RKCS Learning Solutions

Earlier this week, I was involved in a forum discussion and another user asked for some advice about creating a course. In trying to create the course, he was operating under the premise that the modules created should be no longer than 15-20 minutes long, have 2-3 objectives and a couple other specifics which I am not remembering at this point. While its good to have a foundation, I’m not so sure I agree that there MUST be a specific number of items in every course. I’m not sure that every course needs to be a specific length. BUT, we do live in an age where information must be delivered fairly quickly and intensely in order to grab the majority of a learner’s attention. So, while the days of the 1 hour course are probably gone, I’m not sure I would lock a course into 20 minutes. Why? Well, here are a few of my thoughts:

1. You are assuming length ONLY by audio. There is no way to know how long the learner actually spends reading/exploring (assuming that you built in the option for the learner to explore **eyebrows raised**);

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It’s an excellent thing when companies actually listen to their consumer base and incorporate the features that they are asking for. TechSmith released its version of Camtasia for the Mac a few months ago and “wowed” many with its release. The interface was very un-Windows like and appealed to many dedicated Mac users. Most of these user had been using Telestream’s Screenflow and in fact compared Camtasia to this application. In many ways they were very similar and for the most part a ScreenFlow user had no pressing reason to switch over to Camtasia.

Well, here’s the game changer. TechSmith has just released its 1.1 update for Camtasia for Mac. Prior to this update, Camtasia could only record in full-screen mode. This is also the case with ScreenFlow. Mac users who take advantage of Expose found this fine and worked around it. But if you wanted to record only one specific portion of your screen, you were out of luck or you could use TechSmith’s limited freeware, Jing. Now, with the 1.1 update, TechSmith has included region capture. For those that do not get the difference here, when you have to record full screen, then zoom and crop, aside from the additional steps you must perform, there are subtle differences in pixel clarity. It’s like being forced to take a picture of a crowd and zoom in to one person when you only wanted to take a picture of the one person anyway.

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In creating eLearning,I face a challenge that the majority of users do not face.  I have to listen to the same audio again, and again, and again, and again while I edit and build different sections of my modules.  This is fine.  In fact, its an expected part of the process.  However, I do notice that there are times where I begin to go to sleep almost immediately.  Yeah, that could be a compliment or maybe its not.  There are some Barry White-style voices that are soothing and relaxing. But likewise, there are some voices that, while reading, can become almost monotone.  Once I have heard these voices a screen or two, I almost begin to tune out.  Worse than that, if I am watching a module where not much else is happening on the screen or I am not interacting with the module in any way, I am forced to listen to the voice.  So what do I do?  Zone out…go to sleep….daydream.

OK.  So, now it’s time to put yourself in the seat of the learner.  Get rid of the ego for a moment.  Yeah, I know you put your blood, sweat and tears into this thing and it’s hard to hear criticism, but listen for a moment.  Don’t worry.  I have to pay attention to this myself so I’m not preaching at you.  But, put yourself in the learner’s chair for a moment.  What would you want to hear?  What would keep you interested?  What would keep you awake? Some of us have the liberty of hiring professional voice talent while others are forced to cost cut and do certain things themselves.  Just because the word “professional” is before the name does not always mean the voiceover artists don’t need feedback either.  So there are some basic things that can be done to help bring a little more life to your elearning.

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I’ll start with an aside. I couldn’t find any witty anecdotes for my title and had two thoughts on the brain so I wrote them both. I thought I would write that aside for those that were wondering about the connection. Maybe I have already defeated my purpose because the mystery might have allowed the readers to make a connection of their own. (There ARE some of you reading this, right?)

Anyway, I went to check out Transformers-Revenge of the Fallen today. Because it was a big, robot, futuristic, action flick, we decided that the ONLY way we could watch this was at the IMAX which has the largest screen that I have come across. So, we hopped on over to the science museum to take in this presumably delightful adventure. Because the screen was so big, we thought it best to get as far back as possible to take it all in. Well, the robots were so big, the action was so fast paced that I had to keep turning my head to look at different parts of the screen and while I felt engrossed in the film, there were so many things flying by, especially in fight sequences that they looked blurry. While I didn’t get a headache, I had to turn to my buddy next to me to say, “Hey man, I’m almost feeling like it might have been better to see this on a smaller screen.” His response? “Yeah, I was feeling the same way. You can’t really take it all in at once!”

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