I love seeing creative ways of explaining new concepts, and a great example of this is Epipheo Studios‘ recent intro to Google Wave.
Simple, engaging, informative and entertaining: it’s a great example of eLearning done right. It’s nice to see folks like Epipheo and Common Craft hard at work creating un-sucky eLearning.
Alas, some might argue [...]

Posted in Narration, Presentations, Things I Love, eLearning Design, eLearning Hall of Fame 4 Comments »

Lynda.com holds a place very near my heart as a superb training resource, but Lynda.com also has the dubious honor of an eQuixotic first (and possibly last): a dual 2008 nomination for both eQuixotic Hall of Fame (Lynda.com: Saving Grace – The Content) and Hall of Shame (Lynda.com and Navigational Pain (Or “Please Don’t Punish [...]

Posted in Content, eLearning Hall of Fame No Comments »

Sorry to all for my recent lack of writing. Aside from the ever-crazy “life in general,” I was scrambling to finish my submission for the Articulate Guru Awards 2009 – a project I put together in my so-called “spare time” (much to the dismay of my wife and children), independent of my employer. [...]

Posted in Audio, eLearning Design, eLearning Development Tools, eLearning Hall of Fame 5 Comments »

For years I dreamed of a fitness program that would hold my hand without charging an hourly fee. That would walk me through a workout without making me camp in front of the TV or computer. That would help me track my progress without forcing me to use that annoying spreadsheet application (while [...]

Posted in Apple, eLearning Design, eLearning Hall of Fame No Comments »

This may be old news to some of you, but I had never seen it before it was presented at a training conference I attended last week. Not only is the message thought-provoking, but the visual design is extremely compelling. This is nothing more than a PowerPoint-like presentation set to music. Yet [...]

Posted in Presentations, eLearning Design, eLearning Hall of Fame 2 Comments »

Adobe unveiled its new Adobe TV site today, offering a variety of video-based instructional sessions (with real talking heads!) focused on using its vast arsenal of creative development tools.
I’ve made the obvious argument several times in the past (An Educated Customer Is a Happy (and Loyal) Customer, Adobe Video Workshop: Adobe Teaches You Adobe, eLearning [...]

Posted in Adobe, Content, eLearning Hall of Fame 4 Comments »

Common Craft are a Seattle-based husband and wife team (Lee & Sachi LeFever) with a distinct eLearning development style: they use hand-drawn paper cutouts and real live human fingers (!) for their instructional videos in lieu of fancy schmancy digital graphics and effects. Or, simply put:
We focus on simplicity, creativity and clear explanations to create [...]

Posted in Presentations, eLearning Hall of Fame 1 Comment »

I lambasted Lynda.com in my previous post for a clunky navigation scheme that is needlessly annoying for the learner. I hope Lynda.com hears the cries (silent cries?) of its customers and improves this glaring shortcoming in an otherwise stellar service.
With that criticism behind us, allow me to pull a 180 and tell you why [...]

Posted in eLearning Hall of Fame No Comments »

Several months ago I attended an eLearning development conference, and unsurprisingly, most of the sessions were filled with examples of the type of eLearning I loathe – sterile, unimaginative stuff that hit all the essential “adult learning theories” (ugh) yet exhibited absolutely zero emotional appeal. You know, just like 95% of the eLearning you [...]

Posted in eLearning Hall of Fame 3 Comments »