Storyboards & eLearning (Pt. 3)

How detailed does a storyboard need to be so it is considered “sufficient”?

Any large-scale eLearning project may easily have several instructional designers in addition to programmers, graphic artists, photographers, animators, videographers and SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) (Leonard, 2004; Alessi & Trollip, 2001).

Both Kruse (n.d.) and Alessi and Trollip (2001) believe that in order for a storyboard to effectively guide the members of a team, it must (at a minimum) include the following:

• Project information (i.e. title, unit #, section #, etc.),
• Screen labels,
• Audio and narration information,
• Video clip descriptions,
• Graphic descriptions,
• The content to be included in the on-screen text,
• Navigation and interaction descriptions, and
• Notes related to the design choices (i.e. text style and size).

At what point in the design and development process do you think content, graphics & assessments should be developed?

Assessment items help to narrow content, therefore assessments should be developed after objectives have been defined and an instructional strategy has been planned. The objectives and strategy assist the designer in developing the most efficient assessment materials: students have a greater chance of mastering the learning objectives, while focusing on the planned content (Dick, Carey, & Carey, 2005).

Content development follows assessment development. After one has decided the learning objectives and developed assessments based off of those objectives, then writing and revising the content can begin. Assessments help a designer determine what primary and secondary textual content is best for the instructional phase (Alessi & Trollip, 2001).

Graphic artists (or whoever is in charge of the graphics on your team) develop graphics after the storyboard has been reviewed and signed-off. Since the instructional designer uses the storyboard to communicate the physical layout of the instructional content, then those in charge of developing graphics (or animations and other interactive, supplementary components) should become very knowledgeable of this document. To save on time and money the graphic artist may want to take a further step by having a one-on-one meeting with the lead instructional designer and/or project manager to affirm the details of the storyboard.

***Additional Storyboard Resources

Alessi, S.M. & Trollip, S.R. (2001). Multimedia for learning: methods and development (3^rd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Dick, W., Carey, L., & Carey, J.O. (2005). The systematic design of instruction (6^th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Kruse, K. (n.d.). Creating scripts and storyboards for e-learning. Retrieved on May 19, 2007, from http://www.e-Learningguru.com/articles/art2_5.htm

Leonard, T. (2004, November 15). Creating and using storyboards. Retrieved on May 19, 2007, from http://www.devshed.com/c/a/Practices/Creating-and-Using-Storyboards/1/

De Anna L Fench
eduTech gEEk writer