From the course: Elearning Tips

How to use animation in your eleanring course

From the course: Elearning Tips

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How to use animation in your eleanring course

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- You know, I've always believed that e-learning is a tool for visual communications, and whether you're using images, icons, or any type of multimedia, visually communicating your content can actually help your learners see what you're saying. One way to do this is by using animations. You know, the thing is, most people view animation as nothing more than a design embellishment, but when used properly, animation can actually help you add meaning to what would otherwise be static content. So, here are three tips you can use to visually communicate your e-learning content with animations. Tip number one is to use animations with purpose. The biggest mistake you can make is to use animations for the sake of using animations. For example, here's this e-learning course I've been designing, and in this example, I am using all of these random animations that really serve no purpose. Now if I were to actually deliver this to my learners, these animations could distract them from my learning content. Instead, you have to ask yourself, "Why am I using this animation? "What's my intention?" For example, I have this slide that will eventually contain some audio narration, and I'm using these animations to reveal each concept as they're mentioned. The intention here is to help my learners focus on each concept one at a time. Tip number two is to be consistent with animations. Here's that same slide I showed you earlier. Now right now, these animations have no purpose. They've been randomly selected, and while they might seem fun and exciting on the screen, the lesson here is, just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Instead, pick a style of animation, and stick to it. For example, here's the same slide where I'm simply using fade in and fade out animations. It's nothing fancy, but it looks clean, simple, and it doesn't distract from the content. My third and final tip is to use animations to show what you're saying. You know, the best use of animation is when you can use it to help your learners better understand the concept or process you're teaching. And this is really what visual communication is all about. For example, here are some simple animations I'll be using with some audio narration to explain the concept of the customer service life cycle. Pairing these animations with some audio narration can help my learners better understand this concept since I'm visualizing it for them. Okay, so there you have just a couple of tips you can use to visually communicate your e-learning content and help your learners see what you are saying by using animations.

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