Traditionally, a storyboard is a sequence of illustrations intended to help visualize the storyline of a tv show, film, or graphic novel during the beginning production phase. As the technique grew, so did the industries that use them. Today’s modern storytellers (such as the Instructional Designer) have many different options for making a storyboard.

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A storyboard for eLearning is a document that outlines the audio-visual and text elements, interactions, navigation, and branching of an eLearning module. A storyboard contains text, images, or both and can be as detailed as the stakeholders want. They can be created with Word, PowerPoint, or an online commercial storyboard application.

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From planning every scene of a course - to mapping out an interaction or two, I think it mostly comes down to preference. I prefer a combined approach of text alongside simple thumbnail images. To that end, makestoryboard.com is an excellent tool for achieving those goals and encouraging collaboration through comments, visual feedback, and the ability to sketch new ideas and use existing images within the application.  

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Click on the storyboard images to view a couple of my samples and visit my blog to read more about my experience using them (but beware of the colloquial).