Fun with PowToon Templates

Some templates are too generic and simply serve to make your work look like everyone else's who also has access to the same template. But some templates are cool, save a ton of time, and are worth checking out!

I have a confession to make: I’m not a big fan – at all – of using templates for things like PowerPoint or even in elearning design.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule and earlier this week when I opened up PowToon to create a short promo video for an upcoming training initiative, I stumbled upon a host of templates that are actually pretty fun to play with. You can see them for yourself here.

Below is an example of something I could see using in our new employee orientation program. It took me less than 15 minutes to edit the template and get it to a place where I was happy with it. As a point of comparison, it took me about 6 hours to create a 2 minute PowToon/promo video from scratch.

https://youtu.be/cN2rucYd8E8

I work for an eye bank, so I changed the “retinal scan” in the opening sequence to “corneal scan” (corneas are the principle part of the eye we work with) and I added a note about endothelial cell count (anything over 2,500 is good) so I was able to put in a little office humor (yes, I’m totally geeky about this stuff).

As part of our new employee orientation, we introduce new staff to at least one representative from each department. We’ve toyed with the idea of assigning “buddies” – experienced co-workers from outside each new employee’s department who can offer a point of view beyond what the new employee will be exposed to on a daily basis. This template could be a fun way to introduce new staff to their “buddy”.

If you’re looking for an easy way to promote your training initiatives, and if you can find the right template (which I admit can be a big if), this could be a very quick way to bring something a little different to your staff. I definitely recommend playing around for 30-60 minutes.

I’ve found PowToon videos to be much more popular and engaging than simple emails or plain Word or PDF files. What kinds of things do you do to draw attention to new training initiatives?

Brian Washburn

Brian has over 25 years of experience in Learning & Development including the last 7 as CEO of Endurance Learning.

Brian is always available to chat about learning & development and to talk about whether Endurance Learning can be your training team’s “extra set of hands”.

See author's posts