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But is PowerPoint the best choice if you want to create interactive e-learning?
Let’s first define the main interactive actions that can be created in an e-learning course, and then we’ll assess how well PowerPoint handles them.
In general, there are 3 main types of onscreen interactions: clicking, pointing with the mouse, and dragging. Which of these interaction types can you create with PowerPoint? The answer is only one. That means you have only 1/3 of the possible interactions and no option to program more.
Below we have presented two examples of interactive scenarios. One was created with PowerPoint, and the other – with Articulate Storyline. The two scenarios are identical. The main difference is in the creation process and the time it took to complete them.
See the interactive scenario created with PowerPoint and the one created with Articulate.
Both versions fulfill the main idea of the scenario. But do you notice how many slides the PowerPoint presentation consists of? A full 31. In contrast, the scenario created with Articulate Storyline consists of only 5 slides.
In fact, if the author had not used the initial PowerPoint scenario and had worked directly in Articulate Storyline, he would most likely have used 3 slides per interaction. And since the slides are almost identical, he could have created just one slide with 3 feedback options to reuse multiple times. If we do not count the content, building the structure of the interactive scenario would have taken only a few minutes.
Another advantage of Storyline is that the slides created in it can be saved as templates and easily reused.
Why not use PowerPoint to create interactive e-learning courses?
• In PowerPoint, the number of interactions is limited.
• Creating interactions in PowerPoint takes a lot of time.
• Interactions in PowerPoint are more complicated than they need to be. They contain links to slides, so creating an interaction of, say, 5 steps requires 6 slides.
As we said earlier, PowerPoint is a great tool for creating multimedia training, but if you want to develop a high-quality interactive e-learning course, it is better to choose another, more suitable tool. This will save you many hours of work, effort, and resources.
Source: http://bit.ly/1OxPu9g.
