Using animation effectively in training courses
This was a concept that we pioneered about five years ago. We were the first company to make extensive use of animations in various training programs made for the process industry. A classic example is the training course on Hazardous Area Instrumentation, which makes extensive use of animations to explain concepts effectively. Similarly our training course on Safety Instrumented Systems and Gas Detectors use animation extensively.
We are happy to note that the trend has caught on and the US Chemical Safety Board, has started usage of such animations in its safety training videos. Their findings are that the viewers pay more attention, understand the concept better and hence, are more likely to actually learn the stuff.
They have even started posting these videos (part video, part animation) on their own site and also on YouTube (of course!). Here is an example of one of these videos below. It shows how an innocuous device like a level instrument float, can cause a major fire due to static electricity!