Mike Taylor shares 4 tips for visual design for elearning: alignment, visual hierarchy, less text, and animation. Even if you have no graphic design background, you can learn some basic tips like this to improve your design.

Charisma is an AI tool for creating and interacting with virtual characters. It can be used for gaming and VR application, but also for training and conversation simulations.

IDLance asked me and several other L&D professionals what the biggest trend will be in 2024. Unsurprisingly, AI was the most popular answer, but it wasn't the only one. Read my response and how Will Thalheimer, Stella Lee, Craig McMichael, and John Findling answered the question of the biggest L&D trend for 2024.

Jahan Kay clarifies the differences between interactivity and engagement, especially cognitive and emotional engagement. The article notes some types of interaction that may support cognitive engagement: scenario-based learning, simulations, discussions, and social interaction.

Branching scenario tool for simulations, interactive videos, and more. This has a clear emphasis on both including a range of multimedia plus tracking interaction data.

However, the way they track data is by hosting it themselves, which affects the pricing model. The pricing is $4/user/month–which seems really high to me, considering that’s more than some full-blown LMSs that can host hundreds of courses. They have a minimum of 50 users, which means the minimum cost is $200/month. Even if the tool is great, I think that’s would be a hard sell for most organizations.

LinkedIn post by Dr. Philippa Hardman with tips for creating an online course as a side hustle. While I don't think most people are going to be making the kinds of profit she is, the pricing tiers made sense to me. More time spent by the instructor and lower ratios = higher prices.

A 5-part story structure based on DnD campaigns

Start learning how to use xAPI quickly, with a basic html page and a simple "send statements" button. This uses resources from Anthony Altieri and Mel Milloway. Everything is free, and this has step-by-step directions for non-programmers (but you do have to edit some html).

Guy Wallace and Billy Wilson had an hour-long conversation about adaptive learning. I got a mention at the very end of the interview for some of my writing about Twine.

Tips for writing engaging scenarios, plus examples from specific games

Cara North breaks down the expenses to get started freelancing, using her actual costs plus a few alternatives. For setting up an LLC, website, hardware, software, and professional development, you can expect to spend a few thousand dollars in the first year.

This is a summary of a project at the University of Toronto using Twine to create an educational game, plus an overview of Twine.

Kayleen Holt compares 4 different calculators for estimating time and cost for elearning development

In this sample, Tracy used Storyline to simulate the look and feel of BranchTrack. The choices are styled with numbers and text like BranchTrack, and the push transition between slides mimics the effect between choices. If you don't have BranchTrack but like that style, this shows how you can accomplish the same effect in Storyline. This could be used for a lot of branching scenarios or short sims.

This is an example of a chatbot simulation to teach people how to persuade people to get vaccinated using motivational interviewing techniques. This includes immediate feedback after each choice, right or wrong (appropriate for an audience with zero background in motivational interviewing, even if it breaks up the conversation). The branching structure is a simple gauntlet. After each wrong choice, you get feedback and then are forced to pick the correct choice to continue the conversation.

A humorous Choose Your Own Adventure branching scenario sample by Jonathan Hill. The look and feel matches the classic books. Jonathan includes a tip to consider adding decisions in the beginning that have no impact on the outcome (just a cosmetic change), but provide a tutorial or practice on using the controls.

Kayleen Holt summarizes takeaways from TLDC's community day focused on the theme of story (including notes from my session)

Devlin Peck summarizes and analyzes responses from 101 hiring managers surveyed about what factors influence their decisions when evaluating instructional design and elearning candidates.

Lengthy guide about considerations for pricing online courses from Thinkific. This is aimed at experts who are selling courses, but that also applies to many of us in the L&D field who are branching out into selling course products ourselves.

Common mistakes and pitfalls for writing scenario-based learning.
1. Not tying the story to the learning objectives.
2. Getting preachy.
3. Avoiding the gray areas.
4. Writing robotic speech.
5. Disguising info dumps as conversations.

Updated ATD research on the time to develop training

Jeffrey Dalto collected responses from a number of L&D professionals for insights on how COVID-19 has affected L&D and how this affects the future trends for the field.

This is another post about Alan Levine's branching scenario built in H5P and Pressbooks. At the bottom of the post, Alan provides links to several other examples of branching scenarios built in H5P.

Alan Levine built this very complex branching scenario in H5P and Pressbooks. This includes some scenario images and descriptions, plus a separate tracker where you have to fill out forms with info and keep track of finances and other notes. Alan's blog post explains how he built the random events (which were originally a card draw in the physical version).