Brian is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a BA in English. Since 1999 he has been writing, photographing and designing for both digital and print media. Brian loves traveling and writing about his adventures and he lived in Prague, Czech Republic for a year. In 2001 Brian joined the KMi team as Lead Designer. In addition to 3D, web, graphic and logo design Brian is a Flash designer who specializes in instructional illustration, diagramming and animation.

The Graphics for Learning blog will address design and graphical considerations for those seeking custom content development as well as offer tips, techniques and solutions for designers.

Check out Brian's Photography/Travel blog at Travel Companion Blog.

A while back, our custom content development team created a video to make things easier for all of you. We produced a course that explains the oh-so-confusing concept of SCORM. We tackled a number of common questions like "Why do I need to know what SCORM is?" "How can SCORM help me?" and "What does SCORM even stand for?" But don't worry, it isn't as daunting and cumbersome as it sounds. We explain it all in layman's terms and deliver it in a way that is friendly and, dare I say, fun. 

Since we released the video, we've had a tremendously positive response, and we're happy to be able to help so many gain a better understanding of SCORM. But, hey, that's what we do! Keep posted for follow-up videos where we tackled the tough subjects and make them easy to understand. In the mean time, enjoy the "SCORM Demystified" video or watch it a second, third or fourth time and pass it on to your friends and colleagues!

My first organized baseball league was tough for me. I was smaller and less athletic than all the other kids. And while there was little action anywhere outside of pitching and hitting the coaches still preferred to put me in right field where balls would seldom if ever reach. I was rarely out in the grassy expanse long before I started daydreaming and making daisy-chains. My coaches recognized my boredom and ensured me how important my job was. They told me I was the last line of defense and that when a ball is hit out of the infield the whole team would be dependant on me to make the big play. I could have the opportunity to win a game for our team!

From that moment on I took the position of right field much more serious. I don't know if I ever was called upon to make that big play but I knew the team needed me and I wasn't about to risk it for the preoccupation of popping dandelion heads. 

Sometimes it can be difficult for employees to appreciate the big picture importance in there very specialized jobs as well. For example, a warehouse worker for a medical supply distribution company whose job is to put incoming shipments into prospective rack locations may not associate her job duties as life or death. While no one would ever hold her responsible for someone's unfortunate demise she certainly can take pride in helping save lives by doing her job accurately and efficiently.

The below example is a launch screen from a supply chain custom eLearning health course directed to employees of an oil company with a wide range of job responsibilities across all sectors. Characters representing each job type tell a personal story related to the course material and each make up a piece of the company-wide process. The success of the process is directly dependant on each individual's job performance. Even if the trainee can only professionally identify with one of the characters they will be able to see that they are indeed important to the overall success of the company.

Let's face it, sometimes the subjects that are most crucial for us to learn, like safety, can be some of the least exciting. For example, how many people actually enjoy the same tired pre-flight safety presentations  and sticky airline safety cards? As a nearly inaudible monotone voice reads a list of instructions as riveting as the latest microwave manual, unenthused flight attendants robotically point to exits and feign breathing from detached oxygen masks. All the while, we can't fully concentrate because we're still shivering over that mysterious object our hand brushed against in the seat pocket as we reached for the safety card.


As designers we understand that some who will be taking our courses are as excited about the material as they are about being told how to properly insert the metal tip into the buckle. So how can we ensure that we aren't losing our audience to boredom and making safety managers very unpopular?

Personalizing material has worked immensely for us here at KMi. We work with on-site personnel to get first-hand insight to some of the common accidents and injuries that occur.  We then present photos, videos and illustrations of specific situations and scenarios that are potential safety hazards to the learner. If the learner can identify with the characters in the scenario then they are likely to have learned from the training and that means we've done our job well. 

The below example is just a small portion of a larger custom content development, animated scenario of the dangers pedestrians face in a warehouse.  In partnership with Kibler and Associates, we combined diagrams of the warehouse indicating movement with images of warehouse safety signage and photos of actual warehouse employees simulating incidents. The warehouse employees taking the safety course will recognize the photo as looking very much like their own work environment while the diagrams will help set the potentially dangerous scene and provide prevention techniques. And we can accomplish all of this without the need of wet-naps or portable hand sanitizers.