Welcome to the third week of short taster videos introducing our Graphics Made Easy online programme. We’ve shown how you can easily draw graphics, add shading, add colour and do this in a way that is really engaging. Thank you so much for your comments on the week 1 and week 2 videos! Thanks too to Tilla and Lucy who’ve commented to confirm that this stuff works – they’ve both been on our face-to-face course. It’s great to see so many questions asked that we’ll cover in full in the online programme, including use of colour in colour-blindness, using digital version of your drawings, tools and materials and handwriting.
This week we look at how to adapt the way you present, facilitate and train to make the most of the graphics. This is a key element to the online programme and why it lasts several months. We want to make sure that you have the confidence and competence not only to draw these graphics but to be able to use them to be really engaging. I’ll work with you so that you’ll be able to say, like Lucy, that you get ‘really positive feedback and comments’ from your groups.
As before, please add your thoughts in the comment boxes below. The online programme opens up next week, so do add in any questions on that too.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
This video uses voiceover to give an example of how we can together over the three months of the online programme to make sure you can adapt your work to make full use of the visuals. What questions do you have?
Hello Penny,
I can’t wait to do this course i pray my office will buy into it-how much will it cost
As always, you inspire me to make my presentations more visually interesting. I would like to know how much the course costs and also how many sessions there will be and how much time it will take.
Many thanks
Looks like a very valuable course. I was wndering if there is any element of interactivity planned?
Micah – thank you for your enthusiasm! I’ll go through all the details next week, including the contents, how it works and the cost. The first few videos have been to make sure that this online way of covering the topic will work for people, so they are sure it would be good for them, before I go into details of the course itself.
Roz – glad you like it! I’ve been working with Stacey, a superb e-learning designer, who is making sure that the course is split into bite-sized, digestible chunks. She’s also encouraging me to keep each module short, with lots of optional extras, so it won’t take too long to work through. On my own I would have wanted to give you heaps and heaps of useful stuff, so Stacey’s expertise has really helped to structure this so it’s not overwhelming to learners. It is spread out over three months to make sure you have time to implement the ideas in your own work, with support from me of course.
Ken, yes, there is lots of interactivity planned. The tool we’ll be using allows each participant to interact with me 1:1 confidentially, asking questions and sharing pictures. There’s a forum which we’ll encourage people to use, sharing graphics as they develop their new skills. I’m hoping that we develop a real community feel this way, with people supporting each other and sharing tips and ideas. There will also be a few online meetings, with alternative timings to suit people from New Zealand to Alaska (and everywhere in between) where we can meet up, speak in real time and share screens. How much you interact and in what way will depend on your preferences. I’ll set out precisely what is planned for when next week.
I really love this work which is most supportive for visual learners and folks with reduced working memory for auditory presented information. The snag for me is becoming more fluent at this. I look forward to hearing about the course.
I’ve already been able to use techniques from the first two sessions in a recent training programme. I was really pleased to see how effective it was to add a frame to some text, and the shaded different kinds of ‘bullet’ points made an impact. Looking forward to more. Thank you!
Looking forward to next week and hearing more about the course. I can see lots of good uses for it outside the remit of training. e.g reminding kids to do chores and helping them with their studies! In the course will you be providing tips on ‘equipment’ – e.g best marker to use etc? I travel quite a bit in my training and sometimes have very little time to ‘set up’..I am interested in any display equipment/material that might be useful.
thanks
Thanks for even more comments! I’m just preparing for the Online Programme launch and it’s great to be able to incorporate details answers to your questions into the full programme.
Aletta – absolutely! It works widely as you can use a combinations of words (for auditory learners) and the visual side (to support the visual learners). You’re right that visual memory is powerful! Did the short taster videos help to develop your fluency with bullet points and shading? If so, the rest of the programme should work for you too.
Claudia – I’m delighted that it worked for you 🙂 It’s been so helpful having feedback from people that it works, even when we can’t be face-to-face!
Susan – I’m just completing the module on equipment including the best markers, paper, boards and so on. I also travel a lot (so far this year: NZ, Qatar, Dubai, Switzerland as well as all over the UK) so I know that it’s useful to have stuff that works without having to take the ‘kitchen sink’ with you too.