Storyboards & eLearning (Pt. 4)

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!

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

Storyboards & eLearning (Pt. 2)

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!

Storyboards & eLearning (Pt. 1)

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 the computer-mediated instruction.

The creator (usually the instructional designer or eLearning manager) uses a 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, animators, 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 the instructional layout, then transitions, hyperlinks and animations will only crowd an already detailed presentation. Although they are informative and detailed, storyboards should not be over-saturated with information (Alessi & Trollip, 2001). In fact, the Notes Section of a storyboard is best for brief multimedia details.

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/

De Anna L Fench
eduTech gEEk writer