What’s an easy way to start?

February 21, 2012

“I’ve got some ideas, I need you to make them interesting!”

Does this sound familiar? Who hasn’t been given a presentation of bullet points and told to create an interactive learner experience?

Now I’m doing it to myself with this blog!

I want to inform people, maybe teach them something they didn’t know, refresh something in them that they had forgotten, even entertain, ha, if I get lucky!

What can I do? I’m a learning design consultant for a major general insurer working with a variety of blended learning methods, with a focus on e-learning. After pushing PowerPoint to its limit we’re finally moving towards a dedicated authoring tool (or two) to go along side our shiny new LMS. Though trusty old PowerPoint will still be playing it’s part.

The last couple of months have been hectic with my normal workloads, as well as getting my hands on and getting my head around Lectora Online and Captivate. After spending some time using them both and despite climbing a pretty steep learning curve, I can’t wait to really start using them to their full potential. All I can see now when I look at other e-learning is: “I know how I could do that and maybe I could do it better!” Exciting times are ahead.

So, I’m going to try and share my experiences of learning design, my challenges, how I overcame them and how you can avoid them. I may even post some tutorials for those of you who may also be lucky enough to get to play with some new tools or are just interested in design… All the while taking you, my reader, on a little learning journey.