ALISON: Free Online Courses
Free online courses on many basic business and other schools. They have an ID course which looks very elementary, but might be an OK overview for someone interested in learning about the field.
Blog posts
Moodle - Removing Country field from New User Registration Page - 916 Networks916 Networks
Notes on how to comment out the requirement for a country for Moodle sign-ups. It's dumb that Moodle doesn't have the ability to customize the country field by default, but this workaround did what I needed it to.
Don't fall for these adult learning myths
"How to be a learning mythbuster" from Cathy Moore. Part of this is the broader problem that most people are lousy at understanding research and verifying sources. This isn't exclusive to the learning profession. We should be better about avoiding the myths in our own field though.
We work in organizations that believe harmful myths. We’re pressured to work as if the myths are true, and we can’t or don’t take the time we need to keep our knowledge up to date and combat the myths.
Skills you need as an Instructional Designer | Origin Learning – A Learning Solutions Blog
List of skills for instructional designers. This isn't as comprehensive as the competency lists from ibstipi or ATD, but it's not a bad overview for someone new to the field.
elearn Magazine: Storytelling in eLearning: The why and how
Basics on elements of stories for those having trouble getting started
How to Chunk Training Materials
Good tips on how to chunk materials and sequence those chunks. Especially helpful for novice IDs.
Editing Motion Paths and Reusing Customized Effects - Captivate blog
This is an old post, but it still works in Captivate 8. Edit the points of a motion path. You can save this as a custom effect. Once you apply that effect to an object, it will appear in your custom menu and you can call it with an Advanced Action.
5 Quick Tips Using Cutout People Images - eLearning Brothers
Tips for using cutout people in scenarios. I always forget about adding shadows, but it does look better when the characters are supposed to be in a realistic setting.
Use a drop shadow on a cutout person or object to give it depth, so it stands out in your eLearning layouts.
Use a drop shadow color to match the background.
<strong></strong>Use shadows below a standing cutout person, so they appear to be touching the ground.
Use depth of field to isolate a subject from other elements in a photo by blurring the foreground or background.
Use multiple cutout images to show different points in your eLearning presentation.
External Follow Button — Support — WordPress.com
Create a follow button for a Wordpress.com blog that can be used on other websites
10 Great Jobs Where You Can Work Completely from Home - Business Insider
Curriculum developer, online teacher, and SME are on their list. If we're designing learning that can be delivered virtually, there's no reason that we shouldn't be working virtually too. I wish more companies would see the benefit of this and allow more WFH.
This Week’s Learning Hero is Christy Tucker! | Growth Engineering
A very flattering article about me and my work
How to Choose a Career | Career Key
General tips on how to choose a career, including links to a career test based on Holland's 6 personality types. (The test isn't free, but you can find less reliable free versions elsewhere.)
7 Questions You Need To Answer Before Becoming A Full Time eLearning Freelancer - eLearning Industry
Things to consider for those wanting to make the leap to freelance work
E-Learning Portfolios: Share Your Work - E-Learning Heroes
Sample e-learning portfolios, submitted for an e-Learning Challenge. Good place to look for inspiration.
Blank Cell Images - an album on Flickr
Cute idea for comics or scenarios--create scenes with lego people or other toys. These images are licensed CC-By-NC-SA. This photographer also has an album with some of the same images and talk boxes already added.
Why the Former Teacher May be Your Next Star Employee – Part II | James L. Simers
Comparing ATD's list of core competencies to the skills teachers already have. Teachers who want to switch careers might find this helpful for figuring out how to speak the language of business and explain how their skills transfer
OQAR :: Home
Online Quality Assurance Reviewer. Awkward name for a product, but it does similar functions to ReviewMyELearning. Reviewers can comment with each page of a course and IDs can collect feedback from everyone on the team. Unfortunately, they don't have a free trial, so there's no way to test it out and make sure it works for your courses without paying for it.
What Instructional Designers Don't Want to Hear
What do we dread hearing from clients? All of these!
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.