From Design to Deployment Using PowerPoint

Eric Parks, Ph.D, President & CEO, ASK International

There is a fundamental shift in how e-Learning products are going to be developed in the future. We are moving away from programmer-centric tools like HTML, Java Script, FLASH and/or Dreamweaver. The tools of the future will be the familiar, easy-to-use, common desktop applications such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Word.

In a recent poll of its members, the e-Learning Guild (www.elearningguild.com ) reports that 12% of all WBT development is in PowerPoint. Although this might surprise some of you, it actually makes total sense. There is a compelling business case for continued movement in these directions:

You add this all up and the bottom line is that PowerPoint has the potential of reducing development cycle times and impacting deployment costs - the Holy Grail of the development community.

So let’s take a look at how PowerPoint can be used as your primary production tool by eliminating or reducing the need for Programming.

Storyboard Production

Question: Are production storyboards better with actual graphics and illustrations or straight text?

Answer: We have all heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words and for storyboarding an e-Learning course I believe that text alone cannot communicate the details necessary for effective development.

Unfortunately, to reduce development time and costs many designers have implemented text-based storyboarding solutions. Typically instructional designers think that by substituting verbal descriptions for all graphics they can move more quickly to production. It just doesn’t work. Quite often the review cycle is protracted with management confusion over what the program will actually look like. There are some exceptions to this. If your project meets the following criteria, text-based storyboarding might work:

In all other cases, it is essential to add visuals to your storyboard to effectively communicate the design, layout, color and animation. A typical storyboard developed in PowerPoint incorporates the screen visuals, an overall description of the screen and detailed programmers/graphic artists notes. These components are fully viewable in PowerPoint’s Notes view. Here is a quick checklist to help you set up and configure PowerPoint for storyboarding:

Once the storyboard is created it is ready for delivery to the review team. It is important to incorporate a detailed reviewers checklist and guidelines to help gather comments and input on the PowerPoint storyboards. The checklists and file are then packaged and emailed to the review team. It has been our experience that even the most techno-phobic staff members have no problem reviewing a PowerPoint storyboard. For more guidance in storyboard development using PowerPoint see ASK’s workshop Developing WBT Storyboards at: ASK Workshops | Workshops Explained

Learning Activities and Multimedia Support

Without programming, PowerPoint will support a wide range of learning activities. These include:

In addition to this array of learning activities, PowerPoint supports a breadth of multimedia effects including:


Deployment of Your Courses

The file can be deployed in its native format (PPT) or saved as HTML. Options and choices will be dependent on your learning content management system and based on how it supports and treats these files.

Some Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) will support added features making your course more flexible. For example, TeraLearn, a popular LCMS (www.teralearn.com), supports testing with multiple sections and wrong answer feedback, curriculum management and end-of-course survey, SCORM 1.2 tracking, book marking, handbook and many other functions adding value to the PowerPoint published course.
Regardless of the system, it is essential that you carefully test your solution on that system prior to deployment.

One deployment option that will grow in popularity is packaging your PowerPoint course with Microsoft Producer. Producer is an integration tool that allows you to create streaming media (movies) incorporating PowerPoint, Audio, motion video, FLASH and other resources in one package. And believe it or not, it’s FREE for users of the XP operating system and XP version of PowerPoint Office products. One catch, however, is that in order to deliver your files you will need to add server side components to get your files to effectively work for your users. To learn all the ins and outs of developing web-based training using PowerPoint see ASK’s workshop, Developing Web-Based Training at: ASK Workshops | Workshops Explained

The Bottom Line

Now is the time to start rethinking your development strategy. The nice thing about PowerPoint is that it allows the organization to focus on design and content. This is where you will get your biggest return on investment. Remember:

For these reasons, I predict that coupled with compatible LCMS products, PowerPoint will be become the most commonly used WBT development tool in coming years!

About Dr. Parks:

Dr. Parks is the founder and CEO of ASK International, a world leading e-Learning research, design, development and deployment firm. He has worked with numerous Fortune 100 companies including FedEx, PeopleSoft, HP, AT&T, GE Capital and Washington Mutual. He has been sited in numerous trade journals including Training, Technology for Learning, Technical Training, Training Director’s Newsletter, Creative Training and eLearning Guild Design. His organization, ASK International, has won numerous international e-learning design awards. He is presently serving on the Board of Directors for the eLearning Guild one of the fastest growing training professional organizations. Dr. Parks can be contacted at: info@askintl.com or (916) 536-1279.