3 Interactive Games to Help You Learn About Fonts

When building an elearning course there are three main considerations:

What content will be in the course? What will it look like? What will the learner do?

Most of the content in the course is text. And the look and feel of the course is also dependent on text. That’s because the text in your course serves two functions: it is what we read and it is a graphic that contributes a contextual look and feel.

In today’s world there’s no shortage of free fonts. The challenge is learning more about them and how they’re best used in your elearning courses. And one of the best ways to learn about fonts is to play some games.

You’ll find a few different activities and games that help you learn more about fonts. But before you jump into the font games, let’s take a step back and think about games in general.

Since this blog focuses on elearning and courses design, look at these font games as if they were elearning courses. What do you like best? Are there things you can apply to your own courses? How do they engage the learning process?

Now onto the games.

Spacing of letters in your words helps make the text easier to read. If you move letters too close together it’s hard to read. And if the letters are too far apart, it’s hard to discern distinct words. The spacing between letters also contributes to the font’s style.

KERNTYPE

Kerntype helps you learn about kerning (spacing) by dragging letters and positioning them to look right. After you drag the letters, you compare your choice to the recommended solution.

I SHOT THE SERIF

Fonts have different elements that make them unique. One of those elements are whether it has a serif or not. Can you spot the fonts with a serif? If so, take your best shot.

TYPECONNECTION

In a previous post we discussed a few simple rules when selecting font pairs. The TypeConnection game takes it a step farther by letting you match two fonts and seeing how they pair up. It’s a great way to learn about what works and what doesn’t when using different type.

Which game did you enjoy most?

We’re doing a series of community workshops. Join your peers in learning more about elearning. I’m fine-tuning the agenda and will have more details shortly. The first day will focus on general elearning topics and the second day will focus on Articulate specific topics. They’re all practical with lots of hands-on activities.

The space is limited, so make sure to sign up before they sell out.

September 10 &11: Denver, CO. E-Learning Heroes Roadshow. Lots of practical tips and tricks with plenty of activities whether you’re looking for general elearning knowledge or Articulate tips and tricks. Sign up here before it sells out.

September 22 & 23: Minneapolis, MN. E-Learning Heroes Roadshow. Lots of practical tips and tricks with plenty of activities whether you’re looking for general elearning knowledge or Articulate tips and tricks. This workshop has two tracks each day. Sign up here before it sells out.

October 21 & 22: Boston, MA. E-Learning Heroes Roadshow. Lots of practical tips and tricks with plenty of activities whether you’re looking for general elearning knowledge or Articulate tips and tricks. Sign up here before it sells out.

October 7 & 8: Dallas (ASTD). Two rapid elearning workshops. Sign up here.

Day 1: PowerPoint’s for E-Learning

Day 2: Building Interactive E-Learning with Articulate Storyline.

October: Las Vegas (Devlearn). How to Make Community Part of Your Training.

Post written by Tom Kuhlmann

View the original article here

Why Building Interactive E-Learning is a Two-step Process

How do you define interactive elearning?

It’s a question I ask clients when they tell me they want an interactive elearning course. Usually they define interactive elearning with what we normally consider the “bells and whistles.” Often they mention things like fancy buttons that change colors and rollover effects.

Sometimes we laugh those off as superfluous or unnecessary interactions. But they do play an important role in interactive elearning. But they’re only part of the interactive elearning process.

One goal of interactive elearning is to craft an immersive experience. The course’s visual design needs to be contextual. It’s something we’ve reviewed before. For example, if you’re doing a course on operating room technology, you want to bring the learner into the operating room. You can do part of this by tapping into your visual voice and crafting a visually immersive screen.

Another way to create an immersive experience is to have the users interact with onscreen elements or “touch the screen.” We discussed this earlier in a blog post on how to touch the screen.

Touching the screen is key. It’s also NOT an either/or option. Regardless of how you design your course’s interactions, the learner is going to interact with it. You’ll either offer options to click, hover, or drag. And since that’s the case, you need to make sure that those onscreen interactions contribute to a high value, interactive experience that pulls the learner into the course.

Interacting with onscreen elements is an important part of elearning course design. However, the ultimate goal of your course is to meet specific learning objectives. So in that sense, I define interactive elearning as getting the learner to interact with the content. This is more than visual and tactile interactions. It includes them processing what they learn and demonstrating understanding.

Here are a few keys to crafting the right interactive experience:

Develop clear learning objectives. Why are they taking the course and what do you expect of them when they’re done? Here’s a good starting point to learn more about creating good learning objectives. Have the learners prove their understanding. With clear objectives you can develop a means for the learner to demonstrate what they’ve learned and their current level of understanding. This is more than a simple multiple choice quiz. Instead it’s the course’s activities and decision-making scenarios that prove what they know. Place their learning in a relevant context. Many elearning courses rely too much on information and not enough on performance. One way to avoid this trap is to frame the content in a context that is real to the learners. And then present the learning experience in a way that mirrors the way they work and the types of decisions they need to make. Here’s a post on how to switch from information to performance-based learning.

Interactive elearning engages the learner. You can engage their senses to craft an immersive experience—make it look great and provide lots of onscreen interactivity. But you can’t stop there. You also need to get them to process the information. Place them in a relevant context and get them to make the types of decisions they’d make in real life.

Combine “touch the screen” interactivity with great decision-making and you’re on your way to building great elearning courses. What do you think?

2015 coming soon. I’m working on the calendar for next year. Some planned stops below. If you’d like to see me or one of the E-Learning Heroes Roadshows in your area, let me know.

New York

Omaha

Philadelphia

Austin

Seattle

Atlanta

Chicago

Phoenix

Also looking at some international trips.

* Touch screen graphic made with snipicons

View the original article here