Strategic Storyboarding

Many business people have a distorted view about the value of storyboarding e-learning. The common view sounds like a mindless exercise, "Take that printed training manual and just dump it online…if it works in the classroom, it will work in an e-learning platform.”

And off they go, hiring an expensive web designer and never considering that there’s a better, quicker and much less expensive way to create phenomenal e-learning programs.

Their great hope is that any e-learning is better than a classroom training. Why? The costs are fixed. Once the e-learning program is developed, the costs are set in stone.

The finance folks and people at the corporate office always get super excited about a solution with fixed costs. E-learning will be, they believe, the ultimate answer to control unruly training costs.

It will be the key to eliminate expensive training workshops… slash travel costs …and save millions when corporate training centers are shut down. Imagine how thrilling this is: an infinite cost-saving plan.

Never thinking through if e-learning training will work without the instructor…if people will retain the information…if this e-learning strategy pays off in true transfer of knowledge and better on-the-job performance.

Some even think that all that is needed is a colorful welcome page. They hope that an inviting design will bridge the gap and replace the one thing that is absolutely missing in any e-learning platform: human contact.

“What’s The Secret For Effective Design?”

But of course, there is a way to design effective e-learning. And with a storyboard, every training manager and instructional designer can design a powerful training experience.

Storyboarding e-learning is the fastest way to structure a program that involves every user. And this at-a-glance tool makes it simple to spot opportunities to make information relevant to every student. E-learning storyboards reveal the best solutions to help every user get the highest impact.

E-learning must do much more than just be a collection of words. It must educate, involve, engage and test for understanding.

Great E-learning is possible when you map out all the elements that are critical for success. Storyboarding E-learning is the best method to achieve A+ results.

“What’s The Best Process For Guaranteed Results?”

Think of a storyboard for e-learning as a roadmap to guaranteed results. Identify the criteria for every course. Use the criteria to simplify course design. Organize each section to answer questions that are in the minds of each student. This kind of user-centered design guarantees that every course will be productive and valuable.

Course designers often use storyboarding to organize content, objectives and exercises into a cohesive flow. This is great for their creativity, but the most successful designers take it a step further. They get input from potential users.

The most powerful e-learning courses are the result of collaboration between designer and student. And storyboarding is the fastest tool to encourage discussion and gather input from students. This is easy to do with face-to-face test-runs with pilot audiences.

Pilot audiences can walk through the e-learning storyboard, experiencing the course long before time-consuming design and research begins. Based on their input, responses and suggestions designers can instantly refine their ideas. This is a focused design system that involves the end-user in shaping the solutions.

Most winning e-learning courses are the result of a process of input, incubation, output and verification. For example, the designer gets a request for a new program. They gather criteria, course requirements, exercises and information about the target audience. The output is an e-learning storyboard. The verification or testing phase occurs when students ‘test-drive’ the program.

This process can happen several times in an iterative development. This is always a winning formula, as collaborative design is tougher, stronger and more able to stand on it’s own. Just the requirements an A+ E-learing program must meet.

The key to durable courses that truly transfer knowledge lies in getting feedback and response from the students. Yet the vast majority of designers work in isolation from their target audience. And it’s not as if their audience is far away. More often than not, they are just down the hall.

In addition, without tracking responses, gathering input and adjusting flow, e-learning may be doomed to fail. The costs of creating programs can soar and designers struggle in isolation if they do not have a hand-drawn tool to collect feedback.

Why Is Immediate Input So Important?

Because students tell you what works, what is confusing and what must be changed. And they tell you before you’ve spent a fortune on a module, gotten emotionally attached to the design and paid your web designer’s mortgage.

The majority of finance people will buy in to this process, once they understand that it limits their investment by involving end-users early on in the process.

Why not get students involved in an active role in the design process? Why not collaborate so that the best layout, highest involvement and strongest impact are all but guaranteed?

“This Simple Solution Saves Millions”

If all of this sounds just too simple, and you don't believe

that storyboarding your e-learning program is worth it, think again.

There are millions of companies spending millions of dollars on e-learning development. And they just don’t use this practical, low-cost, super low-tech solution.

Save money. Save time. Get input right up front when the design is only in the ‘rough-out’ stage. Use a practical and hands-on approach to storyboard e-learning…from concept to final output.

You’ll score an A+ from everyone involved: the finance folks, corporate, instructional designers and end-users. And the best score of all will be that your e-learning program does what it started out to do: give learners exactly what they need to perform better in their jobs.

Bravo!

To your strategic success!