Do you need help organizing and managing your e-learning project or course files? The e-learning community often talks about files and project management. In fact, Tom Kuhlmann of Articulate has a new blog post today that can spark new ideas. Click the image below to learn more from Tom.
Or, Do It My Way…
With apologies to Frank Sinatra, then there’s my way of organizing and managing e-learning project files. The “system” I use I borrowed from my early Web site design days. Our Adobe Dreamweaver and Flash instructor showed us a system that works well for both individual designers and those who work on multiple projects shared by several designers. See my screen shot below:
On my local drive (my C: or hard drive), I have a directory, or folder, named “Articulate Presenter”. Inside that folder I file all of my Articulate e-learning project files. In the image to the right, “00ProjectFolders” I keep as a template for future projects. I simply copy that folder and paste it with a new name, such as, “ACME New Hire Orientation”. That folder is the main project folder, and it contains lots of subdirectories (subfolders) inside. Those subfolders contain the precious assets for my projects. They are:
ACME New Hire Orientation (example project name)
- Assets
- Engage
- PPT
- Published Output
- Quizzes
The “Assets” folder really helps me keep things straight, and is organized this way:
Assets (folder)
- audio
- music
- vo (for voice overs/narration)
- docs (for PDFs and Word files)
- img
- swf (for Flash *.SWF files)
- video (FLVs, MP4s)
I know I’ve described this structure quickly. So, if you have questions about how I organize and manage my e-learning project files, please send me an e-mail message.
And, help us all to learn more as well. Please share your ideas in the Comments below, and be sure to visit Tom’s blog and add your 2 cents there.
Hey Jenise,
Great additional tips following the heels of Tom’s blog post today. I especially like how you grouped images, docs, etc. into an Assets folder.
Another tip I started doing recently (but haven’t perfected) is in the ‘images’ folder. I added another folder titled, “images_source.” This folder is for source files like .ai, .psd, .eps files. Or those files that are development files where I export out to .jpg, .gif, or .png into the main ‘images’ folder. This way it keeps all the ready-to-use images in the root of the folder and the source files where the images were created/edited in there own space.
Good stuff!
Kevin!
Thanks for visiting my blog, good to see you!
Yes, I do use a “source” folder the same way you do. It’s a good way to keep all assets organized. And, some of my clients want the source files and some don’t, so I can easily remove that source folder when it’s time to zip it all up and send the project to the client.
Keep your great ideas coming, and I’ll see you on Twitter, on Screenr, and in the Articulate Forums.
Very valuable tips.
Thanks you very much.
You’re welcome, Namita, thanks for stopping by.
Good stuff, having a well organized file and naming structure is a big deal, especially if working in a team environment.
Hi Darrin, thanks for visiting.
Glad you found something helpful in this post. As you mention, it’s important for all members of a team to save assets in a manner so that other team members can find them.
What if one of you wins the Lottery and quits the team?
If that happens, then the rest of the team can continue to work on the project.
Hope you have a wonderful 2012.
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