The e-learning experience, how to detect drug use

In this assignment, I got the chance to create a full e-learning course, while challenging myself to learn new tools and skills. The course is created on behalf of the start-up Eyescanner.

The aim with this course is to teach people how to recognize the signs and symptoms of drug use. My role was to develop the course based on text and some images provided by Eyescanner. I placed and managed orders for voiceovers and translations, and implemented the content into the e-learning platform.

The result is a one hour long e-learning course, available both in English and Swedish. It consists of short animated videos to visualize the symptoms of intoxication, common slang terms and pictures of related accessories, as well as general information about each drug. The course is Eyescanner’s very first product, soon to be released. Below, you find the intro, created in After Effects.

78 videos and 18 presentations

Given the large amount of content, it was important to find ways to save time and effort while still catching the interest of the learner. My goal was to do this by creating templates and illustrations to communicate the message in an efficient way.

Chunking the information

The information is grouped and divided into short sections. Doing so makes it easier to navigate through the content, and it is also a strategy to make efficient use of working memory.

For example, the symptoms are divided into physical and psychological, and each symptom appears one by one with an illustration/animation, a text and a voiceover. In the videos, all information is kept visible to support retrieval and encoding processes to the memory. Each section is followed by a few questions to make sure that the learner is keeping up.

The templates

From the bottom layer to the top, I used: a different blurred photograph (in some sections of a video) to create similarity and variation between the sections. A gradient layer for the color profile. Semi-transparent circles, animated to move slowly to make the content more alive and to keep the learner alert. The top layer displays the actual content; animated symptoms, slang terms, common accessories or information about the drug.

Managing the platform

I structured the course in the e-learning platform, Thinkific. This included exporting the content to be optimized for web use and to make sure that everything worked correctly. Stay tuned, the course is soon to be released!

Illustrating drug influence

The illustrations were created in Illustrator and later animated in After Effects, with the intention to demonstrate the symptoms related to each drug. The process of creating the illustrations was rather quick, while the animations and composing the videos required more time.

I tried to keep the representations of the human as neutral as possible to avoid any biases related to appearance - the symptoms should be in focus when assessing whether a person is under the influence of drugs or not.

This was my first time working with animations, I am very thankful for the trust and the opportunity to work on this project where I got to extend my toolbox!