I’ve used both processes as either/or but not together. Recently, I decided to use both processes simultaneously, and I sent out a tweet about it on Twitter. A couple of “tweeples” replied that they were interested in hearing more.

Simultaneous Storyboarding in Word and PowerPoint

SimulStoryboarding: Word & PPT

The screen shot to the left shows my desktop on my Apple MacBook Pro laptop. I have Office for the Mac. Word is open on the left, and on the right you can see the Thumbnails view in PowerPoint (PPT).

The Word document shows the storyboard template for two screens (click the image to enlarge). The PPT file shows the draft prototype for each screen in the course, and the generic elements (circles, squares, rectangles) I added as placeholders for the actual photos, text, and graphical elements I’ll add later.

I begin by writing the “business story” in Word. As I begin to think in terms of on-screen content and navigation, I use PPT to prototype what I’m thinking in terms of the navigation and content “load” on each screen. I really enjoy this process because PPT helps me to “flesh out” what I write in Word, and make corrections where needed.

This post is brief, so if you’d like additional information, feel free to contact me at this e-mail address:

info AT RidgeViewMedia.com

And, in the Comments, please share your storyboard tips and tricks so we all can learn from each other. Thanks!

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.

And, I want to add my voice to the blog carnival to say that we –dear colleagues– need to close that gap. I try on as many occasions as I can. If I’m offered $25 or $35 an hour for instructional design work, I refer that potential client to someone else. I have also found that the clients who pay me the best and honor my rates are women-owned businesses.

This first of several charts in the report gives you a sense of the survey results. Click the image to enlarge it. If you’re a woman, don’t just sit there: Know what your skills and experience are worth and pursue that dollar amount.

This post is part of a blog carnival on the subject of the gender salary gap. Read more from Kelly Garber: Shark Attacks and Salary Reports, Julie Dirksen: Ranting on the Gender Pay Gap in E-Learning, Cammy Bean: The eLearning Salary Gender Gap, and Janet Clarey: The Salary Gap in the US eLearning Industry.

Have something to say on the subject?  Join the ride and contribute with your own rant, er post.  Then share a link to your post in the comments on one of our blogs.

My Blog Posts about mLearnCon 2010

On Twitter: @jenisecook

June 14-17, 2010, in gorgeous San Diego, California, The eLearning Guild hosted and facilitated their first annual conference on mobile learning, or mLearnCon. I registered to attend several seminars, plus a full-day workshop on Monday, “Think Different: Getting Your Mind Around mLearning Design”, facilitated by Dr. Clark Quinn, @Quinnovator on Twitter.

The week was filled with exciting seminars. If you attend mLearnCon in 2011, I strongly suggest you go with several colleagues, schedule seminars in advance, and then share notes. I made some hard choices that week on which seminars to attend…there were many good ones available.

Everyone felt that we are at the point of seeing mlearning take off exponentially in the next few months and years, and yet, there are many issues to discuss and resolve…particularly how to track and report mlearning in the various Learning Management Systems (LMSs), and data security issues.

For your enjoyment, here’s a list of my mLearnCon 2010 posts:

1) Bill Brandon’s Recap: First Annual mLearnCon

On Twitter: @billbrandon

http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2010/07/mlearncon-2010-recap-the-elearning-guild/

2) B.J. Schone: 20 mLearning Tools in 60 Minutes

On Twitter: @bjschone

http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2010/07/mlearncon-2010-b-j-schone-20-mlearning-tools/

3) Joe Welinske: iPad Panel – iPad App Resources

On Twitter: @jwelinske

http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2010/07/mlearncon-2010-ipad-joe-welinske-resources/

4) Featured Panel Discussion on the Apple iPad

http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2010/07/mlearncon-2010-ipad-panel/

5) Patti Shank: Your First mLearning Initiatives

http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2010/07/mlearncon-2010-patti-shank-mlearning-initiatives/

6) Tomi Ahonen: Keynote – Mobile in Learning

On Twitter: @tomiahonen

http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2010/07/mlearncon-2010-tomi-ahonen-mobile-in-learning/

7) Qualcomm’s Mobile Learning Journey

http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2010/07/mlearncon-2010-qualcomm-mlearning-journey/

8] Richard Clark: Surviving without Flash

On Twitter: @rdclark

http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2010/06/mlearncon-2010-richard-clark-surviving-without-flash/

9) Mimi Ito: Keynote – What the User Wants in mLearning

http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2010/06/mlearncon-2010-dr-mimi-ito-what-user-wants-mlearning/

On a Personal Note…

On Monday afternoon, while in Dr. Clark Quinn’s workshop, my husband texted me some very sad news. His mom died that day. My mother-in-law Donna had suffered a long, hard battle against lung cancer, won the battle, but had lost to COPD. We knew we’d have her for this year only, but her death came sooner than we expected and it was a shock.

I notified members of The Guild, drove home (we live near San Diego), and was able to return to the conference on Tuesday and forward at my husband’s urging Monday evening. His mom had made advanced preparations and arrangements, so we had no tasks to attend to that week.

The eLearning Guild staff not only host amazing conferences, they also, during very hectic conference days, take time to be human. I cannot express enough thanks to those staff members who reached out to me for a few minutes with their kindness and compassion. I specifically want to call out Brent Schlenker, whose concern and thoughtful words meant more to me than I can ever express.

Thank you, eLearning Guild.

The American Cancer Society helped Donna through some very hard times. If you can, help me pay it forward through donations of either time or finances. Thank you.

On Twitter, colleagues and I frequently discuss the value of Twitter (and other technologies) for our Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). And, today, the #lrnchat topic focused on reflective learning, or how you reflect on what you’ve learned after completing a learning activity (transcript is here. Lrnchat takes place every Thursday morning and afternoon, twice, and the hashtag is #lrnchat).

After a busy day today, I returned to Twitter before dinner to read through the various learning tweets by members of my PLN. One tweet jumped out at me, I reacted and tweeted, and the follow up resulted in wonderful, reflective learning (at least for me, LOL). If you’re interested in human performance improvement (HPI) and workplace performance results, I encourage you to follow @guywwallace on Twitter. As a respected member of ISPI, his tweets and blog posts encourage me, ground me in reality, and keep me focused as an instructional designer.

It all started with this tweet from Guy:

Here's Guy's tweet. I enjoy analysis and how we can improve a learner's knowledge and skills. So, as a designer, I initially reacted to this tweet instead of responding.

Twitter’s 140 character limit can lend itself to “creative” microblogging. And below, you can see my initial reaction that I tweeted to Guy:

When I find a need during the analysis phase, I want to fix it. Often, my SMEs also want to fix that need, too. I huffed a bit and asked Guy for clarification.

Yea, we Instructional Designers can sometimes get carried away with how we feel about what we do for a living. We have a passion for helping people and organizations improve their K/S (knowledge and skills) through appropriate learning activities. So, I wanted to know more, and sent Guy a few more tweets.

Reflection began to take over, and I began to remember past projects where, ultimately, the internal or external client makes the final decision on learning activities.

As you can see, after my initial reaction, the reflective learning part of my brain took over. I remembered all of the projects where I presented analysis results to my clients (internal or external ones), and watched as what I thought were good ideas ended up on the cutting-room floor (to use an old movie analogy). And then, I was happy to see that I wasn’t alone in trying to figure out where Guy was coming from, because Mark Britz felt the same way.

You can follow Mark on Twitter: @britz

After dinner, I checked my Twitter stream again. Guy not only tweeted the back story, he included three URLs to his blog posts!

Guy confirmed what I suspected...the client's business decisions can trump what instructional designers recommend for performance improvement.

Performance improvement involves not only adult learning theories and methods, but Cost/Benefit Analysis and Return on Investment (ROI). Instructional designers do face a balancing act between the learners’ performance needs and what the organization can afford to spend (or not). Now, I know this, I do. However, it’s easy to forget it when I’m focused on designing an activity so that it’s effective and promotes learning retention.

I then sent a tweet to @britz to let Mark know about Guy's responses. But, dollars don't have to "get in the way". As IDs, we need to match effective learning to what the client can afford.

Guy’s Blog Posts…

The Worthiness of Any ISD/ Learning Solutions Effort Is Situational

Developing Performance Competence Via Formal and Informal Means When ROI Warrants It

12 O’clock: T&D Governance and Advisory System

I mean what I tweeted, too. @guywwallace (don't forget the W from his middle name) is a Twitter gem to me. He tweets pearls of wisdom that I appreciate. He challenges me and keeps me learning and reflecting.

I do try and keep the Cost/Benefit and ROI factors in mind when I discuss learning designs with clients. When all is said and done, if they can see the ROI, then I’ve done my job. Performance improvement is the ROI, although we may need to accept a phased approach over time, especially in the current economy.

For the record, no, I don’t have pigtails, and my darling husband can confirm that I don’t stomp my feet.

[Dear FTC: I have not received any monetary or other tangible or material benefits from Guy W. Wallace, only the wisdom he shares freely with everyone via his blogs and tweets.]