e-Learning Blog

By adding animation effects within the screen, the following effects can be expected.

• - Can display explanations in the order that learners should read them
• ・Can emphasize important points and elements that need special attention
• ・By synchronizing with audio, a high learning effect can be obtained
• - Easy to remember and easy to retain learning content

By displaying in order and adding movement according to the narration, you can control the learner's perspective.
In addition, by adding dramatic effects to make it stand out, you can clearly show the key points of the learning.
Furthermore, by synchronizing the narration of the explanation with the elements on the screen, you can achieve the effect of the instructor or tutor directly explaining.
In a learning screen composed of multiple elements, by focusing on key points and explaining them, it becomes easier to remember and retain the learning content.

＞How to Create e-Learning Materials Part 3: Video Format
＞How to Create e-Learning Materials Part 4: PowerPoint

2. Benefits of Animation Teaching Materials

The biggest advantage is "ease of understanding".
Especially for complex learning materials, or when the learner's motivation is low or when there is not much prior knowledge, each step is explained in order, making it an easy-to-understand learning material.

Even in cases such as disaster response, compliance violations, and the movement of a car's engine while driving, which are difficult to reproduce in live-action, it is possible to express them, allowing for learning with a concrete image in mind.

In addition, with animated materials that have narration, it is possible to reduce the amount of elements displayed on the screen, especially text, making it possible to have a concise and sophisticated appearance.

You can repeat your learning multiple times until you understand, and you can also do repeated learning by focusing on key points.

There are also benefits in terms of maintainability.
In the case of live-action footage, there are often cases where simply making corrections or edits is not enough, and if re-shooting is necessary, costs and production time can easily increase.
In contrast, with animation using illustrations, revisions can be relatively easily made.

3. Disadvantages of Animation Teaching Materials

First, the cost of creating teaching materials is mentioned. The more types of materials that make up the teaching materials, such as animation and narration, and the more detailed and rich the expressions are, the tendency is for the cost and development period to increase.
Of course, the production of illustration materials, animation production, and narration creation all require specialized professionals, so personnel are also necessary.

In addition, creating "efficient" animation teaching materials requires knowledge and skills in instructional design. It is necessary to design the "presentation" and "expression" appropriately, such as the order of learning and the control of teaching materials by learners, according to the content to be learned.

In addition, characters and backgrounds are inevitably deformed by illustration, making it difficult to convey a realistic atmosphere.

Depending on the characteristics of the learners using the materials, having animations can also be a disadvantage.
There are cases where learners have a high motivation to learn, already have a certain level of knowledge, have clear learning points, and want to quickly understand the overall content.
In such cases, if the animation is designed in a way that learners have to wait for it to finish before reaching the necessary part, the materials may be perceived as inconvenient.

4. Themes suitable for animation materials

When learning about topics that require a sequential understanding, such as the workings of a car engine, food chains, PDCA, or the annual schedule and tasks of accounting work, you can understand them step by step.
Additionally, even for things that are difficult to film in live action, they can be explained through schematic representations, allowing for explanations of topics such as harassment-related no-go cases and the inner workings of machines that are not normally visible.

In addition, it is also suitable for operation simulations as it can reproduce the operation and movement of business systems and applications.
Even in cases where it is not possible to practice on the actual system, such as accounting and application-related tasks, it can be used for learning and practicing operations.

5. How to Choose an Animation Teaching Material Creation Tool

When creating teaching materials in HTML5 format, it is convenient to use tools (applications).
The following are the tools frequently used by our company.

• ・Adobe AnimateCC
• ・Articulate Storyline
• ・Articulate Rise
• ・iSpring Suite
• ・Microsoft PowerPoint

The selection will be based on various factors such as functionality, difficulty, budget including purchase price, skills of the person performing the work, and development period.

Among these, Adobe AnimateCC is an application that succeeds flash. With Adobe AnimateCC, you can create HTML5 content using the same operations as traditional flash.
Note that flash files will no longer be available at the end of 2020. For more information, please see here.

In addition, among the options listed, iSpring Suite is often recommended for customers who prefer internal production as it is relatively easy to use.
With iSpring Suite, you can create dynamic content using animation effects set in PowerPoint. You can also adjust the timing of animations and narration audio on the timeline.

Let's explain a little more specifically. iSpring is used as a PowerPoint plugin software. When installed, a tab will be generated on PowerPoint.

The general procedure is as follows.

1. 1) Create slides in PowerPoint
2. ・Applying Templates
3. ・Slide Creation
4. ・Add animation effects
5. 2) Use iSpring tabs to finish as teaching materials
6. ・Synchronization of animation and narration
7. ・Create a quiz
8. ・Export in html5 format

Note: iSpring Suite, Articulate Rise, and Articulate Storyline are only available in English as the Japanese version has not been released (as of November 2020).

Related Articles: What is iSpring Suite? Features, Pricing, and Benefits of Implementation
＞Create rich e-learning materials with familiar PowerPoint - iSpring Implementation Support

Next, we will introduce Vyond.
Vyond is an animation tool used by millions of people worldwide, with easy operation similar to PowerPoint and no special technical skills or experience required.
In addition to simply publishing the created animation, it can also be imported into other tools such as PowerPoint, iSpring, and Articulate Storyline to be used as part of e-learning content.
With over 1,900 backgrounds, 1,300 characters, 14,000 props, and 2,400 actions (facial expressions and movements for characters) already prepared, you can create by simply combining them.

Related Articles: A Comprehensive Guide to Vyond's Features and Pricing for Each Plan! Differences Between Direct Purchase and Agency Purchase
＞Vyond (Animation Production) Sales

6. Process and Required Skills for Creating Animation Teaching Materials

The standard process for completing e-learning materials in animation format is as follows:

Step1. Planning and Design

This is the process of finalizing the specifications of the teaching materials, such as functionality, design, and delivery methods.
By properly carrying out this process without any contradictions, each step will proceed smoothly and efficiently.
At this stage, we will decide on the UI (user interface), design, layout, and method of tracking learning history for the teaching materials.

Step2. Manuscript Creation

While creating the manuscript, consider what to show and explain on the screen.
As shown in the above figure, the manuscript is also a blueprint for the teaching materials.
The necessary elements for the manuscript are as follows.
●Narration text (only if there is narration)
●Scenario (necessary materials and production ideas)
●Elements on the screen (screen image including text, illustrations, photos)

The tools used for creating manuscripts are PowerPoint or Excel, which are convenient.
In PowerPoint, illustrations and shapes are easy to handle, and you can freely layout on slides.
In addition to screen images, narration, and production instructions are also included.

With Excel, you can create scenarios that are easy to follow in chronological order. Arrange screen images, narration, and production instructions in columns and place scenes in each row.

The author of the manuscript should be someone who is familiar with the content of the teaching materials.
However, there may be cases where materials created by experts or external instructors are used as a basis and the responsible person within the company must create them. In such cases, it is possible to create an accurate manuscript by first consulting with experts, instructors, system designers, etc. about the materials before starting to write, or by requesting a check of the written manuscript.

Narration: We recommend carefully considering whether to make the material with "yes" narration or "no" narration, as it will greatly affect not only the manuscript writing but also the subsequent processes.

When to use "Narration"
・Educational materials that explain complex content
・Materials with a high level of difficulty
By visually confirming the movements of correlation diagrams and operating procedures on the screen, and listening to explanations that match the content on the screen, it becomes easier to understand and deepen understanding. Without narration, it is necessary to go back and forth between looking at the figures and operating flow and reading the explanation text, or to repeatedly watch them in order to progress with learning.

When it is better to have no narration
・Materials used as dictionaries or manuals
・Simple materials
・Materials used to quickly inform about rules or changes per year
・When there are restrictions on budget, development period, or distribution environment
In cases where there is a strong need to quickly access necessary information rather than listening to narration, it may be more appropriate to have no narration.
In cases where materials are used as dictionaries or documents, or when the content does not require explanation through narration, it may be determined that there is no need to spend time and money on it.
Additionally, there may be cases where there is a high priority element, such as quickly informing about known rules or changes in laws.
Furthermore, depending on the development situation, it may be decided to have no narration as it has a lower impact on budget, development period, and distribution environment.

Step3. Preparation of visual materials (illustrations and photographs)

Use PowerPoint's drawing function to create diagrams and prepare visual materials such as free illustrations.
Free materials can be purchased from specialized vendors such as pixta and Afro, or downloaded for free from websites that publish illustration materials.

In e-learning materials, enhancing the visual aspect makes it easier to understand and convey. Even topics that are difficult to convey with words can be easily understood when visualized.
For example, the following is a diagram explaining the concept of trade management.

From the Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
https://www.kansai.meti.go.jp/E_Kansai/page/201511/01.html

It is difficult to explain this concept in just words so that anyone can understand, but it becomes easier to understand if it is visualized like this.
Furthermore, with e-learning materials, animation effects can be added to match the explanation. It is also possible to make improvements such as emphasizing the explained parts or having illustrations move along with the flow of the content, making it easier to understand.

In addition, by devising the visual aspect, various effects can be expected.
・In learning materials for system operation, explain while showing actual screens and output documents.
・In learning materials for machine operation, use photos of the actual machine's control panel to ensure smooth operation after learning.

In addition, for the visual materials, the higher the expertise of the teaching materials, the higher the quality is required.
If detailed illustrations such as technical illustrations accurately depicting machines or illustrations depicting the use of safety equipment are required, please consider outsourcing to external professionals.

Step4. Narration Recording

If narration is "available", narration recording will be performed.
There are two main methods for recording.
●Synthetic speech
●Human reading

Synthetic speech is created using a dedicated application. HOYA Corporation's product "ReadSpeaker (formerly known as VOICE TEXT)" is well known.
While it is possible to redo it as many times as you want with only the cost of purchasing the application, when it comes to specialized terms, fine adjustments such as pronunciation may be necessary.

When humans read, consider whether to request a professional narrator. If not, it is possible for the instructor or employees in the education department who have undergone group training to handle it.
If you have a computer and microphone, recording can also be done in the office or conference room, but there may be issues with sound quality and noise.
If you record in a rental recording studio, the noise and NG takes will be removed and the delivered audio will be of high quality. Specialized equipment or knowledge is not necessary, but rental fees for the studio may be required.

If you request Pro Narrator, we will negotiate the appearance fee and adjust the schedule.
Currently, in addition to studio recording, there are also services where the narrator can record in their own environment, known as "home recording", and where the ordering party can communicate with the studio where the narrator is located online without having to go to the studio.

Step5. Effect Addition (Editing)

The previous steps have gathered materials such as manuscripts, visual elements, and narration. In this step, these materials will be combined to create the educational materials.
The tools selected for this process are Adobe AnimateCC, Articulate Storyline, iSpring Suite, etc.

Based on the manuscript, we will create animations using prepared materials.
If there is narration, we will synchronize the timing of the animation and narration (this is called "synchronization").
If necessary, we will also handle sound effects and background music in this process.

Once the animation creation and voice synchronization are complete, export in html5 format.

In addition, if you want to include a test in the teaching materials, it will be created at this stage.
Depending on the tool used, there may be a template for the test. With these functions, you can create a system for creating questions, scoring, and explanations without any special knowledge.

Step6. Delivery, Learning Management and Operation

Once you register the completed materials on LMS, it will be completed.
If you do not use LMS, we will prepare and inform you according to the delivery method.

7. Benefits of using animation teaching material production outsourcing services

This animation material offers many benefits, but creating it requires various skills and tools.
So, why not consider using our instructional material creation service?

If there is no expertise or resources within the company, by communicating your requests, we can complete the animation materials within the necessary deadline.

Human Science's animation teaching material production service has produced approximately 2,800 e-learning materials since its launch in 2000.
We have a track record of handling large-scale developments that take from a few weeks to several months, and have received high praise for project management such as progress management.

In addition, we support translation in over 50 languages for multilingualization. We are able to handle both the localization of materials created overseas into Japanese and the expansion of Japanese materials into multiple languages.
Of course, we also offer narration recording in each language.

Our team consists of specialized professionals such as consultants, designers, writers, and engineers who are necessary for developing educational materials. With our extensive experience, we will provide thorough support to our clients.
We can handle everything from development to LMS implementation, including translation, in one go. This not only optimizes time and cost, but also reduces the burden on our clients.

In addition, it is possible to consult with us about outsourcing only the necessary parts, such as creating scenarios in-house and outsourcing only the parts that are tailored to animation, illustrations, narration text, etc.

If you are interested in our services, please feel free to contact us.

＞Animation e-Learning Material Creation
＞Vyond Animation Production Agency Support
＞iSpring Product Implementation