These are notes and materials from the Storyboarding session of the TepFlashClass. In order to create your own storyboard, you will need to download the storyboard template and the construction descriptions.

Then fill in the storyboard template with your storyboard for animating your construction. Be sure to consider the TepConventions while you create your storyboard.

Questions? Ask Chris or Melissa

Storyboarding for computer-based instructional multimedia materials

Notes 25 June, 2002

Session outcomes

• To understand various ways of and the importance of planning for a computer-based instructional multimedia project
• To learn how to create a storyboard for the TEP02 animation project

What is a storyboard?

• A visual and written description of the project you intend to create
• Storyboards are part of the planning stages of project development

Why is a storyboard important? (Why is planning important?)

• Potentially a very big time-saver
• Allows many people to work on a project – facilitates communication
• Facilitates quality control – way to check that you have done what you said you would

Why not use a storyboard?

• "Quick and dirty approach"—just get something out quickly; but it is harder
• One person controls all aspects of project—but even so a storyboard can be beneficial and help you keep track of details
• Perceived time savings—don’t have to spend time storyboarding at the beginning but may not actually save you time later (see grocery list analogy)

Analogy: grocery list

• Method 1 (like having no storyboard): You go to grocery store, wander around, notice things that you need, come home, you may or may not have all of the ingredients you need for dinner
• Method 2 (like having a storyboard): Make a list while at home, thinking about what items you will need for the next week. You can then go and get exactly what you want (saving time). Or you can send someone else to get what you want (facilitates group project)

Planning a project—a detailed approach

• Start with idea—then write down a high-level description of it

Structure of computer-based project

• Functional specifications—written description of every screen and screen feature in general terms. Contains things like lists of buttons and menus on each screen and what happens when they are selected
• Technical specifications—written description of structure of code
• Conventions (could be part of functional and/or technical specifications or separate)—like a style guide, contains standard ways of doing things that everyone working on the project should use
• User’s guide—written description of how to use the program from the point of view of a user (in the case of instructional materials, the student)

Individual animations/screens:

• Treatment—description in words and perhaps pictures of how animation should work, not necessarily in full detail
• Storyboard—picture and words, in full detail of what will happen during the animation
• Audio script

How to storyboard

• Formats, media vary (examples from video, computer)
• For TEP02—treatment comes from the written TEP02 course guide. Use a MS word template to storyboard; can type part of it and draw the rest or hand write all