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Creating eLearning Tutorials & Simulations: Tools, Techniques, and Best Practices

Learn about the process of creating engaging e-learning tutorials and simulations, including the components, planning, interactivity, audio, and video/visuals. Explore different tool choices and considerations for achieving desired outcomes.

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Creating eLearning Tutorials & Simulations: Tools, Techniques, and Best Practices

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  1. eLearning, Tutorials, and Simulations Mike Hamilton V.P. Product Management MadCap Software mhamilton@madcapsoftware.com

  2. Slides http://madcapsoftware2.wordpress.com http://madcapsoftware2.wordpress.com or Google Search MadCap Mike Blog

  3. e-Learning, Tutorials, and Simulations • What can we create? • How hard is it? • Components • Considerations • Audio • Techniques/exercises

  4. Different Tool Choices The Big Three: Adobe Captivate MadCap Mimic TechSmith Camtasia • Frame-based • Specialized in eLearning • Frame-based • Specialized in single-source publishing • Traditional video • Specialized in live action

  5. What Can We Create? • Software demonstrations • Software tutorials • Software training • Software simulations • Interactive graphics • Photo-based training

  6. Stages of Interactivity Full Simulation Multiple Paths Realism Data Input Point and Click Passive Movie Point & Click Movie Screen Capture Difficulty of Construction

  7. But…How Long Will it Take? That depends… • Required quality level • With or without interactivity • With or without audio For your first movie/recording schedule ½ to one day per minute of finished movie.

  8. But…How Long Will it Take? With experience a 10 minute movie will take: • Passive movie – 1 hour to 90 minutes • With interactivity – 3 hours • Heavy interactivity – 4 to 5 hours • With audio – Add ½ hour per minute Note: Estimates include story boarding, recording video, writing dialog script, recording audio, and editing

  9. The Components to Create a Movie Break the creation process into components • Planning • Video/visuals • Interactivity • Audio

  10. The Components to Create a Movie Break the creation process into components • Planning • Video/visuals • Interactivity • Audio

  11. Planning • Create tutorials that are: • Brief (chunking) • Meet the immediate needs of the user (context) • Correct identified performance gaps (learning)

  12. Planning Know in advance: • Why are you creating a movie? • Who is your audience? • Is it high level (demo) or deep knowledge (training)? • What quality level? • How will movies be deployed? Basically, create a movie style guide for your company

  13. Storyboard • Storyboarding • A process used to design and develop multimedia presentations and web-based training • Storyboarding forces you to: • Examine your motives • Organize your thoughts • Test your ideas

  14. Storyboard • Storyboarding allows you to create flow of learning: • Text • Graphics • Links • Interactivity • Branching • Assessment

  15. Storyboard • Create low-fidelity storyboards: • Rapid prototyping • Easy to create • Easy to modify • Don’t need graphic artist ! • Use 3x5 cards, post-its, PowerPoint • Follow your style guide

  16. Sample Storyboard Frame

  17. Storyboard Your storyboard will: • Uncover design problems • Point out where additional material is needed • Title image • Credits • Any other content • Provide a first chance to edit ruthlessly

  18. The Components to Create a Movie Break the creation process into components • Planning • Video/visuals • Interactivity • Audio

  19. Video/Images – The Recording • Have a process • Two IMPORTANT best practices: • Always record at delivery size • Always record with common PC settings on a common background • Follow the storyboard to ensure you get what you need • Record more than you need to make editing easier (it is extremely painful to try and add more later)

  20. The Components to Create a Movie Break the creation process into components • Planning • Video/visuals • Interactivity • Audio

  21. Interactivity • Linear interactivity • “Click to Continue” • “Show Me” • Branching • Decisions • Quizzes • Simulations

  22. Linear Interactivity • “Click to Continue” • Simple and fast • Set frame to pause • Add button with “go to next frame” • “Show Me” • Requires multiple buttons, both visible and invisible • “Show Me” button is visible and starts animation • Invisible button captures action and jumps to next frame

  23. Branching • Think of a movie as a flow chart Frame Frame Frame Frame Frame Frame Frame

  24. Branching • Think of a movie as a flow chart Frame 1 Frame 2 Frame 3 Frame 5 Frame 4 Frame 6 Frame 7

  25. Branching …but, in a straight line Frame 1 Frame 1 Frame 2 Frame 2 Frame 3 Frame 4 Frame 3 Frame 5 Frame 5 Frame 4 Frame 6 Frame 6 Frame 7 Frame 7

  26. The Components to Create a Movie Break the creation process into components • Planning • Video/visuals • Interactivity • Audio

  27. Audio • Not always necessary • Adds significant time and complexity to development • Be careful of file sizes • Recording audio per frame is superior to one long audio soundtrack for movie • Usually the last step in the process

  28. Considerations • Localization • Integration and compatibility with other applications (both authoring and playback) • Customers’ ability to view formats • Support

  29. Audio in Depth • Professional sounding audio is by far the most difficult part of the process • The first hurdle is using quality equipment, not the microphone built into your laptop • Use the best audio equipment that your budget will allow

  30. MadCap’s Audio Workstation

  31. Audio

  32. Audio + = $240 £155 Shure SM58 $100 £65 Lambda Lexicon $140 £90

  33. Audio

  34. Audio + = $130 £85 Lambda Alpha $80 £52 Shure SM48 $50 £33

  35. Audio Snowflake $60 £39 Snowball $100 £65 Yeti $150 £97

  36. Audio Logitech $25 £16

  37. Audio in Depth Where do you record? • The quietest location you can find • Turn off AirCon • Unplug telephones • Keep the microphone as far away from a noisy PC as possible

  38. Audio

  39. Audio in Depth Audio software: • Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

  40. Audio in Depth Recording settings: • Mono, 16 bit, 44,100hz MP3 file save settings: • CD quality: bit rate of 128 • FM radio quality: bit rate of 96 • AM radio quality: bit rate of 32

  41. Audio in Depth Typical audio software workflow: • Record audio track • Normalize/DC offset • Noise removal • “sweeten” (remove undesirable noises) • Save MP3 file for inclusion in movie

  42. Techniques/Exercises • Record movie • Add text callouts • Add interactivity • Add a quiz

  43. Questions Questions? Mike Hamilton VP, Product Management mhamilton@madcapsoftware.com

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