As instructional designers, we often look at ADDIE and SAM to guide us on how to create training that is impactful and memorable. But within both of those methodologies lays the importance of digital asset procurement. 

I have always loved writing stories. I remember getting my first typewriter around the age of six. From that point on, there was something about taking these stories that were in my head and putting my fingers to the keys to make them come to life. Storytelling has also been a part of our world history. It’s how cultures relay what has happened to teach the next generation. The same way storytelling has been used in history, we, as instructional designers have been tasked with the responsibility to develop training that tells a story that is easy for the learner to understand and retain. But how do we do that? Is it just the words that we get from our subject matter experts (SMEs) that we then craft into training, or is it more?

As a videographer and instructional designer, I see the importance of both text and images to develop effective training. We often use this multimedia approach to develop training that will inspire the learner to retain what is taught and desire to learn even more. But the actual story that we’re telling is just as important, if not even more so than the tools that we use to develop an effective training curriculum.

By incorporating digital assets, such as images, videos, voice-overs, and soundtracks, training can go from a standard course to a fully developed story. When I am developing a training course or video, one of the key things is to ensure the images, video, and audio complement each part of the training. When I created the video “Tales from the Call Center,” I thought about the overall emotion that I wanted the learner to experience after viewing the video. Then, I broke each part of the story into segments to create a progression in the story. Whenever I am developing training or creating a video, I have a vision of what I think will best tell the story.

Procuring the right digital assets can be tricky, especially when you are on a limited budget. There are many royalty-free sites, such as Pexels and Pixabay to obtain quality images, videos, and soundtracks. Another source that I have used is my company’s marketing department. They often have a large collection of digital assets to choose from. For voice-over work, I have used different people within the company. But it’s important that you ensure the talent’s voice is right for the project. This reminds me of a time that I needed to acquire a voice-over talent for an eLearning course. I already who I wanted to use as the narrator of the course. But once I had the talent in the studio and heard his voice, I realized that he wasn’t the right person for the project. I’ve had similar experiences when selecting images and videos for a project. It wasn’t until I used the images and videos that I realized they didn’t properly convey the story that I wanted to tell.

The important lesson that I learned in these situations was to not be afraid to “rethink” my choices of digital assets. Just like in writing fictional stories, an idea for the story may exist before you start, but once you are into the creation of the story, things can change and take the story in a different direction. With the development of training and videos, there is typically a SME, stakeholder, and learner whose ideas and needs have to be accounted for. This is yet another reason why it’s not advisable when procuring digital assets to go in a different direction than what was previously determined. 

Digital assets are the visual representations of your project. Together, with good storytelling, they create an emotional connection that makes training more relatable and easier for the learner to retain.