How to Storyboard an eLearning Course: My Process and Template

An eLearning storyboard is a screen-by-screen blueprint of a course. It shows the on-screen text, visuals, narration script, interactions and navigation for each screen before anything is built in an authoring tool like Articulate Storyline or Rise. It's the document stakeholders review and approve, and the document developers build from.

A good storyboard is the cheapest place to catch problems. Changing a line in a document takes seconds; changing a built interaction can take hours.

Where storyboarding fits

My order of work is: needs analysis, objectives, high-level design (module list and assessment strategy), then storyboard, then prototype, then full build. If you're using a SAM-style iterative process, the storyboard for the first module is often built alongside a quick prototype so reviewers see both.

My six-column template

I storyboard in a table (Google Docs or Sheets works well) with one row per screen:

1. Screen ID: module and screen number, such as M2-S05, so feedback is easy to reference.
2. Objective: which learning objective the screen serves. If you can't fill this in, question the screen.
3. On-screen text: exactly what learners read, kept short.
4. Visuals and media: description of images, diagrams, animation or video, with file names once assets exist.
5. Narration or audio: the full script, if the course is narrated.
6. Interaction and developer notes: what's clickable, what happens on each choice, feedback text, branching destinations and accessibility notes like alt text.

The objective column is the one most templates leave out, and it's the one that does the most to keep courses lean.

Writing for each column

On-screen text should be scannable: short sentences, key terms bolded, no paragraphs that need scrolling. If the screen is narrated, follow Mayer's redundancy principle and keep on-screen text to labels and key points.

Narration is written for the ear. Use contractions, short sentences and the second person. Read every script aloud; anything you stumble over, a voice actor or text-to-speech engine will too.

Visual descriptions should be specific enough for someone else to find or create the asset: "Diagram: three-step approval flow, manager → finance → payment, with step two highlighted" rather than "flowchart."

Interactions need every path written out. For a scenario question with three choices, the storyboard should include all three feedback messages and where each one leads.

Running reviews without endless rework

• Agree on review rounds upfront. Two rounds on the storyboard is usually enough.
• One consolidated feedback document. Ask stakeholders to comment in the storyboard itself, not across emails and chats.
• Separate content accuracy from style. Subject matter experts check accuracy; the project owner signs off on tone and visuals.
• Sign-off before build. A storyboard approval means changes after development are scope changes.

Common mistakes

• Starting the storyboard before objectives are agreed, which means you'll rewrite it.
• Writing narration that repeats the on-screen text word for word.
• Leaving feedback text for interactions as "TBD," the most common source of late delays.
• Forgetting accessibility notes: alt text, captions and keyboard alternatives are design decisions. See my WCAG 2.2 checklist.
• Storyboarding text-heavy content screen by screen when it should be a job aid instead.

Visual vs text storyboards

For highly visual or animated courses, I add rough sketches or a slide-based mockup for each screen. For scenario-heavy courses, a branching map (a simple flowchart) alongside the table helps reviewers see the paths. For simple, text-based modules built in a tool like Rise, a lighter outline-style storyboard is usually enough.

Where to start

If you don't use a storyboard today, try the six columns on just one module of your next project. Even if stakeholders never see it, you'll catch gaps in feedback and logic before they cost development time.

Sources

• Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer, e-Learning and the Science of Instruction, 4th ed. (Wiley, 2016)
• Connie Malamed, Visual Design Solutions: Principles and Creative Inspiration for Learning Professionals (Wiley, 2015)