eLearning for Powerpoint Menu

This project was approached with the idea that the tool is less important than the design, and that some basic training is better than no training at all.

To be successful, any solution would need to address the following:

• Provide a way to create training that could not be outsourced or created internally in a cost-effective or timely way.
• Output content files compatible with bandwidth and performance limitations of company intranet and integrate with Learning Management System (LMS).
• Support content creation in languages other than English.
• Require minimal training and support from a core development team creating the tool
• Quickly capture a lot of process experience that was leaving the company.
• Use existing, familiar tools already distributed throughout the company- no capital expenses.

At the start of the project my team was given some examples of what the target population was currently creating. They were Powerpoint backdrops for live training. The training administrator in Latin America was pretty frank in acknowledging that a design goal was to include every sound effect slide transition possible in a misguided attempt to keep learners awake. The files were over 6MB each.

Learning Advocates

Up to this point the team was considering circulating a standards document for courses for publication on the LMS. System administrators would police what could be published based on the standards. Looking at the examples, it was realized that more was needed: we had to help people create good-enough content, not stop them from creating unacceptable content.

The acknowledgement that we had to be advocates for others to create learning helped frame our working hypothesis: If we provided just enough support at the right time and place, people would use it to create better training.

The questions were, what is enough support? When is the right time to give it? Where is the right place to put it? As instructional designers we would prefer the answer be “up front” in the initial design phase. We acknowledged that our target user, by definition, does not have a primary role of training. We needed to fit any solution into their work flow to be relevant. This meant finding a compromise that would still promote courses that were “good enough”.

Go with the Flow

Since the workflow currently used revolved around Powerpoint, this was considered a likely place to put support where it would be found and used. It would come late in the development process, but it could still support some quality standards. It could be positioned as a path of least resistance to getting courses published on the LMS. Our target already had a grasp of how to use (or abuse) Powerpoint, so training would be minimal.

Visual Basic Interface

A prototype was created using Visual Basic for Applications, a programming tool built into Microsoft Office, to control and automate portions of Powerpoint. When eLearning for Powerpoint is installed, An eLearning menu is added to the menubar, an eLearning template is provided in the Open File window and output folder is created in a special directory.

Template Menu Including eLearning Template

Example of a Prompt

This worked well and was promoted to production after some testing. In production navigation, titles and other “boilerplate” information is gathered from the user by a series of prompts and is displayed in master slides. Page numbering is automated. This would ensure consistency and prevent accidental edits. We had seen titles and backgrounds pasted over master slides and titles and backgrounds shifting noticeably from one slide to the next in the examples we were shown.

The eLearning Menu

Among other things, the eLearning menu displays a selection of slide types the user can add. These are all stored in a resource file as part of the installation. In a few cases there are compound slides which consist of a question slide and and answer slide. When the user picks a question slide, the answer slide is added automatically.

Exceeding Expectations

One of the slides, “End Lesson And Complete” provides a link that enables SCORM completion tracking on the LMS. This feature provided functionality above and beyond the initial expectations of the team and project sponsors. It also gave us a way to monitor use of courses created by eLearning for Powerpoint.

The save for eCampus command automates the process of saving the presentation as HTML with the correct settings to display in the LMS course window. It also saves the output in the special folder set up during installation.

The Convert to eLearning command takes Powerpoint Presentations and applies settings, navigation and background graphics to them, including the boilerplate information. In retrospect we would not have included this command, since almost any presentation used for live training needs a lot more than a superficial cleanup.

eLearning for Powerpoint has been a very useful and popular tool in regions it has been rolled out to so far. It is interesting to note that the same department had tried to roll out Toolbook a couple of years before without any success at all.

A course created in Spanish using eLearning for Powerpoint. Note the first topic has a checkmark, indicating completion via SCORM.

Courses created will display any slide transition and animation, and some video and sound formats.

This Course Displays a Very Brief Video Sequence on the Right