EduTech gEEks…We’re a new brEEd

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~ENJOY!

It has been a while….this, I know.

Work and school are keeping my schedule pretty saturated. Tons of instructional design work being completed in the process, therefore it is all worth it, right?

So, I must rant and rave for this posting.

Oh, I was so annoyed this week!

There is a reason why instructional design professionals recommend the designing of assessments before developing instructional materials (e.g. student and instructor guides, powerpoints, multimedia objects, etc.). Such practice keeps your instructional content in alignment with the course/lesson objectives.

This has been the case with my professional and academic experience.

Within this current project, our development schedule is as follows: content first, then revision of the practice activities and written assessment tests. Some of these items have been created before the writers arrived, but we are still there for a reason. It is hard to work in an environment where people are not trusting your experience as an ID. So, I am finding myself constantly going back into the primary instructional document and adding content based on new info from the assessments….Whew! A time consumer to say the least.

I know, I know. As IDs we have to adapt to constant change.

With every client there will be criteria outside the realm of our traditional ID or educational practices. This, I understand. Actually, I am all good with it. Conventions will not always have an appropriate place for every part of a project.

For all my IDs, trainers, educators, I recommend the design of instruction in this order:

1. Conduct an analysis
2. Establish your objectives based upon the analysis
3. Design assessments based on the objectives
4. Develop instructional materials based on the assessments

….simple, quite simple.

Need we send a mass e-mail to all those trying to be trainers?

Yes, good sentence structure is necessary knowledge for IDs. The project manager for my current ID project has three writing rules:

1. First Person (It’s really second person if you’re referring to the learner as “you”.)
2. Active Voice (no passive language)
3. Present Tense for Verbs

I did not notice how many times I made these mistakes, until now. Writing passively seems to be my numero uno guilty pleasure. The good thing is MS Word allows you to set these parameters. Thus, correcting your mistakes as you work. Pretty convenient.

Today, I came across a Writer’s Digest article titled, The Four Commandments of Writing Good Sentences. According to this article, the four rules are:

1. You shall not write passively.
2. You shall not overuse weak verbs like “to be” and “to have.”
3. You shall not fluff.
4. You shall make every word necessary.

Pretty good stuff, right? I’d say…oops…I say so…or I believe so. Trying to avoid that passive voice.

Discussions of such techniques occur in business writing courses and websites. So, if you want to learn more, google these writing techniques:

1. Business Writing
2. Technical Writing
3. Professional Writing

My New Goal: To make the above mentioned rules a part of my natural writing style.

Not much activity from me this week, huh?

The latest opportunity is a ~ 4 month contract content development position with Information Mapping, Inc. The Information Mapping method of organizing and presenting content is definitely one of the better forms of standardized writing. As far as my experience goes…

Most of my responsibilities will be technical writing and document design oriented. Of course….these two areas of designing instruction seem to follow me everywhere.

The funniest aspect of this job is the transformation of training documents from Word Perfect to MS Word!

Yes…I said “Word Perfect.”

I thought the industry was moving more toward Adobe FrameMaker for template-based document design needs. So to be working with Word Perfect is a true shocker. Nonetheless interesting. I guess these are the types of jobs that help grow you into a true instructional design/technical writing professional.

I think I even said in a previous post about how all my FrameMaker training wouldn’t even be considered for the next job. Boy, did I hit the nail on the head.

My SME—working with my Subject Matter Expert has also been pretty interesting. It has only been a week, but I already realize the benefits to developing a supportive relationship with good communication.

The project has had a rough start due to many external factors that pre-date the arrival of my team and I. But, you know that’s the nature of the game. Either way I am sooooo on board and ready to work.

My Primary Goal: to develop the best instructional documents with my SME that the new batch of students will find useful during their entire program.

All my years as a student should definitely have prepared me for this position.

Writing & The Design of Instruction…They go hand-in-hand?

At least within these early stages of my career, yes! The better I have become at technical and professional writing, the better I have become at instructional design.

When studying those particular forms of writing, a lot of learned typography, formatting, and layout techniques brightened up my dreary world of plain, gray-scale unstructured text. This has truly transitioned my skill and understanding of Document Design.

Now my instructional documents and eLearning modules (even my blah blah surveys) have a new spice to them!

It excites me…puts a lil’ spark in my instructional document design tasks.

In a previous post titled, “Career Choices for an EduTech Star,” I posted a YouTube video that briefly described some of the job titles under which we EduTech Geeks fall. Look at the entire ISD process of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation…our skill is truly extensive when you really evaluate what we do.

These past two months my work as a Freelance ID has really picked up, thus creating a desire to share some of the secrets or best ways to land these freelance jobs.

Mostly, I have been doing writing and design & development jobs. Small technical writing and document design seem to be the needed tasks amongst many companies; creating templates for corporate documents is another frequently posted job. Note: Knowing a little HTML/CSS wouldn’t hurt either.

To quickly summarize, the most common freelance jobs for this ID have been:

• technical writing docs/reports,
• desktop publishing (DTP)
• document design and layout of instructional docs,
• compiling packets of instructional information,
• editing instructional content,
• eLearning module design & development,
• presentation design (for instructional content),
• development of assessments & evaluations, &
• MY FAVE = audio/video scriptwriting for eLearning content.

The audio/video scripting, or just plain scripting for audio content, allows me to combine the film/theatre background with instructional design. Its a good skill to have and, usually, the content is already there, you’re just responsible for turning it into a script. I enjoy doing this because it simultaneously adds to both the design and writing resumes.

Good places to add a profile:

• www.ifreelance.com
• www.linkedin.com

Also, consider the creative staffing agencies in your area. I live in Chicago, the city flooded with many creative types, here are a few I know of:

• www.paladinstaff.com
• www.creaitivedir.com
• www.creativegroup.com
• AD AGENCIES!!! Ad agencies are always a good professional contact. Many DTP, document design and web-based design jobs come through their network.

“Your net worth is your network.”…can’t remember who said it, but it rings true. So get out there and get those freelance jobs!!!

The money is great! The networking is awesome! The professional independence is unparalleled!

Quick Post: Wanting to learn more about storyboarding for eLearning?

As if Parts 1-3 weren’t enough, right?

Attached to this post is an MS Power Point Presentation that discusses eLearning storyboards:

• the Process of Creating them, and
• the 8 Essential Storyboard Elements.

Download Here: eLearning Storyboards Power Point Presentation

…Enjoy!

Lately, I have been using Adobe Captivate 3 for some of everything: presentations, interactive lecture content, practice activities, quizzes, etc.

This video is just a beginner demo introducing the software; I will continue to post some of the more eLearning relevant ones as I find them. Special thanks to YouTuber: rzanotti….Enjoy!

Quick Post: Typically, I use MS PowerPoint for creating my eLearning Storyboards. Here are a few examples of Storyboard Frame Templates in PowerPoint: storyboard_frame_template_examples

…Enjoy!

What are eLearning Storyboards?

Storyboarding is a common technique used by instructional designers to visually represent each screen of an eLearning product, such as courseware or web instruction. According to Kruse (n.d.), it is a screen-by-screen example of what the learners will see, hear and do during their interaction with computer-mediated instruction. The creator uses the storyboard to facilitate communication between team members of an instructional design project (Leonard, 2004; Alessi & Trollip, 2001).

Why should a storyboard not include transitions, hyperlinks or animations?

A storyboard should not include these elements for two main reasons:

1. Including these elements can lead to unnecessary crowding, and
2. Some of these elements are created by those team members (i.e. graphic artists, programmers, etc.) who need to have viewed the storyboard before any multimedia elements can be developed.

Crowding: If the purpose of a storyboard is to give a screen-by-screen account of what the instruction will look like, then transitions, hyperlinks and animations will only crowd an already detailed presentation. Although they are to be informative, storyboards should not be over-saturated with information (Alessi & Trollip, 2001). In fact, the notes section is to be used for brief multimedia detailing.

Need for viewing the storyboard before designing: As for the second reason, an instructional designer is typically not the person who creates such interactive elements. These roles are assigned to team members such as the animator (or graphics artist) and programmer respectively. Until such members view the storyboard, interactive elements can not be created.

***Additional Storyboard Resources

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

• Kruse, K. (n.d.). Creating scripts and storyboards for e-learning. http://www.e-Learningguru.com/articles/art2_5.htm

• Leonard, T. (2004, November 15). Creating and using storyboards. http://www.devshed.com/c/a/Practices/Creating-and-Using-Storyboards/1/

1. Adobe Captivate
   • A flash-based eLearning tool with great interactive content presentation and assessment tools; great multimedia packaging
2. Trivantis Lectora
   • Easy to use authoring tool with great assessment and multimedia capabilities
3. eXe
   • eLearning xHTML editor with such ease of use any teacher or beginning ID could use it, also integreates easily into LMSs
4. CourseLab
   • eLearning authoring to, FREE and easy to use
5. Microsoft PowerPoint (w/ Adobe Presenter aka Breeze)
   • Presentation software that is good for training and tutorial purposes when used with Adobe Present

Today, I came across this on going, open source eLearning xHTML editor called, eXe.

According to the CLPT website (Center for Learning & Performance Technologies), it is considered one of the Top 100 Authoring Tools amongst eLearning professionals….hmmmm? :-X

Anywho, eXe allows teachers and designers to edit HTML for online lesson authoring; it also easily integrates into many LMS (Learning Managment Systems, i.e. Blackboard & WebCt).

More of my work is demanding HTML and XML for web-based content, therefore this may be a solution to my disease, LIPLL (Low-Intermediate Programming Language Literacy, pronounced “lipple” ). So, I figured I would download eXe and give it a go!

…review to come in a later post.

Instructional Designers (or anyone working in a technology-based field) should not wait in exhausting highway traffic…airport lines…or hold up a boardroom in order to collaborate with team members. Personally, I would prefer to work from home…It’s not like we tech people actually “talk” to one another.

For this 8 week CBT (Computer-Based Training) Project, I was working with 2 out-of-state IDs. Design & Development went pretty smoothly thanks to our use of several Online Meeting/Collaboration Tools. Simple trial and error…figuring out which was most capable of handling all of our file transfer and presentation needs…e-mail just doesn’t “do it” for certain project tasks.

In the spirit of sharing & caring, I created a Feature Analysis Chart of 4 programs (AOL, iVisit, GoToMeeting & Adobe Connect) we tried out…

Some Additional Pros & Cons…

• AOL CHAT (a Download): Simple if you already have a Screenname, but who wants co-workers or supervisors seeing our obnoxious away messages…I don’t.

• iVisit (a Download): Too boring and limited; Requires an annoying code for log-in; Set up is more like something from the late 90s…yawn.

• GoToMeeting (Wed-based): Great online tool; Unlimited amount of meetings; Voice conferencing available

• Adobe Connect Professional (Web-based): Strictly web-based; Host has ability to maneuver through personal computer while audience/other connected members watch; Voice conferencing also available; Need for a definite high speed connection when presenting info…you and your dial-up modem holding up everyone’s time = sooooo embarrassing.

…I prefer Adobe Connect, of course.

“They’ve done it again!” Adobe’s Technical Communications Suite is just that, Sweeeeeeeeet!

Finally!!! I am so proud of them for actually recognizing the needs of the eLearning and Instructional Design communities. I simply think it is “hott” idea that couldn’t have come any sooner. Some of the most effective software programs I have used for instructional design and learning media are included:

• Adobe FrameMaker8: for all our technical document publishing needs (You already know how I feel about FM8.)
• Adobe Captivate 3: for creating some of the hottest & interactive (Flash-based) courses, presentations and assessments
• Adobe Acrobat 3D: Okay, Pause! I have yet to use 3D because I do not need do much collaboration on engineering and architectural type of projects (i.e. those where I have to view ‘all sides’ of an object…Urgh! Blah!). Still, it’s a niiiiiice product for those who need the whole “3D Collabo”
• Adobe RoboHelp 7: for the creation of help systems. I have used this product once before during the development of a mock Computer-Based Training (CBT) Learning Program. But, from what I recall, it is also really helpful for any designer or new media artist who has difficulty relinquishing all control over to IT.

…Applause.

I was thinking of doing a whole ‘page’ dedicated to Adobe Products and their role in Educational Technology. Specifically, for the instructional designers responsible or interested in Desktop Publishing (DTP). But, for the sake of time…one post will have to do for now.

For my current position as an instructional designer, I was asked to have some knowledge of Adobe FrameMaker8 (FM for the purposes of creating structured templates for documents to be accessed by students in an online learning environment. Another eye opening moment in the Instructional Technology Design job search! Previously, MS applications such as Word and Publisher are what I preferred to utilize for my technical writing documentation. A new application just meant more time dedicated to a program that the next job wouldn’t even consider. So I thought!

Since working with FM 8 over the past few months, I learned there is a huge advantage to using this authoring/publishing software. As with just about all of the products created by Adobe, FM 8 takes into consideration the needs of (instructional) designers with varying levels of talent in document layout and use of white space. For a person who used to own a Coogi Sweater Dress, tasteful layout was not necessarily my best skill.

Therefore, I honor Adobe and the FM 8 Team for making my job a bit more enjoyable. Here are some of the features of FM 8 that I enjoy most:

1. Typical word processing/publishing projects can be combined with XML to create more visually stimulating templates for books, newsletters, reports, data sheets, etc.
2. When converted to a pdf, FM 8 will automatically create bookmarks based upon the layout and hierarchy of the document. Such a time saver when you have a 10+ page document to map/bookmark.
3. Ability to include rich, multimedia from Adobe Flash and Adobe Captivate (both of which I use heavily for the creation of learning objects and assessments)
4. MS Excel Graphs and MS Word Documents are easily integrated into the FM 8 templates.
5. There are a fair amount of structured and unstructured templates that I have used to lay the foundation for creating templates that fit my needs.
6. Top 5 Templates: FAQ, Index, Graduate Thesis Paper, Newsletter, and Harvard Outline…all of which can be time consuming when developing from ’scratch’
7. Picks up where InDesign leaves us hanging…FM 8 is made specifically for the creation of looooong, exhausting template-based textual documents (i.e. eBooks or eContent for an online course).

It is good practice to give the cons with the pros. So, here they are…the 2 (yes, only 2) issues I have with FM 8:

1. No integration with MS Publisher, and
2. Not enough varying font color choices…Step it up ADOBE!!!

Obviously, these are the opinions of a fairly new Instructional Designer. For more info on Adobe FM 8, check the following resources:

• FrameMaker FAQs
• FrameMaker Tutorials & Training
• InDesign vs FrameMaker
• FrameMaker vs Word