Two principles - Steve Corbett

Principle: 3.3.2 When audio is selected as instructional media, use the audio to reinforce the content, not as a sole carrier of the content.
A. Use the highest quality audio possible.
B. The audio must complement, not compete, with the information on the screen.

The people at Brainshark might disagree about using audio to reinforce the content. They see it the other way around. Their tool clearly centers on using audio as the main driver for instruction, and using minimal content on screen to reinforce the audio. It actually seems to work well as I have been through many of their tutorials which practice this, and I felt like it was easier to learn. That being said, point A about using the highest quality audio possible is critical. Some of the Brainshark tutorials had really bad audio quality. This made it challenging to learn the material.

In my company, the standard practice has been to have the audio essentially read the text on the screen word for word to the learner. I brought the concept of "cognitive dissonance" to the attention of a director in the Finance training group and she has begun to help lead the culture shift our company needs to move the Finance organization away from the practice of reading text word for word. It is not an easy thing to change. I have been involved recently in the creation of a web based training course where I am not being given much freedom to edit the SME’s script and textual content. The group I am working with is very particular about how concepts are said. They want lots of text on the screen even though they know Brainshark is an audio driven platform. I have done my best to reduce some of the textual content on the screen by replacing it with diagrams, using brief bullets, and leaving some of the textual content purely as script to be delivered only through the audio. I’m quickly realizing I agree with Brainshark on this principle: content on the page should reinforce audio, not the other way around. As the old saying goes, less is more. This applies to text on the page when it comes to training, so long as the audio is aligned with what is in the page and fills in any gaps.

Principle:
3.3.3 When animation is selected as instructional media, use it to draw attention, to explain, and reinforce the content, not to distract the user.
A. Use animation to draw the audience's attention or alert people to new information.
B. Use animation to indicate the function of a hot spot.
C. Use animation to draw attention to changes from one state to another such as deforestation over time.
D. Use animation to demonstrate navigation in a particular direction.
E. Use animation to create icons for actions that cannot be adequately expressed with a flat, static picture.

I have a BA in computer animation, so I am a big fan of animation. That being said, it needs to be used correctly. Did you ever notice how 3D films with bad stories and poor character development tend to fall “flat” (pun intended) with the audience? Well, the same goes for training courses that use animation way too much or in the wrong ways.

This principle is a good rule of thumb to follow when using animation. You should use it to draw attention to something on a course slide. For example, a simple arrow appearing next to main data point the audio may be mentioning. Animation is useful when mixed with audio instruction because it helps the learner connect the visual and audio. I find animation is very effective in web based training to draw attention to changes over time. This is particularly useful when trying to visually explain a process or principle. For example, you can use simple ‘appear’ and ‘disappear’ animations to demonstrate the movement of debits and credits in an accounting “T” to help the learner understand how accounts receivable and accounts payable works.

I think we can expect to see computer animation being used a lot more in instruction as it becomes easier to create, more accessible to anyone, and less demanding on system resources. Reallusion has recently created a very useful application called the WidgetCast (http://www.reallusion.com/widgetcast/widgetcast_user.asp#Teacher) that allows you to transparently embed very “real” avatars on web pages. You can now capture yourself delivering the audio instruction on a video and then embed this video footage as a widget into your course. This makes it so a real person (you, not a computer generated avatar like in Second Life) acts as a talking digital instructor.