Embedded Files
Audience
Second-Year Medical Students
Responsibilities
Needs Analysis, Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Visual Design, Storyboarding
Tools Used
Articulate Storyline 360
Project Overview
This project showcases the redesign of an independent learning activity for second-year medical students in the Endocrine and Female Reproductive Systems module. As part of a department initiative to update and enhance pre-clinical course materials, my team has been facilitating the transfer and enhancement of existing digital activities from SoftChalk to Articulate Storyline 360. The goal was to create an asynchronous, interactive, and engaging learning experience to promote critical thinking and self-directed learning.
Outline
The development process began with an initial review by the course director for outdated content. The course director was provided a copy of the original SoftChalk activity in Microsoft Word and made content updates on the document.
The original activity was built in SoftChalk with static content.
Design
After the course director's initial content review, a meeting was held to introduce the different features of Articulate 360 products. The course director noted in the same Word document which parts of the activity she wanted to convert into interactive elements.
What came from this design process was the development of:
Hot Spot Interactions: opportunities for the learner to interact with the content.
Master Slide Menu Navigation: related content was reorganized under interactive master slide menus which learners use as a central point of navigation.
Knowledge Check Interactions: various interactive elements allow learners to interpret chart information and attempt their own answer before revealing answer.
Based on the outcome of this design process, I determined that Articulate Storyline was the best tool for building the digital activity. I prioritized intuitive navigation, using custom buttons and a collapsible menu for seamless progression while maintaining targeted navigation restrictions to ensure proper content flow.
Additionally, I applied institutional branding guidelines on typography, visual structure, graphics, and color palettes to ensure visual cohesion and maintain a high standard of institutional identity.
Master Slide Menu Navigation
Development - Articulate Storyline 360
In the development phase, I built out the enhancements proposed by the course director. I also incorporated different features to better organize slide information including side panels and accordions.
Hot Spot Interactions
Before
The original learning activity featured a table of clinical features for hypercalcemia.
After
The course director provided an image which allowed for the creation of a hot spot element to present the information from the original table in a more visual and interactive way. This interaction was created using hot spots with hover states to reveal different slide layers.
Knowledge Check Interactions
Before
The initial activity displayed a static table of laboratory findings.
After
The table was converted into an interactive element that encourages the learner to consider the answer themselves before revealing the answer with a hover interaction. This interaction was created using hover states for each laboratory finding.
Before
The initial activity displayed a static table of biochemical findings.
After
The table was converted into an interactive element that encourages the learner to consider the diagnosis themselves based on the information presented before revealing the answer with a click-to-reveal interaction. This interaction was created using selected states for each cell.
Accordion Organization
Before
Content on the Hereditary States of Hyperparathyroidism was originally presented as a table which was in an image format. The image was blurry when transferred to the Storyline project and presented an overwhelming amount of information at once.
After
I built an accordion organizer which breaks up the information into smaller content chunks to create a more interactive and clean reading experience. This was created using slide layers and states which limit navigation until learner has completed the content.
Slide Layer Organization
Before
Content in the original activity was outlined in linear order.
After
I utilized slide layers to reorganize the content in a clearer and more interactive manner.
Review
The project underwent an iterative review process with the course director to ensure content accuracy and clarity. Her feedback informed refinements in content organization and enhancements to interactive elements. Following these revisions, the final activity was integrated into Canvas LMS, providing medical students with an engaging, learner-centered resource.
This project demonstrates my ability to lead collaborative subject matter expert (SME) reviews and leverage instructional design principles to transform static educational content into dynamic, interactive digital learning experiences.
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