narration and another for my on-screen graphics and text. These two columns will help illustrate what my learners will see and hear when they take my eLearning course. For example, on this slide, I have some audio narration with some graphics and text that will be animated on the screen. Finally, here at the bottom, I’ve included an area to outline any interactivity that may be included on the slide. For example, as you can see here, the learner will click on a series of buttons to jump to other slides within my course. So that’s just one example of how you might storyboard the slides within your eLearning course. As you can see, as I scroll through the rest of my storyboard here, each table is slightly different since each slide within my course will be unique. All right, so the next time you’re ready to start developing your eLearning course, take some time to draft a written storyboard. Trust me, it’ll help you finalize your learning content with your stakeholders and subject matter experts before you invest a whole lot of time developing your eLearning course.
How to create a visual learning storyboard
When you’re drafting a storyboard, it can sometimes be hard for your stakeholders and material experts to imagine what your course will appear as if, and an excellent thanks to overcoming this is by creating a visual storyboard. Now, unlike the opposite sorts of storyboards, a visible storyboard outlines your learning contents elapse slide, but it also includes mock-ups of how your slides might look. Let me show you an example. Here’s a visible storyboard that I’m currently performing on for an e-learning course I’m developing. Now, while there’s not one layout or tool you would like to use when creating a visible storyboard, I prefer to use PowerPoint.
Let’s take a glance at this slide here for slide number four within my e-learning course. First, you will see here, I’ve included the title of my slide and this may help my reviewers navigate the storyboard and see how the content is laid out. Next, I’ve included several sections here that outline the audio narration and functionality of the slide. And as you can see, this is a scenario slide, where my learners will need to select how to respond to an angry customer. Finally, here, you can see that I’ve included a much larger area to show a mockup of the slide, which I’ve created using basic shapes and text in PowerPoint. That’ll give my reviewers a sense of how this scenario might look with the customer and the different responses the learner will be able to choose from. Now, I should mention, when you’re creating a visual storyboard, it’s not important that your mockups look beautiful or pixel perfect. What’s important is that you give your reviewers a sense of how your learning content might look when you develop your course. All right, so, that’s just one example of how you might create a visual storyboard for your e-learning course. So the next time you need to create a storyboard, but you also want to show how your slides might look, consider creating a visual storyboard.