How iSpring works with PowerPoint
Do you want to create your own online course, or perhaps you're already very knowledgeable about online training and you're just looking for a more efficient way
to produce those courses? Well, in this video, I'm going to show you how to create a professional course within the comforts of PowerPoint, that's right. You don't have to learn an entirely new software suite, you can create things from your own PowerPoint presentations and produce them online.
Hello everyone, Scott Friesen in here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And when I say professional looking courses, I mean it. I mean online training that comes with all of the bells and whistles.
We're not to talking about minor enhancements to PowerPoint,
we're talking about interactive lessons where people can take quizzes, you can upload your own additional content, and manage everything online. So let's dive in and take a closer look. Here I am working on a template as I look to produce an online course.
And you'll notice that I'm right within PowerPoint. You'll recognize the ribbon and some of the features on the top. But at the very end, you'll notice I have one additional ribbon. This is the iSpring Suite ribbon and this is going to allow me to add all of these components to any of the slides that I want.
Either, I can start from scratch, I can start from an iSpring template, or I can convert one of my existing PowerPoint slides something that I'm very familiar with and I imagine you probably are as well. So let's take a bit of a closer look at some of the features that are available to us.
Using the iSpring template library
Right off the bat, you may want to get started with some slide templates. So if we a open up this dialogue here, we're going to be presented with a number of different templates to choose from. Now, you can either view these by the different themes.
So for example, if I like the look of this sort of Olivia theme, I can expand and take a closer look at some of the templates, some of the different slides that they have available here, or I can go over here to the left-hand side of the menu and say, you know what, I'm just looking for navigation right now.
So just show me the different navigation templates that you have available. But selecting the right template,
is just the tip of the iceberg. Remember, everything within here including the text
and the images, is just a PowerPoint holder. So if you're comfortable with editing text,
moving and replacing images, just like I did here on my course objective slide, well, then you can create your course here within iSpring as well.
Adding interactions to your PowerPoint course
But let's get into some of the more interactive components. Here in the ribbon,
you can see that we have a number of different things that we can add to enhance our slides. So by opening up the interaction menu, I can select new interaction and then browse all of the different things that we can add. And this is really going to make your courses pop. So for example, whether you want to highlight a timeline,
maybe you want to label specific things on a graphic or identify a hotspot or maybe create a pyramid showing the different levels or the different structure of what you're trying to show.
So for example, just a few moments ago, I created this interaction pyramid here so that people can click on these different areas and something else will highlight. And as you go, you always have access to the preview button.
This ability to preview your course gives you the comfort of knowing how things are going to look and feel for your students. So for example, if I come down here and select on this interaction which I created, you can see as I click on different areas of the pyramid, the text that I input earlier is going to be highlighted on the left-hand side.
And maybe after going through this preview, I can say to myself, you know what,
maybe I want to change the color of this listen quadrant here. So it stands out a bit more from guide, or maybe I want to increase the text size for example, on any of these areas. This is a fantastic way to see how things are going on.
Adding quizzes and surveys to your course
Now, no online course is going to be complete without the ability to add a quiz or a survey. And what I love about iSpring, is the variety of different types of quizzes that we can add, here within the quiz maker, I'm going to select on the question type
in the top left-hand corner. And you see we can go so much further than just multiple choice or true and false. In fact, I'm amazed at how many course creators, how many course software only allow a limited number of questions.
Here you can see we can do everything from Drag and Drop to a Likert Scale, from a Select from Lists, even in a Hotspot. In fact, that's what I'm creating right here. I've uploaded this particular image. And maybe I want to quiz my course participants as to the ability to identify these different icons.
So up here, I'm going to say, please select the play icon from the image below, for example. Now what I need to do is come over here and select the hotspot shape. So I'm going to select a square in this case. All I need to do is drag it over the correct area, just like that.
And so now when the course participant is presented with this question, all they need to do is hover over and click this area to choose the correct answer. And you can even customize the responses, you can add logic branching, and add specific scoring as well.
So here I am again within the course preview. And let's say I'm going to select this icon and then hit submit. Immediately I get the response and I can customize as to what this has shown to the participant.
Let's replay this once again. I'm going to go back to that same slide, and this time I'm going to select the correct answer. I love just even how interactive this is.
We can even see this sort of ripple effect around where I've selected and I can hit submit. Yeah, this time I got it correct. I can even view my results immediately afterwards. So all of this type of functionality customizable, and I can do it right here within PowerPoint.
And here's an example of another question type that you won't often find in other course makers. So in this case, I've got multiple dropdown menus
and I've asked people to select the correct answer. So when a customer says the price is too high, you should tell them to get lost. Is that the right answer, and give them a discount coupon. How about that, let's hit submit.
Oh, one was incorrect, but the other one was correct. And just like I'm hovering over this task, it can tell me what is the correct answer.
iSpring content & character library
Now, when it comes to creating online courses, it can often be challenging coming up with enough content, enough compelling characters, or objects to include in your slides. Well, here within iSpring you have access to a complete content library.
So for example, I'm going to select this character's option here. This can really help bring your courses to life as you include pictures or example people as a part of your content. Now iSpring makes it super easy for us to filter through all of these options.
Yes, I could use the search bar here at the top and type in some specific characteristics. Otherwise, I can choose what type of clothing they're wearing, maybe I want them to be looking straight at the camera and I want them to be laughing in this case.
And immediately, I'm brought back with all of those many options. So, kind of like the way that this guy looks. I'm going to put Kevin to directly into my slide.
And the great thing is, because you'll have the exact same actor in a variety of different poses, this is a great way to use them as a profile, right? As you go through different situations. Whether that's manager and employee, or customer and sales associate, you can really get a feel of this character as you include them into your content.
Recording audio & narration for your course
Another feature which is essential for any online course, is the ability to record your own audio or narration. This is especially helpful for those of us who may not want to record ourselves on camera.
Now don't worry, iSpring allows you to record and input your own video, but sometimes recording audio is that much easier and you can overlay it or input it on any one of your slides. So after selecting record audio,
we're presented with a full screen view of that particular slide and now we have our recording dialogue. And everything is super easy to use
even if you don't have much experience when it comes to recording on your machine. So here, all I need to do is select the start record button. Hello everyone, and welcome to this course. Here are the key objectives that we'll be learning
in the following module. And now that audio is going to be attached and synced to this slide, all I need to do is select okay at this stage and I'm brought back to my PowerPoint presentation. So quick and easy, I can add it anywhere that I like
Multiple publishing options for your course
and record professional audio. Now, once you're finished editing all of your slides
and your course material, iSpring gives us a variety of different ways to publish that course. If we click here on the publish icon, we're presented with a new dialogue window which gives us a variety of different ways and places to which we can publish our course. Now by default, the My computer tab is going to be selected.
We can either publish this as an HTML 5 Course, so all of the interactive components are intact, or we can choose to produce a video course. If you want your participants to watch a video version of your course, the next two options are iSpring Space.
This is your place to publish things right on the iSpring website, or you can use iSpring Learn which is a full learning management system. Now, if you're already creating courses professionally, you may have your own LMS system either for your organization, or for the company that you are working for.
And don't worry, iSpring is completely SCORM compliant. If don't know what that means, that's okay. You probably don't need to know what that means. But SCORM gives you so many other possibilities and is usually mandatory for any LMS.
Last but not least, you can also upload directly to your YouTube account if you want to use iSpring for creating engaging education and training material online. Now, if you'd like to learn more about iSpring Suite and try it free for 30 days without a credit card, be sure to click the link in the description down below.
Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
