About Guild Articles
Find practical, solution-oriented information—on design, development, management, technology, and executive matters—that you can use to make well-informed business decisions to ensure your organization’s success with learning.
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Nuts and Bolts: From Classroom to Online, Think “Transform” not “Transfer”
Moving an existing classroom course to online delivery is the way many eLearning initiatives get started. It is also, unfortunately, the way that many initiatives get off to a bad start, or even fail. Jane provides great tips for successful transformation of learning – you can apply them to your first effort, or to any conversion project.
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Almost Human (But Not Quite): Evaluating Text-to-Speech for eLearning Narration
Text-to-speech (TTS) software has been available for many years, as a substitute for human narrators. Until recently, however, instructional designers and learners alike tended to reject TTS because of the “mechanical” quality of the resulting narration. Has anything changed? Here’s a look at one small department’s study of today’s TTS.
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Dispatch from the Digital Frontier: Insights From and About Generation Z
Just when instructional designers thought they had figured out how to make eLearning that Gen Y would use, here comes Gen Z, the Digital Generation. Think mobile. Think social. Think mashup. And that’s just the beginning. Anne gives you the rundown on what you really need to be planning as your delivery strategy.
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The Other Side of Learning: “Performance is Everything”
The critical moment in learning happens when the learner is at the moment of actual performance: when it comes time to apply skills and knowledge on the job. We haven’t done a very good job in the past of actually supporting this moment, but technology now makes it possible to do much more. Here’s how to produce dynamic learners who can learn and apply “on the spot.”
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How Much Narration in eLearning? Our Lessons Learned
Whether to narrate eLearning content, how much to narrate, and choosing the person or “voice” to narrate are among questions that come up constantly for eLearning designers. Unfortunately, the research and the guidance from experts is not necessarily consistent or easy to apply. Here is what one team learned from their own study of the questions, and the guidelines they adopted.
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The Human Factor: Making Your Process Transparent to Your Customers
All projects have constraints, and it is important that the project team and the client are on the same page about which one is most important. It can be painful to discover, too late, that the client’s expectations were different from the team’s. This week’s column offers a simple process that will protect you from that pain.
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How to Make eLearning Video with Digital SLR Cameras (and Why)
DSLRs are wonderfully capable cameras, but they have their limitations when it comes to shooting video. If you understand the limitations, though, DSLRs can offer benefits for eLearning production. Steve explains how.
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Beginning Instructional Authoring: Color Me Matching, Part 1
Clip art has a bad image, if you will pardon the pun, among instructional designers and those who review their products. Yet it is possible to use clip art in ways that are consistent with a professional approach. Begin by matching image types and by recoloring images to match your color scheme. This month’s column shows you how easy this is to do!
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Informalize Formal Learning: Smarter, Closer, Simpler, and More Appealing
The relationship between technology and the ways we learn and work is changing. As designers, we have the opportunity to take advantage of this through informal learning and gain many benefits. Here are some points to consider.
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App Fusion: The “NO” Alternative
As a designer, you want to “get to Yes” when it comes to project approval, but often “No” pops up in its place. Often the reason is budget. Would you like to know what to do about this? Read this column!