Storyboards Aren’t just For Film Directors Anymore
By Evelyn Beck
Storyboarding conjures a vision of filmmakers plotting out their next blockbuster. But it can also be a useful tool for on-line instructors.
A storyboard is a plan. It can be as simple as a flow chart, and it can feature only text, though the use of even rough illustrations can provide additional clarity for an instructor imagining how a course should be presented on-line. It is especially useful as a kind of outline before designing a course in order to create clear navigation for students.
“The sheer fact of thinking about what is logical about how content breaks up and intersects with other pieces of content creates better online learning sites,” says Brenda Bannan-Ritland, who teaches instructional design at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. “What I find with novice instructional designers as well as
those new to online learning is the tendency to get hung up on visual design. That is very important, but it’s secondary to what is good navigation and what is good representation of content.”
Visual design might include elements such as background color and typeface fonts and the look of buttons. Bannan-Ritland suggests forgetting about those choices initially and instead using paper or index cards or a word processing document to map out how the elements in your site will progress, or flow.
“Only then should you start thinking about what interface elements will be represented as,” she says.
Her major advice about design is to simplify.
“A common error is too much on the screen,” she says. “There’s too much happening at once, too many buttons. Simplicity and elegant design is a much better approach.”
Jeanne McQuillan, the WebCT/Academic Support Supervisor at Georgia State University, agrees. “If you put too much on the home page, if you clutter it up, students aren’t sure what they’re supposed to do there.”
It is also suggested to limit the elements on any single screen so that scrolling is unnecessary. Instead, break the information down into two or three screens.
The advantages of using a storyboard for planning rather than jumping right into site construction are several. First, it allows you to clarify goals for each part of your course and then to analyze the style and format in which you want to achieve those goals. Then it helps you organize your material into modules and next to identify the online tools that can lead students from step to step. Finally, as you create the storyboard, problems will appear more obvious–don’t they always on paper? Then you can identify and correct those problems more easily, removing and moving sources of confusion. This process can ultimately ease frustration; most of us have felt overwhelmed as we create link after link and ultimately get lost in our own creation.
McQuillan has found storyboarding a useful tool for both inexperienced and veteran on-line instructors. For rookies, she says, “It takes the fear out of it because once they have a plan, they’re not so afraid of going on-line. For the early adopters, they need storyboarding to pare down what they want to do because they want to do everything; it reigns them in.”
McQuillan advises taking your syllabus and figuring out how you want its elements sorted on your site. For example, she says, some instructors release all material right away while others make sure that students demonstrate their proficiency before the next unit’s material is released to them. Some instructors place all Power Point presentations on one organizer page and all case studies on another, while others might group according to topic, placing a Power Point presentation and a case study related to Enron on one organizer page, for example. The key, she says, is to plan.
“If you do this instead of just slapping everything onto the home page, students think you’ve got more control.”
Links to Sample Storyboards
A combination of text and flow chart that helps plan how an individual Web page will be laid out: Click here
A flow chart in which each box describes one Web page: Click here
A graphical flow chart that uses symbols to represent each kind of course activity: Click here
A hand-drawn storyboard using index cards and rough illustrations: Click here
Links to Storyboard Templates
For those who like lists: Click here
A simple outline with space for a written description and a list of related graphics: Click here
For those who think visually as they plan the layout of each Web page: Click here
A detailed worksheet that leads you step-by-step through planning your on-line course: Click here
