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Tracy Carroll
In All, Animation, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts, Gamification

Keep Your Teeth!

Did you know that more than 36 million Americans do not have any teeth? Many more have lost at least one tooth. The purpose of the eLearning game Can You Keep Your Teeth, is (not surprisingly) to keep your teeth.

You can keep them if you answer the dental hygiene questions correctly! Make a mistake, and lose a tooth. Click the image below to play the game.

Update

I originally created this game in 2016, using Storyline 2. This version, submitted to Articulate E-Learning Heroes Challenge #311 – Using Dials and Sliders to Select E-Learning Characters, has been completely updated in Storyline 360, with new graphics and a new video.

The animated video introduction was created with Powtoon, an online, easy-to-use video software application.

Authoring Tools: Powtoon animation, Camtasia, Articulate Storyline 360

Tracy Carroll
In All, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts

Canva AI Text-to-Image

Gossip-Proof Your Workplace

Articulate eLearning Challenge #416  is Using AI (Artificial Intelligence) to Build Online Training. To create the interactive Articulate Rise example below, I decided to try out Canva’s new AI text-to-image feature for the first time.

Creating the Images

To create an image using Canva’s AI text-to-image tool, you need to type a description of the image you want. Then, you select a style from the approximately 20 styles the tool offers. When you click “Create,” Canva will produce 4 example images.

To help me decide on what style to use in my demo, I typed in the following prompt, then clicked create to see what the AI tool would produce:

Close-up of a female office employee talking, facing forward, with a pleasant expression on her face.

As you can see, changing the style completely changes the resulting image, even when using exactly the same prompt! Ultimately, I chose to go with the Watercolor style for this short demo.

Authoring Tools:

  • Articulate 360 Rise Microlearning
  • Canva Text-to-Image tool
Tracy Carroll
In All, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts

ChatGPT as SME, Part 2

Creating the Course Outline and Training Objectives with ChatGPT

Articulate eLearning Challenge #416: Using AI to Build Online Training. I used Artificial Intelligence (AI), in the form of ChatGPT, to create the course outline with training objectives shown below for my pathway from police to detective course. This blog post is Part 2 in a short series about AI tools.

ChatGPT can create an answer or response to whatever prompt you give it. But can ChatGPT act as my Subject Matter Expert (SME) on the course?


My Assessment

ChatGPT wrote me a course outline with training objectives in less than a minute. It’s a helpful starting point. Sometimes it’s good to see what doesn’t work, in order to develop something that will work.

I found most of the learning objectives unacceptably vague and non-measurable. I didn’t like the way the course was organized; it doesn’t feel like a logical progression of ideas. Without a human SME, the course has drifted from a course offering police a pathway to becoming a detective, to a course being specifically about creating Murder Books. The course seems headed off-track already.

Tools:

  • ChatGPT
  • Storyline 360

In Part 3, I’ll use a text-to-image AI application.

ChatGPT, Part 3

In Part 1, I used ChatGPT to create a video script.

ChatGPT, Part 1
Tracy Carroll
In All, Animation, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts, Home

Employee Benefits

I create animated explainer videos promoting various programs that employers want to highlight for their employees. ConglomCo Cares is an interactive demo that informs employees in the fictional ConglomCo workplace about two new benefits: ConglomCo Fit and ConglomCo Kitchen.

I created the animated videos in this demo with a new tool I’ve been playing around with: CreateStudio. It creates 3D animated videos, and other styles as well. This demo was submitted to Articulate’s Choose Your Own E-Learning Challenge (2022) #378.
Tracy Carroll
In All, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts, Free Templates, Tutorial

Free Print Certificate Template

Preview: View the interactive demo of the Print Certificate template in action!

*Updated 8/16/22 – a new Storyline 360 version has been added to the download links below. The short video in this version was created with CreateStudioPro.

A couple of years ago a client requested a printable certificate option for a Storyline assessment module I was designing. Since Storyline does not have that option, I had to scramble to create the feature. Of course, I did a google search first, and found many different tutorials on the subject.

It turns out there are various ways to create a printable certificate, using JavaScript with Storyline! This example is just one way to go about it.

Two free downloads: The zipped folders each contain the .story file, the printCertificate.html file, and the Storyline output folder.

Customize:  To customize the look of the Certificate, edit the printCertificate.html file with any html editor, such as Dreamweaver or Notepad.

Remember: Be sure to insert the printCertificate.html into the Storyline output folder after you publish your Storyline module.  Otherwise, the print certificate function will not work! (See the example Storyline output folder in the zip file you downloaded).

Tip: Be sure to pay attention to your browser and/or printer settings before printing or saving the certificate as a PDF. You can control the margins, the header and footer information, and the orientation of the certificate page by adjusting your browser and/or printer settings.

For example, in the Chrome browser (image below), you can uncheck the “Headers & Footers” option to print your certificate without that extraneous information at the top and bottom of the page.

Tracy Carroll
In All, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts

The Great Escape

The Great Escape is an immersive escape room adventure demo using Articulate Storyline’s new 360-degree image functionality.

This week’s Articulate E-Learning Challenge #337 was to create an interactive example using the brand-new feature: Creating Interactive 360° Images in E-Learning.

What are you willing to do to escape your nightmare job?! Click the image below to find out!

Authoring Tools

Articulate Storyline 360, Images from Unsplash

Tracy Carroll
In All, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts

Before and After

This demo is in response to Articulate E-Learning Hero Challenge #335: Showing Before and After Comparisons in E-Learning.

Cool Tool

I’m always looking for new tools to try, especially if they have free versions! I enjoy creating eLearning courses using a comic book style, so I was delighted to find a cool tool called Colorcinch to help me quickly “cartoonize” images for free!

It’s an online photo editor, so there’s nothing to download. This is a quick example that shows how the free version of the tool can quickly create cartoon versions of a photo.

There are more advanced versions of the application that require a paid subscription, but for this demo I went with the free version. View the video demo below.

Tracy Carroll
In All, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts, Free Templates, Gamification

Name that Bird!

Select the image below to roll the dice and play Name that Bird!

This game demo is in response to Articulate’s E-Learning Heroes Challenge #334: How are Designers Using Random Number Variables in E-Learning?

This game gives the illusion that clicking on the Roll Dice button rolls the dice to come up with a question in random order. However, you will never get the same question twice (unless you play the game more than once), so it’s not truly random. To check out how the variables are set up, check out the free download below!

Freebie Download 

I based my game on a free Storyline 360 template created by Paul Alders. It’s available for download here: Free Rolling Dice Interaction.

Cool Tool

To create the comic book effect with the images I used, I employed the use of a tool relatively new to me: Colorcinch. This online photo editor & cartoonizer is easy to use, and has a free option.

Authoring Tools

Storyline 360 and Colorcinch.

Tracy Carroll
In All, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts, Free Templates

Survive an Earthquake

This demo is in response to Articulate’s E-Learning Heroes Challenge #332: How to Survive Anything: E-Learning Edition.

Select the image below to view the demo.

Freebie!

Download the zipped folder here: How to Survive an Earthquake. After downloading to your computer, right-click the zipped folder and select Extract All to find the editable Story file.

The format of the demo was inspired by Clark Aldrich’s Short Sims technique for quickly creating simple, effective eLearning interactions.

For those unfamiliar with Short Sims, here are some examples: https://www.shortsims.com/examples.

Authoring Tools

Storyline 360, eLearning Art, Red Cross Earthquake Safety site

Tracy Carroll
In All, Blog Posts

Wash Your Hands!

Click on the image below to see the course example.

say-diane

What is Articulate Rise?

Rise is a web-based authoring tool that allows you to quickly (and I mean quickly!) create fully responsive courses that look great on any device. While you build your course, you can easily preview how the course will look when it automatically adapts to computer screens, tablets, and phones.

You build the course right in  your web browser, choosing from a variety of pre-made lesson formats.

“No software to download, no learning curve.”

Articulate makes easy-to-learn software. I found it very easy to learn Storyline, and if anything, Rise is much easier to learn. Within a few minutes, I was creating my first sample course–called Wash your hands!—in order to learn the application.

Lesson formats

I used the following lesson formats in my short course:

  • Image gallery (for a comic-book effect)
  • Tabs interaction
  • Embedded YouTube video
  • Interactive labeled graphic
  • Interactive checklist
  • Quiz with immediate feedback
My Verdict

I’m very impressed by how quickly and easily I could work with Rise, with no training at all! I’m not used to working within pre-built lesson formats, so it did feel a bit constraining when I couldn’t do exactly what I envisioned immediately. But I’m sure if I continue to play around with the application, I will learn how to be more creative with it.

I’m also quite impressed by the beautiful course examples shown on the Articulate website, created with the Rise application:

Wish List for Rise
  1. I would love more format options for quiz questions.
  2. Some built-in eLearning game interactions.
  3. A timer.
  4. Badges, and/or certificate of completion.
  5. I REALLY wish there were more options other than one-year subscriptions!

Have you tried any of the Articulate 360 applications yet? If so, what did you think?

Tracy Carroll
In All, Animation, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts, Gamification

Rules of the Road

The Rules of the Road is my eLearning game/quiz demo for Articulate E-Learning Heroes Challenge #245: Designing Custom Quiz Results Slides in E-Learning (2019).

Click the image below to view the online demo and play the game!

Custom Quiz Results and Feedback Slides

The Rules of the Road game is really a Storyline eLearning quiz with gamified elements, including custom question feedback slides and customized quiz results slides.

Authoring Tools: Storyline 360 for the quiz slides, PowerPoint for altering images, Camtasia for video editing

Tracy Carroll
In All, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts

eLearning Rock Band

In 2016, Articulate posed eLearning Challenge #143, to “design an interactive graphic or micro site for your (fictitious) eLearning rock band!”

The eLearning rock band I manage is called äSynchronous eLeärning. Click the image below to check out their website. They’re available to hire for weddings and bar mitzvahs!

Creating the Demo Using PowerPoint, Camtasia, and Storyline

I used PowerPoint to create the demo video, because I wanted to use the glass-shattering transition available in PowerPoint. I published the PowerPoint as a video to edit in Camtasia.

In Camtasia, I added the glass shattering sound effect and added a rock song that plays throughout the presentation. The royalty-free track is called Fit of Rage. I used a text-to-voice tool to record the ultra-simple (and simple-minded) lyrics to the song, which I renamed the scope creap. I combined the robotic voice, the music, and the PowerPoint video to create my demo video, which was imported into Storyline 360.

Authoring Tools: PowerPoint, Camtasia, Articulate Storyline 360

Tracy Carroll
In All, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts

L. A. Homicide

Show Where You Live

l.a. homicide

Articulate E-Learning Challenge #86 was to create an interactive map showing where you live. My hometown is Los Angeles, and I chose to create a map showing some of our most famous homicides. Unfortunately, I hardly had time to scratch the surface. So many murders, so little time… Click the image above to see the demo.

Updated for Challenge #237: Using Interactive Maps in E-Learning

6/16/19: I edited the short video introduction in PowerPoint. I saved the PowerPoint as a video, edited it in Camtasia, then imported it into Articulate Storyline 360.

For the updated interactive map, I added a new location: the Beverly Hills mansion where Bugsy Siegal was slain.

I wanted music to play in the background continuously, but I needed to give viewers the freedom to click any link they want, and take as much (or as little) time exploring each link as they wanted.

Currently, Storyline 360 does not support playing background music across multiple slides, so I put the entire presentation on one Storyline slide, using multiple layers. The audio is contained on the base layer, and the hyperlinks take viewers to various layers of the same slide.

Tracy Carroll
In All, Animation, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts

Reduce Your Global Footprint

Articulate’s  E-Learning Challenge #238 is to use a step-by-step approach in an e-learning example. Click the image below to see my demo, and learn how to easily reduce your carbon footprint immediately.

Step #3: Plant Greens!

For this example, I chose to use Articulate Presenter, a PowerPoint add-in, rather than Storyline, because I wanted some background music to play across several slides. Storyline 360 does not have that capability, but Presenter 360 does! It’s great to have a variety of e-learning tools in the toolbox.

I created the animated videos with PowToon animation.

Authoring Tools: PowToon Animation, PowerPoint, Articulate Presenter 360, Camtasia for video editing

Tracy Carroll
In All, Animation, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts, Tutorial

Interactive Infographic

Updated – June 6, 2019:

I discovered the original interactive infographic I submitted to the Articulate challenges years ago was no longer working correctly. I took this opportunity to update the infographic to Storyline 360, and create a new video for the project.

I believe this presentation was the first of mine to make it to the Articulate eLearning Examples page! Click the image below to view the demo.

Challenge #236 is an interactive infographic challenge. For the challenge, I created an interactive poster as my infographic, available on one page, rather than a multi-page e-learning module. The very simple design is similar to Pinterest tiles. I used Plotagon animation to create the animated characters, and made the owl out of PowerPoint shapes.

Tutorial: Learn How to Re-size the Storyline Slide:

I decided to use a portrait orientation to give it the feel of a poster. Storyline makes it easy to change the size and orientation of your presentation. To change your Storyline module’s size, click on the STORY SIZE button, shown below, and choose either a preset size, or go with a custom size.

change the story size

 

Authoring tools: PowerPoint, Plotagon animation, Camtasia video editing & Storyline 360.

Tracy Carroll
In All, Animation, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts

Medline

Articulate’s E-Learning Challenge #233 is to show how dialogue can be shown in e-learning courses. I chose to demonstrate an animated conversation between two characters on a televised medical show called MEDLINE.

Click the image below to watch the MEDLINE demo and learn about the recent measles outbreak!

Interactivity

To add interactivity to the Plotagon animated video, I used a Storyline 360 quiz slide to assess user knowledge.

All of the information in the demo comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I used a Storyline marker to provide a link for more information.

Authoring Tools: Plotagon animation, Storyline 360, Camtasia for video editing

Tracy Carroll
In All, Animation, Articulate Challenges

Triage Training

This is my submission to Articulate’s Medical #ELHChallenge 69. Click the image below to view the demo.

For this challenge, I combined GoAnimate whiteboard animation with Storyline 360 to create Triage Training.

GoAnimate was used to create the video portion, and Storyline 360 was used to create the quiz question. The Storyline player is also used to contain resources for the learner. In an actual course, the Storyline player could be used for navigation, and to organize branching scenarios to tailor the course to each learner’s needs.

I’ve found that courses using the whiteboard animation technique can be very engaging, and the technique works well for both serious and lighter topics.

Authoring Tools: GoAnimate, Storyline 360

Updated: 6/3/18

 

Tracy Carroll
In All, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts

Software Simulation: How much is your time worth?

how-much

Articulate Challenge #144: Slide, Drag, and Hover Past Boring Next Buttons 

 

This ELH Challenge is about creating a navigation structure without using the ubiquitous NEXT button to move viewers from slide to slide. The module I created is called How much is your time worth?, and there is no NEXT button in sight.

The Business Problem Addressed 

 

A fictional healthcare provider, SoCal Solutions Healthcare, wants to encourage their members to use their online healthcare portal, rather than always phoning Customer Service for information and to make appointments.  This module seeks to describe the benefits of using the website rather than the phone to take care of most of the members’ needs, and it also gives the members some practice in using the website to accomplish a simple task. 

Slider Navigation

 

slider-nav

 

The first part of the module uses a Storyline 2* innovation, the slider, to advance the viewer from layer to layer on the introduction slide. The introduction describes the problem of phoning Customer Service for help – the long wait on hold that can be a frustrating waste of time.

*I’ve since updated the module to Storyline 360 – 11.28.17.

Software Simulation

 

software_simulation

 

The second half of the module is a software simulation, where the user must perform the correct action in order to advance the slide. I used Storyline’s screen capture function to record my keystrokes and mouse movements as I completed the software task, and converted the video produced into a timed quiz format. Viewers get pop-up hints to help them complete the task in under two minutes.

I used the built-in Storyline quiz timer in the top right of the screen to help motivate the learner to complete the task quickly. 

Authoring Tools: Photoshop (to create comic book effects for the images in the Introduction section), Storyline 360

Tracy Carroll
In All, Free Templates

Corporate Course Freebie

Click on the image below to view the course.

This module has been updated to Storyline 360, using the new text-to-speech closed-captioning feature. You can download either the Storyline 2 or the Storyline 360 version below.

corpcourse2

Editable content slides

corpcourse3

Editable quiz slides

Download the editable Storyline 2 .story file: http://goo.gl/f2VaRG

Download the editable Storyline 360 file: https://goo.gl/6r9g8g

Authoring Tools: PowerPoint, Storyline 2, Storyline 360

Tracy Carroll
In All, Articulate Challenges, Blog Posts, Free Templates

Freebie – ELH #165 E-Learning Graphics Using Free Font Icons

View the Demo

Articulate’s ELH Challenge #165 is to create custom e-learning graphics using free font icons. Click the image below to see a Storyline 360 demo of my challenge entry.

Download the Freebie!

Get the editable PowerPoint file by clicking here: https://tracycarroll.net/165%20elh%20font%20icon%20challenge.zip

Authoring Tools for this demo: PowerPoint 2016, Articulate Storyline 360