Story-boarding for E-learning Development Process
Storyboards are blueprints that guide professionals through every aspect of their eLearning course design. It aids professionals in efficiently designing and developing ideas to deliver engaging eLearning solution to the users. Storyboard acts as a medium to communicate your eLearning vision. These story boarding for e-learning include every screen including the visual elements, text elements, audio elements, interactions and branching of the course. Most of them also include the objective of the eLearning course.
Storyboarding in the Instructional Systems Development Process
In the instructional systems development process, one would include storyboarding in the development stage right after the analysis. Storyboarding is very important for the development team as it guides the team to build the eLearning course. Once the storyboards are created, they are reviewed by the clients and industry experts. A storyboard is thus the central document, based on which the whole program is constructed.
When there is a stable structure in place, it is easy to identify what the learner can take away at the end of the course. An in-depth analysis to define the objectives of the eLearning course is therefore, necessary before starting to create the storyboard.
How to create an effective storyboard in eLearning
A successful storyboard can be created only through a good research initiative. It is necessary for the creators to have a complete knowledge about the audience before creating the eLearning storyboard. Knowing the audience will help the creators know what will work and what might not so that they can create an effective storyboard. Storyboarding might be a tedious process for small or solo projects. But when it comes to large projects, the initial time spent on storyboarding is rewarding in the later stages of development as the process gets more efficient.
Approaches to Creating a Storyboard
There are two approaches for creating a storyboard. One is the text based storyboard and the other is the detailed visual storyboard. An instructional designer creates the text based storyboard by writing all the information such as design elements, scripts, user experience, user interface, etc. in a written format. Visual storyboards are commonly used to create eLearning storyboards. This format covers all the topics covered in the text based storyboard but represents it through visual graphics and texts. Visual approach is the best way to create a storyboard as it integrates with the actual development
The Importance of Storyboarding in eLearning Development
Creating a story boarding for e-learning helps everyone who is working on a particular project, to work on the same lines by specifying what content is going to be developed. Storyboard helps the creators to rethink the course design and come to a mutual agreement. An excellent eLearning course can be developed with the help of a storyboard.
Meeting the Growing Demands of the eLearning Industry
In the recent times, we see a rapid growth in demand for eLearning courses. Right now is a premium time for learners and eLearning is the best approach to save their time and money. Course developers are trying to balance between the quality of the eLearning course and quick delivery of the course. As the technology changes on a daily basis eLearning gets faster, which creates the need for faster development within shrinking budgets. To meet such growing demands of the eLearning industry, the developers have to make use of storyboards to work efficiently.
