About Me
I have been developing high-end custom interactive e-learning courses for 20 years. I have served clients from small franchise companies up to fortune 500 companies, in a wide range of industries. My underlying commitment to each project I take on is to deliver the very best, most innovative, error free work possible and exceed expectations.
I have been involved in projects that would be considered easy with generous timelines, to extremely difficult projects with very aggressive timelines. No matter what level your project falls under, I have the experience to identify, avoid, or quickly resolve issues before they can effect your project.
With your approved storyboard or script, I can: source all images, graphics, and videos needed; produce all audio narrations; then convert it all into a professional top notch e-learning course. I can serve the role of developer for your project or integrate seamlessly to manage your entire program from beginning to end with expertise.
Perfection vs. Completion
Doing things right the first time is my standard approach to any project. Innovation, aesthetics, and accuracy are very important to me, and are reflected in the quality of the work that I deliver to clients. But I also understand the importance of completing projects on time. There is a fine balance between perfection and the successful completion of projects that are on time and on budget.
Working With Teams
I work closely with instructional designers, subject matter experts, project managers, and business owners to develop e‑learning content that meets requirements and goals and that is engaging and memorable to the learner. I have experience working on large corporate level projects with all stakeholders, ironing out issues and consistently meeting aggressive timelines with the core goal being, to deliver easy to understand information in a memorable way that helps the learner retain the knowledge and improve performance.
What I’m Looking For
I like to work on e-learning projects that require a higher level of production quality, these are more interesting to work on. Throughout my career, I have focused on developing e-learning content that makes greater use of video, realistic animations, gamification, and that are modern and aesthetically correct.
● Can that be done?
● Has that been done before?
● Why is that happening?
● Is there a solution for this?
These are the projects I enjoy the most. I love working on jobs that require creative problem solving. These are the types of projects that I don’t want to put down and keep my hooked, until they are solved.
The visual storytelling aspect of e-learning is also one of the top features that I enjoy about e-learning. I like taking complex information and instruction in storyboards, and converting it visually into high-quality simple to understand and memorable e-learning content.
Finding a client that is looking to create award winning design would be my ultimate goal.
The Tools In My Toolbox
I have worked with many e-learning authoring tools throughout my career including these. Out of all of these, I have gained an expert level of proficiency with Articulate Storyline, and Adobe Captivate. Articulate Storyline being the tool I use the most.
● Adobe Captivate
● dominKnow Claro
● Moodle LMS
SCORM and LMS
I am also knowledgeable in SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) data that courseware authoring tools use to communicate with the LMS (Learning Management System), and also when this SCORM data is transmitted, which is helpful to understand when troubleshooting bugs that are difficult to solve in complex courses.
Content Creation and Editing Tools
All of the years that I have spent in e-learning development has also helped me gain an advanced level of proficiency in these popular editing tools for graphics, images, video, audio, code, and text.
- Adobe Photoshop for graphics creation and editing
- Camtasia for video creation and editing
- Sound Forge Audio Studio for audio editing
- ElevenLabs for AI voice generation
- Visual Studio Code for JavaScript editing
- Trados Studio for translation of text content
Career History
Before E-Learning
My college education program was Information Systems Programming Concentration. I maintained a 4.0 GPA. It focused on learning how to program in several different computer programming languages, below, used in the banking industry at the time.
● RPG
● C
● Visual Basic
Java, in particular, was the most interesting to me. One of the assignments in Java class was to make a Java Applet. Java Applets are programs that you can create and are accessible to anyone through a web browser.
I created a Java Applet that could calculate the current value of 401k stock splits and company profit sharing through company stocks at the company where I was working at the time. I created the applet for myself, but some of my coworkers found the applet to be very helpful and would use it. It was incredible to me, to be able to create something useful that anyone anywhere in the world through a web browser could view and use.
Building this Java Applet was a turning point for me—it took me in a different direction—web design and development. On my own, outside of college, I bought books and learned how to program in the following web scripting and markup languages.
● HTML
● PHP
● ActionScript
I was a successful web designer-developer during the dot-com bubble building high-end animated fully-interactive websites for new startups using the most popular authoring tool for this at the time Macromedia Flash, which later became Adobe Flash. Several years after the dot-com bust and the slowdown of new startups, I decided to broaden my career path and look for a career different than designing and developing websites.
2005 — My Start in E-Learning
I started my career in e-learning development in 2005 in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. Because of the experience I had using Flash, I took a job offer as a Flash Developer developing e-learning modules. At that time Flash was the most popular web multimedia platform worldwide and was the leading authoring tool being used to develop high quality animated and immersive e-learning content. Using it’s built in ActionScript programming language, we could add video game level interactivity to e-learning modules.
I was very happy with this change from web design and development to e-learning development because it gave me a unique way to tell a story through graphics, audio, and animation, which I really loved. This was very different from designing and developing websites. This visual storytelling aspect of e-learning is what hooked me into my career in e-learning.
The Use of Animated Characters
The very first set of e-learning modules I worked on, were centered on creating animated characters within Macromedia Flash to simulate scenarios where employees interact with customers in different parts of their job. These were fully narrated and animated modules designed to improve the customer experience by teaching employees the proper way to interact with prospective customers in different scenarios.
We maintained a library of characters that we created and would re-use these characters in different scenarios to build the modules. We would manually animate the characters, including their mouth, to synchronize with the audio narrations.
It’s interesting that even today in e-learning, animated characters in different scenarios are still being used in this way, except that Flash has now been replaced by animated video platforms such as Vyond, Doodly, and others.
LMS
At that time we used a custom built LMS (Learning Management System) created by Ballantyne Computer Consultants, a local consulting group located in the Ballantyne area of Charlotte, to host these e-learning modules for clients.
Narrations
We also used actual human narrators that were sent a Word audio script of the course to read and record. Clients would listen to voice samples of the narrators we had available and chose the one that best fit their need.
Dial-Up Internet
Internet bandwidths were very slow then, compared to today’s speeds, so we had to be mindful of the size of images and audio narration files. Each completed 10 minute e-learning module had to be 250kB or smaller in size, so learners could efficiently download the modules through a dial-up Internet connection, which is unthinkable today with the extremely fast Internet speeds that are available, but this is how we made it work for our clients and their learners.
2010 — Trivantis Lectora
Years later with the advancement of SCORM compliant e-learning courseware authoring software we started using Trivantis Lectora as a wrapper for the Flash modules, and with Internet bandwidth speeds increasing we started using higher and higher resolution images and videos.
2012 — Articulate Storyline
In 2012, after Apple’s decision to block Flash from its devices and with Adobe’s end of development for the Flash Player on mobile devices, we stopped using Flash for new clients and started using Articulate Storyline. It was a great tool to use because it had an easy to learn interface, similar to PowerPoint, and also had a timeline like Flash to synchronize audio narrations with animations. Other tools at the time like Lectora did not have a timeline which made syncing animations much more time consuming.
2015 — Storyline vs. Captivate
In 2015 we started using Adobe Captive because of its responsive design capabilities. You now had 3 slide layouts to consider: mobile, tablet, and desktop — instead of just 1 in Storyline. We quickly determined that the extra time involved in realigning slide contents for each layout, particularly text, was not worth it. Also in Captivate the longer the slide is in time the more the audio and the visual become out of sync. This issue was also prevalent in Flash and makes syncing audio narrations and text in long slides, very time consuming.
Working with both Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate gave us a good look at which one was more powerful and easier to use. Storyline was the clear winner, because it is easier to use. The user interface has everything you need, a click or two away, to get more done in less time. Storyline is more powerful, because it is much more customizable. If you can imagine it, something uncommon or complex, Storyline can do it. It is also smarter. For example, the timeline does not become out of sync in long slides. Storyline is also more reliable, it works the way you intend it to, with less bugs or issues than Captivate.
2025 — AI, Gamification, Dynamic Learning Content
Today, I strive to effectively make maximum use of AI in all I do professionally. I use primarily Articulate Storyline 360 for all animations and interactivity, while using tools like Vyond to create more custom immersive content and to satisfy more complex animation requirements.
I also use Articulate Storyline’s built-in AI image and video generator for hard to find images or videos that I would normally have to create in Photoshop and Camtasia by cutting, cropping, and combining images and videos, saving a tremendous amount of time.
I use AI realistic speech generators such as ElevenLabs for voice narrations, unless the client specifically requests a human narrator. Using human narrators costs more and takes longer to produce than AI narrators, and the difference in realism of the AI voice is not very noticeable.
I also make maximum use of gamification and scenario based simulations — to engage the learner and make the experience memorable — helping the learner retain the knowledge.
Presenting dynamic learning content based on the learners choices is a trend I see more and more today, versus traditional learning content that’s the same for all learners.
It is exciting to see what the future of AI holds for the e-learning industry. Will AI eventually replace instructional designers and e-learning developers? Probably not anytime soon.
Personal Interests
When I’m not in the office developing e-learning courses, I’m not traveling around the World, but I do play the electric guitar. I’ve been playing since high school where we played in the high school talent show and won 2nd place. I still have the trophy we won. After the talent show our high school asked us to play at the high school Valentine’s Dance. So we were the house band for the Valentine’s Dance. I guess technically you could say we were rock stars in high school. I have an Ibanez electric guitar and a Marshall stack amplifier.
I am a bit of a handy man in my idle time. I like to fix things around the house myself when they break, like the refrigerator, dryer, computers, carpentry, even the water heater and plumbing. It’s not glamorous but I do prefer fixing things myself versus calling a technician.
I’m also a science buff. I’m very interested in topics such as the vastness of the Universe, black holes and what’s beyond their even horizon, quantum mechanics including the double-slit experiment and its implications, spacetime and the time travel results of high speeds, the big bang versus infinity. I don’t think there’s anything more interesting than things that don’t have an answer or that no one on Earth has the absolute answer to. You wouldn’t want to get me started talking about these things, because you wouldn’t be able to get me to stop.
I also have a very large family and love to spend time with them.
Conclusion
If you’ve made it down this far, I want to thank you for visiting my portfolio and taking the time to read through it this far. I know there is a lot of information on this page but I want to have enough for you to get to know me.
I’ve been in the e-learning industry for 20 years and have seen and done a lot in this industry. Chances are that no matter how complicated or simple your project is, I would be a good addition to your project.
If I am a good fit for your project, please contact me. I am friendly, polite, and easy to get along with. It would be great to talk to you.