Flipbooks are a current novelty and a fun interaction appropriate in some e-learning courses. The Articulate ’09 suite of rapid e-learning development tools has an Engage Flipbook interaction. However, I often find that the pages in the published interaction look too narrow to me.

Through my online, personal learning network I discovered Youblisher.com from Brian Batt of Articulate. I viewed his screencast tutorial, went to Youblisher.com to upload an old user guide I created some time ago, and created my first Youblisher.com Web-based (Flash) flipbook from a PDF file.

Take a look by clicking the image below. (Note: The PDF file I used was a low resolution file.)

Click image to view flipbook in a new Youblisher.com browser window.

Brian Batt of Articulate created a screencast of Youblisher.com and added it to his post on the Word of Mouth Blog. You can insert the Youblisher.com output as a Web Object in an Articulate online course to use it instead of the Engage flipbook interaction if you need wider pages for your content.

You can view Brian’s screen cast here:

Or, click the link below to view it directly on Screenr:

http://screenr.com/RRh

I’m already thinking of some ideas on how to use Youblisher.com in future e-learning courses!

Most of the visuals are contextual, and lend themselves to easy recall of information. That’s the learning aspect of this glossary.

Visit:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/21/web-design-industry-jargon-glossary-and-resources/

Contextual Visuals in Online Glossaries

It’s something I think about a great deal when asked to create/design a glossary for an e-learning course. I almost always feel a strong compulsion to create contextual visuals for every term to be defined. Sometimes, I want to create SWF animations (mini-movies) to better describe the term along with its written definition.

However, I don’t always get to indulge myself in this compulsion because (a) detailed design elements cost more than the client can afford to spend, and/or (b) the project timeline is too short and we don’t have the luxury of the time it takes to create these wonderful, visual elements.

How about you? If you have examples of visually compelling online glossaries, please post the URLs in this post’s Comments section.

Thanks, Smashing Magazine, for another “Always Learning” resource.

Currently, it may seem like I’m obsessed with WordPress while I set up my blog. I’m not, really. No, I’m not. I’m not! Seriously, what fiddling around in WordPress helps me with includes practicing my basic CSS skills, and encouraging me to learn PHP.

My local public library loves this. I’m requesting books like crazy from throughout the library system. When I go to my local branch to pick up the books, I’m charged a 25 cent handling fee for each book. I enjoy supporting my public library system, so no bother about the fees.

However, what has bothered me is something about my blog: The post titles were not left justified. Finally, I found the style element I needed to edit:

h2.pagetitle {
margin-top: 30px;
text-align: center;
}

<< || Changed to: || >>

h2.pagetitle {
margin-top: 30px;
text-align: left;
}

I’m happy, now, and can move on to further customizing the Kubrick theme, claiming it as my own.

As more of my writing and instructional design projects continue to move to the Web, I’m grateful to WordPress for giving me a great sandbox to play in and improve my CSS, JS, and PHP skills, and to keep me “Always Learning”!