Did you know that?

70% of all your sensory receptors are in your eyes

Almost 50% of your brain is involved in visual processing
People learn better from words and pictures, rather than just words alone and motion graphics is able to grab the attention of the learner more quickly. Animations in e-learning are continuing to be in great demand. With trends like m-learning, microlearning and interactive videos gaining popularity and also with the proliferation of easy video and animation making and editing tools, making animations has become a breeze.

In e-learning, animations are used for a variety of options like:

1.Explain or visualize things what cannot be seen with the naked eye
2.Visualizing quantitative data
3.Simplifying a complex concept
4.Product demonstrations

Hence, let us look at the 4 different ways to create effective animated videos for e-learning

1.Animated explainer videos

An explainer video can be used for representing your concept using a good animation, sound and voice-overs to help the learner to quickly understand the learning topic.  Whether you choose to use animated characters, moving infographics or a blend of images and vectors, an explainer video can bring your thoughts to life.

Animated explainer videos are simply short to the point, under five minutes an animated explainer video presents the problem faced by the target learners/narrates the concepts and then explains how to solve it.
For example, very recently we developed an animated explainer video on the importance of buying a health insurance policy. The project was done for a reputed insurance firm and was a part of their customer education program. The 2 minute animated explainer video had the right proportion of multimedia, motion graphics, characters and dramatized voice-overs to help the learners understand the concept.


2.Whiteboard animations

According to Wikipedia, “Whiteboard animation is a process where a creative story and a storyboard with pictures are drawn on a whiteboard by artists who record themselves during the process of their artwork”.

An explainer video can be also developed using a whiteboard animation style. Visit the link to view a sample

A whiteboard animation generally shows the hand of the illustrator, drawing images after images on a clean white surface following a certain storyline to explain a concept/idea to you.

Benefits of whiteboard animations

•Capture learner’s attention
•Increase retention and recall
•Good for continuous learning
•Engage the learners

We had recently developed a whiteboard animated video for a reputed firm from the BFSI sector, The objective of the module is to train the learners (the customers of the investment adviser firm) on the importance of starting a savings habit through the flexible option of Systematic Investment Plans . The video is a part of series of customer education videos used by the organisation.

Through the  whiteboard animation we introduced a smart young character who is just 22 and starts investing on SIP schemes.
The whiteboard animation which is under 3 minutes shows his earnings growing over the years  and Mr. Ram (the character on the animation)enjoying a stable financial life.
To read more about whiteboard animated videos, you can read my blog here.

3.Character based animations

Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process, which involves bringing animated characters to life.(source:wikipedia)
Character based animations can work wonders for humanizing a course, and even more so when those characters can talk, move, and show emotions that are like real humans.
A character based animation is able to bridge a human connect between the learner and the modules.
For example, for an e-learning animated video that was developed for an organisation in the healthcare industry. The animated video introduced a cool supersales guy that trains the learners on the importance of time management and following the  dress code etiquette etc.
The animated video became an instant hit as the the learners enjoyed the company of the virtual character throughout the module.What was more fun and enjoyable was the detailed expression of the character that helped  to capture the attention of the learner.

In the domain of e-learning, the character based animations are used for various approaches like
•Storytelling animated videos
•To express empathy and emotions with the learners
•Scenario and simulation based learning approaches

4.Animated Video Infographics

Animated Infographic videos are created by combining several animations to create a pure informational video that helps explains the learning in an engaging way. Rather than a simple clickable and zoomed infographic, the learner will certainly enjoy the more engaging animated video infographic. I feel that an animated video infographic allows the developers or animators to bring life to the module as it can combine virtual storytelling, texts, images, characters and a  properly synced voiceover.

Hence I feel that animated video infographic stands a way ahead in providing engagement and interactivity to the learners.
For example,we recently developed an animated video infographic for our reputed client in the banking sector. The objective of the module was to train the learners on the increasing cyber security threats. To bring or capture the immediate attention of the learners We had chosen the animated video infographics here . With the targeted audience from the banking industry, an animated video infographic can be used to represent statistics and facts in a more interactive and engaging way.