What Instructional Designers Don't Want to Hear
What do we dread hearing from clients? All of these!
Blog posts
The True Cost of 1 Hour of Learning
Infographic based on Chapman's research on how long it takes to create different levels of e-learning, compared to ILT
Setting up Preferences in Adobe Captivate | Infosemantics Pty Ltd
Lots of troubleshooting tips here with explanations of how to use the preferences.
I Came, I Saw, I Learned...: Adobe Captivate Keyboard Shortcuts
speed up production with captivate shortcuts
id Layouts | eLearning Templates
E-Learning templates. Each template is available for purchase individually, rather than buying a package or subscription. Storyline and Captivate templates. The site is still new, but the library of options should increase in the future.
Recovering corrupt Adobe Captivate projects | CP Guru - Adobe Captivate Widgets
This process did work for me in Cp8, although the restored file still didn't seem to have any of my lost work even though the time stamp was right.
KeelWorks - Learning to live: Living to Learn
KeelWorks is a non-profit that regularly engages ID interns. Right now it's a 12-14 week unpaid program for 5 hours a week. It's a good way for people to get some experience before their first ID job.
Demos and Examples on Interactive Stories
Vignettes Learning Story Impacts demos from ebook
Free eLearning Books - The Ultimate List - eLearning Industry
50+ free e-learning ebooks. I wish these were sorted by topic or purpose rather than date, and I wish the authors or sources were consistently included in the descriptions. The descriptions are generally copied and pasted from the source, so no additional insight is added in the post. It's still a useful list though.
Microsoft Office Mix review – a potential new player in digital learning? | eLearning Instructional Design Specialists in Articulate Storyline, Lectora and LMS | Learning Tech, Auckland, NZ
Microsoft's entry into the e-learning world is a lightweight but free PowerPoint add-in. You can record presentations and do basic quizzing. They have their own reporting tool, but you can't use it in an LMS.
Drag&Drop tips - Captivate blog
Tips on drag and drop interactions in Captivate. If you've seen drag and drop actions continue when you expected them to pause, read this post.
Why choose Standard over Simple action? - Captivate blog
Lieve Weymeis explains why she recommends using standard actions even for actions like Show and Hide that can be completed as simple actions.
Articulate - Word of Mouth Blog - 5 Tips to Launch Your Career as an E-Learning Freelancer
Summary of tips from the Articulate freelancer community
1. Find your focus.
2. Save some money first.
3. Set up an online base of operations.
<strong>4. Create an online portfolio.</strong>
5. Track your time.
SCORM Watch
Tool for troubleshooting SCORM files that lets you actually analyze the errors. It's not cheap, but if you're spending lots of hours with trial and error guessing at what might fix a problem, it's probably worth it.
Will at Work Learning: Triggered Action Planning
Easy tip for improving follow up actions after training
Guest Posts
This summarizes some of my own discomfort with guest posts but articulates it more clearly than I could.
Quandary
Freeware application for creating "action mazes" or branching scenarios
Build a Better Online Training Team | Talance Blog
Overview of what roles need to be filled to develop e-learning. Some of these roles can overlap and be filled by the same person.
The Institute for Performance Improvement - IDBadges
Badges for instructional designers in various areas. Not sure if employers would actually care about this or recognize the organization, but it's an interesting idea for peer-reviewed credentials.
Top Tips for Producing Better eLearning Audio by Jennifer De Vries & Stephen Haskin : Learning Solutions Magazine
Tips for writing scripts and recording audio. Tip #3 on "Conditional logic" is an odd name for it, but the tip is good.
A common instance of this is that your
screen directions should be, “When you’ve completed the exercise, click the
Next button.” If you write, “Click the Next button when you’ve completed the
exercise,” at least some participants will click Next before they listen to the
rest of the sentence.
eLearning Wiki
Wiki by Kevin Wilcoxon with lengthy articles on learning and training. Categories are foundations, teaching online, course development, and the future (including references to the Serious e-Learning Manifesto). Currently everything is written by Kevin but you can sign up to contribute.
The Ultimate Directory Of Free Image Sources - The Edublogger
Extensive list of sources for free images, many of which are Creative Commons or public domain
Summertime Tips for Parents Who Work From Home - E-Learning Uncovered
Practical tips for juggling a work schedule and kids when working from home. My 1-year-old isn't independent enough for most of this to work for me now, but in a few years this will be more relevant to my situation.
Five Steps to Evaluate and Select an LMS: Proven Practices by Steve Foreman : Learning Solutions Magazine
Series of articles on LMSs. Selection, implementation, operation and governance, and the future of LMSs with xAPI.
The best way to help learners see the big picture? Start small - Rapid Learning Institute
Research comparing teaching the big picture as an integrated whole versus a series of short lessons on single topics. Breaking the content into smaller chunks and focusing on each one separately worked better.
ARTICUSEARCH.COM
Search the Articulate forums and resources
RANDOM.ORG - True Random Number Service
Random number generator. Enter a min and max. Good for making sure your correct answers in multiple choice questions actually are randomly distributed (not always C) and for generating random distractors for numeric questions
Updated E-Learning Authoring Tools Comparison - E-Learning Uncovered
Diane Elkins (E-Learning Uncovered/Artisan E-Learning) ranks tools based on price, ease of use, graphics, animation, interactivity, quizzing, power/flexibility, ADA, mobile, and software simulations.
Report Card: Gamification in Learning (What Works?) by Carol Leaman : Learning Solutions Magazine
Lessons learned on what works for gamification: multiple levels, fun, variety, leaderboards, tangible rewards, virtual coaches, progress tracking, social connectivity.
8 Books To Read Before Your Next eLearning Project
A different reading list than many I've seen, with several selections outside of the main learning field. I've only read one of these eight books.