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Reflections

Using Lightbox Slides to Reduce Cognitive Load

December 11, 2018 By David Leave a Comment

One of the things I touched on briefly in my workshop session at the Articulate Roadshow was the idea of using lightbox slides to reduce cognitive load in your course. Building lightbox slides for certain items can reduce cognitive load and focus the learner on the meat of the content rather than forcing them to click through slides on how to navigate the course.

The function of the lightbox slide is to be hidden until it is opened, and then closed (or hidden) when it is no longer needed. Let’s look at a few examples of using lightbox slides to reduce cognitive load. First, here is the simple lightbox slide I created for the Roadshow workshop that depicts five common lightbox options.

Course Navigation

lightbox slide as a course navigationYes, I know there is the argument that it is 2018. Do we really need to tell people how to navigate an e-learning course? And for the most part I agree that it shouldn’t be needed. However, I’ve often built this type of slide to explain the functionality of a course (glossary, contact info, resources, information about course assets such as videos, and yes, how to navigate). Think about the fact that there might be a user that needs assistance. If that slide helps one user, it’s worth being built. Unfortunately, there is also another argument for building this type of slide – someone higher up than you is mandating it’s inclusion. Regardless of the reason, if you are building a course navigation or functionality area, the lightbox slide is a great option. Putting this ancillary information on a lightbox slide pulls it out of the main flow of the course and recognizes that not everyone will need it, but it’s there for those who do.

References

lightbox slide as a references or works cited pageDepending on your industry, you may be required to include a references or works cited slide in a particular course. I’ve found this to be true in two sectors I’ve worked in – healthcare and statistical software training. You could make this the last or penultimate slide of the course. But again, not everyone will need (or want) to access this information. In my opinion, this information is perfect for a lightbox slide. It’s there if someone wants to investigate further, but again, it’s not crucial to the main flow of the course.

Glossary

lightbox slide as a glossarySay you want to build a custom glossary for a course. A glossary is a reference tool that is used when needed. In other words, it is an ideal candidate to put on a lightbox slide. It’s default state is hidden, but it’s always a click away when you can’t remember the definition of a particular term.

Building lightbox slides for these types of ancillary content reduces cognitive load and puts more control in the learner’s hands. The learner can access this material at the time of need, rather than being forced to view it to complete the course. What do you think? What are some other ways to use lightbox slides to reduce cognitive load?

Filed Under: Presentations, Reflections Tagged With: Articulate Roadshow, cognitive load, lightbox slides, Storyline

Pictograms and Gender

March 7, 2016 By David Leave a Comment

After posting my screencast on Creating Pictogram People in PowerPoint using 3 Shapes, I looked at the samples I shared and realized they were all quite “mannish.” Generally, I think pictogram people, due to their very nature, should be gender-less. They are just shapes put together to represent a person. This makes it easy when developing something like e-learning courses where you want a non-gender specific representation of a person. Like, for instance, this: person

But is that image really gender-less? Do we look at the head with no hair and automatically assume male? Do we end up taking a supposedly gender neutral image and assign a gender to it automatically? We take pictograms and tweak them to have neckties (male) and dresses (female) to be simple representations of gender. Is that right or wrong? Should we do that?

I don’t know if there is a “right” or a “wrong.” I think you can try to ascribe a gender-less person by using the generic image as shown above. But, sometimes you want to have male and female representations in your pictograms. However, in those instances, make sure you have both genders represented. In my original post, I unconsciously created people that looked male (e.g., bow tie, neck tie, v-neck, etc.). See below.

three-quarter

As I mentioned, I realized this soon after posting, but I also got called out (thanks Johnine) in a comment on the post. Rightly so, I might add.

blog-comment

So, I set about to create some female pictogram people. I’ll share the source file for those too. I’m not sure how I did on representing femaleness. I found it hard to try to make these three-quarter people look female. One limitation I placed on myself for both sets of people was to keep the head bare (just an oval). I found myself wanting to add “female” things to the head, like a bow (I know, these are supposed to be women, not 6 yr-olds) or some kind of hair that would look female. Again, this is another thing you can’t assume, because both women and men can have either short or long hairstyles. Another “easy” way to represent females in pictogram form is by way of a dress. Two problems here. Why do women have to be identified by wearing a dress? And, even if I wanted to go that route, these are three-quarter people with no legs. No legs, no dress, no pants, no dice.

Here’s a picture of the samples I came up with.

female-people

I think some of these look more like standard assumptions of “female” as compared to the original male oriented set. But, I’m not crazy about them. I probably could have done more if I hadn’t also limited myself to the 3 shape rule. As in my first set, I limited myself to creating each of these with only three shapes (oval, triangle, and tab) to show how simple it is to create people in PowerPoint. Maybe I could have come up with other (better) representations? I’m not sure, but this was a good exercise in thinking about what constitutes “male” and “female.”

Judy Katz wrote an excellent article in Learning Solutions Magazine on Gender Representation in eLearning. You should check it out. And while you’re at it, read this article by Trina Rimmer.

Filed Under: Reflections, WOL Tagged With: gender, pictograms, PowerPoint

Building on Shared Assets

December 2, 2015 By David 2 Comments

Recently I created a nested timeline template in Storyline and shared the source file with the E-Learning Heroes community.

timeline-heroes
Click image to view timeline interaction.

In the spirit of sharing and showing my work, I’ve started sharing all of my source files. Not because I think I’m great and my files are the best, but because I have benefited from what others have shared in this community and feel it is only right to share what I’ve created too. Someone might be able to use a template or an interaction I’ve created to solve a problem or fill a need. Or someone might offer some helpful advice or critique that improves my design. Or, as I’ve done in my nested timeline template, someone might build upon the work others have shared.

Anyone who is part of the E-Learning Heroes community knows how amazing this community is, with its incredible user-base to it’s sharing blog posts, assets, and various tips and tricks. I’ve talked about how I feel about this community before. However, after I finished building and sharing my nested timeline example another thought struck me. This community is built on the generous sharing of many folks. I’ve used many a tip or asset I’ve found in this community in building my e-learning courses. But what is even more powerful to me is to see the many instances of building upon shared resources. Taking something someone created and adding to it, subtracting from it, enhancing it, or merely tweaking it to make it something new.

Nested Button Animation by Josh Stoner
Nested Button Animation by Josh Stoner
Click image to see it in action.

For instance, I built the nested timeline example on the work of Josh Stoner, who created a nested button animation, shared the source file, and wrote a guest-post on how he created the interaction. I was inspired by Josh’s work. I wanted to challenge myself to create another way to utilize the interaction.

Another instance of building upon shared resources, is the 10-minute E-learning Template Transformations series of posts written by Trina Rimmer. (full disclosure: Trina reworked one of my templates)

10-minute-transformFor each post, Trina took a community-shared template and completely reworked it with a different look and feel, and a different topic. The focus here wasn’t to take someone’s work and make it “better.” Quite the contrary. Trina saw something in each of the templates that she could build upon and make into her own version. Rather than re-creating the wheel, she worked from a solid base (that was freely shared in the community) and created something new. And, in the process, probably inspired someone else to build off of what she created!

Thermometer Progress Meter by Bruce Graham
Thermometer Progress Meter by Bruce Graham
Click image to see it in action.

David Anderson frequently uses this technique in constructing the weekly E-Learning Heroes Challenges. He usually presents the challenge and then provides several examples of similar creations either from the Heroes Community or from cool interactions he’s found on the Internet. For example, in the Progress Meters in E-learning challenge, he used the source files provided by community members Jeff Kortenbosch, Alexandros Anoyatis, and Bruce Graham as examples of how to make progress meters. By providing the source files, other community members could “look under the hood” and perhaps find inspiration in creating their own progress meter.

game-template
Steal this Template by Jackie Van Nice
Click image to see it in action.

Sometimes David finds inspiration in one community member’s source file and builds a challenge around it, such as using Jackie Van Nice‘s template in the Steal This E-Learning Template challenge.

 

As another example, Tom Kuhlmann frequently gives kudos to community members in The Rapid E-Learning Blog. In his post, Over 800 E-learning Examples to Inspire Your Course Design, he mentions an interaction created by Melissa Milloway. Tom shares the interaction, talks about reworking it, and then shares his reworked version. Tom explains how he built upon Melissa’s interaction by stating:

Melissa’s demo had me wondering what I’d do to make the diver look like he was changing position as he was dragged. I also wanted to include some air bubbles for effect. So I took her idea and then played around for a few minutes and created this.

Scuba Steve by Melissa Milloway
Scuba Steve by Melissa Milloway
Click image to see it in action.
Tom Kuhlmann's version of Scuba Steve
Tom Kuhlmann’s version of Scuba Steve
Click image to see it in action.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The point I’m trying to make is that sharing is more than just posting your course, template, interaction, etc. in the community. Sharing involves interaction. Building on shared assets is a win-win all around. The person sharing gets to see their work re-purposed or enhanced. The person building upon the original work has seen the value of someone else’s work and used it as a starting point for their own creation. Finally, the rest of the community benefits by having access to two shared examples. And who knows? Someone else make take those two examples and build another. How are you sharing your work? Are you interacting with others in the community? Are you sharing built assets or building on shared assets?

 

Filed Under: Reflections Tagged With: Articulate, community

On Building Community

September 10, 2012 By David 1 Comment

Recently there was a lively discussion about communities on lrnchat, a weekly tweet chat where folks from around the world have a synchronous discussion on Twitter about topics related to learning. [Read more…] about On Building Community

Filed Under: elearning, Reflections Tagged With: #lrnchat, Articulate, community

Walk the ID Path

August 28, 2012 By David 3 Comments

I recently indulged my inner geek and re-watched The Matrix. I hadn’t seen it since, oh, around 2000 (right after the world was supposed to end). [Read more…] about Walk the ID Path

Filed Under: Reflections Tagged With: forward movement, instructional design, The Matrix, walk the path

Learning Shards

August 20, 2012 By David Leave a Comment

Seashells. I just returned from a week long sojourn at the beach with my family and we have two bags full of seashells. This was my first real beach vacation. Growing up in the Midwest, the only beaches I visited were the freshwater-lake kind. Until you’ve been to the ocean, you haven’t been to the beach.sea shellsAside from that realization, I also spent a fair amount of time walking the shores and looking for and at seashells. What is it about finding seashells on the beach that is so appealing to people? For every one, wholly intact shell you find, there are thousands, probably millions, that are broken shards of their former being. And yet, many of those shards are just as appealing as the whole shells.

I think the same can be said of learning and the end products we (instructional designers) produce to foster learning. Those rare, wholly intact shells are the near-perfect (insert word of your choice [courses, job aids, performance support mechanisms, etc.]) you create and are really proud of. The ones where the ID gods/goddesses are guiding your keystrokes and mouse clicks. The ones where you truly understand the state of flow.  The ones where you remember (if you forgot) what it means to be an instructional designer. The ones you present to the client and you see their eyes dilate and joy spread across their face. The ones that six months later, the client calls to tell you they are seeing positive changes in workflow and it is attributable to your creation.

As great as that feeling is, it can’t last. I’m not saying the rest of what you produce will be junk. I’m just saying that the *ideal* that we strive for and sometimes realize, is a lofty goal. The majority of your work may be outstanding. But that aforementioned truly great feeling from a creation so wonderfully awesome? Well, it’s kind of indescribable, and rare. You will have those outstanding moments and you should relish every second. But, it’s what you do during the other times that is perhaps more important – which brings us back to the shards. I view the shards as teachable moments, learning objects, or even nuggets of learning. The shards of the seashells are IMO, just as beautiful, for they once were a part of that wholly intact shell. Just as we find millions of the seashell shards strewn on the beach, so too do we find millions of learning moments everyday in everything we do. It could be in your particular community that shares tips/examples/advice on how to make better elearning courses. It could be in a blog post about being a better ID by not pretending. It could be in the form of a thirteen-year-old goddaughter who shows you – the “tech expert” – how to perform a task on your laptop. It could be that tip you heard on Car Talk about getting better gas mileage. It could be a point somebody makes in a Twitter chat.  And a million more little learning moments you and I experience everyday.

You see, the shards of the seashells, while not as awe-inspiring as finding a complete shell, are just as beautiful because they represent a glimpse of beauty. That wonderful creation of learning goodness that you revel in when you create it is a beautiful thing and should be treated as such. Just don’t forget about all of those tips, tricks, nuggets, advice, learning shards if you will, that went into creating that beautiful event.  Without all of those tiny moments of learning, sharing, and collaborating, that glorious learning creation is but an empty…ahem…shell.

Filed Under: Reflections Tagged With: flow, learning, learning shards

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