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An Interactive Course by Gayle Bower
The Storyboard, Used Well
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Lessons 01–02 unlocked
Welcome · Intro
A blank page is a luxury.
Most projects don't get one.
If you build courses, campaigns, or video content for a living, you already know the real work happens before anyone opens Storyline, Rise, or Premiere.
This course teaches you how to use The Storyboard, the template you just bought (or are about to), to plan e-learning, marketing videos, or any sequenced visual content with the discipline of a working ID and the speed of a designer who knows exactly what each field is for.
We won't quiz you. We'll just walk through the template, slow it down, and show you what each field is doing under the hood.
The course is organized around ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) because that's the spine most instructional designers and content marketers already work from. Each lesson maps to a phase, so by the end you'll have built a real storyboard slide and know exactly where it sits in your production process.
First, a quick hello — then click a lesson on the left, or hit begin.
✦ Before we begin
✓ Saved
What do you build most? Optional
7 lessons · ~35 minutes
Lesson 01 · Analyze
Why storyboard at all?
The cost of fixing a slide is small. The cost of fixing a finished module is enormous. Storyboarding is where you make cheap mistakes on purpose.
The storyboard is the blueprint stage of a learning or video project. It sits between the kickoff call (where you got fuzzy goals) and the build phase (where you commit hours of design and recording time).
Where it lives in ADDIE: click a phase
AAnalyze
DDesign
DDevelop
IImplement
EEvaluate
Analyze. Before you fill a single slide, you need the audience, the gap you're closing, and the constraint (length, channel, tone). The Objective field on the storyboard is where the analyze phase lands. It forces you to declare what this slide must do before you design it.
Notice what the template asks for first: not the visual, not the script. The narrow left rail demands Slide, Module, Title, Objective, the administrative and strategic fields. That order is intentional. It's the storyboard quietly forcing you to do ADDIE in sequence.
Measurable verbs · Bloom's taxonomy, low to high
Remember
define · list · label · recall
Understand
explain · summarize · classify
Apply
use · demonstrate · solve
Analyze
compare · differentiate · test
Evaluate
critique · justify · prioritize
Create
design · compose · storyboard
✦
Knowledge check · Objectives
Multiple choice
1. Which of these is a measurable learning objective?
Why
A measurable objective uses an observable verb (report) and names the actual behavior. "Understand" and "know" happen invisibly in someone's head — you can't see or assess them.
2. The storyboard's Objective field should hold…
Why
One slide, one job: a single measurable outcome — not a topic, and not the whole module's table of contents.
Lesson 02 · Design
Anatomy of the template
Hover or tap each field. Each one is doing a specific job, and most people fill them in the wrong order.
Slide
Module
Title
Objective
Notes
↔ Visual
Slide
Where you are in the sequence
A simple identifier, like 03 of 24 or S07, whatever your project uses. Boring but critical: when reviewers leave comments, this is the only field that lets them point at the right slide.
The Script with Action/Timing bar runs full-width across the bottom for a reason: voiceover or on-screen copy is the longest piece of writing on any slide, and it deserves the room. We'll spend Lesson 03 just on this field.
✦
Practice · Build the slide
Drag & drop
Here are five pieces of one real slide, jumbled up. Drag each card into the field where it belongs.
Pieces to place
The first 30 days
Learner can name 3 onboarding milestones
Split screen: new-hire photo left, 3-step timeline right
[0:00–0:06] VO: "Your first month sets the rhythm."
Captions required; SME sign-off pending on milestone 2
Title
Objective
Visual
Script with Action / Timing
Notes
Lesson 03 · Develop
Writing the script
The Script field is where most storyboards quietly fail. Here's how to write one that a developer or video editor can actually build from.
A good script line tells the reader three things at once: what the learner hears, what's happening on screen, and roughly when. Compare:
What people write
"Talk about why feedback matters and show the diagram."
What the team needs
"[0:00–0:08] VO: 'Feedback works when it's specific, timely, and kind.' [0:04] Three-circle diagram fades in, one circle per word."
That's the difference between a storyboard that gets approved and one that triggers a re-write loop. The format that holds up is:
[0:00–0:08]
Time range start to finish for this beat
VO:
Exact words the narrator will say in quotes
[0:04]
Cue points where visuals change tied to the VO
ACTION:
What appears, fades, animates, or disappears plain language
✦
Practice · Map VO to timing
Drag & drop
These four voiceover lines belong to one 24-second slide. Drag each line into the time slot where it plays.
Voiceover lines
"By day fourteen, you'll have a draft of your quarter goals."
"Your first month sets the rhythm for everything after."
"And by day thirty, your manager asks what you want to own next."
"By day seven, you'll have met your team and shipped one small thing."
[0:00–0:06]
[0:06–0:12]
[0:12–0:18]
[0:18–0:24]
Lesson 04 · Develop
The visual column
The big white box on the right. It is not a finished design. It's a description of one.
You don't need to be an illustrator to fill the Visual field. You need to be specific enough that the person building the slide doesn't have to guess. Three things make a visual brief usable:
- A composition note: left/right/center, full-bleed, split-screen, etc.
- A content note: what's actually depicted (a chart, a person, a UI mockup, an icon set)
- A state note: is anything animated, layered, or revealed in pieces?
- A source note if it exists: stock photo ID, brand asset name, or "to be illustrated"
Tap each item to mark it understood.
Skip the sketch. Write the brief. A clear sentence beats a bad drawing every time.
✦
Practice · Spot the build-ready brief
Drag to sort
A brief is build-ready when a designer could make it without asking a single question. Drag each one into the right bin.
Visual briefs
Left third: icon set of 3 report steps; each fades in on its VO cue. Source: brand icon library.
Add a graphic here.
Full-bleed photo of an employee at a laptop (stock #48213); dark overlay along the bottom for caption legibility.
Something visual to break up the text.
A picture about phishing.
Build-ready
Too vague
Lesson 05 · Implement
Build a slide
Your turn. Fill in a slide using the actual template structure. Try the example, or write your own. Your work stays in this browser.
Slide
Module
Title
Objective
Notes
Script with Action / Timing
Lesson 06 · Evaluate
Review & iterate
Before you send the storyboard to a stakeholder, run it through this checklist. Tap each line as you confirm it.
- Every slide has a single, measurable objective, not a topic.
- Module and Slide numbers match the project plan and tell a clear sequence.
- Scripts have quoted VO and time cues, not paraphrased intent.
- Visual descriptions name composition, content, and animated states.
- Notes capture accessibility (alt text intent, captions) and any source credits.
- A non-team-member could read any one slide and know exactly what to build.
Evaluate isn't the last phase. It's the loop. Every storyboard review is a small ADDIE cycle inside the bigger one.
When you've ticked all six, you're ready to hand off. The storyboard becomes a contract: stakeholders sign off here, before a single screen is built. That's how you avoid the eight-week rebuild.
✦
Scenario · Skip the storyboard?
Your call
You're the instructional designer on a phishing-awareness module. The deadline is tight. Your choices decide how it plays out.