How to Boost elearning Training with Animation
When it comes to creating eLearning digital training, it’s all about providing the right kind of e-learning experience to your learners.
As such, you want to make sure that your eLearning course not only provides information that’s useful and valuable, but that it also creates an eLearning experience in which the learner is fully engaged, eager to learn more, and ready to put what they learned into practice as soon as possible. One way to do this? Animation!
What is animation in digital training?
With animation, your eLearning content comes alive! People can interact with 3D objects and on-screen characters, bringing your learning experience to life.
Using interactive media makes it possible for learners’ questions or reactions to be captured immediately and responded to by instructors. Some companies are even beginning to add VR (virtual reality) into digital learning modules because of its immersive nature which boosts retention rates and overall engagement.
This type of immersive learning lends itself perfectly to sales-based training as well as procedures that are safety-critical.
Types of animation styles for eLearning
There are so many different types of animation, but they can essentially be grouped into four categories: live-action, stop motion, tweening, and traditional. Each style has its own unique look and feels that can really add to your digital training if used correctly.
The type of animation you choose will depend on your storyline. For example, if you want a video for users who want to learn about how a feature works it’s best to stick with traditional or tweening animation because there isn’t anything moving in that frame other than what you want users to focus on.
On the other hand, if you have an educational video that needs a voiceover explaining key terms at certain points during your videos or interaction with a user where you want to highlight something specific, then using live-action is best.
Sometimes switching between styles within one video is a fun way to keep things fresh! When deciding which animation technique would work best for your business keep these factors in mind; text overlays, production time needed, and audience/purpose.
Benefits of animation in eLearning
Making eLearning videos come alive for your learners can increase comprehension and engagement. When you add movement, sound, and color to your digital training materials, you are creating an environment in which learning happens. Some of the benefits of animation in eLearning include the following:
Ability to Increase Comprehension: Words are all well and good when explaining a concept, but adding movement via animation allows learners to visualize their understanding of what they're hearing. We've all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words... What if we could show those pictures? A moving image is more memorable than a still one -- learners retain it longer and get more out of it.
Ability to Teach Concepts Visually: If a picture is worth 1000 words, then an animated illustration could be worth 10,000 words! With animations, instructors can replace long chunks of text with simple and clear visuals. Plus, most people prefer visuals over text because our brains process images 60,000 times faster than plain text!
Increase Retention by Stimulating Learning Style Preferences: Experts say there are four distinct learning styles. Some learners learn better by listening; others need to see or hear something before they get it. Stimulating multiple senses will help reach every type of learner in your audience -- there's no reason to let some members fall behind just because their preferred learning style doesn't fit into traditional methods
Create Engaging Marketing Materials: Animated videos are used extensively throughout social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Users are accustomed to seeing moving visuals and will respond more favorably to your brand when your social media posts are more engaging. Plus, animated videos are more shareable -- it's a numbers game! The easier you make it for users to spread your marketing materials, the more publicity you'll get.
Speed Up Training Time: Human resources departments are always looking for ways to train employees more efficiently and effectively. Using animated videos eliminates time-consuming tasks like having to write training manuals, simplifying entire processes, and streamlining training content. Animated training modules can be explained more easily than text, saving you both time and money.
How to Boost elearning Training with Animation and eLearning Video
Questions to consider when incorporating animation into your digital training
The first thing to consider when incorporating animation into your digital training is understanding why you want to do so. First, ask yourself what problem do you think animations could solve? Are there aspects of instruction that could be better explained with animations? What purpose does each individual animation serve?
Once you have determined that, then decide on whether each animation should last 10 seconds or 10 minutes—this will determine if there is any specific point at which learner engagement drops off from one image to another (although this effect might not apply in all cases).
You also want to keep course objectives and outcomes in mind when creating animations; having a defined goal of what success looks like before creating any animations helps direct how each one should function.
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When to use animation in eLearning
eLearning is sometimes criticized for being too dry and boring. Yes, there’s plenty of bad eLearning out there. However, if you want your eLearning program to be more engaging, look no further than animation!
Explainer videos are a great tool for digital training programs because they can teach difficult concepts quickly and effectively. Since it’s an industry term, a quick Google search will give you hundreds of examples of these types of animations.
The most basic explanation of an explainer video involves three simple steps: storyboarding, sketching, and design. First, come up with a script that explains your key points in one minute or less. Then create sketches based on that script that illustrate each concept or step-by-step process you're trying to explain (more detailed storyboards/boards are available in various free software tools).
Once you've got sketches down on paper (or computer), create graphics (usually done by designers), which become animated on-screen during the production process. These could include arrows, screenshots from any type of website, or images from PowerPoint presentations. Sound effects and voiceovers should also be added at different moments throughout the recording process -- some experts say two-thirds through explaining processes is ideal. These elements help create explanations that are easier to follow for learners’ brains.
One last thing to keep in mind: As with all online content, length matters when creating explainer videos -- 1-2 minutes should suffice here while longer ones run a higher risk of losing audiences' attention.
Remember, shorter messages need to be more succinct so as not to overwhelm users, who get information overload at school and work every day already. Don't forget whiteboard animation, which combines pictures with text captions.
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How can TheLearning LAB Elearning platform help
Our primary goal is to help organizations deliver eLearning and employee training that’s effective, efficient, and scalable. We don’t create lecture slides or screencasts that simply rehash what you already know – we provide hands-on digital training on industry standards and emerging technology (like Artificial Intelligence).
Our approach allows learners to quickly absorb information while reinforcing concepts via interactive activities such as quiz questions, simulations, and assessments. And because we build our learning environments using cutting-edge animation tools like Storyline 360, learners retain more than 90% of their new knowledge for a full year after completing a course.