I create web-based training or eLearning content as a substitute for classroom and remote training. I guess it wasn’t just the Sars-Cov-2/Covid-19 contact restrictions that got the ball rolling for me. I am passionate about creating training content and value the benefits for myself and my clients. Even before that, I created videos for sprint reviews, which serve a documentation, training, and support role in addition to demonstrating solutions.

Sample Lesson

eLearning

For eLearning content, I either use my own content that I customize to your needs. Or I receive training content from you in the form of manuscripts and training material, which I convert into training videos using voice and screen recordings. Between the training videos, multiple-choice tests can be added, with which the learning content can be repeated and consolidated.

Remote Training

eLearning content can be supplemented with remote training for web-based training, so that all learning types can be optimally satisfied and learning content can be optimally conveyed.

Components of eLearning

eLearning takes the form of courses. Several courses can also form a course series. A course consists of several lessons in the form of

• Video content (tutorials)
• Quizzes
• Tests
• Practical exercises
• Certificate

A lesson consists of the following components

• Intro
• Description of the content in the lesson
• Explanation of the technical terms in the lesson
• Learning content
• Example(s) for the learning content
• Summary / conclusion of the learning content
• Announcement of the following lesson
• If applicable, source information in the outro (credits)

Granularity

I record the eLearning content in fine granularity. In practical terms, this means that I record the soundtrack sentence by sentence and the video content per work step. I also fill learning content presentations as granularly as possible so that all components can be easily and efficiently edited as changes or additions are made. With fine-grained content, role-specific content can be created quickly with little effort.

A video lesson has the following tracks for me:

• Track 1: Background Music
• Track 2: Dubbing
• Track 3: Intro, Presentations, Outro
• Track 4: Graphics, Screen Recording, Lecturer Recording, Effects
• Track 4+n: Parallel Graphics, Effects
• Track 5: Notes, Markings
• Track 5+n: Parallel Annotations, Markers

The granular individual components of the tracks can be replaced or supplemented easily and thus very economically.

Why Background Music?

• The right background music creates the desired mood for learning and keeps attention high
• Background music creates a professional impression
• Background music can emphasize the corporate standard if appropriate audio loops already exist
• Most importantly, background music drowns out background noise during recording, allowing you to record in a quiet but still normal working environment with air-cooled hardware. Studio recordings with encapsulated IT infrastructure would be significantly more expensive.

Video Recording of the Lecturer

Video recordings of the instructor definitely add to the mix for optimal support of all learning types. However, this effort is enormously high in contrast to learning content without video integration of the lecturer. When calculating the effort required for eLearning courses, we can assume very roughly that

• 1/3 in the preparation of the manuscript
• 1/3 in production
• 1/3 goes into the instructor’s video recordings

The final third also requires studio equipment with a high-quality camera, lighting, greenwall, teleprompter and at least one other production staff member. In addition, the instructor needs the exceptional ability to present large coherent learning content in a neatly formulated and persuasive manner. It should be noted that this requirement goes far beyond the capabilities of a normal classroom trainer. Working in front of the camera and without feedback from course participants is a very special challenge that requires acting skills. For these reasons, the high effort for the recordings and the subsequent editing, most companies do without the insertion of the lecturer in the learning content.

Effort Estimation

It takes me about 8 hours to produce 15 course minutes without the instructor’s video presentation. This time also includes adjusting the manuscript (eliminating inversions, subjunctives, double negations, and formulating fluent “language grammar”).

If only a bullet-point manuscript is available, then formulating a production-ready manuscript requires that much more time.

For the production of quizzes and tests I need about 1 hour per quiz or test with 4 answers – incl. Of the response justifications. The effort here can be measured quite well by the number of responses.

Machine Dubbing

With a solution for machine dubbing (Text2Speach), the pure dubbing effort can be roughly halved to quartered. Of course, this method has advantages and disadvantages. As already mentioned, the time required also reduces the financial outlay. On the other hand, despite great progress in recent years, machine dubbing still does not correspond to natural dubbing. In addition, the dubbing algorithms per language are of highly varying quality. The English algorithm, for example, is already far advanced in Speechelo, while other languages still lag far behind. In addition, with machine dubbing, video recording of the lecturer is no longer possible. How could it be, if the lecturer is virtual? I myself use the standard solution “Speechelo” for English dubbing, also because dubbing in other languages is easily possible with it. If necessary, however, I also use the customer’s solution.

Languages

I am able to produce teaching content in German, English, French and Spanish.

Use Case

eLearning is not suitable for all training cases. In order to justify the investment in the production of eLearning content, there needs to be a sufficiently large demand. The effort is therefore worthwhile for all content for which there is a large number of employees to be trained.

Licenses, Software and Accesses

If you want me to produce learning content for you, in which software is used, then I need from you at least. 1 license and the software for installation. If I am to generate learning content from internal customer systems, then I need the necessary access. In some cases, it is also necessary to set up a VPN connection to map access to your resources.

Tool

I create my eLearning content with Camtasia. This tool enables the production of professional teaching content. I have produced my own courses with Camtasia. However, I have no problem using your existing tool if you provide me with the necessary license on a Windows basis.

Rights

For your own learning content, the rights to the produced course material are transferred to you when the files are handed over. You can subsequently maintain these files yourself or commission me with desired adjustments or enhancements.

When adapting my learning content to your needs, the rights for the work results remain with me. After concluding a license agreement regulating the use of the course material, I will transfer the files for use for the intended purpose.

Project Flow

With the start of an eLearning content creation project, I need to produce

• A finished and structured manuscript on the learning content
• Access to tools and content that may be required to be shown in the learning content.
• Demo data
• Continuous practical example
• Access to company-specific graphics and videos
• Easily accessible technical contacts for queries
• Conception of the standards (1)
  • Setting the slide design
  • Setting the background music incl. volume for intro, outro, lesson content and speaking pauses in the lesson
  • Determination of the graphic intro and, if necessary, the outro
  • Definition of the learning objective
    • What should be taught and tested?
    • Which courses of action should be avoided and tested?
  • Quizzes?
  • Tests?
  • Practice exercises with solution lessons?
  • Certificate?
  • Determination of accompanying materials
    • Design
    • Format
    • To which lessons
  • Setting the video and audio format
  • Setting the video and audio quality parameters
  • Definition of the acceptance and quality assurance processes
  • Determine how produced content is delivered
  • Should the course content be made available in other formats?
    • Written content for FAQs, eBooks, web content, or magazines?
    • Audio content for podcasts or audiobooks?
    • Video content for support or demo purposes?
• Course content design (2)
  • Welcome
  • Presentation of the platform functionality
  • Presentation of the course content and course schedule
  • Determining which lessons receive quizzes
  • Determining which lessons receive practice exercises
  • Determining which courses receive which accompanying materials (attachments for download)
  • Determining how many tests are integrated at which points in the course
• Production
  • Standards (1)
    • Slides design
    • Background music loop
    • Intro
    • Outro

Advantages

A great advantage of eLearning is that the content can be taught according to an optimal thread and in complete scope. Unlike classroom and remote training, there is no distraction from the course content. No instructor can turn in the heat of the moment, introducing unintended content and dropping important content under the table.

eLearnings can be designed so that the content meets certification requirements. A training manuscript as well as its modification history documents the teaching content. The learning content imparted is documented per employee.

Lessons can be delivered in a role-dependent manner, so that each course participant only receives the learning content that is relevant to their role. In return, the courses can be used to teach more in-depth subject matter that would not be included in conventional forms of learning. Examples of this would be key user content or administrator content.

Course participants can absorb the learning content regardless of time and location. In contrast to remote and face-to-face training, the learning group does not necessarily have to come together within a fixed time frame, so that individual participants are not on task due to urgent tasks, or this may even cause damage to operations. All of this is avoided through eLearning. Apart from this, travel expenses are also avoided.

And then there’s the fact that the one-time investment in production really pays off financially from a break-even point and valuable learning content can thus be made available to a far greater number of employees.