The Instructional Designer's Toolkit
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Tools and Inspiration
for Instructional Designers
​and eLearning Developers

By Bill Kemsley

Color Variations for Buttons

10/2/2018

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When making buttons in Storyline, I often make the hover standard 10% lighter than the normal state color. I make the down or visited state 10% darker than the normal state color. To help find the right heximal decimal codes for the lighter and darker versions of the color, I use a tool from CSS Font Stack.

https://www.cssfontstack.com/oldsites/hexcolortool/
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Lorem Ipsum Generator

9/18/2018

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Need to use Lorem Ipsum text for a mockup? Here is my favorite Lorem Ipsum Generator.

www.loremipsum.io
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History of Instructional Design

9/13/2018

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Instructional design is a unique meta-field with a rich history. I created a timeline that describes major milestones in the field's history.

tinyurl.com/idhistory
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PowerPoint Templates

8/29/2018

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Graphic River, a part of Envato Market, is a great source of paid PowerPoint templates. Here are a few of my favorites.

Verzus 2.0
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Swift
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Eureka
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​Business
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PowerPoint Tutorials

8/15/2018

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Beautiful animations are an effective way to make your presentations stand out. Take a look at One Skill PowerPoint Tutorials. My favorites:
  • Parallax Effect
  • Slide Zoom
  • Modern Morph

​www.youtube.com/user/1OneSkill
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Another impressive PowerPoint Tutorial account on YouTube is PowerPoint Pro. Here are some tutorials that stand out:
  • Put an Image Inside Text (Using the Morph Tool)
  • Globe Animation

​www.youtube.com/channel/UC41u3UM1Sm6Jm_ptXpHQi2A
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Identify Fonts on Websites

8/3/2018

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Want to make ensure your projects are using your client's fonts? Try Fount, a button that you add to your Google Chrome bookmark bar. Then, when you're on a website, select any text to find out the font name, size, weight, and style.
​
fount.artequalswork.com/
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Activities to Generate Ideas and Reach a Consensus

7/31/2018

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What small group activities can instructional designers and teachers use to generate ideas and promote participation? The University of Waterloo's Centre for Teaching Excellence suggests seven small-group activities:

  • Buzz Groups
  • Think-Pair-Share
  • Circle of Voices
  • Rotating Trios
  • Snowball Groups/Pyramids
  • Jigsaw
  • Fishbowl

​uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/developing-assignments/group-work/group-work-classroom-types-small-groups
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In addition, post-it notes are a helpful tool to promote idea generation. Post-It.com offers some creative suggestions.

​https://www.post-it.com/3M/en_US/post-it/ideas/teamwork-solutions/
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Once ideas have been created and organized, groups have to work together to reach a consensus on the best idea. One method to accomplish this objective is Dot Voting, also known as Sticker Voting.

​https://methods.18f.gov/discover/feature-dot-voting/
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Action-Oriented Learning Objectives

7/31/2018

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Having a hard time writing clear, action-oriented learning objectives? Check out Minnesota State University's "Action Verbs for Student Learning Objectives" chart.

www.mnstate.edu/assess/poa/actionverbs.aspx
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PowerPoint Animations

7/31/2018

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Want to bring your PowerPoints to the next level? Check out Stinson Design's blog post "Our top 5 favourite animations."

www.stinsondesign.com/posts/our-top-five-favourite-animations
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Software Training Videos

7/30/2018

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Need to create software training videos or software simulations? (Think Camtasia.) Take a look at instructional designer Ant Hugh's company VideoBites for inspiration.

www.videobites.co
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Ant Pugh also claims the unique title of Instructional Design Vlogger. You can access all of his videos from his website.

www.antpugh.com
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    For anyone interested, I have a personal blog titled My Journey to Know the Savior where I share reflections about Jesus Christ.

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