e-Learning Blog
Make FREE Custom Avatars for Rapid e-Learning
If you’re looking for a way to communicate with your learners that is not only unique, but FREE, a Voki avatar is a quick and easy way to add a dynamic touch to your Snap! by Lectora® and Snap! EmpowerTM content. Voki avatars add a personalized touch to rapid e-Learning courses and provide a great way to communicate things like directions, for example, that would otherwise be purely text-based.
What’s cool about Voki: 
- Create custom avatars very quickly and choose a person, animal, “oddball” and more as your character. You can even customize their clothing, accessories, hair, etc.
- Add your own audio files to create a voice for your avatar.
- Otherwise, Voki will allow you to type in your content and an automated character will speak the part (of course, this is less personal than if you were to add your own voice, but may be valuable to some developers.)
- Upload your own image to use as a background or setting or choose from one that Voki supplies.
- Once you create your avatar, you can simply copy the embed code and pop it right onto your web page, in your content or anywhere else.
Check out this Voki avatar created in less than 5 minutes, below:
*Keep in mind, this avatar was made using only the resources within Voki to demonstrate those capabilities. It could have been much more customized using a recorded narration and custom images for the background.
5 Quick Tips for Using Avatars
- Create multiple avatars as different characters. This is great for storytelling, which will engage learners.
- Use your avatar to navigate and explain to the learner as they progress through the course.
- Your avatar can play the role of a peer that asks questions, provides topics for discussion or suggests other resources for the learner to research.
- Use avatars to emphasize important training words, phrases and concepts to engage audio learners. This also helps to establish the correct pronunciation when dealing with technical terms.
- Avatars can also be a great way to include fun or useful facts and resources as the learner progresses to break up a content-heavy course.
Avatars are a fun, effective way to engage learners. While not every course, client or company will be a good match for these virtual characters, avatars can be a fantastic, free way to add even more excitement to your Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower rapid e-Learning content!
This week's Friday Fan is comes from an e-Learning guru, full of rapid e-Learning wisdom:@msimon14: "Won an argument today when I proposed using #Lectora #Empower for my next #eLearning project. I said, 'It's $99.' End of argument."
Who's going to argue with that one? Thanks Mark, looking forward to your upcoming 2012 Lectora User Conference presentation featuring tips for Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower!
Want another rapid e-Learning freebie? Download your 30-day free e-Learning software trial of Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower today!
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e-Learning Blog
Put the POW in your PowerPoint Presentations with Comics
This week’s Friday Finds will punch up your Snap! by Lectora® and Snap! EmpowerTM content with some very cool comic and cartoon themes for rapid e-Learning. Let your creativity soar as you create your superhero, villain, characters and storylines to entertain your audience in a very bold way.
Courtesy of some e-Learning superheroes themselves, check out these free tools for designing your very own comics and cartoons to put right in your PowerPoint presentations, Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower creations!
1. Toondoo - suggested by Jane Hart in her Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies “Top 100 Tools” list.
2. Design Comics - suggested by Connie Malamed on her the eLearning Coach blog.
For some creative inspiration, check out this comic-inspired SlideShare.com presentation, “How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint,” the Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower team had a blast creating:
Channel your inner superhero and create some cool comics or cartoons to really put the POW in your PowerPoint presentations. Of course, these aren’t ideal for every project, but are a unique breath of fresh air for some of your lighter courses. With Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower, your e-Learning content will engage and entertain like never before!
Haven't tried the latest rapid e-Learning software or Flash interactions builder? Get started with your 30-day free e-Learning software trial of Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower today!
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Molly Horn is a Content Evangelist at Trivantis Corporation. She graduated from University of Cincinnati with a degree in Communication and focus in Public Relations. |
e-Learning Blog
Free Social Media Icons for Rapid e-Learning
These days, the inclusion of ubiquitous social media icons are expected on practically everything. From websites to handouts, you can bet that you’ll see at least one icon representing someone’s staked out space in the social sphere. With the rapid e-Learning realm becoming increasingly social, why not spice up your PowerPoint presentations with the inclusion of your company’s social networks (including blogs, Twitter, Facebook and others)?
In today’s free Friday Find, we’re featuring three resources to help you move away from cookie-cutter social network icons, and easily add a dose of personalization to your next PowerPoint to Flash presentation. Personalized social network icons are:
- Eye catching
Common social media icons can be just that – common. Command and direct learners’ attention to your company’s social media websites by inserting icons that stand above typical social media icons. - Embody your brand
Select a set of social media icons that represent your company to reinforce overall branding. Build parallels between your brand and the content of each site by incorporating fresh and fun icons into your presentation. - Complement your design theme
After dedicating time and focus to building a fantastic rapid e-Learning course, you’ll likely want to choose elements that complement, not conflict with your overall design theme. Using custom social media icons can ensure that your presentation is devoid of contrasting design elements.
To get you started, here are three free social media icon resources, courtesy of Naldz Graphics:
30 Sets of Free Twitter Icons
A compilation of icon sets devoted to Twitter. Themes range from the easily recognizable to those that are more creative.
44 Must Have Social Media Icons packs
Spanning all types of social media, these icon packs are perfect for organizations with any number or social media properties. Whether you need icons for YouTube, Flickr or Facebook, you’re sure to find an icon set that suits your presentation.
Free Social Media Icons
An additional collection of attention-drawing social media icons that are flexible enough to fit into any course design.
Adding unique social media icons to your presentation is a quick and simple way to customize your content and take your rapid e-Learning PowerPoint presentations from ordinary to extraordinary.
Social media icons are a breeze to add to $99 Snap! by Lectora® rapid e-Learning software and Snap! EmpowerTM Flash interactions builder. See for yourself, and download a free 30-day trial of each today!
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Stephanie Johnson is the Marketing Assistant at Trivantis Corporation. She is a graduate of Michigan State University, with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Communication and History.
e-Learning Blog
Jazz up Your Rapid e-Learning Content with FREE Vector Images
Create sleek rapid e-Learning content with vector images from websites offering loads of completely free graphics to use in your Snap! by Lectora® and Snap! EmpowerTM content. Save valuable development time by using professional, pre-created images for your courses and training that will engage and wow your learners. With these sites full of bright and shiny possibilities, you’ll create magnificent Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower content in no time – and at no expense!
Check out these sites to download your free vector images today and bookmark these sites as a fantastic resource to tap into any time:
With tons of vector images exchanged by a hearty community of graphic designers and artists, Vecteezy offers a great selection and even includes suggestions based on your downloads.
Boasting more than 16 million graphics, Free Vectors Daily selects from the best artists’ sites from around the world to offer the highest quality vector images.
Home to more more than 1000 vector graphics, you can choose from an extensive selection of beautiful, polished and impressive free graphics.
Take advantage of every free development resource that comes your way - you’ll save yourself time and money! These sites not only offer free downloads for you to pop right into your rapid e-Learning content, but also serve as fantastic creative inspiration for your Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower content.
Download your 30-day free e-Learning software trial of Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower today to take PowerPoint presentations to new heights and blow audiences away with stunning Flash animations.
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Molly Horn is a Content Evangelist at Trivantis Corporation. She graduated from University of Cincinnati with a degree in Communication and focus in Public Relations. |
e-Learning Blog
FREE Holiday Gift for Rapid e-Learning
Normally, the Friday Finds posts point to outstanding, unaffiliated free rapid e-Learning resources, but this Friday Find from Lectora®, the makers of Snap! by Lectora® and Snap! EmpowerTM is too awesome to ignore! Lectora teamed up with the eLearning Brothers to offer this free gift to extend a big thanks to all of the Lectora, Snap! by Lectora, Snap! Empower and FlypaperTM users.
Ready for download and use in any e-Learning project, please enjoy your complimentary e-Learning content including:
Free PowerPoint Template Pack - 15 new and unique PowerPoint layouts and 7 PowerPoint themes with gradient backgrounds that can be changed and customized.
Free Thought & Speech Bubbles - 200 images with 6 different styles to choose from. You receive the source files so you can edit and customize the bubbles to meet your needs.
You’ll take rapid e-Learning development to super-charged speeds when you use these sleek, professional templates and images for your content:
It’s a Friday Finds 2-for-1:
Our friends at eLearning Brothers also recently made available a new Free eLearning Interaction Template ready for download and use in your Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower content. This free template is a real time-saver with pre-created interactions all ready to go right in your presentations and courses.
When you stumble upon a good “find,” you have to share it! Spread the wealth around to your friends in the e-Learning community so they can take advantage of these free templates and e-Learning content!
Haven’t tried Snap! by Lectora or Snap! Empower yet? What are you waiting for? Create PowerPoint presentations and interactive Flash content that really pack a punch with your 30-day free e-Learning software trial.
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Molly Horn is a Content Evangelist at Trivantis Corporation. She graduated from University of Cincinnati with a degree in Communication and focus in Public Relations. |
e-Learning Blog
Find Inspiration to End Death by PowerPoint
Creative inspiration for PowerPoint presentations and rapid e-Learning content is sometimes hard to come by – especially when so many presentations around us are a snore. Lucky for you, the Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower dynamic duo teamed up for an exciting, action-packed appearance on SlideShare.com. These Snap! by Lectora® and Snap! EmpowerTM superheroes will surely spark some creativity and save you from the “Death by PowerPoint” epidemic:
Introducing the Dynamic Duo of Snap Empower and Snap by Lectora
View more presentations from Snap! Empower and Snap! by Lectora
Here are a few easy ways to get you thinking outside of the box for your PowerPoint presentations and rapid e-Learning content:
- Pick a unique theme and run with it. Perhaps it’s something you liked as a kid, like comics. Tap your memory for books, movies, games and fun places to trigger ideas.
- Don’t be afraid to use a little humor. You will probably surprise yourself with all kinds of great ideas if you are having fun with your content.
- Can’t say it enough – NO POWERPOINT THEMES. These pre-created colors and text placement in PowerPoint will likely stifle your creativity.
- Bookmark and save anything and everything that grabs your attention online and make a stock-pile of ideas that you can pick and choose from to customize for your presentations and courses.
This Dynamic Duo and other PowerPoint presentations on SlideShare are sure to inspire creativity for you and your development team to plump up your Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower PowerPoint to Flash content.
Haven’t tried Snap! by Lectora or Snap! Empower? You’re missing out! Download your 30-day free e-Learning software trial today.
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Molly Horn is a Content Evangelist at Trivantis Corporation. She graduated from University of Cincinnati with a degree in Communication and focus in Public Relations. |
e-Learning Blog
Make FREE Logos & More for Rapid e-Learning
Create unique, custom logos and more for your rapid e-Learning content in seconds. Literally, seconds. LOGOTYPE MAKER instantly generates sleek and professional logos for your PowerPoint presentations and e-Learning needs at super-fast speeds. If you think outside of the box, you can use this 100% free tool to design fun and creative text-based images that will really plump up your graphics and add a new, unique spark to your Snap! by Lectora® and Snap! EmpowerTM content.
It’s extremely quick and easy – just type in the text you would like and LOGOTYPE MAKER will automatically generate a dozen logos that you can save as a .png, zip them or export as PDFs. You can also bookmark your images in the program or completely edit and customize as you like. You can change anything you want including font color and style as well as background color and gradient for images. You can even upload your own images or use one that the tool provides.
The beauty of LOGOTYPE MAKER is that you can decide to quickly create a unique image in seconds, or spend a little more time on it to craft a completely customized creation for your Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower content.
This week’s Friday Fan discovered the power of Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower for their social learning, mobile learning and Just-in-Time training needs:@BlendsofSOUL: #Snap by #Lectora & #SnapEmpower. I admit, I'm impressed. Love social/mobile learning and this is what I need for just-in-time training.
Thanks @BlendsofSOUL! Your support is much appreciated. Keep us posted on your experiences with Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower.
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Molly Horn is a Content Evangelist at Trivantis Corporation. She graduated from University of Cincinnati with a degree in Communication and focus in Public Relations. |
e-Learning Blog
Free Color Palette Tool for Rapid e-Learning Design
When starting your rapid e-Learning projects from scratch, how do you determine the overall color scheme? Design elements, including the colors you select, have an important impact on how your information comes across. The overall look and feel of your rapid e-Learning course or presentation should complement the content, not compete for attention. Don’t let the design elements of your next Snap! by Lectora® rapid e-Learning project leave you stumped.
Take the guesswork out of design and make your rapid e-Learning project easy on the eyes with this FREE Color Palette Generator, from Big Huge Labs. Simply upload the image or logo that you want to base your e-Learning course or presentation on into the upload field, and voilà – the Color Palette Generator automatically identifies the exact colors contained within the image. Not only can you browse images saved on your computer, but you can also import photos you may want to use in your presentation from Flickr and Facebook as well.
Better yet, use the free eyedropper tool (we wrote about several awesome free finds in our blog post, Color Your e-Learning World with Free Eyedropper Tools) to directly pluck the colors from the palette results page. In one step, let the Color Palette Generator identify what colors are in the images, logos or photos you want to use within your PowerPoint presentation, then deploy an eyedropper tool to select specific colors and easily import them into your Snap! by Lectora project. Using an eyedropper tool ensures that the colors will be a perfect match, so you don’t have to guess.
This week’s Friday Fan is someone who knows that Snap! by Lectora and Snap! EmpowerTM have what it takes to make PowerPoint presentations that wow:
@msimon14: If you were impressed with the $99 #Lectora Snap, you may be blown away with Lectora #Empower. *Very* impressive at first glance #eLearning
Thanks, @msimon14, we’re glad that Snap! Empower has made a big first impression on you. Keep sharing your thoughts with the e-Learning community!
Start creating rapid e-Learning software masterpieces with Snap! by Lectora. Try out this fantastic e-Learning software for PowerPoint presentations today with your FREE 30-day trial.
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Stephanie Johnson is the Marketing Assistant at Trivantis Corporation. She is a graduate of Michigan State University, with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Communication and History.
e-Learning Blog
4 Ways to Create Your Own Rapid e-Learning Fonts for FREE
Create completely custom fonts to add pizazz to your rapid e-Learning content and Flash animations. Design unique fonts for free to use right in your Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower creations, sure to demand attention.
This week’s Friday Find comes from Jacob Gube at Mashable Tech in his extremely helpful and much appreciated article, “7 Free Tools for Creating Your Own Fonts.” Check out the easiest-to-use picks for free font creation software from Gube’s recommendations:
FontstructTM. Use this free and simple online editor to build, share and download fonts.
FontForge. This free, downloadable software enables you to design a font from scratch or modify and customize an already existing font.
BitFontMaker0.1. This very simple free bitmat online font tool creates fonts pixel by pixel with a very geometric look.
Type light. Design, edit and convert fonts with this free and fully functional software.Make your PowerPoint to Flash content unique; Design a custom and amazing font and use it on your Snap! by Lectora or Snap! Empower content for one stellar Snap! creation!
This Friday Fan is excited to share one great Snap! by Lectora experience:@MAZIOCREATE: SNAP! by Lectora came through for me. First eLearning resource ready to roll off the disc burner. #eduMazioCreate
Thanks @MAZIOCREATE – keep sharing your thoughts and us posted on your Snap! by Lectora creations!
Download a 30-day free e-Learning software trial of Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower to experience the most powerful, coolest, rapid e-Learning and Flash creation tools.
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Molly Horn is a Content Evangelist at Trivantis Corporation. She graduated from University of Cincinnati with a degree in Communication and focus in Public Relations. |
e-Learning Blog
Top Free Textures for Graphics in Rapid e-Learning
Creating one-of-a-kind content can be a challenge for even the most creative of e-Learning and Flash developers. Lucky for all of us, NaldzGraphics.net scoured the the web for great graphic stock textures and created a fantastic list for us to take advantage of in our Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower content:
Urban Dirty: As the name suggests, choose from tons of urban-inspired textures for a very cool effect.
Free Textures.org: Select from more than a dozen categories for a variety of textures to use in your rapid e-Learning content.
Texturez.com: With 20 categories, it’s easy to find what you need. Texturez.com provides unique, sleek and professional-looking images.
Grunge Textures: Browse these textures to add a hip, modern look and feel to your rapid e-Learning content.
Texture King: Select from high quality and very professional textures for a unique touch in your creations.
2Textured: Take advantage of a wide selection of categories and sub-categories to find a range of textures for all of your needs.
Amazing Textures: Choose from a selection hosting one of the “biggest and most popular dedicated online texture libraries in the world,” according to Amazing Textures.
Free 3Ds Textures: Simply type in what you are searching for or choose among Metal, Paper, Gold, Fabric, Wood, Wall, Grunge, Overlay, Glass, Stone, Vintage, Water, Rocks, Dirt, Leaves and Rust categories.
These free texture images will add a unique and impressive pop to your Snap! by Lectora and Snap! Empower creations. Do you have other great textures you would like to add to our Friday Finds? Post them below and share with us!
This week’s Friday Fan knows how to work the Snap! Empower Refer-A-Friend program and share a good deal with her e-Learning friends:@cre8iveii: Check out NEW Snap! Empower – create Flash animations. It’s $99 but you can get 20% off with this link! Refer-A-Friend.Trivantis.com/a/clk/4Lz1G
Thanks @cre9iveii - An extra 20% off of an already low $99 price for Snap! Empower is a steal!
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Molly Horn is a Content Evangelist at Trivantis Corporation. She graduated from University of Cincinnati with a degree in Communication and focus in Public Relations. |
