Into the e-learning world with Joanna Kurpiewska: Community keeps you motivated
We talked to Joanna Kurpiewska, e-learning developer at Kallidus about instructional design & development, creating effective courses, the e-learning community, tools and trends.
What do you think is the major difference between an instructional designer and an elearning developer?
In my opinion, Instructional designer is a ‘head’ generating scenario ideas, dealing with learning approach, while an e-learning developer has the ‘hands’ to visualise/execute/build the ideas in an authoring tool. Briefly saying an ID works with words and developer works with graphic, animation, audio, video, code etc. However, there’s no clear and strict difference, as many IDs are familiar with building tools, and at the same time there are developers, who come up with great ideas making content super engaging and valuable.
What role does the Articulate community play in your life?
I could easily say Articulate community is my online family. I got so much support, help and advice from the guys, met fantastic and talented developers, learnt a lot, but also contributed back. David Anderson runs weekly e-learning challenges, which are perfect way of building professional portfolio (most of portfolio projects on my website are challenges interactions). It’s also a good way to upgrade design skills and broaden e-learning horizons. I get so much positive feedback from the community, that keeps me motivated and inspired for building amazing projects. When I think of Articulate community, I have to mention Tom Kulhmann, who was my e-learning guru since I started my career in training sector. I was super excited when I personally met Tom at one of the workshops in London.
Articulate community is my online family. I get so much positive feedback from the community, that keeps me motivated and inspired for building amazing projects.
You seem to be a big fan of infographics, have you ever created one?
Not yet, but I like to analyse them, break them down into smaller pieces and get tiny chunks of data which still can work as standalone information. I especially like the infographics, which explain complex problems in a simple and easy way. One of my e-learning mini project (Ebola outbreak) was visually inspired by infographic style.
How do you collaborate with your team and clients?
My team is a group of talented individuals, with skills in programming, 2D/3D animation, graphic design, illustration, quality assurance, project managing. What I really like is the support and help from other developers, who share their knowledge whenever I need it. During production meetings we discuss any arising challenges or coming projects from new clients.
What according to you are the key parameters for an effective course?
Here’s my one sentence recipe for a perfect course: A relevant to user’s needs content put into engaging scenario/story visualised with valuable graphics/media elements, helping anyone to understand a topic and to put into practice what they’ve learnt from a course.
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What kind of media helps you to create most effective learning?
I think it depends on a topic. For example, if I was going to explain something technical, let’s say how a complex machine works, I’d show it on a video first. Then, I would create an exercise — a step-by-step interaction based on that video with user to click/react in order to proceed. Every action could be enriched with additional photos or instructions. I think the key point of media effectiveness is it shouldn’t be a flood of information as I wouldn’t expect anyone to watch 15 minutes long video showing complicated issue and to follow up every step of it or to read 68 pages PDF attached to a course.
Which are the tools you use while creating a course?
I work mostly with my two software friends which are: Storyline 2 and Adobe Illustrator. But obviously there are many other tools I often use, for instance: Photoshop, Audacity, Flash, bit of JavaScript code, HTML5 Caption Maker, PowerPoint.
The other “tool” which makes me happy while creating a course is…music. I just need to have music in my headphones to get focused on what I want to build.
The other “tool” which makes me happy while creating a course is…music
What blogs or books do you read for inspiration and daily trends?
Here’s list of my favourite blogs/websites for e-learning/design inspiration:
And these are my favourite books boosting creativity:
- Steal like an artist by Austin Kleon
- Show your work by Austin Kleon
- Presentation zen by Garr Raynolds
- Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte
- The doodle revolution by Sunni Brown
- Ignore everybody and 39 other keys to creativity by Hugh McLeod
- The back of the napkin by Dan Roam
- The creative habit: learn it and use it for life by Twyla Tharp
Joanna Kurpiewska is a creative eLearning developer always interested in sharing, learning and contributing to the community. Follow Joanna on Twitter for daily inspiration.
Read more posts like this from the zipBoard’s e-learning blog here
zipBoard is a review and collaboration tool for e-Learning developers and instructional designers. Just upload your SCORM file and get started. Add team members as collaborators, share feedback, iterate over multiple versions — zipBoard is the tool to make e-Learning courses better and faster.
Published with contributions from Erica Louise
