6 Tips To Turn Your Presentation Into An Interactive eLearning Course

6 Tips To Turn Your Presentation Into An Interactive eLearning Course
Summary: In this article, I'll offer insight on how you can turn your presentations into an interactive eLearning course, even if you have no prior experience with eLearning course design and development.

How To Turn Your Presentation Into An Interactive eLearning Course

The secret to creating successful eLearning experiences is developing an environment that mimics the real world. An eLearning course that encourages learners to make choices that lead to consequences or highlights the real world benefits of the subject matter, through simulations and other interactive elements, is essential to its success. But what do you do if your content is wrapped up in a presentation that you've spent countless hours and resources creating, and now you want to make it more dynamic, engaging, and interactive? The answer is to turn your presentation into an interactive eLearning course.

  1. Choose the right eLearning authoring tool.
    There are a number of eLearning authoring tools that can help eLearning professionals transform presentations into dynamic and interactive eLearning courses. Here are the best eLearning authoring tools that you may want to consider:

    • Lectora 12 is the ultimate eLearning authoring tool for professionals who want to easily turn their presentations into eLearning courses. A remarkably simple, yet exceptionally powerful tool, Lectora 12 makes it easy to create eLearning courses that get results. Or, develop eLearning in the cloud with Lectora Online, perfect for collaboration and teamwork.
    • Elucidat is the fastest way for SMEs and non-technical authors to create engaging, interactive and gamified eLearning. It is a Brandon Hall Award Winning Authoring tool, which provides the building blocks you need to create well designed, and engaging eLearning without having to start from scratch. It is the perfect tool for turning presentation content into interactive eLearning courses.
    • Gomo is a cloud based, award winning e-learning software that allows you to create beautiful multi-device HTML5 courses in minutes. Using their intuitive drag and drop interface to convert PowerPoint presentations into highly interactive courses without programming. Drop in sound, video, animation, quizzes and rich interactivity to engage your learners. Also you can embed third party content from across the Internet, including Twitter feeds, YouTube and Vimeo videos, Google Maps and more. Last but not least, you can deliver your single-source content directly from Gomo to all your devices (including full-screen on smartphones and tablets) as well as desktops and your LMS.
    • Adobe Captivate 8 reimagines the way interactive eLearning is created for a multi-device world. Create multi-screen responsive eLearning without programming. You can use the intuitive UI to transform PowerPoint presentations into engaging eLearning and mLearning using actors, voices, interactions, and quizzes. Also leverage best-in-class HTML5 publishing to deliver any content to mobile devices, the web, desktops, and leading LMSs.
    • Based in PowerPoint, iSpring Suite 7 provides comfortable content authoring right in the familiar PowerPoint interface. Though it's extremely easy to use, the tool is supercharged with a wide range of cool capabilities like adding rich media and characters, creating quizzes and interactions, and much more. After the course is ready, it can be easily published for virtually all browsers, mobile devices and LMSs thanks to the support of a cross-platform content format.
    • With Articulate Storyline 2 you can convert presentations, such as those created in PowerPoint, into interactive eLearning courses that feature rich and immersive multimedia content. Articulate Storyline 2 features a wide range of templates, screen capture tools, and a character library that you can use to design your eLearning course.
  2. Don't be afraid to reorganize the layout.
    After you've chosen the ideal eLearning authoring tool, bear in mind that you don't necessarily have to stick with the existing layout. In fact, you can make the eLearning course more interactive and engaging by merely rearranging the layout and design or by using page layout templates to speed up the eLearning development time. For example, if you have a PowerPoint presentation where the only distinguishing features are bullet points and a handful of stock images, you can change the background, include clickable links to outside resources, or add additional relevant and attention-grabbing graphics to make it more exciting. All by using a simple eLearning template.
  3. Create a branching menu for easy navigation.
    One of the most effective ways to integrate a healthy dose of interactivity into your new eLearning course is to add a menu at the beginning that allows learners to access to various modules quickly. Rather than sticking to the linear structure that virtually all presentations follow, you can now group content based upon ideas or subject matters and separate them into different modules. This also helps to prevent cognitive overload, given that your learners will only have to digest small bits of information at one time, and enables the learners to take control over their own eLearning experience. You can often create these branching menus by simply hyperlinking the modules on the main page.
  4. Use hyperlinks to integrate video into your eLearning course.
    Speaking of hyperlinks, their usefulness doesn't stop with branching menus. In fact, they serve a variety of purposes in interactive eLearning course design. You can even use them to integrate videos into your eLearning course, whether you've created them yourself, use stock video, or you are taking advantage of previously uploaded videos, such as those on YouTube. This gives your learners the chance to expand their knowledge base and explore a topic in depth, without even clicking away from the eLearning course itself.
  5. Integrate characters and audio to make it immersive.
    When you want to turn your presentation into an eLearning course, even something as seemingly insignificant as background audio integration or use of a character  can make a world of difference. To include audio, you can add royalty free music or stock audio into your eLearning course to make it more immersive and entertaining. You can include a character by simply choosing eLearning stock from eLearning Brothers that offer 500,000 high quality stock assets. Turn an eLearning character into a host that helps the learners throughout the eLearning course or offers insight into key subject matters. For example, if there are bullet points within your presentation, why not let a stock image and a character share those important bits of information with the learners through dialogue boxes or audio narratives. The learners can then click on the box if they want to view all of the bulleted information at once or need to refresh their memory about a particular sub-topic. You can also integrate vector stock graphics or infographic that may supersede your design capabilities.
  6. Include stories and scenarios to boost interactivity.
    You can include stories, game templates, and scenarios into your new eLearning course design. These elements not only make the eLearning course more effective, but more emotionally-centered too. If you currently have a static page within your presentation that delves into a real world example, for instance, you can transform it into an interactive scenario that encourages the learners to make choices and learn about real world consequences based upon the content that you already have. You can also opt to create stories that tie into real world situations or challenges, and then ask your learners questions based upon the story and also include links to videos or virtual lectures that pertain to the subject matter being discussed. This will instantly make your one-dimensional presentation into an amazing and memorable experience for your learners, thanks to the fact that they can connect and interact with the content.

By using these tips you can turn any presentation into an interactive eLearning course that engages, motivates, and excites your learners.

Looking for tips to create effective eLearning Presentations and Slideshows? At the article How To Create Effective eLearning Presentations and Slideshows you will find 10 tips that will help you to effectively create eLearning presentations and slideshows for your learners.