Have you ever been in a virtual meeting where the speaker (or one or more participants) have something distracting in their background? Maybe a paper fluttering on a corkboard? Maybe their background was too dark or the lighting too bright? Their audio kept cutting in and out? 

There are simple tips you can utilize to set up your virtual workspace to allow for clear communication with your team and clients, while keeping the focus on you and not distractions around you. 

This microlearning course will give you three tips you can implement today to level up your virtual presence.

Note: I do not have a current personal license for Articulate so the link for this asset has been replaced with a video of the course I developed.

When thinking about how I wanted to deliver this content, I thought about how there are hundreds of videos on YouTube covering this topic, but even with that knowledge out there, most people don't put it to use.  This can be for a multitude of reasons, but one of the biggest issues is time.  Trying to find the right video on YouTube but not get stuck down the information rabbit hole is tricky and can be a big time suck.  

I thought about how a quick Microlearning course focusing on three actionable tips would be a good solution to these issues. I've utilized different microlearning platforms in the past (7taps and Learn2Win), and while these platforms work well for certain applications, I really like the functionality and customization you can create with Articulate's microlearning courses. 

The first step was to plan out the content as well as the Rise visuals and interactions.  I created a storyboarding template on Google Docs to plan page text, graphics, images, formatting and interactions on Rise.  Select the storyboarding image to view my Microlearning storyboard. 

Sometimes, storyboarding can seem unnecessary. Why not just jump right into building the course on Rise? 

The reason we storyboard is because it can give you a better picture of the overall project, and give you time to make easy adjustments in the storyboard before building everything out, then making changes. Storyboarding is also key if you are working with clients, internal team members, or other stakeholders who have the final say about a course.  Receiving and implementing feedback during the storyboarding phase can save all parties a lot of time during development. 

I developed this microlearning course utilizing Articulate Rise 360's new Microlearning Course tool. It works similarly to the traditional Rise 360 courses, but has some slight functionality differences. 

Utilizing the storyboard I created during the planning phase of this project, I was able to quickly build this course, test it for functionality, make edits and finalize. I also had my husband try out the course and give me feedback so that I could see any issues from a user's perspective who is unfamiliar with the platform.

I created this project to show one way how microlearning courses could be used to deliver actionable content for learners in a quick, easy-to-use way.