Why Going Back to the Drawing Board Feels So Good
I reused an old project for an Elearning Heroes Elearning Challenge to use gifs. The process and results were pleasantly surprising. Now I have a snazzy mad libs style cybersecurity activity – with gifs!
The project is an to help reinforce security culture at company. It would be part of a campaign about locking a computer when your leave your desk. It is part training, part habit-forming. Read more about the ideas behind the Storyline activity in an earlier post.
Redoing an activity…really?
Does that make me lazy?
No Way!
The beauty of E-learning challenges is that you can play with an example in different contexts, with different constraints.
The experiment pushed me to see the activity from a new perspective.
What I changed
I mostly changed the design and tone. I wanted to create something that had more of an internet culture vibe.
The changes let me see space on the slide in ways I was blind to before.
- I was asking the user to fill out way too much information. I cut some out.
- I experimented with how few instructions I could put on the slide. I put instructions out of habit. It seems elearning instructions are stuck in the 1990s (click Next). The apps are moving away from on-screen instructions. I want to push my elearning that way too.
I love personal projects because you often have more time to contemplate. When I live with a project for weeks or months, new ideas just seem to bubble up.
If only I could have such time at work. :)
I am only half joking. I’ve learned new things by tinkering. I’ve practised editing. That practice transfers.
Feedback and Change in Elearning Development
The changes I made were easy to do because the activity felt less precious than it did last week. Last week I was enamoured by the idea. I also was focused on getting the variables and triggers working properly.
I was less stressed because I already knew it worked. Now I could just make it better.
I had a neutral openess towards the final outcome of the project. I could substantially edit the activity and take it to new places without too much worry.
I am usually open to changes and feedback during projects. This type of play provides hands-on practice with iterative development. The project seemed to breathe on it’s own.
In the first version the focus was on what I could do to make this work. I think that is what lean or agile practitioners call a minimally viable product. Then this second example just goes further.
Honestly, I had more fun in the editing phase than I did creating.
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