Wednesday, July 27, 2011

What is shared between Compliance eLearning and Captain America and Anime Comics?

Synthesis
Cartoons and caricatures are affordable and easy to use graphical elements to enhance eLearning. However, they are only as good as the story you are trying to tell. Without stories, they are as weak as any other medium.

Comic-Con just ended this week in San Diego with over 120,000 attendees. Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson attracted much attention with the release of The Adventures of Tintin. In theaters, Captain America has now surpassed the last Harry Potter franchise in gross revenues.
Comics, cartoons, caricatures and illustrations have always been successful in engaging learners.
Below are examples of how I use simple cartoons, illustrations and animations in eLearning development.

Compliance Course on Bullying Manager
This is an example of a situation showing a bullying manager. (Click here)

This is an example of how to deal with a bullying manager.

"Stand up" (Click here)

"Who made you queen?" (click here)
Bad Hair Day

This is an example of using simple analogies and asking learners to comment and interact.
(Click here)

 Crisis Management

This animated character is used to stress a point that to follow-up clients in crisis incidents is important in crisis management. (Click here)
 
Benefits of using cartoons, caricatures, illustrations and animation
  1. You can control the characters, events and conversations in exactly the right way to meet your needs.
  2. They can be created into almost photo-real appearances.
  3. They are easy to modify and update since you control the source files.
  4. Style can be made consistent.
  5. Compared to taking custom photography, cartoons are cheaper to produce.
Some objections
Objections to cartoons are often due to the culture of the organization and the nature of the message and content. There are content that may not fit well with illustrations, and photos work better - for example, when there is human pain, a human face can show it better than an illustration.

Another objection is the perception that caricatures are too much fun and game-like and that leaders often frown on the suggestion that learners are having too much fun (dah!).

Cartoons and caricatures are only mediums to stories

Cartoons and caricatures, however, are only means to an end. They have no added value if they do not show or illustrate a story.

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FREE Cartoon Graphical Resources

Send message and request access to the following:
Over 200 free cartoons for learning

PowerPoint templates using cartoons showing topics on:
leadership and coaching

Complete the form and type in the subject “Cartoon”. Write a note on where you plan to use the caricatures.
http://vignetteslearning.com/vignettes/contactus.php

References and Links

Comic-Con
http://theweek.com/article/index/217596/comic-con-6-things-people-are-talking-about

The Adventures of Tintin
http://www.tintin.com/

 
Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

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