To engage modern audiences,eLearning nowadays is often delivered in the form of animation. This way, the performance of eLearning depends a lot on the quality of your animation. A well-made animated eLearning video will assist you best in delivering information and knowledge, whereas a low-quality video can’t do the job.
This comes with the need to improve animation in eLearning continually to bring learners the best effect. This blog will point out common problems occurring when incorporating animation into eLearning and how to solve them.
Animation application examples in eLearning
#1: To promote your eLearning course
One of the most common use cases for animation in eLearning is to promote your eLearning course. You’re likely to come across introductory videos many times that help spread information about eLearning courses.
Using animation can get the essence of your brand across clearly and concisely to grab people’s attention, which then results in broadening your audience group.
#2: For internal training
Another use of animation in eLearning is for internal training. Compared to the traditional training method, animation offers another way to deliver information effectively without much budget and opportunity cost. This application calls for the need to improve animation in eLearning most of the time.
The incorporation of animation into training has led to many successful internal training cases. One of them is the series of Intelycare’s Nurse Training Videos. Check out the IntelyCare Introduction by F.Learning Studio video below – an example in the series of medical animations for nurse training by IntelyCare.
Common Issues with Animation in eLearning
#1: Losing Balance Between Cost And Effectiveness
The most high-priced option isn’t always the best choice to make. As companies need to achieve the balance between the expense and the result of their projects, they should aim for quality first, then budget. Of course, you don’t want to spend financial resources on something you don’t actually need.
For instance, numerous e-learning centers want to have their animated eLearning videos made in 3D instead of 2D. However, In reality, a 2D animated video can still do the job well and cost way less.
This is an example from Ted-ed. The video offers an explanation of how the heart pumps blood. Instead of illustrating how the human circulation system works, 2D animation focuses more on delivering the information in the easiest way by storytelling. Therefore, it is suitable for even people with low health literacy.
#2: Not structuring your content beforehand
Before jumping into the production stage, it is important that the production team get through all the contents needed to deliver. As a result, creating rough ideas for your eLearning video will help the pre-production discussion stay on topic and achieve its goal effectively.
Without preparing the content in advance, there may be a lack of cohesion and coherence in the making of animated eLearning videos. This will result in disorganized steps and unattended ideas which confuses the delivery of information and reduces training quality. This is a really big mistake to make if you want to improve animation in eLearning.
#3: Using Distractive Designs
The ultimate goal of eLearning is to deliver information and knowledge. Therefore, to improve animation in eLearning, all animation elements: motions, text, or voiceovers, should contribute to this goal, not distracting learners from it.
The most obvious mistake is adding too much text to the animated eLearning videos. Text even appears on the screen while the narrator has already read it out loud. This splits the audience’s attention and causes a decrease in the end result.
Another big design-related mistake is choosing the wrong type of animation.
There exist multiple animation types, each suits a different type of content. For example, a mechanism of action animation works best at explaining the effect of a drug on your body. Therefore, choosing the wrong type of animation for your project will reduce its effectiveness while increasing cost and losing your valuable time.
#4: Losing Focus On The Main Priorities
An animated eLearning video has a lot of ongoing elements: characters, background music, movements, and so on which make it easy to lose focus during the production stage. Available elements may be overused while the priorities like audience and knowledge are missed completely.
The animation should help you bring the information to the audience. To improve animation in eLearning, content needs to be the center of the animated eLearning video, not the animation.
#5: Forgetting about the audience
To improve animation in eLearning, your eLearning video should revolve largely around the audience. In case of branding purposes, the audience should find your video helpful to get to know the brand and gain new knowledge. From there, they will gradually grow an interest in your eLearning brand and come back for many other eLearning videos.
For internal training purposes, some clients tend to build a one-size-fits-all eLearning course which is not right. Your audience should never be everyone outside here. You should clarify who your audience is before starting with content development.
This is important because the demographic of your audience can significantly impact their learning style. And only after having a particular answer can your course fulfill its audience’s demand.
If the studio you work with doesn’t have a clear vision of your targeted audience, there is a high chance that they won’t know what the audience cares about the most and won’t include the necessary learning materials. This causes the video to be less engaging and a low customer retention rate and even a gloomy picture of the business performance.
In short, choosing the right content, animation style and managing your budget is among the top things to make animation for educational purposes work.
Tips to improve animation in eLearning
#1: Budget optimization
#2: Prepare the content framework in advance
#3: Choose the appropriate design
#4: Keep track of the project
#5: Share your idea with the studio
#1: Budget optimization
The first vital tip to improve animated eLearning videos is you should have a rough idea of the maximum budget to shoot for. From there, you will find suitable animation studios in the available financial range.
Also, animation studios in other countries may offer a cheaper rate than options in your country. For example, an animation studio based in England may charge more for every one minute of runtime than one in Vietnam.
#2: Prepare the content framework in advance
The second tip to improve animated eLearning videos is you should always map out the content for the video beforehand. This is the content framework of the whole project, which includes both the content and your planned delivery method. The aim of this step is to make sure you don’t miss any points or ideas that appeal to the target audience.
Creating a framework first will save plenty of time in the later stages of the production. Clear visualization of the video from the draft helps the studio decide which elements of animation to use then give a rough idea of the expected budget.
Have a clear vision of what you want to get out of the training course. It will guide you to make better choices in the production and improve animation in eLearning. Let’s say you want to prepare your nursing students memory tricks and test tips to help them pass the NCLEX™. Then you will need to choose a studio with successful healthcare animation case studies.
#3: Choose the appropriate design
To improve animated eLearning videos, match your content with a suitable type of animation to deliver it in the best way. Scout for the best choice within your budget range.
A good design should have just the right amount of text to increase concentration.
If you’re afraid that the learners may lose track of the knowledge, provide them with a copy of the script. Keeping the design fun and relatable also helps trigger long-term memory.
For example, you can check out one animated video of Simple Nursing, in which the complicated medical concept is visualized by Mechanism of Action animation to make it more friendly to learners.
#4: Keep track of the project
Another tip to improve animated eLearning videos is keeping track of the project. As the client, you will have full control over the project which should be used during the project. Stay as the production goes through different stages and pitch in any thoughts eLearning to ensure the quality.
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#5: Share your idea with the studio
It’s essential that you communicate with the animation studio to establish a mutual understanding. This brings the studio a clearer sense of your goals, expectations, curriculum, or insider tips that makes the course better and improve animated eLearning videos.
Conclusion
Animation is a great tool for eLearning but tricky to use. It should help a lot if done in the right way. If you’re planning to improve animation in eLearning videos, keep in mind the tips above for the best quality of your video.
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