Animation in eLearning

Animations make learning more effective and enjoyable, and are used for several different purposes in eLearning. All three key learning styles are captured with animation. It activates the cognitive adult brain with dynamic visuals, audio and creates an emotional experience.

Animation in eLearning is Attention Grabbing

We’re living in the ‘age of constant distraction’ where the number one resource for our learners has now become attention. The second a viewer becomes bored you have officially lost their attention for the remainder of the content experience. At any given stage there are a plethora of new content to consume, all only a click away.

There are three ways in which a person learns. Animation has vivid visuals to activate your ‘visual’ mode of learning. Soundtracks, music, voice overs and sound effects activate your ‘auditory’ mode of learning. Your kinesthetic mode of learning is triggered by associating the animation with real life ’emotion-filled’ examples. Your brain generally associates animation with positive emotions, like joy, youthfulness, freedom, entertainment, fun, excitement, humour, etc.

Explaining Complex and Abstract Ideas

Sometime a concept is intangible or too complicated to explain with words or a picture alone. Often we see information of this type displayed in charts and graphs – but this can become stale and uninteresting quickly.

Visual metaphors help in this regard and animation even more so. An imaginative and creative instructional designer can take your training material and visualise it for the benefit of your employees in the eLearning course. You can also break down complex ideas into simplified visual explanations with complementary content to improve the users understanding of the content.

Showing Processes

Animation is particularly beneficial for memorising and understanding systems, which are dynamic and changeable. It can show how things change over time, which would otherwise be difficult to understand with words or static images alone. Processes that are biological, or natural phenomena, or mechanical device operations can be animated, thus slowing down the process or speeding it up to show the changes which occur. Complementary animations can be added to the eLearning content to further enhance the learners understanding of the topic.

The animation assets used can also be repurposed for additional supplementary training to further enhance a learners understanding, particularly on topics they might be struggling with. Elearning truly benefits from well-planned animated content, as each topic can be enhanced whilst maintaining a captivating visual experience for the learner.

Interested in eLearning? Get in touch with our team today!

We are a full-service Web development and Content Production Agency in Gauteng specialising in Video Production, Animation, eLearning Content Development, Learning Management Systems, and Content Production. Contact us for a quote. | Info@soundidea.co.za | www.soundidea.co.za | +27 82 491 5824 |