An interview with
Francesca Heathorn
Instructional Designer
Multimedia Developer
Creative Lead
Meet Fran Heathorn, Cobblestone Learning’s Creative Lead, who combines creativity with deep expertise in learning design. With over 15 years in the field, Fran transforms complex content into engaging learning experiences. Her background in graphic and multimedia design, from ITV Anglia to eLearning, adds a unique artistic touch to every project. At Cobblestone, Fran isn’t just designing courses – she’s crafting meaningful learning journeys. In this interview, we check in to see what new tools she’s using to keep her eLearning content modern and engaging.
Can you briefly introduce the tool or innovation that excites you most in your field?
Vyond AI animation generator has been a recent game changer for me as an instructional designer and multimedia developer.
Was there a moment you realised the potential of this tool in your work?
On a recent project, about the Code of Ethics for an electricity company, I needed something to liven up a section of the course about making ethical and compliant decisions that had too much text and not enough imagery. I thought I’d try out Vyond’s AI animation generator, and it did not disappoint.
What were the main successes using this tool?
I entered a bullet point list of the points to be covered and selected the presenter style option. From that, Vyond AI wrote me a voice-over script that auto-generated an AI voice-over. It added a music track and divided the animation into sections – one for each bullet point – with a title screen. To get to this point a few years back would have been a whole animation project in itself.
Can you explain how you have personalised or innovated with this tool to suit your specific needs or creative style?
It was a great place to be in, as I already had the whole timeline filled. And with so much time saved to get to that point, I had hours left in my budget to ‘pimp’ it by adding icons and thought bubbles with little scenes that were quick to put together with Vyond’s extensive asset library. These really brought the animation to life. I tweaked the character design and script and got a new voice-over recorded, changed the music track for something more to my taste and was pretty pleased with the result. The client was happy, too – always a bonus!
What are the implications of this tool in your field?
Having this AI tool in our toolkit makes animation much more affordable, so we can raise the standard of all our courses without necessarily raising the budget. Traditional animation techniques will always be needed for more custom requirements, but this tool is great for reducing the amount of onscreen text and keeping learners engaged.
Contact Us
Speak with Fran
If you have questions about anything you’ve just read or want to pick Fran’s brain a bit more, feel free to reach out to her via her email: fran@cobblestonelearning.com
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