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Beth and the Mermaid

March 19, 2010 in Graphic Design | No comments

A quick look at some new images that have come onto the elearning scene recently*:

"The perfect elearning host" according CS. I concur.

Cheers: Cartoon Solutions has released Beth, a smart-looking, non-Barbie™-proportioned character that’s great for learning agents. I have to admit, though I’ve used their art in the past, sometimes I’ve changed the body proportions to be more realistic. The marketing behind Beth shows that Cartoon Solutions is paying attention to its elearning audience.

She's not bad... she's just drawn that way.

Jeers: Trivantis included a — sorry to say — salaciously drawn mermaid in the Lectora X media library. Can’t say I’ll find much use for this in elearning… even if I needed a mermaid, I wouldn’t opt for Jessica Rabbit’s long-lost oceanic kin. And that’s a pity because elearning is Trivantis’s whole business. That being the case, it’s pretty disappointing to find something this off-the-mark. Hat tip: Marc Shecter.

*Wordpress tells me I started this blog post almost three months ago. I haven’t posted it because I’ve had an issue with Lectora X’s media library on my company’s network… not Trivantis’s fault from what I can tell, but it’s taken some time to get resolved, and I wanted to be able to say that in all fairness, the rest of the media library is at least work-appropriate. It is, and otherwise I’m pretty darn keen on Lectora X’s improvements. :)

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…And Finally, Learning Agents Part 6: Get Your Own (Using Illustrations)

June 30, 2009 in Design | 1 comment

Illustrations deserve their own discussion; they’re my recommendation because they’re highly editable.

Angela, one of our recent stars. $18 for her files and 100% worth it.

Angela, one of our recent stars. $18 for her files and 100% worth it.

You can use clipart (and if you do, check out Tom Kuhlman’s now-classic post on clipart editing). For learning agents, though, one or two on-screen personas get a lot of focus and need to represent a wide range of behaviors, so clipart may not cut it.

For my money/time, I buy pre-made illustrations. The regular stock photo sites have illustrations, but the best collection I’ve found for learning agents is cartoonsolutions.com.

Most of their characters are elearning-appropriate and they come with various poses and mouths (meant to animate speech, but I also use them as facial expressions). I buy Flash versions and use Illustrator to edit them for stills. Add audio from a popular CSR, and you’re golden.

I’m still looking for more collections — any recommendations?

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Learning Agents Part 5: Get Your Own (Using Photos)

June 29, 2009 in Design | No comments

For small shops, part of the difficulty of creating learning agents is developing media. I prefer using still images (photos and illustrations — more on those tomorrow) rather than animations and video.

Stock image from iStockphoto. Or Fotolia.

Stock image from iStockphoto. Or Fotolia.

Some IDs take their own pictures for greater authenticity, sometimes using coworkers. Some avoid this because of the possibility that it will distract learners (and the possibility that someone will leave — or change appearance — and create rework).

If you prefer stock, here are a few sites where you can get suitable images:

1) istockphoto.com, bigstockphoto.com, and fotolia.com have decent collections, often searchable by model so that you can judge whether all poses you need are available. Lots of their images can be found on any of these sites.

2) narratorfiles.com has larger collections of images, more focused on training purposes.

Do you use stock images or take your own? Why? Favorite sources?

Stay tuned: Get Your Own (Using Illustrations)

For small shops, part of the difficulty of creating learning agents is developing media. I prefer using still images (photos and illustrations — more on those tomorrow) rather than animations and video.

Some IDs take their own pictures for greater authenticity, sometimes using coworkers. Some avoid this because of the possibility that it will distract learners (and the possibility that someone will leave — or change appearance — and create rework).

If you prefer stock, here are a few sites where you can get suitable images:

1) istockphoto.com, bigstockphoto.com, and fotolia.com have decent collections, often searchable by model so that you can judge whether all poses you need are available. Lots of their images can be found on any of these sites.

2) narratorfiles.com has larger collections of images, more focused on training purposes.

Do you use stock images or take your own? Why? Favorite sources?



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Learning Agents Part 4: Another Agent to Learn From

June 27, 2009 in Design | 1 comment

When I was a software trainer, the most common question learners asked was how to remove Clippy/Clippit, Microsoft’s annoyingly interruptive Office Assistant. But he had good qualities. Clippy was a help agent; as such, he was designed to respond to the user’s questions and needs. What if our learning agents also acted as portals for help, in addition to making emotional connections as we’ve discussed this week?

learningagent04

Clippy at his best: responding, not interrupting

Thinking about ways to use an interactive learning agent (searching documentation on the intranet, linking to resources inside the course and on the Internet, providing contact with a trainer and help desk), I realized I’ve implemented these in e-learning before — just not using a persona interface. Tom’s comment this week suggested further uses still — exciting ones that probably involve LMS integration, that inspire me to ask:

Without technological barriers, what would you do?

Stay tuned: Get Your Own Learning Agent

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“Post” script: Many apologies for the feed weirdness this week. I decided to actually go on vacation while I was on vacation, and I forgot to tell my blogging software. Lo siento, je suis désolé, ani mitzta’eret, ich entschuldige mich. (Yes, I’ve decided this paragraph doesn’t count in my word limit.)

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Learning Agents Part 3: Learning Agents, Done Poorly

June 24, 2009 in Design | No comments

Recently I received a sample e-learning course on preparing for a pandemic. It was primarily presentation of factual content, and it included an on-screen, animated agent with voice narration. It’s a counter-example to the one we saw yesterday. Here are the issues I had with it:

  • The narrator introduces the topic but doesn’t reappear after that first screen (within the first lesson), so she doesn’t provide any sense of continuity.
  • She doesn’t have a name or personality, or any emotional impact on the course.
  • The animation doesn’t add anything compared to just using images; in fact it adds movement, which distracts from the onscreen text.

At least it was short. That sounds facetious, but it’s a virtue that many courses don’t have… particularly when they’re showing off cool toys like animated characters.

Stay tuned: Another Agent To Learn From

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Learning Agents Part 2: Learning Agents, Done Well

June 23, 2009 in Design | 6 comments

The best example I’ve seen of a learning agent in action (Course Demo — free account creation required):

learningagent2

The learning agent from Allen Interactions' anti-terrorism course

The course teaches police officers and dispatchers how to identify and respond to terrorism threats. The initial content presentation is made by a learning agent.

Why I think it’s effective:

1) The agent’s appearance and voice are spot-on authentic; I suspect the developers used a real cop. Good call… I couldn’t see a namby-pamby voice talent impressing this audience.

2) Images and narration are used, which are every bit as effective as video, without the hefty bandwidth requirement. Also, making changes will be much easier than with video.

3) Since it feels like we’re in a classroom, the designers gave the agent good presentation skills. It’s not super-thrilling, but he’s not merely reading his slides to us.

Your thoughts? More examples?

Stay tuned: Learning Agents, Done Poorly

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Learning Agents Part 1: Why Learning Agents?

June 22, 2009 in Design | No comments

It seems like I’m seeing more and more courses with learning agents these days, so all this week, I’ll share some examples and thoughts.learningagent1

Learning agents are characters that reside on the screen and deliver course material, much the way an instructor would in instructor-led training.

They can bring life and energy to a dry, boring topic. They can provide an authoritative look and feel when the audience or material calls for it. Or they can provide a “touchstone” and make the course more personal for learners who otherwise may not enjoy computer-based training.

Have you ever taken or created a course with a learning agent? What was the agent’s purpose? Did using it achieve the goal?

Stay tuned: Learning Agents, Done Well

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