Dump the Drone available for download

29 January 2008 By 29 Comments

The “Dump the Drone” slideshow presents quick ideas that can perk up your elearning. Some of you have seen the show on my main site, but now I’ve posted it on Slideshare. This means you can easily embed the slideshow in your own site like I’ve done here or download it as a colorful PDF.

Topics:

  • What makes online courses boring
  • How to create compelling characters and stories
  • Ideas for adding “safe” humor
  • How to tighten flabby text
  • The best uses for readability analysis

You’re free to use the slideshow in your internal training as long as the attribution page (last slide) is included. The slideshow isn’t available for commercial use (for example, don’t charge for it) and it can’t be used to demonstrate vendors’ products.

The slides are from a talk I gave at an eLearning Guild conference. I’ve tacked some navigation options onto the version on my main site, but it’s still a slideshow, not a course. The concepts from Dump the Drone will be expanded and made interactive on the Elearning Blueprints site.

Filed Under: Writing tips

Comments

  1. Manish Mohan says:
    29 January 2008 at 2:24 pm

    THANK YOU!!!

    Reply
  2. Poonam says:
    30 January 2008 at 3:35 am

    hey, Cathy I was sad to see so less people commented even though most of them would have found this beautiful.

    Cathy, this was simple and useful. Thumbs up!!

    P.S: About me: I am an instructional designer in India. I blog about rather personal and social issues. I have been subscribing to your blog for few months now. I must say, I have been a lurker. Apologies, but I enjoy reading your blog. :)

    Reply
  3. Julie Biddle says:
    30 January 2008 at 10:25 am

    Thanks! I have my first meeting on Friday with a review team. They’re going to look at the first few lessons I’ve created for my new course and give me feedback. I might show this to them first so they’ll know what I’m aiming for!
    Julie

    Reply
  4. Craig says:
    6 February 2008 at 5:19 pm

    Thank you so much for this.
    I was re-reading Robert Schank’s “Lessons in Learning, e-Learning and Training”, and I have to say that “Dump the Drone” is a pretty good complement to the ideas that his text evoked in me.

    Like Poonam says, this was simple and useful.

    Reply
  5. Carmen says:
    7 February 2008 at 3:06 am

    Hi Cathy,
    This blog is really great! Love this particular post — I’m working right now with a group of courseware and media developers to improve our elearning, and I’m going to share this blog with them.

    Reply
  6. Grace says:
    28 January 2009 at 1:26 pm

    Hi,

    I too have been reading your blog for quite some time but never responded. Please forgive me…..The information in your bloggings has been valuable to me. I’m one who does a lot of work in PowerPoint and even did my final project for my Masters in D.E. on best practices in ppt.

    Keep up the good work – and I certainly plan to keep reading and applying posted suggestions.

    Reply
  7. Manuel says:
    28 January 2009 at 4:46 pm

    My best regards.
    You don’t know how much I liked those ideas, it’s so true, so fine, so clever, so concise, I just can say “Thanks for what you have done”.

    Reply
  8. Suresh J V says:
    29 January 2009 at 12:27 am

    Hi Cathy,

    Very good ideas, very useful to users who are bombarded every time with lots of text. Sorry for using “who”!!! This blog is a good lesson for lazy instructional designers. They have to apply mind to make the PPT content into more interesting instead of putting the PPT as it is coming from SME.

    Reply
  9. Fabio says:
    1 February 2009 at 1:50 pm

    Hi Cathy,
    love your suggestions. I think they apply to learning in general, not only e-learning.
    Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  10. Melissa says:
    26 February 2009 at 9:11 am

    Excellent information providing what I needed exactly when I needed it. The seemingly random chain of events that put your slides in front of my face can only be described as “synchronicity gone wild” (Twilight Zone theme plays softly in background.)

    Great stuff and amazing timing.

    Many thanks.

    Reply
  11. sandra407 says:
    9 September 2009 at 12:00 pm

    Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.

    Reply
  12. Maria says:
    9 November 2009 at 9:11 pm

    Great blog! Sadly, even though we hired an instructional designer to create an e-learning module for us, here I am, 8 at night, looking up helpful hints on creating an engaging module because what we have gotten from her so far has been disappointing.

    Reply
  13. Paul Broekhof says:
    14 December 2009 at 8:44 am

    Brilliant! Mandatory stuff for anyone using Powerpoint for any purpose. I assess all presentations that pass by my desk using the “Less is Moore” principles.

    Reply
  14. Alex says:
    25 June 2010 at 10:58 pm

    I’m new to instructional design and your blog was one of the first I found. I think your slide-shows are great and moreover, the entire website is a huge help for students like me. They’re informative, funny, and valuable. Keep up the great work!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Making Change » Quick links for your coffee break says:
    28 May 2008 at 8:47 pm

    [...] see when you check out the preliminary program. I’ll give a half-day workshop on how to Dump the Drone and will participate in the Women’s Blog [...]

    Reply
  2. Making Change » How to get everyone to write like Ernest Hemingway says:
    7 October 2008 at 5:04 pm

    [...] Unfortunately, a lot of elearning ends up in the 40-something “Suits” category thanks to corporate drone. [...]

    Reply
  3. pipwerks.com » Blog Archive » Just say no to corporate drone says:
    8 October 2008 at 1:18 am

    [...] This is important not just for courses, but for documentation and specifications, too; no one likes to read what Cathy calls “corporate drone.” [...]

    Reply
  4. Foul Writer’s World - Writing for real people says:
    15 October 2008 at 10:44 am

    [...] today I found a great article by Cathy Moore called Dump the Drone. While the article is based on the production of elearning courses the same principles can be [...]

    Reply
  5. » How to Convert Your PowerPoint Presentation into an Elearning Course The Rapid eLearning Blog says:
    27 January 2009 at 4:48 am

    [...] Moore’s Dump the Drone presentation is a good example of the type of presentation a client might ask you to convert and [...]

    Reply
  6. » OLDaily per Stephen Downes, 27 de gener de 2009 TIC, E/A, PER…: says:
    11 February 2009 at 11:04 pm

    [...] PowerPoint en un curs d’aprenentatge Em fa molt de goig la presentació de Cathy Moore, Dump the Drone (abandona el “rotllo”). (S’assembla als consells – per – a – periodistes, que llegia en els anys 80s, però [...]

    Reply
  7. Using Readbility Scoring to Improve Your Writing in E-learning Courses - Tips and Tricks for Writing Elearning that Pops! - says:
    19 February 2009 at 7:41 pm

    [...] Unfortunately, a lot of elearning ends up in the 40-something “Suits” category thanks to corporate drone. [...]

    Reply
  8. Powerpoint as an e-learning authoring tool « Spark Your Interest! says:
    5 August 2009 at 6:35 pm

    [...] Here’s a link on bad powerpoint: Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html and one on good: http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/09/whats_good_powe.html. Another great resource that you can look at is: http://blog.cathy-moore.com.php5-12.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/2008/01/dump-the-drone-available-for-download/ [...]

    Reply
  9. eLearning09 event says:
    16 November 2009 at 10:00 pm

    [...] keynote speaker and leading Instructional Designer, Cathy Moore, will show you how to ‘Dump the drone’ and create engaging and effective online [...]

    Reply
  10. The Magic of Instructional Design – Thought #4 The Right Words « Onlinelearn – Thoughts on Course Design says:
    16 September 2010 at 5:42 am

    [...] Cathy Moore covers this in detail within her “Dump the Drone” presentation, which covers Buzzwords, Blather, Bogus, Boring and Big Words – http://blog.cathy-moore.com/2008/01/dump-the-drone-available-for-download/ [...]

    Reply
  11. Lessons from the classroom: tips for engaging e-learning | Good To Great says:
    23 September 2010 at 12:17 pm

    [...] (This is something I’m particularly passionate about so will no doubt be the subject of a future blog post or two! In the meantime take a look at some of Cathy Moore’s writing tips and her Dump the Drone slideshow.) [...]

    Reply
  12. 15 tips for energising your e-learning | Good To Great says:
    29 October 2010 at 9:32 am

    [...] for the reader’ and Cathy Moore’s also big on this. I’ve linked before to her ‘Dump the drone’ slideshow, but I’m linking to it again because it really is a great resource and, if you [...]

    Reply
  13. All the world’s a stage « Purple Learning - An eLearning and Blended Learning Blog says:
    4 March 2011 at 10:10 am

    [...] All too often the detached self study tutorials are full of what Cathy Moore calls ‘corporate drone‘ and because we have become used to writing what we think the organisation wants, we can find [...]

    Reply
  14. How to build branching scenarios in elearning says:
    17 August 2011 at 9:34 pm

    [...] like to meet you in Australia! I’ll give workshops on how to dump the drone at a series of events organized by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. The [...]

    Reply
  15. Using readability scores to improve writing style in elearning materials says:
    17 August 2011 at 9:52 pm

    [...] Unfortunately, a lot of elearning ends up in the 40-something “Suits” category thanks to corporate drone. [...]

    Reply

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