Planning Content Development

E-Learning Development Team

A Guide to Content Planning & Development

A Guideto Content Planning and Development

Table of Contents

A Guide to Content Planning and Development

Why planning your on-line development is important

Methods for breaking down and capturing your content requirements

What is a storyboard?

Developing a storyboard – storyboard templates

A typical storyboard template and how you would use it

The storyboard Code column

The storyboard Unit Title column

The Content Type column (for VLE specific storyboards)

The storyboard Text column

The storyboard Notes column

Storyboards – I’m still not convinced!

Alternative storyboarding options (not Word)

Which planning method to choose?

Why we chose Microsoft Word for storyboard template purposes

Closing out the storyboard phase

Developing content introduction

Resource gathering

Student access considerations

Using your storyboard to pinpoint viable development techniques

The Pros and Cons of VLE Content Items vs CMS stored content

Navigation Considerations

User Interface Considerations

Future proofing

Development Summary

Scripts for voice talents

Why planning your on-line development is important

Although there are many things to consider initially, a good way of focussing the tasks ahead is to begin breaking down your content requirements into smaller, more manageable units. This serves a number of purposes, particularly when developing online materials:

• It starts to clearly identify the scope of the project and thus what you are potentially looking at in terms of development timescale and input requirements
• It begins to shape the content into more online friendly ‘units’ and thus also begins to suggest how your resources might be structured or made navigable/accessible
• It provides focus towards establishing illustrative media requirements
• Provides means of establishing where additional value might be added in terms of targeting key message areas for richer media delivery or more interactive/engaging learner involvement
• Enables you to pre-identify any potential difficulties likely to be faced along with the basic developmental tasks required
• Creates a workable framework to better enable controlled contributions from colleagues (if the project isn’t being developed by you alone)
• Provide a means to Q/A the project down to, particularly for medium or large sized projects, checking that everything required has indeed been developed
• Can help to suggest where the learning experience ‘blend’ will lie if such issues have not been completely resolved (between online materials, “live”, collaborative etc)

Breaking down your content in this way is of particular value if you are providing a body of reference material that is unlikely to be “consumed”, in its entirety, at any one time. With this kind of access, and in other situations such as access expected in a non-linear fashion, the need for units of content that make sense in isolation as well as in the context of the whole is extremely important.

The simple process of breaking down and clearly documenting precisely what you intend to communicate to your target audience and how you intend to do it can also really free you from some of the more basic concerns and allow you to fully identify and attack the core of your learning message more creatively.

Methods for breaking down and capturing your content requirements

Although there are a number of ways you can break down and plan your content development we will concentrate on “storyboarding” as a proven method for the realisation of bespoke e-learning and e-learning related projects as it is of use (and can be readily adapted to) a wide variety of planning scenarios.

Even if your project scopeis small and the content doesn’t need to be heavily broken down, storyboarding can still be a worthwhile pre-development process helping to ensure that your goals are not only described and identified but also achievable.

What is a storyboard?

A storyboard is, very broadly and within our e-learning frame of reference, a document (digital or otherwise) describing as clearly as possible what you eventually intend to have up “on-screen” in the digital environment but which can also include the necessary “hook” information for how you relate online materials to class based learning

NOTE: Pedagogic models for delivering blended learning are considered more specifically and more thoroughly in the Blended Learning Workshop and its associated workshop materials (have a look at Yorkshare HQ( on theTraining tab).

Storyboarding of digital projects is not dissimilar to storyboarding in the world of film and TV and effectively serves the same purpose. In the cinematic world, a complex scene or shot can be difficult to shoot and usually requires the coordination of a number of people; if it has been planned using a storyboard the potential for problems to occur (technical, time, safety, confusion or cost etc) can be significantly mitigated.

At all stages of development it is important to think of the storyboard as a “working” document; as such the storyboard should be regarded as a strong, though not absolute guideline to attaining the desired end result.

To further clarify, situations will arise where attempting implementation of what was originally thought to be a sound way of getting across a message might not work (for pedagogic or technical reasons for example) or, in a more positive vein, the attempted development of the unit might throw up an even more creative way of communicating the message. In these circumstances you should, of course, adjust your production to reflect these findings rather than sticking slavishly to the storyboard.

Developing a storyboard – storyboard templates

A storyboard will usually include a number of codifying elements. These are commonly (but not limited to):

• A unique identifying code for each content unit
• A title for each unit (a ‘readable’ identifier)
• The body of text, narrative transcription or message that forms the “backbone” of the unit
• A notes section for each unit. This is generally used for production notes such as pointers to reference sources or messages/queries to other collaborators etc.

This may sound obvious but it is important to note thatthe template you use to storyboard your project should reflect the needs of your project (see further above, the illustration showing a page from two different storyboards).

Don’t try and shoe-horn your content break-down into a storyboarding template that doesn’t quite work for how you are thinking about the structure and resources needed to complete your project. Doing so could result in an awkward or unintuitive content delivery for your students at the end of the day.

A typical storyboard template and how you would use it

The storyboard Code column

What do I use it for?

The Code column is used to create a unique identifier for the units of your project.

Creating a unique “code” for a module is a basic practical consideration and is broadly the easiest way of ensuring that everybody involved in a project (including you) can immediately track developed materials back to the correct unit of the storyboard.

“Why not use the readable title for this?” is the obvious question you are asking. One of the main uses the unique code can be put to is the prefixing of files pertaining to a unit as they are developed (including the development folders you might employ to construct each content unit within).

It’s with this use in mind that we might include an abbreviation in the code as it forms a useful cue to you (and your team) as to what project and where in a project a file might have originated from (such as PAM in the Pure and Applied Microbiology example).

TIP: Always number your projects by inclusion of a leading zero (or zeroes) for lower numbers to ensure alpha-numeric file lists are in the right order; for example 01-01 rather than 1-1. You’ll be thankful of this advice later, particularly if you end up developing a project that incorporates a large number of separate files.

If your project is small scale or the level of new resource development not expansive then you might not need such an identifier and could dispense with this element in a storyboard.

Further notes:

A clear advantage (along with traceability and readability) of this kind of identification measure is that it makes it much more difficult to inadvertently generate duplicate filenames and also allows collaborators to seamlessly integrate their materials in the overall project without fear of materials being overwritten (assuming that you clearly assign development tasks, perhaps by having people contribute to different units of the project as delineated in the storyboard).

Perhaps the most significant advantage of using an identifier in file names is that this kind of naming structure renders the project files transparent to all collaborators making it very easy for all contributors to find and perhaps amend or replace files that they may not be the originator of.

The storyboard Unit Title column

What do I use it for?

The Unit Title column is used, as the name would suggest, for the readable title of the content unit and is likely to be the title that you will employ within the finished project.

Aside from this obvious use, particularly if your delivery uses a reasonable amount of text content, the titles of your content units can often be used for helping to decide navigation and you can copy and paste text directly from the storyboard for titling items in your VLE (Yorkshare) module.

The Content Type column (for VLE specific storyboards)

What do I use it for?

The Content Type column is used as an indication of the type of content or tool that you think the item will bebest made available as. To keep the column narrow it can be a good idea to use an abbreviation pertaining directly to the VLE. A suggestedset of VLE specific abbreviations are:

Key to CT (Content Type) abbreviations:

CT / Content Type / DF / Discussion Forum / As / Assignment
M / Left Menu Item / SI / Staff Information / As / Safe Assignment
An / Announcement / G / Groups / AA / Anonymous Assignment
CI / Content Item / RSS / RSS Feed / SRL / Sentient Resource List
CF / Content Folder / Wi / Teams LX / MG / My Grades
T / Test/Quiz / Bl / Journal LX / LU / Learning Unit
S / Survey / DD / Digital Dropbox

Thinking about Content Type at an early stage can be a good way of beginning to get a handle on your actual file development requirements. For example: Are you going to put information directly into VLE Content Items or link to Word or PDF files instead? Developing a storyboard forces you to ask yourself these questions and consider the pros and cons of each as you move forward.

It can also be an indicator for where you might need to up-skill on particular aspects of VLE or software use and thus allow you to target training before your project gets going.

NOTE: If you don’t want to remember a series of abbreviations just use the full name of the content type or tool you think might be the best choice.

If a content unit is going to be delivered as a Word file then just put Word or DOC in the Content Type column for example.

The storyboard Text column

What do I use it for?

The Text column is used for the actual text/narrative/description of the information you intend to communicate via the unit.

If your unit does involve a lot of textual content then this part of the storyboard is, of course, fairly self explanatory. It should be noted, however, that highly interactive content or even simulation will still require on-screen information even if it is only for the purposes of indicating what the end-user has to do. In the case of interactive content it might be that information is only released dependent on user driven events. In all circumstances it is a good idea to have these text/informational requirements identified and written down.

Even if you intend to make use of audio you will still need a text transcript of this for use by a voice-talent and also for accessibility reasons.

The text of your storyboard can, importantly, be copied and pasted into the VLE or content itself so you aren’t duplicating or typing out text unnecessarily.

The storyboard Notes column

What do I use it for?

The Notes column is for explanatory notes, production comments and other associated information.

This part of the storyboard is of particular use when working on a collaborative project and can be employed to further explain thought processes, logic or ideas pertaining to a unit as well as indicating where links to class based learning can be made and explored.

It can also be employed when indicating responsibilities for specific content units (by inclusion of contributor’s names for instance) and is perfect for team members to enter feedback or observationswithin during storyboard development, perhaps on each others entries or amendments.

Other uses can be the inclusion of reference pointers such as web-sites or books etc and also suggestions as to delivery technologies.

Storyboards – I’m still not convinced!

On the surface of it, developing a storyboard might seem like a lot of unnecessary work and, for small projects or projects that are possibly already in a form reminiscent of a storyboard, this might actually be the case. It’s up to you to make that kind of judgement call.

When you are considering such a call, however, you should keep in mind that even for small projects, particularly ones involving a team of collaborators, a storyboard can help prevent a chaotic and uncontrolled content development process. Indeed, speaking from past experience, at least some form of working storyboard is really a “must have” to ensure the development of a successful deployment, in a controlled manner with clearly defined development milestones and achievable deliverables.

If you are new to the development of online resources and thus unfamiliar with the difficulties that can be faced during the development process it can’t be stressed enough how useful the storyboard process can be in focussing your thoughts while providing you with a logical and practical start point for your project.

For those new to the development of a VLE module a storyboard can, for some of the hidden pit falls commonly faced by less experienced developers,help prevent:

• Unconsidered use of content areas and tools
• Poor module structure and an unintuitive student view
• An unsustainable or chaotic CMS hierarchy
• Re-work or re-structuring of the module or module content through developing yourself into a corner
• Unconsidered blend with class based learning
• Over ambitious development goals
• Leaving certain tasks until too late (copyright permissions, training etc)

This is only a limited list of the problems that could be averted by even a small amount of planning.

Alternativestoryboarding options (not Word)

Although we are suggesting that storyboarding is a useful way forward when developing an online project you don’t, of course, have to stick to a Microsoft Word template for creation of your storyboard.

If you are more comfortable writing and/or sketching your ideas it can be useful to create a blank page template, print it out and then photocopy your print as a master page before using the blank pages to actually write and sketch on for the purposes of creating a working storyboard document.

It is, in fact, often a good idea to actually print out an entirelydigitally developedstoryboard; particularly when running it by colleagues for comment, proofing or approval. Collaborators can easily contribute to the development by simply writing their thoughts on the storyboard document (using the Notes column for example) rather than perhaps amending a protected version of the document.
Often people find marking up/reading printed materials a more natural process than editing digital documents.

Another software based alternative to the Microsoft Word template is to use Microsoft PowerPoint for storyboard creation and, for text and image based projects in particular, it can provide more of a “what you see is what you get” or WYSIWYG (WizzyWig as it’s known) storyboard.

You can use the following PowerPoint features to cover storyboarding areas:

• When breaking down your course you can use a slide per content unit
• The Slide Numbers can act as your unique identifier for each unit
• The Slide Title field can be used as your readable title for the unit
• The Slide Notes area can be used for your main text or narrative transcript.
• The actual slide area itself can be used for pasting in reference or for using bullets to describe what you intend to implement in the deployed online course.

You can also configure print-out of PowerPoint files to include a representation of the slide and also the notes field.

Which planning method to choose?

The most important thing is to use a technique for pre-production outline and scoping of your project that you (and your team) are most comfortable with.

If youdogo down the route of using a storyboard then also do this in a fashion you are most comfortable with. If you prefer getting out a pencil then print off blank template sheets and then fill it in by hand. If you have no problem developing your storyboard digitally then use a method which works best for you be it Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Project, Excel or otherwise.

If you choose NOT to create a storyboard then try and make sure you DO fully consider the practicalities of expediting your project in order to keep control of the development and to ensure that you do achieve your goals. Don’t underestimate the need to do at least a small amount of planning; developing an online aspect to your teaching WILL take more time than you think to do it well.

Why we chose Microsoft Word for storyboard template purposes

There are a number of reasons we have chosen Word for our Storyboard template (over perhaps PowerPoint for instance) and these are broadly as follows: