A PowerPoint presentation is probably the most widespread training format in the world. Yet, such presentations are not highly effective and engaging because they don’t allow learners to interact with the content. That’s why, if you need to create a professional-looking online course, PowerPoint alone won’t do – you’ll need add-ins. In this post, we’ll tell you how to create different types of eLearning content using Power-user and iSpring Suite, some of the very best PPT add-ins on the market.
Slides
Slides are the backbone of eLearning courses – they present instructional information that you want your learners to acquire. If you have too much text on a slide, or colors are too bright, or proportions are uneven, learners will find it difficult to comprehend new information. Without graphic design skills, it’ll take you hours (if not days) to create decent-looking slides.
However, with Power-user’s ready-made templates and assets, you can design professional-looking slides in the shortest amount of time. Simply select a template that works best for your topic, fill it with texts and images, and voila – your slides are ready.
Power-user is especially useful when you need to add charts to your slides. The add-in offers all sorts of charts that you can easily add to your presentation and change at any time.
And iSpring Suite empowers you to make slides interactive. Just pick an interaction template that fits best and fill it with text and images. There are 14 interactions, such as interactive timelines, diagrams, graphics, catalogs, and FAQs.
For example, if you sell vacuum cleaners and need to explain to your employees precisely what it consists of, you can add an image of your vacuum cleaner and assign a hotspot to each part of your device – employees will click on them to open a text description of every part. This will make your course more compelling and cleaner – although there’s a lot of text on this slide, it doesn’t look too heavy because texts don’t display all at once.
Quizzes
Assessments are the only way to check how well learners acquired new knowledge. But it’s almost impossible to create them with PowerPoint (it actually is possible, but very difficult – see how to make a quiz in PowerPoint). With iSpring Suite, you can do it quickly and easily.
There are 14 ready-made question types, from simple multiple-choice and matching to more advanced questions, like word bank, sequence, drag-and-drop, and hotspot.
Select the ones you need for an assessment. Add question formats (texts, images, audio, and video) and answer options (texts and images). You can also set a time limit, the number of attempts allowed, and add feedback to each question. This lets you not only assess learners’ knowledge, but also teach them using only quizzes.
Video lectures
PowerPoint lets you record screencasts featuring your presentations. While it may suit some of your training needs, most of the time, this is not enough. You can engage learners more if you show them a speaker and edit your video lecture, so there’s no background noise, unnecessary pauses, and so on. iSpring Suite allows you to do all of this hassle free.
Click on Record Video on the iSpring Suite ribbon. Then present your slides. Once finished, edit your video in the built-in video studio. Add annotations, and video effects, crop your video, and rerecord particular parts if needed. The interface is extremely intuitive, so you’ll be able to make a high-quality video lecture the very first time without any special instructions.
Interactive role-plays
69% of salespeople claim they didn’t go through any training program and are thus self-taught. This means that the majority of sales representatives learn through trial and error – thus risking the loss of potential profit and damage to the business’ reputation.
What has PowerPoint got to do with all this? iSpring Suite, a PPT add-in, empowers you to create interactive role-plays that simulate real-life scenarios. Salespeople can continue to learn through trial and error, but in a safe-to-fail environment, and be fully prepared for communication with actual customers.
Unlike other eLearning tools, iSpring Suite allows you to create role-plays without any coding. You only need to select characters and locations, type in replies, and set branching scenarios by simply dragging arrows from one scene to another. The scale will show learners how the answers they select affect a potential client’s intention to buy your product or recommend your company to their colleagues and friends (you can recreate any scenario, not only for salespeople, but tech support and supervisors, for example).
And a finishing touch – customize the way your course displays
Finally, using PPT add-ins like iSpring Suite, you can create unique course players. Incorporate your brand colors and fonts, round off buttons, and change gradients – all in an extremely intuitive environment. You can also create course player presets for different projects and let learners study at the pace they’re most comfortable with – simply select a layout with player speed options (as on YouTube).
As you can see, PPT add-ins help you take your content development to the next level and design truly pro-level online courses that learners will love. And the best thing about it is that you already know the environment – it’s the same PowerPoint, but with advanced possibilities.