Multimedia Learning

Practical Ideas for Designing Better E-Learning by David Anderson

Flash CS4 for Elearning Production

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Flash CS4 for Elearning Production

One of the features my team is most excited about in Flash CS4 is the new object-based animation.

This should significantly reduce a lot of basic elearning production times for tasks such as:

  • Animated text and bullets;
  • Simple image fades and transitions.

Granted, Elearning is (should be) much more than animated bullets and sliding text but this is a popular courseware format for a lot of organizations.

If this new feature reduces development times like I think it will, development managers will have more time to allocate for custom content and interaction development.

Let’s take a look at where production times are spent in a given course. Leaving aside custom elearning development, consider that most corporate, Flash/audio-based elearning contains the following components:

  • Intro/chapter screens (5%)- anything from static to animated, narrated scenarios used for attention grabbing openers;
  • Learning objectives screens (1-5%) – animated text (maybe with animated bullets) that fade or slide sync’d to the narration. Single screen for course or one per chapter/module.
  • Content screens (80-90%)- animated text and image screens that fade or slide images in along with text
  • Activity screens (5-10%) – usually template driven t/f, m/c, m/s, drag/drop; scenario/dialogue; etc
  • Custom content (5-20%)- probably not included in every project, this is where additional creativity and development are allocated for larger or high-impact projects

Clearly the majority of most courseware development is around content screen development. Maybe I’m overly optimistic about this feature, but I’m hoping it frees up more time for custom content and interactions.

Comments

  1. Bhanwar Singh says

    I agree! But you would also agree on that simply adding animation to your content doesn’t serve the purpose of making the effective eLearning, sometimes it distracts the attention of the learner. It seems that you are very much excited by rapid and effective elearning development, I would recommend you to give a google to “CIBS”+”Harbinger”;

    would be happy to share your thoughts…

  2. David Anderson says

    Hi Bhanwar, I completely agree with you. Animated text does not translate to learning. Nevertheless, there is a lot of courseware being developed around such a model, and for a lot of companies, that model is appropriate for where they are as a learning organization.

    Most development schedules don’t allow for a lot of creative experimentation, so you make your case where you can with the talent you have. That’s why I think this feature could enable more ambitious designers the extra time to present more custom options that could lead to an evolution of their elearning courseware.

    I didn’t mean to advocate any specific model of courseware, only to suggest this feature could benefit those groups designing around such models.

    BTW, I know of your company and you guys do some really great work.

    David