When you transition from being a traditional trainer for instructor-led sessions to working on e-learning projects you find out quickly there are whole new worlds of knowledge you suddenly need to acquire.

A critical example is the realm of visual design, which can have a huge impact on the learning experience you are creating.

Our clients often need to become instant experts in visual design as they move into using the dominKnow LCMS, especially if they are transitioning from a more traditional training approach. Our creative services team has created a short overview document that highlights some key issues and concepts to help give clients a head start on this transition.

In this post, we'll highlight some important things to consider when using images and animations. Over the next few posts we'll look at typography and font use as well as color theory. We'll also post up a collection of web resources on these topics, to help anyone interested in learning more.

A thought to keep in mind: Rules are meant to be broken and there's an exception to every rule. Okay, that's two thoughts, but they point to the same thing. These are good guidelines to follow, but at some point you may need to ignore or break them. Just make sure whatever you do is in the best interest of your learmers!

Images and Animation Use

General Image Considerations
Ensure that images complement and support the content.

Images should be consistent in style, and should complement each other as well. The mood of the images should be appropriate to the subject and your audience. The image above shows three different visual styles - you'll quickly recognize that they aren't equally appropriate for every learning experience, that they each have their place.

Always create images at their final size. In other words, do not use your course authoring tool settings to resize an image's pixel height or width. Scaling an image to make it appear larger on screen (scaling up) will cause it to look pixilated. The image above shows an example of this effect. Scaling to make an image appear smaller (scaling down) will mean you are using a larger-than-necessary file size, adding unnecessary bulk to your course. You should always try to minimize file size to prevent bandwidth or loading issues for your learners.

You may also reduce the number of colors or quality in your image in order to reduce the file size, thereby decreasing the time the image takes to display in your course. For example, if you save the image as a JPG, you can usually reduce the image quality and still retain an image almost identical to the quality of the original.

Stock Images
If you do not produce your own photographs or images for a course and need to obtain some from an online (or other) source, make sure that you have proper authorization to use them. This may mean purchasing the rights to the image or getting permission from its creator for its use.

You can visit stock image websites to see thousands of images that are usually available for purchase (vector images, photographs, illustrations etc.). Well-known vendors include Jupiter Images, iStockPhoto and Getty Images.

Animations
Animations often play a critical part in illustrating a concept. When adding animations make sure you pay attention to how large the file is, as this can reduce a course's playability.

Any animations used in courseware should require a cue from the learner for startup; be aware that looping animations or videos that play automatically can be distracting to the learner.

Keep all animations and videos in the control of the user, so they can start and stop them as they wish.

Next post: Typography and font use

Chris Van Wingerden is Vice President Learning Solutions at dominknow Learning Systems.

Last Friday I attended a great webinar on re-use and the dominKnow Learning Content Management System (LCMS) hosted by our partners at GeoLearning.

The hour-long session was presented by Rick Judson of Sales Performance International (SPI) and GeoLearning's Dr. Paul Schneider.

SPI is a dominKnow LCMS client through our partnership with GeoLearning.

If you've ever heard of the phrase "Solution Selling®" then you are aware of the impact SPI has had on the world of sales. Solution Selling is SPI's trademarked methodology for approaching sales from a customer-centered perspective, and innumerable organizations use this approach throughout the world. It is the core of Microsoft's internal and partner sales training approach, for example. SPI offers training on the Solution Selling methodology, including online training created using the dominKnow LCMS.

Last Friday's webinar offered a look at how SPI's use of the dominKnow LCMS and its content management and re-use options has evolved in the past three or so years.

Evolved is the key – SPI's Rick Judson explained that SPI is currently in its third phase of re-use, and is already looking forward to evolving again.

SPI started out initially just using the LCMS as a course structuring system, working with a third-party partner to create Flash movies as pages uploaded into the LCMS. This approach, Rick explained, was one of expedience – SPI needed to get new courses made and simply altered an approach that it already had in place in order to meet initial timelines. These courses could be re-used for various audiences quite quickly, and tweaks and changes could be made by altering the Flash movies and updating them in the LCMS.

SPI's next leap in re-use came with the move to using the LCMS's integrated authoring tool. By moving to the authoring tool, SPI was able to make more granular re-use of page assets such as images or media files. Rather than having to update a graphic in several different Flash movies then update the files in the LCMS, graphic updates could be updated once in the LCMS's asset manager and then shared by all pages using the image, for example.

The next evolutionary step, Rick explained, was to move to the re-use of Learning Objects within the LCMS. The dominKnow LCMS allows the creation of complete, stand-alone instructional packages that address specific topics, tasks or enabling objectives to support the overall learning objectives in a course. These packages include knowledge presentation pages, review exercises and assessment questions. Here's a visual that explains how a Learning Object is constructed in the dominKnow LCMS. Rick noted that making this evolutionary step has offered several advantages to SPI, such as speeding up development, reducing errors and improving control over content. Along with this step, SPI has also taken advantage of the LCMS's translation support features to create versions of its online courses for other languages.

Rick said that SPI's next evolution will be to make a more concerted effort to work with re-usable templates in the LCMS's integrated Authoring Tool.

The webinar was a great glimpse into how a client is successfully taking advantage of re-use in many forms, all empowered by the LCMS, and we definitely appreciated Rick's time and energy.

If you are interested in learning more, here's a PDF copy of the presentation slide deck.

Our thanks to Rick and Paul for putting together an excellent learning event!

Chris Van Wingerden is Vice President Learning Solutions at dominKnow Learning Systems.

Microsoft PowerPoint is far and away the most popular presentation software tool. In fact, it's really hit that level of status where the product name is synonymous with the generic product category, like Kleenex for facial tissues and Ski-Doo for snow machines.

PowerPoint really is the default, the standard, the go-to tool for almost everyone in the training and education space, and most trainers and training departments have invested a great deal of time and effort in creating PowerPoint slide decks to support instructor-led and face-to-face training.

This week dominKnow is releasing a set of feature enhancements that dramatically improve the process of importing PowerPoint files into the dominKnow LCMS. These enhancements really expand the flexibility of the imported content, making it simple to move from an instructor-led course to an online course – without losing the time, effort and cost you've already invested in your original training material.

The feature enhancements import each slide into the dominKnow LCMS's integrated Authoring Tool as a new page. And once the quick import is complete, the full range of Authoring Tool features is available to help you edit, update and improve every page. Want to add or create engaging and instructionally sound e-learning interactions? No problem. The Authoring Tool's full range of interaction support tools is right there for you.

Need to record narration? No problem. The narration wizard can walk you through that process.

Need to change text? No problem – the text editor is instantly available. Need to add an assessment? No problem. The dominKnow LCMS's test-question wizards let you add test questions in a matter of minutes.

Need your new e-learning course to run in a third-party LMS? No problem. The course is easily exportable as SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compliant, or as AICC and PENS compliant.

What's really impressive is how robust the import process is.

All media files are automatically imported into the Authoring Tool's asset manager. This means all images, all audio files and all video files are instantly available for re-use on other pages or in entirely different courses, with full usage tracking and the ability to assign metadata to help in searching.

All master slides are automatically used to create layout templates that can be used for adding new pages to your course or any other course. And all speaker notes are imported into the Authoring Tool's new developer notes feature as well.

New Ways to Work Together

The feature enhancements also open new ways for development teams to create e-learning. A subject matter expert or instructional designer can now use PowerPoint to create a storyboard for a course, with text in place and placeholders for any images or media files required. The instructional designer can use the speaker notes in PowerPoint to describe what's required on the page, such as outlining how an interaction needs to work.

The storyboard PowerPoint can be quickly imported into the dominKnow LCMS, where other members of the development team can move it forward. One developer might move through the course standardizing the look and feel. A graphic artist can come in and add images as required. A Flash developer can come in and add any required animations or complex interactions. You get the idea – everyone works to their strengths, together in the LCMS.

With PowerPoint having such a wide user base within the world of learning, it's only common sense to be able to take advantage of it when moving to e-learning. And the feature enhancements we're releasing this week really simplify the PowerPoint import process and increase the flexibility of the imported content, creating real advantage for e-learning development teams.

Chris Van Wingerden is Vice President Learning Solutions at dominKnow Learning Systems.

The recent Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD) newsletter includes an interesting article on promoting e-learning in the workplace written by Saul Carliner.

Carliner points out that e-learning isn't the Field of Dreams – just because you build doesn't mean they will come.

In Ten Tips for Getting Learners to Take E-Courses, Carliner notes that "Anyone who has experience with classroom courses knows that they require extensive promotion and a bit of arm-twisting to get people to use them, so why should e-learning require any less promotion and arm twisting?"

All too true.

The client lead for one of the earliest e-learning projects I worked on understood this well. The project was a series of online courses covering the features, benefits, etc. of a suite of banking products.

We had great fun on the project, and of course it was a natural assumption that learners would have great fun too – but she recognized several aspects of her corporate culture that might work against e-learning. The client lead planned out an extensive internal marketing campaign, since e-learning was pretty new to this organization.

One of the most interesting parts of the campaign was a special laminated card that read something like, "Sh! E-Learning taking place." Most of her learning audience worked in cubicles that were less than private. Officially, the cards – hung on the outside of the cubicle – were a way for those doing their learning to alert others to be on the quiet side. The cards were also a "covert" e-learning promotional tool – the more cards that were hung up, the greater day-today exposure the e-learning courses would receive. The cards also added a bit of peer pressure, if you will, to the e-learning, sort of a way to leverage the urge to "keep up with the Joneses."

I've always kept this project in mind when we start off working with a new client, making certain I always raise the question of promoting e-learning to ensure its success. It's such a crucial aspect of e-learning, but one that often doesn't get much though put to it – until the day the new course is rolled out.

Ten Tips for Getting Learners to Take E-Courses by Saul Carliner is available here.

Visitors to the 2009 edition of BETT, the world's largest educational technology event, will be able to get a first-hand glimpse of some exciting new features in the dominKnow Learning Content Management System (dominKnow LCMS).

BETT – once known as the British Educational and Training Technology show, but now just going by the shorter acronym alone – saw almost 29,000 visitors walk the aisles at the Olympia facility in London, UK. And we're excited to be at booth SW 30 in the software area to show off the latest developments in the dominKnow LCMS.

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Safety is the one area of training where people's lives hang in the balance. Every organization takes it seriously, but most organizations also know that they could do it better.

Our new initiative with North Safety by Honeywell offers a great opportunity for safety training, bringing together our two companies' expertise to create a range of solutions to improve safety training in any organization.

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Last October, dominKnow Learning Systems released the beta of our Touch Learning Center Portal, which gives learners easy mobile learning access to content ranging from full online courses to individual Learning Objects and support documentation via the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Of course, the iPhone 3-G launch two weeks ago has spun renewed buzz about mobile learning, and a pair of recent reports show that interest in mobile learning is definitely in a growth mode, at least as far as interest in its possibilities is concerned.

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"Remember the e-learning!"

This new battle cry has replaced the classic "Remember the Alamo!" this week in San Antonio as the GeoLearning 2008 Summit on Learning & Performance has rolled into town.

Today marked the official release of version 5.2 of the dominKnow Learning Content Management System (LCMS), and the Summit was a great place to mark the occasion. dominKnow Learning Systems is the platinum sponsor of the event, honouring the six-year partnership between the two companies.

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Last year marked a turning point of sorts for the airline industry around the world, with the business overall earning $5.6 billion U.S. in profit.

There are a lot of factors adding jet fuel to the industry's growth, but they all up to one thing – tremendous pressure on airlines to find, hire and train staff to meet their growing needs.

Some reports suggest that 17,000 new pilots will be needed to be trained every year. Other reports suggest that 120,000 new pilots will be needed by the year 2017.

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When I talk about using Agents (or Avatars) in online courses, people sometimes give me a horrified look. I can almost see the shadow of Microsoft's Clippy in their eyes.

For those lucky enough to not to know Clippy, he was an obtrusive, paperclip-shaped help agent that would appear (at the most inopportune times) when using Microsoft Office applications. Clippy was notoriously hard to turn off and was exceedingly annoying. He was a good concept, just badly executed (Sorry Microsoft!). This has scared many people away from the idea of using Agents in learning.

But what exactly are Agents?

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