As a consultant, my job varies quite a bit from project to project. In some projects I am working with a team. In other projects I am working solo on a course from start to finish. Recently I needed to create a storyboard for an assessment for a new contract position. I thought I would take the assessment one step further to help develop my portfolio and showcase all the different steps in the process of creating an e-learning course. So for this blog post series I'm going to be writing about the course development process and some different tips I have for each stage. I will also include actual end products for each stage as examples.
Parameters
For this project I was given a few of the parameters up front. I needed to develop a storyboard for a course on how to correctly change a tire for an audience of 20-something women. It needed to have at least one interaction and one final assessment of two questions. It needed to be a minimum of two pages and a maximum of four.
Learning Goals and Objectives
So with the parameters in hand, I started the process of creating the storyboard. The overall goal for the course was to help a 20-something woman understand how to correctly change a tire. The learning objectives would be to 1.) identify what was needed to change a tire and 2.) Explain the 6 steps to correctly changing a tire.
Target Audience
With the goals and objectives identified, I began developing the storyboard. One of the things I kept in the forefront of my mind was that I was developing for an audience of 20-something women. This meant that I would not be using "technical" jargon that my audience may not understand. I also wanted to use images to help my audience identify the different tools needed for the process. Lastly, my color choices were affected by the target audience. Even though my target audience was 20-something women which is usually associated with pink, I went with gender-neutral orange as my main color since it comes across as fun making the 6 steps not so daunting. It can offer emotional strength in difficult times which is appropriate for this situation. Also orange stimulates activity which in this case would be a proper response I would want to achieve.
Keep It Simple
As I developed the narration, I kept the instructions very simple and easy to understand. I narrowed the process down to 6 steps. I used 6 for a few different reasons: 1) It allowed for some alliteration in the title - "Six Simple Steps to Fix a Flat". 2.) It broke the process down into 6 manageable chunks with 2-3 smaller actions underneath each step.
Process of Elimination
Since I was responsible for developing the content, I used the Internet for gathering as much information as I could. I initially wrote a script that included every single detail that found and then began the process of eliminating information that was extraneous or didn't apply to every situation. If this was a more detailed course on the process of changing a tire, some of the information that I eliminated may have remained. However since this was limited to 4 pages I really need to narrow down the content to the most important steps and information.
Identifying Key Points
Once I had the narration developed, I plugged it into the storyboard and began identifying what was going to be shown on the screen. In this step it is important to NOT show what is being narrated word for word. So I picked out key words that should be on the screen and identified images that represented those words. Later in another blog post I will describe the process of creating the images.
Instructions for Design
After noting all of the items for the screen, I finally begin the instructions for the designer on how the course will be displayed. For this it is helpful to produce a Style Guide of colors, font, and any other items that would be standard throughout the course. I have done this a few different ways: 1.) By writing it up in a Word doc or 2.) By creating a sample PowerPoint with the template using the specific styles. In this case I used a PowerPoint because I also wanted to show the images that would be used and other styling. However, if I am not the designer on the project, I would just use a Word doc instead.
After completing each of these steps I ended up with a final storyboard and a PowerPoint. Next week I will describe how I chose and created the images for the course.
Parameters
For this project I was given a few of the parameters up front. I needed to develop a storyboard for a course on how to correctly change a tire for an audience of 20-something women. It needed to have at least one interaction and one final assessment of two questions. It needed to be a minimum of two pages and a maximum of four.
Learning Goals and Objectives
So with the parameters in hand, I started the process of creating the storyboard. The overall goal for the course was to help a 20-something woman understand how to correctly change a tire. The learning objectives would be to 1.) identify what was needed to change a tire and 2.) Explain the 6 steps to correctly changing a tire.
Target Audience
With the goals and objectives identified, I began developing the storyboard. One of the things I kept in the forefront of my mind was that I was developing for an audience of 20-something women. This meant that I would not be using "technical" jargon that my audience may not understand. I also wanted to use images to help my audience identify the different tools needed for the process. Lastly, my color choices were affected by the target audience. Even though my target audience was 20-something women which is usually associated with pink, I went with gender-neutral orange as my main color since it comes across as fun making the 6 steps not so daunting. It can offer emotional strength in difficult times which is appropriate for this situation. Also orange stimulates activity which in this case would be a proper response I would want to achieve.
Keep It Simple
As I developed the narration, I kept the instructions very simple and easy to understand. I narrowed the process down to 6 steps. I used 6 for a few different reasons: 1) It allowed for some alliteration in the title - "Six Simple Steps to Fix a Flat". 2.) It broke the process down into 6 manageable chunks with 2-3 smaller actions underneath each step.
Process of Elimination
Since I was responsible for developing the content, I used the Internet for gathering as much information as I could. I initially wrote a script that included every single detail that found and then began the process of eliminating information that was extraneous or didn't apply to every situation. If this was a more detailed course on the process of changing a tire, some of the information that I eliminated may have remained. However since this was limited to 4 pages I really need to narrow down the content to the most important steps and information.
Identifying Key Points
Once I had the narration developed, I plugged it into the storyboard and began identifying what was going to be shown on the screen. In this step it is important to NOT show what is being narrated word for word. So I picked out key words that should be on the screen and identified images that represented those words. Later in another blog post I will describe the process of creating the images.
Instructions for Design
After noting all of the items for the screen, I finally begin the instructions for the designer on how the course will be displayed. For this it is helpful to produce a Style Guide of colors, font, and any other items that would be standard throughout the course. I have done this a few different ways: 1.) By writing it up in a Word doc or 2.) By creating a sample PowerPoint with the template using the specific styles. In this case I used a PowerPoint because I also wanted to show the images that would be used and other styling. However, if I am not the designer on the project, I would just use a Word doc instead.
After completing each of these steps I ended up with a final storyboard and a PowerPoint. Next week I will describe how I chose and created the images for the course.
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