Comments on: Avatars in elearning: Helpful? Annoying?

By: edu lpd

edu lpd — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:29:41 +0000

I think avatars should be better used if they take part as a subject
in a decision like scenario, instead a teacher role.

By: Poser 7 review -- 3D graphics tool for elearning

Poser 7 review -- 3D graphics tool for elearning — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 03:11:36 +0000

[...] with many expressions and poses, Poser could be a good option. It could also help you produce an avatar that isn’t creepy. I’ll probably review Poser in more depth when I’ve used it [...]

By: Corey Stern

Corey Stern — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:16:14 +0000

To put it bluntly, I think Avatars are annoying. I also think videos with “talking heads” are annoying. If they are just preaching to you, then it may as well just be text. Avatars need to serve a purpose.

If you want there to interest in the eLearning, make the “avatar” a customer, or a co-worker, or someone you might interact with on the job. Then go through a series of discussions or challenges with the avatar customer. Maybe you can get points on if you make the sale, or receive realistic feedback.

Avatars should never be hosts. But I think they can be featured if they are in a story, or a scenario, or some type of true interaction to make things interesting for the user.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:36:17 +0000

Another interesting source of still images and related resources is http://www.narratorfiles.com

By: Cathy Moore

Cathy Moore — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:13:29 +0000

If you’re just looking for still images of people, I’d recommend one of the microstock sites, such as iStockPhoto.

By: texttoscreen

texttoscreen — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:13:06 +0000

I’m looking for character images for my website presentation. Really great looking people for my tutorials.

Please advise.

By: kevin kissack

kevin kissack — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:57:24 +0000

As an experienced online developer and animator I have resarched and tried using the these avatars with real audio narration and text-to-audio systems..
My conclusion is that they improve leanring because of the AUDIO with GRAPHIC method. That is where two communication channels are used simulatenously (like video/audio) whch is better than text alone.
It’s not better learning because a cute character bounces around on stage: an arrow can do that. Acharacter is a distractor from the content.
Cute characters take programming time to develop. Better use your time to make the content and course better designed.

By: Tim Freriks

Tim Freriks — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:40:45 +0000

I’m with the NOAH people. Interesting feedback, but the NOAH technology is a tool, not an end product. It’s only as good as the people using it. We’ve seen customers use NOAH with outstanding success, and we’ve seen people use it as little more than annoying paperclips. It is ENTIRELY up to the creativity of the developer to utitilize the flexibitily and power of NOAH to best advange. Like Word, I guess: you can write a great novel, or a crappy one. Depends on the author.

By: Dave’s Whiteboard » Blog Archive » Learning from Cathy Moore

Dave’s Whiteboard » Blog Archive » Learning from Cathy Moore — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:45:31 +0000

[...] Following yet another trail of links, I came to Cathy Moore’s post about online-learning avatars. [...]

By: Mike Dickinson

Mike Dickinson — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:00:25 +0000

This is all very enlightening. I’ve been thinking a little avatar presenter would spice up our eLearning, but not after reading this blog. Actually, I was thinking of using miniature video clips of our actual presenters, not fictitious avatars. Sort of like pitches on TV for the next show to be aired.