Now You Know Blog

Tracking year to year changes in the elearning industry

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:18:00 -0400

The 2010 edition of Elearning Magazine!'s annual Fact Book and Buyers' Guide was published last week, and includes the results of the magazine's annual web-based survey on trends in e-learning and other training delivery modes.

Here's a round up of some the results that we found most interesting.

Of the 740 respondents, a whopping 93% reported that they use e-learning as part of their training program.

Respondents' e-learning budgets didn't seem to get slashed between the 2009 and 2010 surveys. In fact, the total budget allocations reported by all enterprise respondents actually increased by 30%. Government respondents reported no change in their e-learning budgets.

What is being trained changed between 2009 and 2010. Compliance training was the top priority for both enterprise and government respondents in 2009, and remained first for enterprise and second for government respondents in 2010. What is interesting that for both sets of respondents, customer service moved quite higher up in the priority rankings, going from fifth for both sets of respondents in 2009 to first for government and second for enterprise respondents in 2010.

Surprisingly, mobile learning is being used more among government respondents than enterprise respondents. Almost a quarter of government respondents – 24% - said they used mobile learning tools, compared to only 18% of enterprise respondents. Mobile learning tools are on the planning list for 37% of enterprise respondents and 35% of government respondents.

We received the print copy of the Fact Book and Buyer's Guide edition in the mail last week. The print article notes that the complete survey results are available in the Resources section of the magazine's website. Registration is required to access the reports.

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

Bring your creativity to dominKnow - we're looking for software developers!

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:09:00 -0400

At dominKnow we're riding the leading edge of web technology, and we'd like you to be part of that wave.

Our aim is to give dominKnow LCMS users the richest, user-focused experience that can be delivered through a web browser.

Our market, the e-learning industry, is expanding and evolving in ways that dominKnow can capitalize upon with the adoption of HTML 5, supporting mobile browsers and integrating with an ever-increasing variety of libraries and frameworks.

We require software developers who want to be part of the maintenance of our flagship solutions as well as be involved in creation of new products. Our products are multi-tiered, full-featured rich web applications.

In an n-tiered system, you are as comfortable laying out the front end for omni-browser support as you are designing and implementing web services, defining an API, or querying data from the back end. You know the difference between the collection of pages that makes a web site and the object oriented architecture of a web application which provides a full, rich, multi-media user experience. You are interested in the leading edge of web-technology and are eager join us as we find ways to serve native-application-style experiences to a web browser.

Your programming skills include object oriented design with JavaScript. You have strength in web application development technologies, such as HTML, CSS and AJAX. You are well versed in data transformation technologies like XML. You are an SQL programmer with some database design experience.

In addition to the above, experience in ColdFusion frameworks is an asset in this position. A Flex, Flash and ActionScript background is another asset, as is .NET (C# and ASP). Knowledge of e-learning systems and standards (SCORM) is also useful.

Interested in joining our team?

Email your resume to IWantToWork@dominKnow.com.

Peter Morgan is Project Manager at dominKnow Learning Systems.

Five “don’t miss” events at ASTD ICE 2010 in Chicago

Mon, 10 May 2010 13:56:00 -0400

The suitcases are being packed once more here at dominKnow as we prepare for ASTD 2010 International Conference and Exposition in Chicago, which runs from Sunday May 16 through to Wednesday, May 19. Organizers are predicting that more than 8,000 people will attend from more than 70 countries in all. That's a big event – with a lot to take in. Here's a list, in no particular order, of the five things the dominKnow team is most looking forward to. Abandoning ADDIE with Thiagi
Saturday, May 15, features a full-day pre-conference workshop with Sivasailam Thiagarajan (better known to most of us as Thiagi) titled Faster, Cheaper, Better: An Alternative Approach to Instructional Design. "Rapid" has become a term most strongly associated with e-learning development tools but the Thiagi workshop will offer ways to reduce the design time for any learning project, including alternatives to the ADDIE model. Taking a Drive with Daniel Pink
The Monday morning General Session will see author Pink share his insights into what get peoples' drive started. Motivation plays such a crucial in performance, and Pink's latest book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, explores the factors that lead to high performance and personal satisfaction. Hint: it's not the boss looming over your shoulder, muttering about that deadline... A Night at the Museum
On Tuesday night, May 18, the ASTD conference will move into Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry for the ASTD 2010 Celebration. Food, music, and the chance to explore the museum's nearly 14-acres will make for an awesome evening. Organizers offer this strong suggestion: "comfortable shoes are a must." Booth Hopping at the Expo
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday offer a great chance to wander down the aisles to check on new products and services and just generally get inspired at the ASTD Expo. It's one of the biggest collections of vendorsin the training and learning development space, all in one place. The dominKnow team will be at booth 1835 – drop by and get your hands on our latest mobile learning development solution and take a tour of the dominKnow LCMS. Getting the Solutions You Need
The Solution Evolution event, set for Tuesday, May 18 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the Expo, offers seven different facilitated group discussions designed to help you get the help you need. The seven discussions are very targeted for different learning and development roles, and the question and answer format means that the discussion will only cover relevant issues for each. If you're going to ASTD, pop by both 1835 and say hi to the dominKnow team – and let us now what your highlight list includes! Chris Van Wingerden is Vice President Learning Solutions at dominKnow Learning Systems.

Learning Solutions 2010 – and the winners are….

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:06:00 -0400

The dominKnow team is still unpacking from our trip to Orlando last week for Learning Solutions 2010, sponsored by the eLearning Guild.

We had a great time, and it was so exciting to see how well dominKnow Mobile was received.

It was a real thrill being able to put mobile learning in the hands of users on almost any smart phone they could ask for, including the iPhone, Blackberry 9000 and Storm, Palm Pre and Google Nexus One. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then touching (pun intended for most devices!) the real thing must be worth a million!

If you'd like to see what the fuss was all about, we've posted videos of dominKnow Mobile in action on the Learning Solutions trade show floor on the dominKnow Learning Systems YouTube channel.

Another highlight for the dominKnow team was giving away an iPod Touch each day of the trade show. Here are pics of the iPod Touch winners.

dominKnow Chief Software Architect Ryan McIlMoyl (left) congratulates Steve Brimley, winner of the day 1 iPod Touch at Learning Solutions 2010.

dominKnow Chief Software Architect Ryan McIlMoyl (left) congratulates Niclas Nordensved, winner of the day 2 iPod Touch at Learning Solutions 2010.

Congrats Steve and Niclas!

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

10 Great Things To Do At Learning Solutions 2010 in Orlando

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:11:00 -0400

Need help prioritizing your time among all the cool offerings at Learning Solutions 2010 in Orlando next week?

Here's a list of 10 great things to do, based on a highly scientific survey of the team at dominKnow.

10. Eat and learn at the Breakfast Bytes and Laptop Labs. Now you can say you learned more by 9 a.m. than most people do all day.

9. Learn about the new science of decision making from Jonah Lehrer, Thursday's keynote speaker. Make a decision, and go. It's not rocket science. (It is science, just not rocket science.)

8. Win a free iPod Touch. One for each day of the exhibition. Drop by booth 410 for a chance to win.

7. Get your fill of ID ideas! ID zone sessions with some of the most interesting minds in instructional design and elearning, including Clark Quinn, Mark Oehlert and Will Thalheimer.

6. Get your map and compass aligned at Leonard Brody's keynote on navigating the change ahead on Friday, March 26.

5. Test drive dominKnow's latest mobile learning solutions for iPhone, Palm Pre and Google Android. Booth 410. And enter to win a free iPod Touch.

4. Get out of the elearning gate at full speed by attending the two-day E-Learning Foundations Intensive program. A boot camp for elearning newbies that is unrivalled in the caliber of talent you can learn from.

3. Tune in to the Rapid Multimedia Studio. More than two days of sessions focused on video and audio, including how to make your own green screen studio for under $1500. At that price, anyone can fulfill the dream of doing TV weather!

2. Talk to the guy in red sneakers. Ask him about the iPod Touch giveaways. He knows the skinny. (Psst – it's at booth 410.)

1. Get passionate with Sir Ken Robinson. Um, no, that's the subject of his keynote on Wednesday, March 24. If you want a glimpse of what you're in store for, check out the videos at TED.

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

Bringing Social Media to the Organizational Learning Party - a CSTD Ottawa Event

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:15:00 -0400

Last Thursday, Feb. 25 saw a great turnout at the CSTD Ottawa chapter event on social media in learning. Officially titled "What am I missing? Leveraging Social Media for Learning", the event was filled to capacity (and a bit more, even) for presenters Mary Myers, Senior Instructional Designer, Maritz Canada (@Mary_a_Myers ) and David Ransom, Senior Consultant, Knowledge & Collaboration, IBM Canada (@sitchaba). Mary's portion of the presentation focused on her own experiences using social media as a learning tool and how that gives her inspiration for solving learning and training issue for her clients. David brought an organizational perspective to the mix, with some great concrete examples of how companies are incorporating social media to solve learning and training problems. There's a link to the presentation slides below, if you are interested. Beyond the great insight from Mary and David, what also really interesting – and revealing – were the questions that came from the crowd. Two of the main themes raised were control and measurement. The concern over control was voiced in a number of ways, from control over access to control over confidentiality to control over accuracy of information. On the measurement front, as one audience member pointed out, training professionals report to someone and need show the effect and vale of what they are doing. Just how do you do that when you introduce social media tools into the learning mix? Both of these topics are way too broad to be addressed here, but there's no doubt they are critical issues for learning and development professionals (and the organizations they work for) looking to harness the possibilities of social media tools. Here at dominKnow, for example, we've really seen benefits from using Yammer, a Twitter-like application. We have a distributed work force, so Yammer not only keeps everyone in touch but has also turned into a great tool for sharing information like links to articles or examples of technology use. The communication benefits were what originally prompted us to try Yammer out – the learning benefits have been an unexpected bonus. And speaking of Twitter, we've also recently taken to the Twitterverse. If you are interested, you can follow our @dominknow account – and don't hesitate to reach out to us! Many thanks to Mary and David for sharing their knowledge and insight, and to the CSTD Ottawa committee (and a specific shout out to Shikha for a great job!) for putting together a great event. If you want to see what the event was all about, here's a link to the slide deck. Chris Van Wingerden is Vice President Learning Solutions at dominKnow Learning Systems.

Mobile learning: Resources to help you get learning in the hands (and pockets) of your learners

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:56:00 -0400

I don't know how many e-learning prediction lists you've seen in the past month or so, but one definite trend has been a re-emphasizing of the potential for mobile learning – whether it's iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Palm or even non-smart phone focused – to surge ahead in use. I say re-emphasizing, because it's a prediction that's been made for several years past. So what's the hold up? Well, probably true need. Delivering learning (or even just information) to everyone's pocket seems like a no brainer – it's accessible, convenient, and pretty cool to think about, too. But necessity, for organizations, is the mother of investment -- and for many organizations mobile learning just doesn't seem necessary yet. Still, that time will come for many – and it's always good to be prepared. So, if you (or your organization) are thinking about mobile learning, here are some recent resources that would be a wise investment of your time. Case (study) in point
It's always good to learn from others, and a recent case study from Brandon Hall Research is a great place to start. Called Accenture's myLearning Mobile, it outlines how Accenture used mobile to solve its need to get training into the hands of a sales team that is constantly on the move. This case study is a freebie for anyone who signs up for the Brandon Hall Research Newsletter – if you haven't already, go ahead and sign up.

Design best practices for mobile web
One of the challenges of mobile learning is the sheer quantity of devices available. Even with specific phone brands, things like browser version and screen resolution can really have an impact on, well, the visual impact of your mobile learning. The W3C Mobile Web Initiative has published its Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 - Basic Guidelines, a set of design best practices for creating web-based content for mobile devices.

Thinking outside the (organizational training) box
It's always valuable for those of us in the world of organizational training to look beyond our own communities of practice to see what's going on in other areas of education. New technologies, new pedagogies: Mobile learning in higher education is a recent e-book from the University of Wollongong's Faculty of Education that covers a number of really neat mobile learning initiatives from early childhood education to adult education.

Books are mobile, too!
If you want a more low-tech approach to mobile learning, check out Mohamed Ally's Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training. No need to worry about battery life with this mobile learning option!

And another take on the idea of mobile learning...
Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has released the Blackberry Presenter, a wireless projector that allows slides presentations to be projected from a Blackberry device. Gives a whole new meaning to "mobile in the classroom"!

One-stop mlearning learning
Information on mobile learning is scattered across the interweb, so it's great to have a place like mlearnopedia to help you keep tabs on developments in this area across all varieties of education and training.

Oldies, but goodies
Lastly, here are a couple of older resources listed in a previous blog post here. They're still good!

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

Show, don’t tell! Using video in your e-learning courses

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:29:00 -0400

Say the word video at the start of an e-learning project, and many of us will enthusiastically call out, "Lights, Camera, Action!" And then we'll pause, as we start thinking of the Hollywood budgets often required for projects using video. But the success of YouTube should give us all inspiration that creativity can count for more than budget when it comes to adding video to a learning experience. The Authoring Tool in our dominKnow LCMS includes a video capture feature that allows video to be recorded from a web cam directly to a page in your e-learning course. The first idea that most people think of when they discover this feature is that it's a quick and easy way to record a talking head video clip, like an introduction to a topic or a welcome greeting at the start of a course. But flex your creative muscles a little further, and you'll see there are far more engaging learning experiences that can be created with this tool. Here's an example. Last week I was asked by a client to show them what a video-capture screen can look like in the LCMS. I didn't have an example readily at hand, so I quickly put one together. Instead of just recording myself doing an introduction, though, I took a few minutes and developed a bit of a back story to use as part of a scenario, in this case a phone sales call. In the example, the learner watches the video to hear and see my responses to the conversation so far, and then makes a decision on what action to take next. Creating the page only took about 10 minutes, including recording time. Here's a screen cap (and yes, that's my mug in the video). An approach like this takes advantage of video's ability to help us tell a story, and stories can bring powerful engagement advantages to the learning experience. And almost as importantly, it doesn't take a Hollywood budget to carry out. In fact, the nature of the scenario even turned the limited quality of my computer's mic into a contextually-relevant production feature for this clip. Since the scenario is based around a phone sales call, no one will expect big budget editing or foley effects in the soundtrack. A little mic and background noise is just what you'd expect in a phone call. There are many other inexpensive ways to bring video into your next e-learning project. Try sending your SMEs out with video cameras to record clips that explain important topics or demonstrate critical skills. Hey, the budget could be very tight on this, since so many of us now carry a video recorder -- also known as a cell phone -- in our pocket every day. Your SMEs won't likely be expert videographers or even professional actors or voice-over talents. But their in-depth knowledge of the topic or task and the personal experience they speak from can give the video clips an authenticity no actor could ever reach, either. And authenticity is another great way to create engagement in a learning experience. You'll be surprised at how much usable video you get in a hurry, and if anything needs to be reshot, you'll already have a working prototype of it for use during storyboarding. What's the lesson here? Don't let your ears hear "video" and your mind automatically think "Hollywood budget". Daring to think differently can hep take your next e-learning course to a new level of learning engagement -- and that really is the goal, after all. Chris Van Wingerden is Vice President Learning Solutions at dominKnow Learning Systems.

Do you see how I see?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:58:00 -0400

One of the first major e-learning projects I worked on (way back near the beginning of this century) was aimed at training oil sands personnel to run a plant that didn't exist. The facility was under construction and every day several thousand trades people added new parts and pieces to the multi-acre project. As soon as everything was completed, the operations team had to be ready to start turning everything on. Yep, the operators had to learn how to run the plant before they could put their hands on much of it. Enter our team and the e-learning project, including proposed 3-D models of the facility so operators could see the finished system as part of their training. This was the best way, it was reasoned, to deal with training on a structure that didn't exist yet. Beginning with introductory-level learning topics we started creating 3-D models for almost every learning experience we designed, from sky-high viewpoints for locating fire equipment locations to inside looks at the various reactions taking place as heavy oil was converted into product ready for the refinery. About a third of the way into the project, we started crafting the process operations modules, the real meat of how the plant was going to run. I was reviewing design notes (one of the collaboration features of the dominKnow LCMS) submitted by the client team leader as part of an early module review. One particular note caught my eye; it said something like "These pipes don't look anything like this. Let's get rid of the 3-D." I called the client to catch up on this. He said the 3-D model we had created in this case looked more like household plumbing than the piping found at an oil processing plant to him. If the images didn't look right, the learners – in this case, experienced operators – would be skeptical of the validity of the information overall. So, let's just get rid of the 3-D images. Ummm, okay. But how are your learners going to understand how the oil product moves through the unit? Why don't we just use the P&ID diagrams? What? In the earliest stages of the project's design, a set of Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams had been created. These were line and symbol-based diagrams, like a logic diagram or a flow chart, that outlined the design specs for the project, such as how different pumps were to be connected in sequence, what the operating pressures and temperatures were expected to be, and which types of valves were needed along the way, for example. The P&ID diagrams had almost no direct relation to the physical layout of the facility or actual dimensions or distances or practically anything relating to the eventual physical appearance of the facility – but they were a visual language that made sense to the operations team. The P&ID diagrams were a very precise way of explaining how product moved from point a to point b. I won't even begin to explain why we could have made it several months into the project without understanding this critical piece of the client's culture. But the upshot was that for process operations we were able to use simple line drawing approaches instead of 3-D models. And although the visual design was no where near as cool as the 3-D models in the other modules, the learning still happened because it used a visual language the learners were comfortable with and trusted. The lesson? Not everyone "sees" the same way, especially when it comes to making sense of information in a visual medium like e-learning. Needless to say, our needs analysis process was quickly adjusted to include identifying such issues when we start working with a client on a new e-learning project. And our clients get to "see" better learning results. Chris Van Wingerden is Vice President Learning Solutions at dominKnow Learning Systems.

dominKnow LCMS workgroup Edition launched at combined IFTDO World Conference and CSTD Conference

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:27:00 -0400

Got plans to be in Toronto this week? Be sure to check out the International Federation of Training and Development Organisations (IFTDO) World Conference being held in conjunction with this year's Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD) annual conference, where dominKnow is releasing the workGroup Edition of our dominKnow Learning Content Management System (LCMS). The dominKnow team is at booth 214 Tuesday evening, Oct. 20 and Wednesday Oct. 21 and Thursday Oct. 22 – so if you're in the neighbourhood, feel free to drop by! We'll be more than happy to give you a tour of the workGroup Edition, which we're pretty excited about. The workGroup Edition gives teams of up to five e-leaning authors the full feature set of our integrated Authoring Tool environment, plus all the benefits of working together using the LCMS's collaboration tools like our Design Notes feature, internal communication and RSS feeds to keep track of what's going on in your course projects at any time. It's SCORM-compliant so you can plug your completed courses into any third-party LMS without hassle. Learning Content Management Systems have traditionally been seen as a tool for large enterprises, but many smaller organizations face the same issues of rapid content development, the need to share media assets like images and video files, and the critical requirement of having many people work together, from instructional designers to graphic artists to subject matter experts and reviewers. The dominKnow LCMS workgroup Edition is a hosted approach to helping smaller organizations create e-learning. The dominKnow LCMS WorkGroup Edition allows teams to:
• Work together and collaborate within a single development environment
• Rapidly create online courses with pre-and post-testing
• Incorporate audio, video and animations to enrich the learning experience
• Share images and multimedia assets from a single, tracked asset library
• Quickly and easily update content as learning requirements change
Can't make it to the IFTDO and CSTD conference? Here's a quick way to learn more about the dominKnow LCMS workGroup Edition. Hope to see you in Toronto! Chris Van Wingerden is Vice President Learning Solutions at dominKnow Learning Systems.

Visual Design Primer Part 5: Design Resources to Help You Learn More

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:47:00 -0400

Over the past few posts we've covered a lot of ground in design principles and foundation ideas like color theory. And we've only begun to scratch the surface! The truth is, design is a field that is part science, part craft and part art form. And one of best aspects of design work is that you are never finished learning. There are always new ideas to introduce, and new aspects of design to study up on and bring into your own work. So, if the last few posts have whet your design learning appetite, here are some great websites to help you continue on your learning journey. Color, Typography, and Design Resources

Worqx.com
This site, the brainchild of Web designer/developer and self-proclaimed 'color enthusiast' Janet Lynn Ford, is a great place to begin learning about color. The website gives a general overview of color theory and provides an in-depth color tutorial. More specifically, it explains how color is communicated, and provides information about color application. There is also a wonderful little palette picker tool for trying out your own color combinations. Be sure to check out Peter Piper's Palette Picker.

Adobe Labs Kuler
This site is created by and for designers--to explore, create, and save color themes following the principles of color theory. You will need an Adobe ID. These swatches can be saved to your Adobe Creative Suite applications.

Val Casey's Notes on Visual and Interaction Design
Designer Val Casey's site on color and design for the web is spare and image-free, but has many links to other sites illustrating the points she makes.

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
This article by designer Jason Beaird illustrates the design process, defines design elements, and offers tips for inspiration (available as a book too).

A List Apart
A List Apart Magazine explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.

Graphic Tools Tutorials and Articles

Here are some great places to go for information, tips, tutorials and other help when using specific graphic and web design tools.

Web Design Library: Designer's One-Stop Resource
This site contains articles and tutorials to help you learn more about using Flash, Swish, Photoshop, HTML, CSS and other tools for web design.

Entheos
This site includes tutorials on using Flash, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Photoshop and more tools for web design.

Flash Kit: A Flash Developer's Resource Site
Flash Kit includes lots of tools and tips for Flash developers, including tutorials.

HotScripts.com
This site contains scripts, components, menus, and other tools that can be downloaded and used in your work.

HTML Goodies: The Ultimate HTML Resource
This site is full of information about HTML, including tutorials.

Know of any other great web sites that deal with design? Share them using the comments. Happy learning!

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

Visual Design Primer Part 4: Using Color Theory in Design

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:24:00 -0400

In our previous post we looked at the basics of color theory. In this post we'll look at ways to put that theory to use in our designs, by understanding how to combine colors effectively and how to use color to help us communicate ideas to our learners.

Color Combinations
Good design is about choosing the right colors to represent what you are trying to convey. Colors are often used in combination, so understanding how people perceive color combinations is important. Successful color combinations can be represented through an extended color wheel which includes shades and tints. Color relationships can be:

Monochromatic

Triadic

Complementary

Analogous

Split-Complimentary

Double-complimentary

In general, you will pick one of these color relationship types and use it as the basis of your overall design, from the big picture aspects such as background color and navigation layer color to the more subtle course visual elements such as button colors and the use of color for some text elements such as page headers, for example.

Color and Contrast in Design
Contrast is the most important element in design: you can achieve contrast through color, scale, texture, shape, and weight.

The ability to clearly see the subject or words in a design is good legibility, and legibility is a function of contrast. Light type can be placed over dark backgrounds between 35 and 100 per cent in contrast, and dark type can be placed on a light background between 0 and 35 per cent contrast.

Itten's Color Contrasts
In his book The Art of Color, Johannes Itten describes methods for color combinations using contrasting properties of hue. Itten's color star did not recognize magenta or cyan as primaries, but his book summarizes most other color knowledge to date. Through his research he developed seven color contrasts for coordinating colors by using the hue's contrasting properties. He learned that contrasts may be obtained by light, moderate, or dark values. This image shows Itten's seven color contrasts. Of course, there is one other aspect of designing with color that should always be considered, and that is how color can affect your audience. This is a huge subject to begin understanding, but here's a good place to start. Next post: Web resources to help you learn more about visual design Chris Van Wingerden is Vice President Learning Solutions at dominKnow Learning Systems.

Visual Design Primer Part 3: Color Theory Basics

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:22:00 -0400

This is our third posting in our Visual Design Primer series looking at visual design issues and concepts that relatively new e-learning and multimedia designers can really benefit from. We've looked at image and animation use and typography and font usage in the previous two posts. This post is the first of two on using color in your design process. Color is the visual perceptual property corresponding to the categories called red, yellow, white, etc. Color is derived from the spectrum of light, and it is reflected or absorbed, as it is received by the eye, and processed by the brain. In this post, we outline a few of the most important color theory concepts. Understanding color and color relationships will greatly assist you in an effective design process. In the next post we'll look at ways to use color in your design thinking.

Qualities of Color, or Hue In design, it's not enough to be able to know a color's name. Anyone who has ever tried to pick a paint color for the living room already knows that all reds are not created equal, for example. There are a number of different qualities that we can use to describe color. The key qualities we most often need to think about are:

Chroma and saturation

Value, intensity and luminance

Shade

Tint

Chroma and saturation represents how pure or gray a color or hue is. Intensity, luminance and value represent how bright or dull a hue is; how much light is reflected from the hue. Shade and tint represent how much black or white is added to a color. The image above shows how these different qualities affect how a color looks. When we start to think in terms of these qualities, we're able to describe how and why one red is different from another.

The Color Wheel To start thinking about the differences between more than one color, we need to understand the color wheel. The color wheel is the primary tool used in color theory. Colors are arranged on the wheel according to their hue and relationship. Understanding the color wheel will help you understand how certain colors relate to each other, and why they work well together - or don't! The color wheel can be broken down into Primary colors, Secondary colors and Tertiary colors. When talking about how colors relate to each other, we speak about Harmonious colors, Complementary colors, and Analogous colors. Primary colors are the main colors that cannot be made from others but are used to create all other colors. Secondary colors are those made when two primaries are mixed. Tertiary colors are those made when primary and secondary colors are mixed. Complementary colors are colors opposite each other on the color wheel. Harmonious colors are colors that are next to one another on the color wheel or very close to it. Analogous colors are located near each other on the color wheel and can be a pleasing combination. Getting these color theory basics under your belt is important. You'll not only make better decisions on color use in your e-learning designs, you'll also be better prepared to work (and talk!) with graphic artists and other design team members. Next post: Using color theory in design Chris Van Wingerden is Vice President Learning Solutions at dominKnow Learning Systems 9wefv5g7yj

Visual Design Primer Part 2: Typography and Font Usage

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:41:00 -0400

In our previous post we looked at some critical issues to keep in mind when thinking about image and animation use in an online learning project. The old saying might be that a picture is worth a thousand words, but in e-learning you really can't get away from words completely. But text in an online learning experience is more than just words on the screen. It is also a key element of visual design. It's especially important to especially ensure that the visual design of the text presentation best supports the learning that needs to take place. Here are some key concepts to keep in mind when you think about using text in your online learning course. Typography
Typography is the art and technique of setting written subject matter in type using a combination of fonts, font sizes, line lengths, leading (line spacing), and letter spacing. When dealing with typefaces, always limit yourself to full families of fonts, and only mix serif and sans serif fonts based on the structure of the project. As a general rule:

Avoid having two consecutive lines that end with hyphens

Widows and orphans (one word on a line by itself) are undesirable

Tighten text (decrease letter spacing) no more than -3

Kern (manually adjust the space between letters and words) on titles/word-marks to improve letter spacing

Note: Typographic controls such as kerning and leading are often not available in applications meant for online display. They may be still used to good effect when preparing text as an image for online display, as in this example: Here's a link to a good general overview of the subject of typography.

Fonts are the visual families that you choose to use to display your text. Microsoft has a great site to spend time at if you are new to typography and fonts. For example, it explains what TrueType fonts and ClearType fonts are. It also gives a great overview of typography in general. General Font Information for Web-based Training
Since text will carry the bulk of your learning content, it will be very important that it display clearly. Here are some guidelines for text use:

Fonts should be a minimum of 14 points for online learning. People above the age of 40 and people with visual perceptual deficit may have problems reading text if it is smaller.

Place text on an uncluttered background, distinctly separate from other screen elements. There should be a clear contrast between text and background elements.

Provide plenty of white space, and keep your columns of text narrow (8-12 words).

Try not to use more than two typefaces in your project. When using more than one typeface, make them quite different.

Use a typeface that is easy to read on-screen, for example Arial or Verdana. Small serif fonts such as Times New Roman are difficult to read on a monitor.

Make sure the spacing between sections of text in the project (between headings and main content, between paragraphs, etc.) is consistent.

Be aware that underlined fonts may be confused with active links to information and could be frustrating for learners. Fonts and Color
It's always tempting to add a bit of color to your text to help it stand out, but generally you should use color cautiously on text. For example, you should avoid using a font color against a background color that is adjacent to it on the color wheel, since the text will blend in with the background. Pick colors that have enough contrast to be easily read. Use dark colors for text. Generally, bright or light colors used for body text makes this text difficult to read. Avoid using colors which are opposite each other on the color wheel as they will be distracting, and may cause the illusion of 'vibration', as shown in the example below. Online learning is a visual medium, but text will inevitably still play a role in almost every online course you create. Following these guidelines will help make sure you are using text in the best ways possible, all in an effort to improve the effectiveness of the learning experience. Next post: Color theory Chris Van Wingerden is Vice President Learning Solutions at dominKnow Learning Systems

Visual Design Primer: Image and Animation Use

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:42:00 -0400

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.