Design documents need to be shared. Typically your Subject Matter Expert will need to review one of these at some stage to ensure that the text/script is correct in relation to the Intended Learning Outcomes. Making these documents clear and easy to read is a challenge. I use a tried and tested template which has certain key features:
- Its colour coded. Different sections can be referred to by their colour (e.g. “I didn’t like the green section”)
- It’s a storyboard – but not as we know it. Using a tabular format makes for easy referencing to design features in relation to the content. One of the beauties of being a rapid e-learning author is that you don’t have to produce storyboards for a separate development team. A good design document works just as well.
- Development made easy. Once the Design Document has been approved, development is easy. Text can cut from Word and pasted straight into PowerPoint for rendering with Articulate™.
Here’s a sample template you can download. Email me if you want a Word version.
