Lindsay O'Neill ConsultingLindsay O’Neill is a consultant, speaker, and instructional designer that specializes in online pedagogy, AI literacy, and accessibility. She holds a Doctor of Education as well as a Master of Library and Information Science and has 15 years of experience in developing learner-centered experiences. Lindsay is also faculty in Learning Design and Technology at University of San Diego.
Having a strong portfolio is critical for any job hunt to be successful. Potential employers want to see what you can do, not just read about it on your resume! Read on to learn more about building a winning portfolio. If you are job hunting, or are planning to job hunt, I highly recommend that […]
Closed captions are for EVERYONE, not just people with hearing disabilities. Are you someplace loud? Closed captions. Are you someplace where you have to be quiet? Closed captions. Have trouble understanding the speaker (maybe they talk too fast like me)? Closed captions. Since I had a baby I have become a big fan of closed […]
I’m only 8 weeks into my very first semester as a doctoral student but I’ve finished my first class! This semester has an interesting model for courses: I’m taking one course the entire 16-week semester, but I’m also taking two other 7.5-week courses back to back along with it. TEL 707 is 16 weeks, I […]
What does freelancing in instructional design look like? Is it the same as elearning development? What do I charge? Where do I find work? Tune in to get these questions answered and to get started, TODAY! I got started as a freelancer accidentally. I have an academic background and have done a lot of publishing […]
Instructional design can be lucrative: positions often start at 60k and go up over 100k. Freelancers can easily start at $50 an hour and go up to $100, $150, $200 an hour depending on specialization. Find out what instructional designers ACTUALLY do and how you can become one! The official definition of instructional design is: […]
Here’s how to add video, YouTube video, and closed captions to video in Adobe Captivate. Spoiler: it’s best to add your video as a web object in Captivate from YouTube – that will give you ALL the bells and whistles that you and your learner want! Here’s the published version of the file I create […]
Get started today using augmented and virtual reality in your teaching! My ebook, Get Started with Augmented and Virtual Reality for Learning, is now available as a Kindle ebook on Amazon. This guide is intended for newcomers to augmented and virtual reality that wish to learn about these technologies and use them in teaching, training, […]
Learn why flowcharts and storyboards are helpful in instructional design and get some tips. Whether you are a solo designer, or part of a team, storyboards and flowcharts can help you be more effective! What Is a Storyboard? A storyboard, as used in instructional design, is a visual or text-based mockup of the content and […]
Without headings, your documents and web content is inaccessible! But not only is it easy to format with headings, it can save you a lot of design time! In this video, I show instructional designers and elearning developers how to add headings to web documents and more. Headings are so important for people that use […]
Recording videos of yourself to post to your online courses or resources is a wonderful way to establish teaching presence, that you are a real person that wants to help. My goal this semester is to post a video at least every other week to check in with students, provide updates, and address any questions. […]
Think of your experiences in online courses or as a remote worker – do you (or did you) feel part of a community? Do you feel a social connection to your peers, to your instructor or your boss? Now think about how that feeling connects to how engaged you are in your course or job. […]
New to Storyline or Captivate? My guide on what NOT do to for new elearning developers is now only 99 cents now through Monday, January 23! Create Storyline and Captivate courses that look and feel professional without the learning curve! My new ebook, 10 Mistakes in Elearning Design, is discounted on Amazon for a limited […]
It’s always fun when you are experiencing a big transition in life to consider what brought you to that point. Yesterday marked the end of my first week as a student in the Doctor of Education in Leadership and Innovation at Arizona State University. It’s my first time back in the classroom since I finished […]
Say NO to asterisks, dashes, and DIY numbering! They may look nice, visually but they do not work for readers with disabilities or that use screen readers. Instead, use the tools provided in your document or WYSIWYG editor to create beautiful and accessible lists for all of your users. Numbered or bulleted, ordered or unordered, […]
Create Storyline and Captivate courses that look and feel professional without the learning curve! My new ebook, 10 Mistakes in Elearning Design, is available on Amazon now! I’m giving away 10 FREE copies! Get a free copy now if you pledge to post an honest review on Amazon. [Sorry! Giveaway has ended]. As an instructor, […]
You found the perfect YouTube video to learn something you’ve been struggling with. But the background music is too damn loud for you to focus on the content! Your professor is brilliant, but their online tutorial has cluttered slides and it is not clear how the pictures and labels correspond. Both of these are examples […]
Short-term memory is just that: short! If you have ever forgotten what you were looking for between one room and the next, you can understand that information that resides only in short-term memory is worth nothing at all. Short-term memory is only intended, really, to work on a current thought. Perhaps wondering where you left […]
How do you learn best? By watching, listening, doing? You likely have a preference. You might even refer to that preference as your personal “learning style,” a concept that states each unique brain learns things in a unique way. The truth is, though, that individuals are more alike than they are different because human brain […]
Last time we talked about the horror of dead-end quiz questions. When left to the default setting “infinite tries,” quiz questions can be a trap with no escape. Drag and drops, in particular, are a nightmare when attempts are not limited. But any poorly-written quiz question is a problem, and quizzes are too often left […]
Navigation design, visual design, auditory design – these are all important! But I think my biggest frustrations as a learner have come from poorly designed quizzes. There’s nothing like encountering an overly difficult quiz question and then getting stuck there, so close to the end, and yet so far! So let’s chat today about quiz […]
Last time we started talking about voiceover. Voiceover is a solid feature that can elevate a learning experience. Problems come when the narrator is reading a slide aloud and boring the learner, or when the voiceover narration is outsourced to…a robot! This is the eighth post in my series, 10 Mistakes in Elearning Design. Here’s […]
Today we are moving on to frequent mistakes I see in Auditory Design! Let’s talk about voiceover. Voiceover can add a human element to elearning, making it more engaging for the learner. Voiceover can be a wonderful strategy to better deliver content to a learner. Combined with simple visuals, it’s a great way to explain […]
Alignment! Alignment is often the sole difference between amateur and professional. Tiny misalignments quickly lend a feel of something being…off…about a design. Even if it’s only a pixel or two! But no worries, it’s an easy fix. PowerPoint, Storyline, and Captivate all have built-in tools to fix alignment of your objects. This is the sixth […]
Love fonts? Who doesn’t! Fonts are a wonderful way to add personality, or to zhush up a boring design! But there is an old rule in design: you have to know the rules in order to know when you can break them. So let’s talk about fonts: the rule is to stick to just two. […]
This is the fourth post in my series, 10 Mistakes in Elearning Design. Here’s what we’ve already covered: Mistake #1: Redundant Navigation Mistake #2: Inconsistent Navigation Mistake #3: Is This Interactive? Now, let’s look at frequent problems with visual design. You’ll learn some simple tips and tricks to make professional looking projects! Mistake #4: Color […]
Adobe Captivate’s Drag and Drop Wizard is intimidating! But I’ll walk you through creating a fun, color-coded drag and drop. I’ll also let you in on a secret: there are tons of backend settings to make your Drag and Drop super customized!
Don’t use “click here” – here’s what to do instead! We’ve covered why accessibility is important, we talked a little bit about the LAW, and we’ve even covered alt-text – let’s get into hyperlinks: CLICK HERE. Did you? Why or why not? All you knew is that there was hyperlinked text exhorting you to “click […]
“Captivate E-Learning Course” getting you down? Change the default name of your SCORM packages in Adobe Captivate 2019 so that you can differentiate them when they’re all in your LMS (Learning Management System). When you publish your Captivate projects as SCORM packages, you’ll find that the SCORM package name defaults to “Captivate E-Learning Course” in […]
Closed captions, alt text, keyboard navigation—where does one even get started when building in accessibility? It may seem daunting but accessibility is more important than ever. I can help! I’m presenting a “bring your own device” session at DevLearn where attendees will get hands-on experience in formatting accessible documents and web content. Come join me! […]
This is the third post in my series, 10 Mistakes in Elearning Design. The first post focused on Redundant Navigation. The second focused on Inconsistent Navigation. Now, let’s look at frequent problems with the way developers build in interactivity. Beyond navigation interactions, interactivity refers to what the learner is doing in a learning object. What […]
Alt text (or alternate text) is just a text description of an image for users that cannot see the image. When you add alt text to an image, it actually goes into the html code back end of your content, so that someone’s using a screen reader will hear the description. This means that they […]
This is the second post in my series, 10 Mistakes in Elearning Design. The first post focused on Redundant Navigation. Today we’re continuing our examination of effective navigation by considering what happens when navigation is inconsistent. Mistake #2: Inconsistent Navigation Take a look at these two Original Designs. Imagine that these are two slides in […]
Do you HAVE to make your elearning accessible? What if you work for a private corporation? I am not a lawyer, but I offer some general thoughts to consider, and I cover what the mysterious Section 508 is and how to use it to make your instructional design and elearning accessible. We’re talking about accessibility […]
Welcome to my new series, 10 Mistakes in Elearning Design! In each article, l will cover a particular mistake that I see new elearning developers make. We’ll cover navigation, interactivity, visual and auditory design, and quizzes. As an instructor, I have graded hundreds of Storyline and Captivate projects created by brand new elearning developers in […]
Check out my new YouTube short video series: Elearning Accessibility Tips and Tricks! Whether you are an elearning developer, an online educator, or someone just trying to make their online materials accessible and usable for everyone, this video series features bite-sized guidance and practical how-to tips. My goal with this video series is to demystify accessibility, […]
Instructional design knowledge is just the start of being a good instructional designer – there are lots of other essential skills like usability, visual design, and more. It’s one of the things I love about this field, there’s always more to learn! This list begins with a broad text focusing on design in general – […]
New to instructional design? Instructional designers are needed now more than ever! Check out my brand new six-part YouTube series Introduction to Instructional Design! This short series covers the basics of instructional design. This series covers: How instructional design is defined ADDIE and SAM: Two instructional design systems/models and why you need them How people […]
As my day job I teach in an instructional design and technology graduate program. I have a LOT of students that are teachers looking to make a career change to instructional design. There’s a lot to like about instructional design! The responsibilities can vary from position to position, you can design for adults or kids […]
New to instructional design? Want a quick-ish overview? This is a forty-minute video covering instructional design models, how people learn, learning theories, and memory, motivation, and feedback! Download the PowerPoint slide deck. Instructional design is the best field that no one has ever heard of! Instructional design is all about creating effective learning experiences! It’s […]
*Updated 9/28/21* The easiest way to share your courses with your reviewers and with learners is via web hosting. Being able to just hand over a link is simply the best, especially for your learner. Whether you’re using Captivate, Storyline, or some other software, the published files can be large and clunky to share with […]
Today I’m going to share how you can capture 360 photos with the phone you already have, and then turn them into interactive tours, for FREE! Who doesn’t love an interactive virtual tour? 360 photos can bring a space to life! You choose your view: spin in circles, look up, look down, zoom in and […]
This year is just flying by! I’ve been busy teaching and presenting and recording many of the webinars I’ve presented to share with you! I now have a sizable collection of free webinars, here are some of the highlights: Intro to Instructional Design (25,000 views on this one!) Eye-Catching in a Good Way: Graphic Design […]
Free stock photos. They can be pretty bleak. (Woman laughing alone with salad, anyone?). They are plentiful, but they also tend to depict people that are white, thin, heteronormative, and able-bodied. This is changing! Pexels, in particular, revised their search algorithm recently to feature people that LGBTQ+ without having to add additional search words. This […]
My recommendations series continues on, focusing today on podcasts! Going for a walk? Pop your earbuds in and learn along the way. I really enjoy listening to podcasts episode by episode. I find that I learn so much more than choosing specific episodes. One particularly memorable episode was from Connie Malamed’s eLearning Coach podcast on […]
Today, I’m sharing my list of my favorite websites (most with an email subscription option) and my favorite listservs for instructional designers. There are so many wonderful instructional design and elearning websites, but there are just a handful I recommend and refer to myself on a regular basis. Do yourself a favor and subscribe where […]
It’s wonderful to be able to connect with instructional designers across the world! Even better to be able to get useful feedback and job leads. So here’s a selection of my favorite social media groups for instructional designers and related to instructional designers. These are all wonderful opportunities to meet other professionals, to stay up […]
Interactivity is a crucial component in any elearning. Interactivity is what transforms a dull and passive training into an exciting, engaging, and, most of all, effective learning experience. Instructional designers are probably all guilty of creating the occasional page-turner – you know, those PowerPoint-like experiences that only necessitate the learner to click Next and Back. It’s a […]
Online learning can easily feel like a very lonely and isolating experience, especially for students used to in-person learning. Students miss easy interaction with their instructor and classmates. They miss being able to ask questions on the spot and being able to learn with others. Instructors miss these social aspects, too! In fact, social connections […]
I’ve done a few versions of this presentation over the years and it’s always a good time! Here, I present a recorded webinar where I talk about all of my favorite apps (“apps” is used loosely) for anyone that teaches online. Below, find all of the links and examples featured in the webinar. This webinar […]
Happy 4th! I made use of the time I saved by not going anywhere for the weekend (yay?) by creating a new video on Adobe Captivate. Learn how to force users to complete a tutorial’s modules before moving on to the quiz. This might not be the best way to accomplish this, but this is the simplest way. […]