![Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 8
The master II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning
[PowerPoint Development Tools continued
storyboard]
slide can be People learn best by repetition. You need to make sure that important information is presented
more than once, and in more than one way. Let your learner know what they will learn, teach
used to build a them, then remind them what you have taught. It's an old formula borrowed from public
template that speaking, but it especially works with online learning. My favorite way to do this with curricu-
lum design is to have an outline or table of contents for each learning module. This lets your
mirrors the tem- learner know what is coming (Step 1). Then provide them three to five examples of learning
plate(s) we use content (Step 2), and then give the same number of chances to prove they have absorbed the
information in the form of a quiz for review (Step 3). The quiz can be multiple choice or any
in Dreamweav- other relevant format. – 49
er. This way,
content devel- Tips on development
opers know Before you start using a tool, make sure that there is enough space for your media, including
how much sound files and video clips. How many clicks does it take for you to insert a picture? Try it out in
the trial and see whether this slows down delivery for your learners. How easy is it to collect,
screen space review, and import your results, and can you sort the results and easily edit them? Before you
they have to buy, think about the FUTURE number of trainers, translators, etc. that will need a license. How
long does it take you to convert existing content and to create new content? – 23
use. Also, copy-
When creating content for your course offering, it is always best to test the output resolution.
ing and pasting
That way you will always know that your content will be fully visible for all screen resolutions.
into Dream- Simple freeware available on the internet will allow you to quickly resize any window to any
screen resolution in just a few clicks. – 39
weaver is easy,
since it doesn't Convert as many of your content files as possible to the HTML file format. Most authoring soft-
ware will have an export-to-HTML function available. This will enable your learners to look at
copy over any the course material without any plug-ins or other software packages. – 86
extraneous code
Many current LMS / LCMSs offer a WYSIWYG editor where you can copy or paste content from
like MS Word external editors (for example, Word). However, the pasted content is often not of good quality
does. and includes Word notation, etc. A good way to keep your source simple is to copy or paste the
content into Notepad first, quickly format it there using simple HTML tags like <br>, <h1> or
Ray Miller, Program <h2> and then paste it into your WYSIWYG editor. For Firefox, copy/paste does not work via
Manager, Northrop mouse; you need to paste using a shortcut (CTRL+V). – 9
Grumman
Be consistent. Navigation should be consistent for all pages. – 37
Audio recording tip: Don't say “changeable things” out loud. When recording any audio narra-
tion, don't record things that frequently change. For example, if you record this script:“The price
for Product X is $19.99,” a price change will force you to re-record your audio. Instead, ensure
you show the price onscreen, but record your script this way:“Here you can see the current](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-120221054144-phpapp02/85/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-8-320.jpg)
![Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 23
[F]ollow up with II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning
a hands-on evalu- Development Tools continued
ation, that is, use
the tool to create Software Tips/Recommendations: Open Source
a typical course- Who says you need a budget? Open sourceware sites such as Sound Forge provide many tools
ware that your for editing audio and graphics that will kick your e-Learning up to the next level. And did I say
“For free?” – 22
organization pro-
duces. This is the Xerte
phase where you Take a look at Xerte from the University of Nottingham. Free, and very powerful, editor for
will see for your- learning objects deployed in the Flash Player. – 119
self how true the Xerte, a free, open source authoring tool: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~cczjrt/Editor/. A
claims made by quote from their site:“Xerte is an XML editor and run-time engine that makes it easy to create
and deploy interactive learning objects that are highly accessible and SCORM compliant. Xerte
the reviews and helps you focus on interactive design by providing tools that are fit for purpose and easy to use.
vendor are, and Users of Xerte will be familiar with Flash, and will benefit from some experience in ActionScript
or JavaScript. Having proven the potential of these tools on several major projects, we are mak-
what the hidden ing the tools freely available to the wider e-Learning community.” – 38
constraints are.
eXeLearning
Michael Ciambella,
Director of Learning An effective tool for authoring content is eXe (http://www.exelearning.org), an XHTML editing
Programs, application that you can download onto your desktop. eXe is a free download available for
Genesis HealthCare Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems, and publishes content in XHTML format which
means that you can import it easily into any LMS that supports the SCORM standards without
having to reconstruct the course from individual components. eXe has developed around for-
mal elements called instructional devices or iDevices. iDevices include a range of pedagogical
forms, e.g. objectives, advance organizers, and learning activities which constitute the equiva-
lent of the “teacher talk” in content resources designed for online learning. eXe is a brilliant
tool for those new to e-Learning to use, as it provides a simple, structured way of creating con-
tent that is pedagogically supported, as well as being created in a format that will ensure the
content can be used again regardless of any change in LMS that is made. – 32
Student-centered learning in low resource settings, eXelearning: We all put the learner or stu-
dent in the center, and try to get the e-Learner to be an e-Teacher. The only problem is that
most tools are costly. Because the tools are costly, it is more difficult to get learners to add to
the content even if they have their own expertise, especially in low resource areas or develop-
ing countries. But if you use a free open source tool for e-Learning, it is easier to give learners
and students a free hand in developing content themselves, thus increasing their learning
curve on the subject matter as well as on computer literacy. In low resource settings, it is impor-
tant that students work with a tool that is downloadable (small in size) and that does not ask
for specific plug-ins. One of the tools ITM uses is eXelearning (exelearning.org). With this tool,](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-120221054144-phpapp02/85/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-23-320.jpg)
![Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 26
[C]onsider record- II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning
ing amateur Development Tools continued
audio with the
intention of later Do the best you can to make sure you are in a quiet room with all potential interruptions elim-
inated, such as ringing phones or people knocking on your door. Don’t eliminate the people (that
replacing it with ís a drastic step!), just put a sign on your door. Also think about those noises to which you are so
a professional accustomed that they may escape your notice, such as background air conditioner hum. Close
your eyes and try to isolate individual sounds and eliminate them. Second, you may want to con-
narrator's voice, sider recording amateur audio with the intention of later replacing it with a professional narra-
because hearing tor's voice because hearing the audio can be quite a different experience from reading a script.
What looks good on paper may not seem that way when heard out loud. Because professional
the audio can be narrators (whether in your organization or outsourced) can be quite expensive, it may help to
quite a different hear the amateur audio, and through an iterative process, continue to adjust the script until you
are satisfied the wording is correct. After that, you need only utilize the services of a professional
experience from narrator once for the course. It may also help the narrator to hear the amateur audio to get a
reading a script. sense of the pace he or she should use to match the simulation events.
When recording the audio during the software simulation capture process, take pains to only
What looks good speak a step to take when not clicking, dragging, or performing the actual step. For example, if
on paper may you are simulating how to drop the File pull-down menu in Microsoft Word and then choose
the Save As option, consider using the following approach. Step 1. [Narrate] “First, open the
not seem that File pull down menu.” Step 2. {Click the File pull down menu so the simulation captures it.}
way when heard Step 3. [Narrate] “Now click the Save As option.” Step 4. {Click the Save As option so the simula-
tion captures it.} As you can see, we do not click or perform any other event until we have fin-
out loud. ished narrating the step to take. We alternate events with narration, rather than doing them at
the same time. The main reason for this is that a product like Captivate will separate the simu-
Joseph Ganci,
President & Ceo, lation into separate slides for you to edit. If you don't make any changes to the length of each
Dazzle Technologies slide, no worries, because the end result will be seamless. However, if you make adjustments to
Corp. the slides and change the timing of any of them, it is likely your audio will cut off in the middle
of a word, or you will hear other strange artifacts. You can avoid this by ensuring that each
audio narration clip is entirely self-contained within a slide. This also makes it much easier to
replace the amateur audio with professional narration later. Steps like these can save you a lot
of headaches! – 53
Captivate, Adobe: The quizzes in Captivate can be quite dysfunctional and finicky, so we gener-
ally find it works better to use buttons and track-points rather than use the quiz slides. – 3
Here is a little tip for Captivate users. Very often when using double-click boxes, depending on
the clicking speed of the user, you might end up one slide too far. The trick is to use a dummy
slide after the slide that contains the double click, it will just display for a millisecond or two,
and will ensure smooth working of your simulations. Similarly, when calling a JavaScript upon
successful completion of a series of slides, it can happen that the script isn't called when a
(scoreable) click zone is present on the last slide. There too, adding a dummy slide at the end of
the simulation will ensure proper calling of the JavaScript. – 121](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-120221054144-phpapp02/85/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-26-320.jpg)
![Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 30
If you plan to sell II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning
courses develop- Development Tools continued
ed by using an
e-Learning auth- it just generates a bunch of HTML files, then it will be a big headache to secure.
B) If you do not have an authoring tool, nor do you have your own LMS and would not want to
oring tool, please invest in one, then you may want to take a look at ScribeStudio. It is an integrated authoring- cum-
ensure that the hosting system, where you will be typically charged on a per-course and per-group-of-students
basis.The lowest tier is one course for ten students per month, and so on. Everything is Web based,
authoring tool meaning you can author your courses online, as well as host them, and make them accessible to
generates a single anybody. Believe me, this will save a huge packet for you, especially if you are a small company or a
one or two person operation. Plus, there is no headache of maintaining or upgrading any software.
executable file, The authoring environment can accept most file types including HTML, Flash, audio, video, etc.The
which can be eas- assessment tool is also pretty good, and covers most types of questions.The charges are pretty
affordable too. Please note that we are not affiliates or promoters of ScribeStudio, in fact we are
ily copy protect- ScribeStudio users (customers) and this is our own unbiased opinion. – 96
ed. If it just gen-
SumTotal Systems Toolbook/Instructor
erates a bunch of
HTML files, then it ToolBook, SumTotal Systems, Inc.: CUSTOMIZING THE CAPTION OF THE CATALOG. Normally the
caption bar of the catalog just says Catalog, but since you have the ability to create your own
will be a big catalogs, it sure would be nice to be able to change the caption to something of your own
headache to choosing, so that you can quickly distinguish the standard catalog from your own catalog. To
change the caption of your custom catalogs, all you need to do is add the following new entry
secure. to your catalog.ini file: [GENERAL] Caption=My Personal Catalog. – 30
Sangeeta Phadke, ToolBook, SumTotal Systems, Inc.: NAVIGATING THE WINDOW TO A NON-DHTML PAGE. If you
Director, Abhisam
are trying to create a hyperlink in ToolBook that will navigate your DHTML window to another
Software
Web page which is not a part of your ToolBook book, you will find that a new window will
always open in order to show that new URL. The DHTML window will refuse to let you navigate
it away from the ToolBook set of pages. This is intentional and by design – because to navigate
away from the DHTML window will cause the DHTML environment, that the book is running in,
to forget all information collected during the DHTML session. This would include things like
scoring information, LMS connectivity, Question State Data, Variables, etc. However, if you want
to FORCE it to let you navigate the window to another URL, you can do so by using the follow-
ing in the Actions Editor: On click... Display URL: javascript:window.location='http://www.
mysite.com/'. – 30
ToolBook: Use Save As... often, and after every major change! ToolBook files have a tendency
toward corruption when the file sizes are large, and it usually happens in the 11th hour. Saving
your ToolBook file with a new name, often, and after every major change, will help you quickly
get back on track. – 84](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-120221054144-phpapp02/85/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-30-320.jpg)
![Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 37
One of the most III. Tips for Using Rapid e-Learning Tools continued
valuable assets
of [Articulate Tool recommendations
Engage] is the I found a product from Wildform Software (www.wildform.com) that combines the features
you normally have to get in multiple products. These include: PowerPoint to Flash conversion,
ability to build a
screen recording, quiz creation, video-to-Flash encoding, and Flash creation. The product is
glossary. We are WildPresenter, and I've found it to be incredibly useful at a fraction of the cost of other related
products. They also have a lot of tutorials on their site, and they provide good support, which is
in an industry
really rare nowadays. – 102
that is heavy
Character Builder from Media Semantics: The only tool that provides automatic audio with TTS
with acronyms, engines. The audio is synched with the media, and also with powerful avatars. It’s fantastic for
and this is a rapid learning development. – 43
wonderful Course Genie is great for MS Word-to-HTML conversion. – 6
teaching and
Articulate Engage has become a favorite of mine. I have found that I can create interactions
resource tool. even for highly technical content, and get it across with student involvement to facilitate reten-
tion. I open a template, and see it not just as outlined in the software, but what I need to do,
Dixie Scott, Instructional
and how I use what is here. One of the most valuable assets of this program is the ability to
Designer, Blood Systems
Inc. build a glossary. We are in an industry that is heavy with acronyms, and this is a wonderful
teaching and resource tool. The tool is easy to use, and even a beginning designer can produce
high-quality training with just a little instruction. And the answer is Yes, I even use it to devise
learning games. – 33
Social networking use in Oncourse CL at higher education:“Oncourse CL” was developed by
the Sakai Community. Currently, campuses of the Indiana University System, such as Indiana
University Northwest, have been implementing Oncourse CL in terms of electronic collabora-
tion and learning. As an instructor, you can use the features of Oncourse CL not only for formal
online classes but also for projects and even social networking. Oncourse CL itself has various
features such as Syllabus, Roster, Gradebook, Assignment, and others. If you want to do elec-
tronic social networking, you might want to try the features of Forum (asynchronous) and Chat
Room (synchronous). In Forum, you are able to adjust the level of permissions, authorships, and
form posting palettes. Also, in Chat Room, you can modify viewing, editing format, recent chat
display, and authoring. One nice thing is that you can actually use both features concurrently.
For example, when you and your students implement an electronic forum in Oncourse CL, the
participants actually send their questions and concerns before inputting their opinions and
thoughts into the forum. By utilizing both features concurrently, you can motivate critical think-
ing and active learning, because the participants may have other participants' advices and
resources through both features. When occurring properly, electronic social networking may be
an effective tool for the participants to actively engage in learning. – 54](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-120221054144-phpapp02/85/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-37-320.jpg)
![Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 40
Rapid e-Learning III. Tips for Using Rapid e-Learning Tools continued
is only as good
as the thought One of the biggest challenges of an instructional designer is to find open source software tools
to cooperate with locally designed templates to automate the rapid development of content
put into its over- that is reusable and SCORM / IMS compliant. The open source software tools are necessary
all purpose. because of the lack of economical resources in the educational sector. The templates save time,
and allow developers to focus on learning production. Standard SCORM / IMS compliance guar-
Decide early on antees portability between different delivery environments. – 46
to create learn-
Captivate is a great tool that I have been using for building e-Learning modules, but in terms of
ing that is tar- comparisons there is nothing that gives the pros and cons in terms of measuring it with, say,
Articulate or Viewlet Builder. I think we need to make sure that there is a comparison among all
geted and dis-
the best selling tools so that we know what is the best one for one’s needs – 95
crete, and that
Make sure you find a product that's easy to learn to use. Some products require a long learning
is aligned to curve. If the marketing says “rapid,” make sure that's the case by using the demo version to cre-
address small ate something simple. Always use The eLearning Guild as a resource for recommended soft-
ware! – 100
learning chunks.
In other words, Thoroughly research available tools, and keep up to date with evolving releases. Before commit-
ting to one, compare them against your project's priorities, and review the tool's support for-
think less about ums. If none exist, steer clear of the tool. What makes an e-Learning tool great is its flexibility
courses and cur- for customization, ubiquitous design, ease of use, and continued developer support. – 117
ricula, and more
in terms of tuto- Specific tool tips
rials or Just-in
We use MS PowerPoint for lesson story boarding, script writing, and production notes before
Time (JIT) learn- conversion to Flash with Articulate. Since the SME, editor, graphic designer, and voice talent
share the PowerPoint file, we have devised a simple system for separating the script from pro-
ing.
duction notes. Brackets, i.e. [Name – comment text] are used for the editor to ask the SME a
Danny Ortegon, Training question or [Narrator – phonetic spelling] to guide pronunciation of a medical term.
Manager, Walgreens-
OptionCare Since all are lessons that must receive accreditation, we have to endnote all references. It is
unreasonable to expect SMEs to insert and format endnotes. Instead, the SME fills in the blanks
on a works-cited chart and puts the author's name in parentheses, i.e. (author name) in the
script. We publish the script to a MS Word document with Articulate, and an editorial assistant
uses the (author names) and works-cited chart to insert and properly format endnotes. Finally,
use the Auto Correct feature to replace short text strings with commonly typed phrases. For
example, some of our content is specific only to advanced life support providers, and is only
used for the ALS version of the lesson. Thus “[a” auto corrects to “[ALS only]”, or “[b” auto cor-
rects to “[BLS only]” or “nn” auto corrects to “no narration”. – 42
Articulate Presenter Pro. If I think the learner may use search terms which do not match the
words on the slides or in the Notes text, I add most-probable search terms in the Notes field. I](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-120221054144-phpapp02/85/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-40-320.jpg)
![Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 46
When you are IV. 9Tips for Media Tools
capturing
[audio] clips, nor- Use PowerPoint 2003 as a quick graphics tool for creating banners and logos. Open a new pres-
entation, go to File | Page Setup and select Banner (or create your own custom size). Put in a
malize each of background color, add a border, insert some clip art, add a header – knock yourself out! When
them before you you're happy with the results, go to File | Save As, and in the Save As Type dialog box at the very
bottom, pick GIF, JPEG, or PNG. Give your file a name and save it. You'll be prompted as to which
edit and save slides to export. If you've created multiple slides and choose to save "Every Slide," PowerPoint
them. That can will save them in a folder as individual graphics, naming them Slide1, Slide2, and so on. If you
want to give each slide a unique name, choose "Current Slide Only" to save each graphic one at
make the editing a time. This is a very quick way to create a basic graphic, and can be used by those familiar with
process much MS Office, but not familiar with the more powerful graphics programs. In fact, even those
graphics pros who use Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, or Freehand might choose this when a
easier and com- quick turnaround is needed, but the industrial-strength feature sets are not. – 14
pensate for mix-
Normalize your audio carefully. Whichever tool you use, make sure to normalize your audio to a
ing clips from consistent level. Normalizing audio makes each clip sound roughly as loud as the others, and
prevents users from being deafened or hearing whispering. Seeing as I make courses where the
different record-
audio carries up to 80% of the information, getting the voice right is really important to me.
ing sessions too. When you are capturing clips, normalize each of them before you edit and save them. That can
make the editing process much easier and compensate for mixing clips from different record-
David Swaddle, Director,
ing sessions too. – 28
Healthy Media Limited
Learn Flash! Don't be afraid, just do it. Flash is a great tool even at the basic, Timeline animation
level. Take a basic course at your community college, and then explore the Web to learn from
the Flash community in cyberspace. Flash, at its basic level, has helped me create interactions
that I have used in both ToolBook and Articulate. – 51
Dreamweaver MX, Adobe: Keep it accessible! I always enable the features in Dreamweaver MX
before I start a Webpage. Go to Edit | Preferences | Accessibility and then check all the boxes to
the right (Form objects, Frames, Media, and Images). Click “OK.” – 57
The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies at http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/
Tools/media.html should be your first stop for free and commercial tools. A simple, concise
table lists each tool with a hyperlink to its respective Web site. In addition, it gives a summary
statement and availability key for each tool. – 58
Free Web 2.0 online tools are great for quickly resizing images on the fly. No software download
is required. QuickThumbnail – http://quickthumbnail.com is a favorite of mine! – 58
Snag-it (TechSmith) is a versatile and inexpensive screen capture program. Because of the
robust editing features, I am often able to use the capture directly into the courseware without
opening a professional paint package. – 59](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-120221054144-phpapp02/85/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-46-320.jpg)
![Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 47
Use PowerPoint IV. 9 Tips for Media Tools continued
2003 as a quick
graphics tool for Initially, when I wanted to include audio and video in my e-Learning content, I would reserve a
room, ask for volunteers, set up the lights and sound, and then record and/or edit the video
creating banners myself. This was a very tedious and time-consuming process. That was about five or six years
and logos. ... ago; since then I have been using a company called Digital Juice, and have accumulated a large
library of their products, including video clips, music tracks, and even sound effects (which help
[E]ven those to add depth and interest to my video files). All of their products are commercial quality, and
graphics pros they have categorized their video clips into topics such as Family and Friends, Health,
Environmental, even Extreme Sports, all of which have dozens of clips. All of their products are
who use like pieces of a puzzle, simply use whatever video editing software you have to put the puzzle
Fireworks, together! – 71
Photoshop, Remember, you can edit most clipart available within PowerPoint to suit your needs. Select the
clipart, Ungroup the layers of color used to make the image, take out the layers you don't need,
Illustrator, or
and regroup only the pieces you do. Clipart of an office picture could be ungrouped into a desk,
Freehand might computer, book, chair, etc. It's a really handy way to create what you need, without being a
graphic artist. – 111
choose this
when a quick
turnaround is
needed, but the
industrial
strength feature
sets are not.
Bob Joyce, Senior
Educational Specialist,
University of Texas M. D.
Anderson Cancer Center](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-120221054144-phpapp02/85/162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe-learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02-47-320.jpg)
162tipsandtricksforworkingwithe learningtools-111207024037-phpapp02
- 1. 162 Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools Edited by Bill Brandon
- 2. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 2 Copyright © 2007 by The eLearning Guild Published by The eLearning Guild 375 E Street, Suite 200 Santa Rosa, CA 95404 www.elearningguild.com You may download, display, print, and reproduce this material in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial use, or use within your organization. All other rights are reserved. This is a FREE Digital eBook. No one is authorized to charge a fee for it, or to use it to collect data. Attribution notice for information from this publication must be given, must credit the individ- ual contributor in any citation, and should take the following form: The eLearning Guild's Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools Readers should be aware that Internet Web sites offered as citations or sources for further infor- mation may have disappeared, or been changed, between the date this book was published and the date it is read. Other FREE Digital eBooks by The eLearning Guild include: The eLearning Guild's Handbook of e-Learning Strategy The eLearning Guild's Handbook on Synchronous e-Learning 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 328 Tips on the SELECTION of an LMS or LCMS 339 Tips on the IMPLEMENTATION of an LMS or LCMS 311 Tips on the MANAGEMENT of an LMS or LCMS Publisher:David Holcombe Editorial Director: Heidi Fisk Editor: Bill Brandon Copy Editor: Charles Holcombe Design Director: Nancy Marland Wolinski The eLearning Guild™ Advisory Board Ruth Clark, Lance Dublin, Conrad Gottfredson, Bill Horton, Bob Mosher, Eric Parks, Brenda Pfaus, Marc Rosenberg, Allison Rossett.
- 3. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 3 Table of Contents I. How to Use These Tips ............................................................. 5 A. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring and e-Learning Development Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 A. Tips on design (7 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 B. Tips on development (6 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 C. Tips on keeping the learner in mind (10 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 D. Tool selection guidelines (16 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 E. Design and development tips for educators (3 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 F. Classroom to online considerations (1 tip) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 G. Design / development team issues (3 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 H. Software tips / recommendations: Open Source (1 overall tip) . . . . . . . . . . . 23 1. Xerte (2 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 2. eXeLearning (2 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 3. Moodle (2 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 I. Software tips/recommendations: Commercial (1 overall tip) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 1. Adobe Authorware (1 tip) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 2. Adobe Captivate (3 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 3. Adobe Flash (1 tip) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 4. Articulate Presenter (1 tip) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 5. Blackboard (1 tip) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 6. CodeBaby Production Studio (1 tip) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 7. Adobe Dreamweaver (1 tip) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 8. EZLCMS (1 tip) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 7. Keynote (1 tip) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 8. Scribe Studio (1 tip) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 9. SumTotal Systems Toolbook / Instructor (5 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 10. Trivantis Lectora (2 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 J. Miscellaneous Tips (2 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 III. 39 Tips for Using Rapid e-Learning Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 A. Rapid e-Learning strategy tips (7 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 B. Tool recommendations (6 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 C. Tool selection tips (7 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 D. Specific tool tips (11 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 E. Time- and money-saving tips (8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
- 4. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 4 IV. 9 Tips for Using Media Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 V. 20 Tips for Using Simulation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 VI. 21 Tips for Combining & Deploying Authoring Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 A. Overall strategies for combining and deploying authoring tools (8 tips) . . . . 54 B. Specific combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 1. Combinations driven by PowerPoint (2 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 2. Combinations driven by Captivate (3 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 3. Combinations driven by Lectora (2 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 4. Other combinations (5 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 C. Miscellaneous tips (3 tips) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 VII. Thanks to Our Tipsters ........................................................ 63
- 5. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 5 I. How to Use These Tips A. Introduction In October and November 2007, The eLearning Guild conducted a survey of its members, ask- ing for their favorite tips for using software to create e-Learning. Members could submit tips in any or all of these five categories: Courseware authoring and e-Learning development tools, rapid e-Learning tools, simulation tools, media tools, and combining and deploying authoring tools. A total of 122 members responded to the survey, contributing 162 usable tips. As usual in our past surveys, the tips range in length from one-sentence ideas all the way up to page-long discourses. Some are very basic in nature, and others are quite advanced. We have not edited the tips in any way, other than to correct spelling – everything you see in this book is in the tipsters' own words. As a result, these tips will be useful to any designer or developer look- ing for best practices to incorporate into their own production process. We began the process of turning these tips into an organized collection by simply separating the tips into the five major categories of the survey. The largest group is the tips for authoring and development tools. The smallest group is the nine tips on using media tools. Next, we tried to sort the tips in each group into sub-categories that would help readers locate the ideas of most interest to them. We were able to do this for three of the five groups, but the two smallest (media tools and simulation tools) are presented without any kind of cate- gorization. We follow each tip with a number indicating who contributed it, and an indexed list of Tipsters appears at the end of the book. This may help you to contact Tipsters for additional information. A few tips were contributed by “Anonymous” but in most cases, you will know who provided the idea. We deeply appreciate the effort that contributors made to create these tips. We hope you find many valuable ideas here that can help you as you create content for online learning. This FREE Digital eBook would not have been possible were it not for a generous contribution to its development from these sponsors: • Trivantis (http://www.trivantis.com) • Adobe (http://www.adobe.com) • QuickLessons (http://www.quicklessons.com) • Articulate (http://www.articulate.com) If you're not familiar with their products for e-Learning, or if you haven't checked them out lately, we encourage you to take a look at your earliest convenience.
- 6. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 6 Synchronous II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / events, when recorded and e-Learning Development Tools archived, add to the asynchro- Tips on design nous materials. One of the primary things that an instructional designer has to remember is that your toolbox People often is precisely that, the method of expression for the underlying practices and procedures which establish a comprehensive set of learning around a specific focus. By focusing on the profes- ignore this sional development of the individual behind the tool, one can enhance the application of the source of gener- toolset to provide more effective training presentations with higher student information absorption and, ultimately, a better return on investment for each course. – 118 ating asynchro- nous content, While designing courseware, being content aware is essential. Balancing synchronous and asynchronous content as complimentary resources is critical to the flow of the course. but it is as qual- Synchronous events, when recorded and archived, add to the asynchronous materials. People ity critical as is often ignore this source of generating asynchronous content, but it is as quality critical as is planned asynchronous content. – 114 planned asyn- chronous con- Organize your course material into folders on your computer. This makes it much easier to cre- ate a course structure for the learner in your LMS, and also helps you to quickly locate your tent. course files when you want to modify them. – 86 Vic Divecha, eLearning Clustered layout: Ensure that groups of related content are clustered together in a layout that Specialist, University of Michigan School of does not require scrolling or searching. For example, any text, video, or image related to a con- Public Health cept or thought should fit on a screen without scrolling. – 37 Before you begin developing your course content, identify five to ten course learning objectives. Ask yourself what outcomes you would like your learners to achieve upon successful comple- tion of your course. Developing course learning objectives helps you to ensure that your con- tent is geared to these outcomes, and simplifies the next step of developing your course map. – 18 Storyboard medium – we use PowerPoint for storyboarding for the following reasons: 1. The master slide can be used to build a template that mirrors the template(s) we use in Dreamweaver. This way, content developers know how much screen space they have to use. Also, copying and pasting into Dreamweaver is easy, since it doesn't copy over any extraneous code like MS Word does. 2. Content developers can use the Notes feature to leave directions for the coder. This way the notes are attached to the storyboard. – 90
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- 8. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 8 The master II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning [PowerPoint Development Tools continued storyboard] slide can be People learn best by repetition. You need to make sure that important information is presented more than once, and in more than one way. Let your learner know what they will learn, teach used to build a them, then remind them what you have taught. It's an old formula borrowed from public template that speaking, but it especially works with online learning. My favorite way to do this with curricu- lum design is to have an outline or table of contents for each learning module. This lets your mirrors the tem- learner know what is coming (Step 1). Then provide them three to five examples of learning plate(s) we use content (Step 2), and then give the same number of chances to prove they have absorbed the information in the form of a quiz for review (Step 3). The quiz can be multiple choice or any in Dreamweav- other relevant format. – 49 er. This way, content devel- Tips on development opers know Before you start using a tool, make sure that there is enough space for your media, including how much sound files and video clips. How many clicks does it take for you to insert a picture? Try it out in the trial and see whether this slows down delivery for your learners. How easy is it to collect, screen space review, and import your results, and can you sort the results and easily edit them? Before you they have to buy, think about the FUTURE number of trainers, translators, etc. that will need a license. How long does it take you to convert existing content and to create new content? – 23 use. Also, copy- When creating content for your course offering, it is always best to test the output resolution. ing and pasting That way you will always know that your content will be fully visible for all screen resolutions. into Dream- Simple freeware available on the internet will allow you to quickly resize any window to any screen resolution in just a few clicks. – 39 weaver is easy, since it doesn't Convert as many of your content files as possible to the HTML file format. Most authoring soft- ware will have an export-to-HTML function available. This will enable your learners to look at copy over any the course material without any plug-ins or other software packages. – 86 extraneous code Many current LMS / LCMSs offer a WYSIWYG editor where you can copy or paste content from like MS Word external editors (for example, Word). However, the pasted content is often not of good quality does. and includes Word notation, etc. A good way to keep your source simple is to copy or paste the content into Notepad first, quickly format it there using simple HTML tags like <br>, <h1> or Ray Miller, Program <h2> and then paste it into your WYSIWYG editor. For Firefox, copy/paste does not work via Manager, Northrop mouse; you need to paste using a shortcut (CTRL+V). – 9 Grumman Be consistent. Navigation should be consistent for all pages. – 37 Audio recording tip: Don't say “changeable things” out loud. When recording any audio narra- tion, don't record things that frequently change. For example, if you record this script:“The price for Product X is $19.99,” a price change will force you to re-record your audio. Instead, ensure you show the price onscreen, but record your script this way:“Here you can see the current
- 9. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 9 When creating II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning content for your Development Tools continued course offering, it is always best to price for Product X.” That way, it's much easier to change the onscreen text, and you won't have to re-record your audio. Besides prices, other examples of “changeable things” could be: dates, test the output speeds, computer measurements (MB, GB, etc.), procedures that aren't finalized, etc. This tip resolution. That should not only save you time, but if you use paid professionals for your audio, money as well. – 27 way you will always know that your con- Tips on keeping the learner in mind tent will be fully ALWAYS keep your audience in mind. Don’t get too advanced in technology if the user is much visible for all more remedial. When using audio, again, keep your audience in mind. If it’s a Global audience, use a voice-over that has minimal dialect or accent. Speak slowly, clearly, concisely. ARTICULATE! screen resolu- Don't use slang. End users do what is easy, so make your modules easy to use, and easy to fol- tions. low. – 74 Fèlix Ouellet, Trainer, Simplicity: Put the most essential elements up front. Subcategories should be available in sub- Desire2Learn Inc. menus. – 37 When creating e-Learning, don't forget that you may still have users that have old monitors. Using the lowest common denominator of 800 x 600 will save many headaches for you and your users. Also keep in mind that if you do develop for 1024 x 768 monitors, make your actual screens at least 20 pixels smaller, or the learners will not see each entire screen, because the task bar will hide part of it. – 47 Use less text. Present only one thought or concept per screen. – 37 The user's experience is more important than the content. Always develop with the user in mind, and make sure the navigation is intuitive. An advanced user may want to move ahead quickly, while a novice user may want more hand holding. While it takes more resources to develop a package that users can control, it will truly benefit the users if you do. – 85 Convert all handouts to PDF, so that your students will be able to access them regardless of the software on the computer they are using. There are many free PDF converters available. – 17 Whatever tool you use, it is important to engage students from the start. Immediate success builds self-esteem, and gives the courage to go ahead. Most learners, and especially adult learners, are afraid of failure, so present them with a short, and very clearly formulated, test or learning activity that they cannot fail at. Following this up with immediate, positive feedback will fill the students with excitement, and motivate them to go ahead with the more challeng- ing material and tools. – 45
- 10. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 10 The user's experi- II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning ence is more Development Tools continued important than the content. Tap into the Power of Emotions: Recent advances in brain research in the last fifteen years have revealed the extraordinary complexities and fundamental effects of emotions on learning. This Always develop research highlights the DOMINANT power of emotions on learning. As a result, it is important with the user in to find design strategies that tap into emotions, especially in situations where you expect learners to be more self-directed and independent. Here are a few suggestions: mind, and make 1. Detect what is meaningful, expected, understood, and valued. Use relevant, concrete experi- sure the naviga- ences to build on what they already know. Through a good audience analysis, identify why the learner should care, pay attention, and remain engaged. tion is intuitive. 2. The best learning comes from concrete experiences stimulated by deep emotions. The level of emotion will influence how the learner will allocate attention, remember, and ensure reten- Phil Cowcill, Coordinator, Interactive tion and recall. Multimedia, Canadore 3. Ensure practice and feedback opportunities. The best learning comes from fun, repeated College experiences. 4. Humans are good at copying. Help learners copy and practice expertise (e.g., role modeling). 5. Use metaphors, parables, similes, analogies, stories, and patterns to enhance enjoyment, rel- evance, engagement, and understanding. 6. Use mystery and captivation to stimulate curiosity and fun. We are attracted to what appeals and is useful and relevant. More information about this research appears at: http://www.trainingplace.com/source/ research/. – 63 Transitioning from printed and talking-head types of learning to self-paced study online is like trekking the wilderness off-trail. Authors may do well to offer their learners a few smart sur- vival tools before waving goodbye! Here are a few to consider: 1. Use Clear Legends on your Map: Author new products with identifiable icons from your branding. (Add logos, your “buzz” words, recognizable titles and voices, and anything that links the online product to recognizable icons of the printed and spoken world.) 2. Share the Compass: Author new products that give people a sense of direction in their study and that make them feel on course, steadily moving in the right direction, and able to navigate the content efficiently. 3. Provision Appropriately: Author new materials in ways that meet a variety of learning needs, and offer many places for refreshing and revitalizing a genuine desire to learn and a clear sense of personal growth. 4. Welcome Them Back to Camp: Provide author resources that let learners return to camp (work) and share their great adventures around the camp fire (company outcome). – 72 Some thoughts on assessments: Many online learners stall when it comes to taking assess- ments. It is important to remember that the online courses will free the learner and the author from some of the constraints of face-to-face learning. So don't make the mistake of placing scored and recorded assessments in the middle of content where you want the learner to remain engaged and committed. By allowing unrecorded self-assessments, so that learners can
- 11. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 11 By allowing II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning unrecorded self- Development Tools continued assessments, so that learners fail and retry without fear or embarrassment, you'll get better results on the scored and report- ed assessments, which you should preferably keep separated from the learning exercises. If can fail and your learner can practice until he or she is perfect, then the only challenge to achieving perfect retry without assessment scores will be keeping them motivated and engaged. Remember to construct your course like a story, so the learner has a reason to continue and a need to know the ending. A fear or embar- separated assessment will also give you greater flexibility to impose restrictions, such as time rassment, you'll limits, number of tries, deadline dates, etc. An ideal assessment might be an applied learning exercise such as a scenario or case study, rather than a memory test. – 91 get better results on the scored and Tool selection guidelines reported assess- There is no perfect authoring tool, and probably there never will be. Each tool vendor suffers ments, which from a basic struggle between making its tool easy to use and making it powerful. Can't a tool have both? Let's think about this. If a tool had only one option in it – push a big button in the you should middle of the screen – it would be extremely easy to use, but also not at all powerful. Whatever preferably keep it ended up doing as a result of pushing that button would likely be invariable or possibly ran- domized, but not customizable in any way, as the developer has no other options except to click separated from the one button. the learning So the tool creator decides to add more features, and to make each one easy to use. Sounds good? Of course it does. However, each additional feature, no matter how easy it is to use, exercises. requires that developers learn about those features. This increases the learning curve for the tool regardless of how easy each feature is to use. As a result, many of the features will likely never Roger Mundell, CEO, Udutu.com get used. Do you know all the features available in Microsoft Word or Outlook? OK, so we'll accept the higher learning curve, because now we'll have more features available to us. After all, each one is easy to use! But what does easy to use mean? Starting with the development envi- ronment, one person's heaven is another person's hell. If you use a time-line approach, you're going to lose those developers who find that mechanism difficult because they think in terms of flow lines, events triggering new branches. Time lines do not show branching easily. Those who think in temporal terms, though, detest the idea of a flow line. Just give it to me straight, they say. There are those who love to script, others who are scared at the very thought of it. So let's forget a time line or flow line. Can't we use Wizards for all of our needs? They're so cool. After all, they're called Wizards! The trouble, though, with these little Merlins, is that they have to make a number of assumptions, or provide lots and lots of options to you to allow you the flexibility you need. Ah, there again, we are faced with a problem. Too many options make a person's head spin. Can't we have a time line instead? Or a flow line? Or both? Or... So the simple crux of the tool vendor dilemma is how to make the tool both easy to use and at the same time very powerful, allowing the developer to create almost any kind of e-Learning, in the least amount of time, and with the least amount of pain possible. To this end, some tools
- 12. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 12 Choose the II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning development Development Tools continued tool based on the most com- come close; others are far from good solutions. No tool, however, can do it all without some pain. If a tool vendor tells you otherwise, run away as fast as you can. An honorable authoring plex interaction tool vendor will give it to you straight, and talk about the tool's weaknesses as well as its you'll have to strengths. Once you've determined both, then you can decide how well that tool will work for your instructional design approach, and whether it can be used alone, together with another build for a proj- tool, or not all. – 53 ect. That way, Before you consider which set of tools to use to develop your e-Learning, you must consider you'll know the several other factors first. Following are among the most important, but are not all-inclusive. tool can handle 1. Consider the venue. Will the end result be on the Internet, on an Intranet, on CD-ROM, DVD- ROM, or a combination of these? Which browsers and computer platforms must be supported? all the interac- Which operating systems? Will it make use of Wikis or blogs, or be blended with live classroom tions you'll need. or Web conferencing? Be sure that the tool you use will allow for the venues that you need to use. Tim Jones, Senior 2. Consider the learners. Will your learners include foreign students who will need the learning Multimedia Specialist, in their language? Will you need to accommodate learners with disabilities? Will the tool you The Capital Group choose allow for performing easier translations by letting you externalize text and images with- out reprogramming? Will it make it easy to allow for accessible options to audio, video, on-screen text, and navigation? 3. Consider the content. Are you teaching accounting principles, software, or philosophy? Are you training paramedics, or teaching algebra to high school students? The content and the learn- ers dictate the design you should adopt. Only when you’ve determined how best to serve your learners should you decide what tool will accommodate your design. Don’t force-fit your design into a tool that can’t handle the features you want to include. 4. Consider portability. Will the content you create with your tool be portable to other plat- forms or other authoring tools? This is not often considered, but can be very important when your authoring tool reaches the end of its life cycle, as happened recently with Macromedia Authorware, or if you simply prefer to move to a different tool. One portability factor may be whether the tool supports XML output. XML can be ported to many platforms and venues. 5. Consider the support you will receive. Are there free or for-pay online forums? Are there expert consultants available to get you up to speed? Are there classes available? How long will the tool vendor provide free support, and what follows after that? 6. Consider your developers. Are they programmers? Are they subject-matter experts with lit- tle computer experience? Each tool provides a different experience, from simple Wizards to lots of scripting. However, don’t assume that Wizards are better than scripting just because they’re easier. They may severely limit what you can accomplish. 7. Consider how well the tool works with other tools. Often, it ís a combination of tools that will give you the best bang for your buck. – 53 Choose the development tool based on the most complex interaction you'll have to build for a project. That way, you'll know the tool can handle all the interactions you'll need. – 107
- 14. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 14 Do not assume II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning your students Development Tools continued know how to use whatever tool or Do not look for an all-in-one tool solution. Use tools for their strengths, and combine outputs. – 5 software you are Don't limit yourself to the capabilities of one authoring tool. If you do this, your content can soon using. Always become predictable and boring. Learn how to use other tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Sound Forge, and Premiere to create templates, graphics, logos, special effects, and audio and video ele- include a tutorial ments that will keep your target audience interested and coming back for more. – 71 session for stu- Here are a few tips to consider when selecting authoring and development tools: dents to get to 1. Get a demo copy of the tool and use it to build several prototypes of your courses / modules. There's nothing like a hands-on trial. know the tool or 2. Search blogs for opinions and reviews of the tool. Don't be afraid to reach out and contact software. Include peers to ask questions about their experiences. 3. Don't get “sold” by a salesperson. Always verify all features and functionality yourself. If you an exercise that desire a certain feature or functionality, you may often hear,“That will be in our next release.” is not graded, Take it with a grain of salt. If that feature or functionality is important to you, find a tool that already has it built-in. and which allows 4. Ask about customer support. Some vendors charge for this! the students to 5. Look for free stuff before making a purchase. Jane Knight maintains an excellent list of over 1,800 e-Learning tools, and she indicates which ones are free. You can find the directory at: get to know the http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/index.html. tool or software 6. Ask for references. Most vendors will be happy to put you in touch with a few of their existing customers. Give them a call and ask about their experience. Would they recommend and each other. the vendor and its products and services? – 10 Bruna Ori, Technology Integration Specialist, In order to reduce development time, development templates are essential. The authoring tool Highland Park High is not relevant to this discipline. It also requires less training of the SME's as they are entering in School content versus ISD, adult learning, etc. – 13 I've learned that e-Learning tools are as strong as you make them. Often clients specify that the deliverable be a file format that they can use. If the parameters permit it, by all means, work to do so. This often means pushing Microsoft Word or PowerPoint to their limits, but it also means learning, as a designer or developer, that Word or PowerPoint can do a lot more than you origi- nally thought. – 19 When selecting your tool for e-Learning Development – begin with the end in mind. Be very aware, in advance, what the final file format needs to be. Whether it is an internal or external client, you will save yourself a headache in the end if you know before you complete your course whether it needs to be an FLV, SWF, HTML, a nested directory structure, or a flat directory structure. For example, Articulate publishes in a nested directory structure, so if your output needs to be a flat directory, Articulate would not be the correct tool. – 48
- 15. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 15 Who says you II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning need a budget? Development Tools continued Open sourceware sites such as Determine the skill level of your content developers. While they can certainly expand their skills and knowledge, if the tool requires manual programming you may find yourself back where Sound Forge pro- you started. There are a number of available tools that do not require content developers to vide many tools understand programming code. Do some research within your organization and on the author- ing tools; make the tool fit your organization and culture, not the other way around. Be pre- for editing audio pared to spend a few months to find the right solution. – 80 and graphics 1. First and foremost, the client's key stakeholders must clearly lay down mission-critical that will kick requirements before the start of any tool evaluation. This is the blueprint that will keep the your e-Learning team grounded in reality, and not swayed by the bells and whistles of the tool. This means that the stakeholders must be experts in their own right, before they are able to state what they up to the next want out of the product. The requirements document also acts as the communiqué for the level. And did I potential vendor, so that he understands the specific requirements. 2. Reading product reviews, and going through online demos, is a good start to get an say “For free?” overview of the capabilities and limitations of a tool. The next important step is to follow up with a hands-on evaluation, that is, use the tool to create a typical courseware that your organi- Chris Wilkinson, Lead ID, zation produces. This is the phase where you will see for yourself how true the claims made by ADP the reviews and vendor are, and what the hidden constraints are. 3. We need to involve all the end-users in the hands-on evaluation of the tool. For instance, for a course development tool, it is not enough to involve just the technical staff (e.g. programmer). It is critical for the learning designer to use the tool to start his storyboarding and online design, in order to get a good feel of the usability of the tool. Multiple perspectives from different users are required for a good assessment. It is through this experience that you can ask the right ques- tions of the vendor. For instance, a tool may claim to be able to produce a courseware that is W3C compliant. By trying it out, you will be able to find out if it is W3C – Level 1, 2 or 3 compliant. Also the ease of doing so. 4. With the distribution of the organization’s workforce globally, including places where broad- band Internet is not widely accessible, content must be efficiently deliverable via the Internet. Learners should not be twiddling their fingers while waiting for the content to download. Thus, to leave no stones unturned, we should test the performance of the courseware by putting it through the entire courseware design and development process! 5. If there are doubts about a certain capability, the client should ask the vendor for a solution or a workaround. The client should test this to ensure that the solution works, and that there are no other negative implications. If there is no immediate solution, the vendor must commit to delivering the solution in a reasonable and acceptable time frame. 6.The evaluation process can be tedious due to the varied areas you must look into.Thus,keeping good documentation becomes essential.The information gathered,and decisions made at the different phases,are the building blocks for the final proposal you will make to management. 7.To conclude,an evaluation is a well-planned,systematic,and deliberate process. Buy-in of the key stakeholders is a key critical success factor. In addition, there must be a comprehensive evaluation based on established criteria,otherwise the tool purchased may end up as a white elephant! – 82
- 16. Success Story Graduate School, USDA Innovative training institution engages its national network of staff, instructors, and consultants in interactive, cost-effective online learning using Adobe® solutions Graduate School, USDA Broadening professional development opportunities www.grad.usda.com New and interactive learning technologies are replacing the traditional classroom instruction that has often required students to travel long distances. As a result, training professionals are re-evaluating continuing education methodologies in search of more efficient career development. Because government agencies and enterprises often have limited dollars for job training—particularly Industry for travel—development experts are employing cost-effective web technologies to reach individuals Continuing Education with relevant and engaging courses. As it expands its curriculum to offer more online training via Challenge these technologies, the Graduate School, USDA has turned to Adobe solutions. Deliver cost-effective and quality In 1921 the secretary of agriculture established the Graduate School, USDA to provide individuals training to individuals nationwide with opportunities for career advancement. A nationwide institution, the Graduate School enrolls Solution 200,000 participants annually and offers nearly 1,000 courses. Online training using Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional Adobe solutions for blended learning software To deliver engaging course work in synchronous and asynchronous modes to government Results employees, federal contractors, and industry professionals, the Graduate School uses the • Improved quality, interactivity, and software of Adobe solutions—its Adobe Connect Professional, Adobe Connect Training, Adobe variety of course content Flash, and Adobe Captivate. • Reached wide audience via the free, ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player Typical courses focus on necessary government skills, such as accounting and auditing, human software resources, leadership and management, and information technology. Courses generally include • Created new revenue sources by live presentations, video and audio, interactive discussions, and online testing—all delivered as increasing the number of classes part of the “GS Connect” program. and participants According to Dr. Sharon Fratta-Hill, dean of information technology at the Graduate School, the Systems At A Glance scope and quality of these courses produces new operating revenue as more courses are added and • Adobe Acrobat® Connect™ enrollment increases. “Our goal is to add experiential value to engage learners in superior ways. Professional Adobe Connect software enables us to do exactly that.” • Adobe Connect Training • Adobe Captivate™ The Graduate School’s first slate of online courses includes a customer service class that incorporates • Adobe Presenter real-time meetings with instructors, dynamic discussions, and interactive polls. Students view • Adobe Flash® videotaped examples in Flash of customer service interactions and comment on their quality. • Adobe Reader® • Platform: PCs running Microsoft® In an Earned Value Management class, participants learn from a combination of audio and Windows® Microsoft PowerPoint slides, while a pre-retirement course uses extensive video linked with PowerPoint slides. Rapid development and secure deployment The Graduate School’s technical experts used Adobe Presenter to develop courseware and create high-quality presentations from within Microsoft PowerPoint. They augmented the content with movies in Flash as well as how-to procedures and narration recorded using Adobe Captivate
- 17. The Graduate School, USDA uses Adobe software, including Adobe Connect Professional, Connect Training, Flash, and Adobe Captivate to deliver engaging course work in synchronous and asynchronous modes to government employees, federal contractors, and industry professionals. Courses generally include live presentations, video and audio, interactive discussions, and online testing—all delivered as part of the “GS Connect” program. “Our goal is to add software. By abandoning a platform of limited interaction and static instruction, the School’s experiential value to management has adopted more interactive lessons that incorporate real-time discussions, video, audio, interactive tests, and other live elements. engage learners in superior ways. Adobe Equally important, the School needed to ensure that courses would be readily available to everyone Connect software enables who wanted to take them, without requiring participants to download and purchase costly software. us to do exactly that.” In addition, Fratta-Hill notes that “when you are training people at security agencies, they are not permitted to install extra software on computers.” Because Adobe Flash Player is installed on 97% of Sharon Fratta-Hill, Dean of information technology, Internet-connected computers, there is easy access to programs for everyone. Graduate School, USDA Platform Graduate School educators agree that Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional and Adobe Connect Training are important tools for providing synchronous and asynchronous online learning solutions in geographically dispersed yet collaborative work environments. With a staff of four instructional For More Information designers, the School plans to reach its goal of deploying 20 online classes within the first year of www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/ adopting the cost-effective Adobe software and technology. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Captivate, Connect, Flash, and Reader are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the 345 Park Avenue United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. San Jose, CA 95110-2704 USA © 2007 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. www.adobe.com 95010131 09/07 R
- 18. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 18 Because the tools II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning are costly, it is Development Tools continued more difficult to get learners to While choosing a rapid interactivity building tool, make sure to first understand what kind of learning interactions you need (games, puzzles, software simulations, soft-skill simulations, sur- add to the con- veys, or even 3-D worlds!). Don't go for ready interactions just because those are available. tent even if they Understand your need, and then choose the interactions and the tool which provides those interactions. – 88 have their own expertise, espe- Get the right people. Selection of the authoring and development tool starts with selecting the right people for the tasks. The people who know the actual needs are the people who are inti- cially in low mately involved in the actual day-to-day operations in the process. These are the users of cur- resource areas or rent tool(s), and eventual users of the new tool(s). They include the current instructional designers, developers, editors, quality assurance reviewers, and the content management developing coun- expert. People who are in the leadership position, who understand the business needs and see tries. But if you beyond the current needs, should help to alert about current and future trends of business, pedagogy, and technology, and therefore highlight potential future needs. use a free open While it is good to have all people involved in the selection, to better manage the learning and source tool for development tool selection project, an experienced and mature representative of each group should be in the selection team. This team is involved in the project from the analysis and writ- e-Learning, it is ing of the requirements, to evaluation of the product, to acceptance testing of any development easier to give works that follow. This same team of people should also continue to look at enhancement to the tool for future needs. learners and stu- To manage the entire selection process and the people involved, a development tool selection dents a free hand project manager is required. This person should, ideally, also be the implementation project man- ager to continue with the work after the selection process. The selection team thus includes at in developing least the project director, the course development project manager, an e-Learning IT expert, and content them- the learning designer. The project director is required to provide guidance to the overall project objectives. S/he has an overview of the current situation and the business needs, and provides selves, thus in- insight to the future usage and technology of such a tool. Of high importance is how it might fit creasing their into the current infrastructure, and the future one. It is important to ensure that the technology of the tool does not become obsolete when it is finally implemented, as it is common to take learning curve on weeks, and sometimes months, for the selection process, training, and implementation to com- the subject mat- plete. This depends on the amount of customization work required on top of the basic tool. An expert learning designer should have experience and knowledge in content development, ter as well as on and preferably basic ideas in content management. The expert learning designer provides the computer literacy. overall learning approach and strategy adopted by the organization or school. S/he also pro- vides advice on the work of the learning designer in the process of online content develop- Inge de Waard, ment, and thus the necessary tools that the designer might require to further enhance the effi- Coordinator eLearning, ciency of the work. While her considerations on the tool are for the designer, the ultimate Institute of Tropical objectives are still to ensure the best product is provided for the learners. As the tool is meant Medicine Antwerp to be a tool for content design and development, both the learning designer and the developer should give the necessary input to the RFP, and later on, to the selection of product and vendor. The e-Learning IT expert understands the needs of the technology involved in learning content
- 19. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 19 Use Save As... II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning often, and after Development Tools continued every major change! ToolBook development. S/he is familiar with e-Learning standards, including recognized global standards and practices. As technology moves at a high speed, the IT expert should keep abreast of the files have a ten- latest development and standards in the world, and the future of this area. S/he should under- dency toward stand the current infrastructure of the organization, and how the new tool might impact on it. S/he provides the consultancy to the selection team in this area of expertise. As the selection corruption when and implementation process might take a long while before it is used, the IT expert should the file sizes are advise on the durability of the tool and technology selected. – 97 large, and it usu- Look for an authoring tool that comes with training and support. Your organization has just ally happens in spent a great deal of money to purchase the authoring tool you acquired, so make sure you take the time to learn how to use it to it's full capacity! It will make you more successful in the 11th hour. developing e-Learning content, and you will be glad to avoid the frustrations that come with Saving your learning a new product on your own. – 113 ToolBook file The top three most important considerations: Who will be the audience for the training? What is the nature of the content? Who will be authoring the content? We advise our clients that the with a new nature of the content and the audience determines the sophistication and interactivity name, often, and required of both the end result and the tool utilized. The actual tool utilized depends some- what on the sophistication and knowledge of the author. If the author in fact does have after every major instructional design and sophisticated IT ability, then the more flexibility in utilization of a tool change, will help or tools can end up with a quality result that the audience will learn from. If, however, a fairly robust result is needed with an author with limited IT and/or instructional design abilities, then you quickly get a more robust authoring tool is not only desirable, but required in order to achieve a favorable back on track. outcome. – 120 Peter Vojtik, Here are the few points which should be normally considered while selecting Authoring & Instructional Development Tools for e-Learning development’s work flow. Technologist, 1. User Interface: Normally, instructional designers who are not tech savvy will use the inter- U.S. Cellular face. 2. XML output: Editing is easier and offers cost saving when it comes to rework or change requests. 3. SCORM-compliant: The output should be at least SCORM-compliant, so that deployment on an LMS is simpler and faster. 4. Design / Layout templates: The tools should contain lot of templates, so that the course you make is engaging and varied. 5. The global elements like Header, Navigation Buttons, Scroll Bar, and Navigation Menu should be editable, and modifiable by a novice. 6. Cost efficient in terms of reviewing and prototyping. 7. A Web interface will be a bonus so that cross-functional teams in an organization can work simultaneously. – 89
- 21. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 21 E-Learning deliv- II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning ery is different Development Tools continued from classroom delivery. Don't Design and development tips for educators just record your Since my domain is educational technology, my tips are specific to teachers and educators. We slides and voice need authoring tools that teachers and educators can map to their lesson planning, and which provide them with capabilities to build up an interactive course without demanding any HTML and call it e-Learn- knowledge from them. – 76 ing. Consider that Do not assume your students know how to use whatever tool or software you are using. instead of one Always include a tutorial session for students to get to know the tool or software. Include an session with your exercise that is not graded, and which allows the students to get to know the tool or software and each other. Here in our high school, I always tell the teachers to book a lab the first time content, learners they introduce their Moodle site. They can then have students play on the site with each other, may want to either in chat or sending internal IMs. Students can ask all the questions and practice. The teacher then explains their Moodle guidelines and online class expectations. We also make come back to it sure teachers cover Netiquette at this time. Teachers, just like parents, often assume students multiple times. know more than they do. – 17 This means that It is crucially important that e-Learning authoring and development tools contribute with inno- they should con- vative ways to use Web-based learning technology towards emerging online pedagogical design principles, like templated construction and SCORM-based Open Source authoring envi- trol the timing ronment. This assists teachers and academics in the design, development, and production of and flow of the Web-based learning and teaching materials. – 46 content – not you. Classroom to online: considerations Al Moser, VP Engineering, ReadyGo There are many different approaches to transitioning from classroom training to e-Learning, and many new things to consider. 1. E-Learning delivery is different from classroom delivery. Don't just record your slides and voice and call it e-Learning. Consider that instead of one session with your content, learners may want to come back to it multiple times. This means that they should control the timing and flow of the content – not you. 2. Each learner learns differently. It is important to provide multiple presentations of the same material so that the user can find their own best path, and can resort to a different presentation if they didn't fully understand your first explanation. Include tests, examples, etc. Narrated text is almost as passive as a movie. Test questions are the most active way to engage the learner. 3. If you stick to standards like basic Web ones, you'll have much less trouble delivering your content to people using different devices. Keep in mind that not everyone uses MS-Internet Explorer on a high-resolution screen with the latest Flash, Video, and audio plug-ins. People may
- 22. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 22 Each tool pro- II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning vides a different Development Tools continued experience, from simple wizards to be coming to your content on an older laptop computer, or a cell phone. 4. Use a Web approach (like Google) rather than a print approach (like PowerPoint) to have the lots of scripting. most effective delivery. When you print content, it appears as a linear stream. Web experiences However, don’t are best when the user can jump around based on their immediate needs. 5. Minimize use of "eye-candy" (flying bullets and dancing pigs). While these are a lot of fun to assume that wiz- create, they are terribly distracting to the learner. Students should be able to quickly access the ards are better content multiple times. If you have flying bullets and videos, will this slow down their ability to see the content of interest? than scripting More about these topics at http://www.readygo.com/isd. – 1 just because they’re easier. They may severe- Design/development team issues ly limit what you Reduce dependency on content experts by recording them at the beginning of the project giv- ing a lecture on the course topic to the development team. This material will be the main infor- can accomplish. mation source for instructional designers. This strategy aims to avoid waiting for content joseph ganci, experts to fill information gaps, and therefore to keep the development on track. Close to the president & ceo, end of the project, the content experts will revise the course Beta version, and identify needed dazzle technologies corp. changes. In our experience it’s better to keep the project on schedule, even considering that it’s possible that some re-work will have to be done at the end. Content experts usually are willing to cooperate, but their daily activities leave them short of time to participate in the develop- ment. To get the most from their time, we’d rather limit their intervention to both ends of the project. – 55 Thirst Burst relieves thirst, and starch makes parch. Keep the team juicy and fluid at every step in the work. Look for constant ways for everyone to encourage creative ideas, explore new ven- ues, and stretch the limits of their tools. When teams have enthusiasm and energy, there is a momentum that pushes almost effortlessly through blocks, deadlines, and politics. Find what- ever it takes to put some “burst” into your development teams and watch them wrap that energy around learning needs, company outcomes, and break-through creations! Go ahead! Get Juicy! – 72 Work methodically with the evidence! CSI: Care, Show, and Inspire! CARE: Take the time to bring content, technical, and subject matter experts together in small ways that build a sense of “ter- rible importance” around authoring projects. Make everyone know they are indispensable. SHOW: Build learning resources that have everyone's fingerprints still on them. The final prod- uct should have elements (fingerprints) from each contributor that they can point to and say, “I did that!” Look for ways to exhibit everyone's contributions. INSPIRE: Never compromise standards, the next level of achievement, or the next great idea. Find ways to keep your devel- opment team always engaged and excited about learning resources. Find credible ways to pro- mote everything – even the impossible. – 72
- 23. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 23 [F]ollow up with II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning a hands-on evalu- Development Tools continued ation, that is, use the tool to create Software Tips/Recommendations: Open Source a typical course- Who says you need a budget? Open sourceware sites such as Sound Forge provide many tools ware that your for editing audio and graphics that will kick your e-Learning up to the next level. And did I say “For free?” – 22 organization pro- duces. This is the Xerte phase where you Take a look at Xerte from the University of Nottingham. Free, and very powerful, editor for will see for your- learning objects deployed in the Flash Player. – 119 self how true the Xerte, a free, open source authoring tool: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~cczjrt/Editor/. A claims made by quote from their site:“Xerte is an XML editor and run-time engine that makes it easy to create and deploy interactive learning objects that are highly accessible and SCORM compliant. Xerte the reviews and helps you focus on interactive design by providing tools that are fit for purpose and easy to use. vendor are, and Users of Xerte will be familiar with Flash, and will benefit from some experience in ActionScript or JavaScript. Having proven the potential of these tools on several major projects, we are mak- what the hidden ing the tools freely available to the wider e-Learning community.” – 38 constraints are. eXeLearning Michael Ciambella, Director of Learning An effective tool for authoring content is eXe (http://www.exelearning.org), an XHTML editing Programs, application that you can download onto your desktop. eXe is a free download available for Genesis HealthCare Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems, and publishes content in XHTML format which means that you can import it easily into any LMS that supports the SCORM standards without having to reconstruct the course from individual components. eXe has developed around for- mal elements called instructional devices or iDevices. iDevices include a range of pedagogical forms, e.g. objectives, advance organizers, and learning activities which constitute the equiva- lent of the “teacher talk” in content resources designed for online learning. eXe is a brilliant tool for those new to e-Learning to use, as it provides a simple, structured way of creating con- tent that is pedagogically supported, as well as being created in a format that will ensure the content can be used again regardless of any change in LMS that is made. – 32 Student-centered learning in low resource settings, eXelearning: We all put the learner or stu- dent in the center, and try to get the e-Learner to be an e-Teacher. The only problem is that most tools are costly. Because the tools are costly, it is more difficult to get learners to add to the content even if they have their own expertise, especially in low resource areas or develop- ing countries. But if you use a free open source tool for e-Learning, it is easier to give learners and students a free hand in developing content themselves, thus increasing their learning curve on the subject matter as well as on computer literacy. In low resource settings, it is impor- tant that students work with a tool that is downloadable (small in size) and that does not ask for specific plug-ins. One of the tools ITM uses is eXelearning (exelearning.org). With this tool,
- 24. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 24 Use the free tri- II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning als! Others can't Development Tools continued always tell you what tool will be students (post-graduate and Ph.D.) from low resource settings have been contributing to con- tent in medical courses. You ask learners/students to construct one part of a course, and to let best for you. their peers review it. This approach led to an increased understanding of the subject matter, Only you are and gave the students a better understanding of the didactical approaches as well, which they in turn could use in the field or in their health district. Making their input part of the course going to know will stimulate them even more to explore new ways of attaining knowledge and spreading it. that. Take advan- – 45 tage of the free trials some of Moodle these companies Moodle. We use Moodle for athletics, activities, clubs, and committees within our school and offer, and see community. It is not just for classes. – 17 what the best fit Moodle: Author locally, then deploy. Too busy to author your Moodle courses online? Install Moodle in your laptop or desktop using XAMPP or MAMP. Create your course in your local is for you and Moodle instance, and then use the Backup feature of Moodle. This results in a compressed file your company. that you can then Import later on your online Moodle site. – 92 Daniel Vaughn, Training Specialist, Capital Group Software Tips/Recommendations: Commercial Use the free trials! Others can't always tell you what tool will be best for you. Only you are going to know that. Take advantage of the free trials some of these companies offer, and see what the best fit is for you and your company. – 25 Adobe Authorware Use Authorware if you want something really interactive. Even for inexperienced developers it is possible to make nice e-Learning in a short time. And, with a little more experience, it lets you do anything you want. The only downside is that it is from Adobe now ... and they no longer invest in this perfect e-Learning tool. – 35 Adobe Captivate When working in a tool that lets you capture software simulations, such as Adobe Captivate, you often have the option to record narration while you capture the software simulation, using a micro- phone plugged into your computer.The result of this is often amateurish, and of low quality. So why do it? There are a couple of reasons why you may want to consider doing this regardless of the results. First, the resulting piece may not need to be of high quality. It may have a short shelf life, and the project budget may be low. In this case, amateur narration may be acceptable.
- 26. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 26 [C]onsider record- II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning ing amateur Development Tools continued audio with the intention of later Do the best you can to make sure you are in a quiet room with all potential interruptions elim- inated, such as ringing phones or people knocking on your door. Don’t eliminate the people (that replacing it with ís a drastic step!), just put a sign on your door. Also think about those noises to which you are so a professional accustomed that they may escape your notice, such as background air conditioner hum. Close your eyes and try to isolate individual sounds and eliminate them. Second, you may want to con- narrator's voice, sider recording amateur audio with the intention of later replacing it with a professional narra- because hearing tor's voice because hearing the audio can be quite a different experience from reading a script. What looks good on paper may not seem that way when heard out loud. Because professional the audio can be narrators (whether in your organization or outsourced) can be quite expensive, it may help to quite a different hear the amateur audio, and through an iterative process, continue to adjust the script until you are satisfied the wording is correct. After that, you need only utilize the services of a professional experience from narrator once for the course. It may also help the narrator to hear the amateur audio to get a reading a script. sense of the pace he or she should use to match the simulation events. When recording the audio during the software simulation capture process, take pains to only What looks good speak a step to take when not clicking, dragging, or performing the actual step. For example, if on paper may you are simulating how to drop the File pull-down menu in Microsoft Word and then choose the Save As option, consider using the following approach. Step 1. [Narrate] “First, open the not seem that File pull down menu.” Step 2. {Click the File pull down menu so the simulation captures it.} way when heard Step 3. [Narrate] “Now click the Save As option.” Step 4. {Click the Save As option so the simula- tion captures it.} As you can see, we do not click or perform any other event until we have fin- out loud. ished narrating the step to take. We alternate events with narration, rather than doing them at the same time. The main reason for this is that a product like Captivate will separate the simu- Joseph Ganci, President & Ceo, lation into separate slides for you to edit. If you don't make any changes to the length of each Dazzle Technologies slide, no worries, because the end result will be seamless. However, if you make adjustments to Corp. the slides and change the timing of any of them, it is likely your audio will cut off in the middle of a word, or you will hear other strange artifacts. You can avoid this by ensuring that each audio narration clip is entirely self-contained within a slide. This also makes it much easier to replace the amateur audio with professional narration later. Steps like these can save you a lot of headaches! – 53 Captivate, Adobe: The quizzes in Captivate can be quite dysfunctional and finicky, so we gener- ally find it works better to use buttons and track-points rather than use the quiz slides. – 3 Here is a little tip for Captivate users. Very often when using double-click boxes, depending on the clicking speed of the user, you might end up one slide too far. The trick is to use a dummy slide after the slide that contains the double click, it will just display for a millisecond or two, and will ensure smooth working of your simulations. Similarly, when calling a JavaScript upon successful completion of a series of slides, it can happen that the script isn't called when a (scoreable) click zone is present on the last slide. There too, adding a dummy slide at the end of the simulation will ensure proper calling of the JavaScript. – 121
- 27. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 27 Take 75% of that II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning information Development Tools continued that your SMEs have been cram- Adobe Flash ming into those Flash, Adobe: When creating e-Learning content for firewall-enabled clients (learners), it might slides and use it be a better idea to embed the audio in the SWF as opposed to streaming it (as an MP3). Some firewalls screen MP3 files, and to bypass this, the learner often doesn't want to be in a trou- as the founda- bleshooting position with the his/her IT department. – 77 tion of your nar- Articulate Presenter ration text. Articulate Presenter, by Articulate Global, Inc., has been a fantastic tool I've used to re-engineer Bonus tip: Use old boring PowerPoint presentations into interesting and engaging e-Learning modules. Here multiple voices are a few tips to help make your repurposed PowerPoint presentations more effective using Articulate: for testimonials, 1. Articulate lets you easily add narration. If you're like me, you are tired of reading the screen. characters, and Reduce everything to only bullets and images. Then, take 75% of that information that your SMEs have been cramming into those slides and use it as the foundation of your narration text. case studies. Bonus tip: Use multiple voices for testimonials, characters, and case studies (I often ask my Michael Sunnarborg, clients to do voiceover, and they love it!) Sr. Training Specialist, 2. Articulate packages your presentation into a Flash-based output file, so take advantage of Target Corporation the compression. Have you explored the custom animation effects built into PowerPoint? Well, now's your chance! Add nifty animations and movement to those boring slides, and make your images and clipart come to life. Bonus tip: If you program each animation to "on mouse click," you will have complete control over the timing of your narration and animations when you pro- duce the Articulate module. Trust me – this will impress your colleagues! 3. Articulate allows you to add attachments to your presentation. Make a nice PDF version of your presentation slides for your learners who'd like to keep an electronic copy (or for those diehard Boomers who need to "print it out"). Bonus tips: Create this attachment in PDF. Do not attach the original PPT slide deck, or learners may be tempted to edit the content. Also, if you have layered animations, be sure to create a special copy of the deck (for the PDF attachment) with each static slide displayed. Best of luck bringing your dusty PowerPoint into the 21st century! – 73 Blackboard Blackboard, Blackboard: Use a Blackboard Quiz Generator to quickly import quizzes from Notepad or Word documents into the Blackboard Pool Manager. The College of Southern Idaho generator is free for public use at http://www.csi.edu/blackboard/bbquiz/doc.asp. Use the search engine keywords “blackboard quiz generator” (without quotation marks) to find addi- tional generators. – 58
- 28. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 28 Exporting your II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning finished avatar Development Tools continued files as FLVs (Flash CodeBaby® Production Studio movies) provides the best resolu- CodeBaby Production Studio: Exporting your finished avatar files as FLVs (Flash movies) pro- vides the best resolution and smallest file size. But when you import the FLV into Flash to add tion and smallest graphical elements, controls, and background images, the audio component of the FLV disap- file size. But pears. In Flash, import the original audio file as an MP3. After some minor timeline adjust- ments, the audio file should sync up nicely with the avatar, and provide the best audio and ani- when you import mation quality. – 24 the FLV into Flash Dreamweaver to add graphical elements, con- I've updated the L5 SCORM Producer extension for Dreamweaver so that it outputs SCORM 2004 packaged content. You can create multi-SCO packages with fairly extensive metadata, trols, and back- including taxonomies. No sequencing yet. You can download it at my site (free, no strings – just ground images, remember me when you're rich and famous – or have some work). http://emdeconsulting.com. Take a look. Let me know what you think. Let me know if you want to work on it with me. – 38 the audio compo- nent of the FLV EZLCMS disappears. In I use EZLCMS. After a thorough search of available Web-based LCMS services, we selected EZ- LCMS for its cost ($199/month), student capacity (2500), ease of use, compatibility with SCORM Flash, import the 1.2, reporting, integrated assessment tools, and most importantly, the willingness of the devel- original audio file opers to work with us to add new features. It takes our PowerPoints and effortlessly inserts them into the lessons, and allows us to insert multimedia (SWF, FLV, and AVI). We have been as an MP3. able to reduce the complexity and time involved in storyboarding because EZLCMS has a built- Dan Karwoski, Senior in storyboarding feature. EZLCMS is a perfect tool for any ISD who would like to offer a learning Media Designer, Intuit portal for their customers, customized for their company. It's ideal for measuring proof of learn- ing, and includes an automatic certificate upon completion. – 34 Keynote Using Keynote to quickly create engaging Flash animations: Keynote is not just an excellent presentation tool. It also allows you to export presentations into a Flash format. This way, you can use Keynote's user-friendly tools for creating engaging visuals like animated drawings, graphs, and charts. After making your slide, simply click File | Export and choose Flash. You may also export it to a movie file! – 92 ScribeStudio A) If you plan to sell courses developed by using an e-Learning authoring tool, please ensure that the authoring tool generates a single executable file, which can be easily copy protected. If
- 29. Free Ebook: The Insider’s Guide to t Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro Get this 46-Page Ebook for Free at articulate.com/ebook One of the great benefits of rapid e-learning is the ability to create e-learning courses much faster and easier than ever before. However, going faster and making your job easier are not the only considerations. That’s where this free 46-page ebook by Tom Kuhlmann comes in. Get it now at articulate.com/ebook In it, you’ll learn: Why results are what matter, and how to focus on the correct ones How to create e-learning that contributes to the bottom line Why measuring the wrong things is a recipe for disaster How to manage expectations and enhance perceived value What learners really need (and what they don’t) Why e-learning without real world application is a waste of time How to leverage rapid e-learning tools for maximum benefit And much more... You’ll also get valuable rapid e-learning tips from Tom on a regular basis, all at no charge and all designed to make you a rapid e-learning hero. Get it now at articulate.com/ebook
- 30. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 30 If you plan to sell II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning courses develop- Development Tools continued ed by using an e-Learning auth- it just generates a bunch of HTML files, then it will be a big headache to secure. B) If you do not have an authoring tool, nor do you have your own LMS and would not want to oring tool, please invest in one, then you may want to take a look at ScribeStudio. It is an integrated authoring- cum- ensure that the hosting system, where you will be typically charged on a per-course and per-group-of-students basis.The lowest tier is one course for ten students per month, and so on. Everything is Web based, authoring tool meaning you can author your courses online, as well as host them, and make them accessible to generates a single anybody. Believe me, this will save a huge packet for you, especially if you are a small company or a one or two person operation. Plus, there is no headache of maintaining or upgrading any software. executable file, The authoring environment can accept most file types including HTML, Flash, audio, video, etc.The which can be eas- assessment tool is also pretty good, and covers most types of questions.The charges are pretty affordable too. Please note that we are not affiliates or promoters of ScribeStudio, in fact we are ily copy protect- ScribeStudio users (customers) and this is our own unbiased opinion. – 96 ed. If it just gen- SumTotal Systems Toolbook/Instructor erates a bunch of HTML files, then it ToolBook, SumTotal Systems, Inc.: CUSTOMIZING THE CAPTION OF THE CATALOG. Normally the caption bar of the catalog just says Catalog, but since you have the ability to create your own will be a big catalogs, it sure would be nice to be able to change the caption to something of your own headache to choosing, so that you can quickly distinguish the standard catalog from your own catalog. To change the caption of your custom catalogs, all you need to do is add the following new entry secure. to your catalog.ini file: [GENERAL] Caption=My Personal Catalog. – 30 Sangeeta Phadke, ToolBook, SumTotal Systems, Inc.: NAVIGATING THE WINDOW TO A NON-DHTML PAGE. If you Director, Abhisam are trying to create a hyperlink in ToolBook that will navigate your DHTML window to another Software Web page which is not a part of your ToolBook book, you will find that a new window will always open in order to show that new URL. The DHTML window will refuse to let you navigate it away from the ToolBook set of pages. This is intentional and by design – because to navigate away from the DHTML window will cause the DHTML environment, that the book is running in, to forget all information collected during the DHTML session. This would include things like scoring information, LMS connectivity, Question State Data, Variables, etc. However, if you want to FORCE it to let you navigate the window to another URL, you can do so by using the follow- ing in the Actions Editor: On click... Display URL: javascript:window.location='http://www. mysite.com/'. – 30 ToolBook: Use Save As... often, and after every major change! ToolBook files have a tendency toward corruption when the file sizes are large, and it usually happens in the 11th hour. Saving your ToolBook file with a new name, often, and after every major change, will help you quickly get back on track. – 84
- 31. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 31 While you often II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning have the option Development Tools continued of naming an e-Learning ToolBook: If you know that your ToolBook course will require a lot of ActionScript code, make sure you take advantage of the Actions Editor Compression utility available in the Developers course when Exchange Tools. This will conserve space so you can save more actions. – 84 uploading into SumTotal Systems Instructor/Articulate Presenter: While you often have the option of naming an LMS, it is an e-Learning course when uploading into an LMS, it is important to remember to have a important to course title within the course itself. Different authoring tools have different places to do this. For example, in SumTotal Systems ToolBook Instructor, under Object Properties for Book, there remember to is a field called Book title. In Articulate Presenter, when publishing to an LMS, there is a field for have a course Published title. These are where you would insert your course title before publishing and uploading to the LMS. If you leave these fields blank, once the courses are published and title within the uploaded into an LMS (such as SumTotal), you may find some reports (such as the Progress course itself. Report) will say “Untitled,” instead of the course title you used when uploading to the LMS. That is because you did not fill in these fields with the course name before publishing. – 101 Different auth- oring tools have Trivantis Lectora different places Using Trivantis Lectora Professional Publishing Suite in conjunction with Adobe Captivate and Adobe PhotoShop CS allows for quick development of courses, while still ensuring the quality to do this. of the output. Lectora provides the ability to publish to HTML, AICC, SCORM, SCORM 2004, or Steve Johnson, CD/EXE. This provides flexibility when working with multiple LMSs. Stay away from LMS-provid- Senior e-Learning ed authoring tools, unless they can publish content to a standardized output. – 4 Designer Lectora: Sometimes you need to run actions on certain objects in Lectora, such as drop-down lists. The “On Select/Change” of the drop-down list action doesn't let you specify “Conditions.” To get around this, simply create a blank group, and add the actions that you need to that group. Then on the “On Select/Change” of the drop-down list, run the action “Run Action Group,” and select the action group you just created. I believe they added “Run Action Group” in version 2007. – 40 Miscellaneous Don't know if this is what you are looking for, but it is the first thing I tell anyone about a new tool. The online user community for any tool is a great, quick resource for any problems you may be having getting the tool to work right. It seems like they are anxious to help, and many will offer to look at your course to try to figure out what is wrong. This is especially helpful if you are new to the tool. The solutions are often more usable than those offered by the help desk, and usually quicker. – 65
- 32. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 32 The online user II. 73 Tips for Using Courseware Authoring / e-Learning community for Development Tools continued any tool is a great, quick My biggest concern is hackers and I.D. thieves. How can an e-Learning novice be safeguarded? Other than that issue, this is the most effective way for a disabled individual to maximize their resource for any potential. Safeguards are the biggest issue, because some of these hackers/people are genius problems you level IQ with a warped sense of values. I wish a tool could be developed to track hackers from their intrusions into the personal lives of others. – 122 may be having getting the tool to work right. Mary Jo Coplos, Owner, Come Right Inn, LTD
- 34. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 34 Join the forums III. Tips for Using Rapid e-Learning Tools and message board communi- Rapid e-Learning strategy tips ties for the The first thing to know, even before you take the first step towards going towards a Rapid tool, e-Learning tool's is to realize the bare facts. No offense meant to all the good rapid development tools, but a you use. The Rapid e-Learning tool will only help you assemble and publish content rapidly, reducing costs and time to market. It only reduces the construction and publishing time. All the brain work is feedback, tips still your baby! In all the presentations, you only hear good things about such tools, and most and tricks, and of them are true. However, following are some of the basic additional facts that will prevent heart-burn post-buying. It will allow quick drag-and-drop integration of media assets, but will relationships rely on you to visualize media elements. It will provide all kinds of content structures and tem- built there will plates, but will rely on you to decide the instructional flow, what to represent, and how. It will ensure that your course is Section 508 compliant. but who will cook up the ALT texts and save your bacon audios and the rest? You. It will give you all the templates and interactivity, but the moment more than you you want to go a step further and customize something, there Rapid goes away! – 112 know now. Be “Rapid” indicates that you can develop and upload content very quickly. This is true – but what is also true is that you cannot necessarily proofread content as quickly as you can develop it. sure to return Even though SMEs may proof the textual content, once it is transferred to the authoring tool the favor, and the context changes. Make sure to include proofreading in the program project plan. Effective proofreading usually requires more than one set of eyes. Make a proofreading checklist that help save others includes navigation, entrance and exit strategies, graphics positioning, and content. – 21 to by participat- Save a life and be saved! Join the forums and message board communities for the e-Learning ing often! tools you use. The feedback, tips and tricks, and relationships built there will save your bacon Chris Wilkinson, more than you know now. Be sure to return the favor, and help save others to by participating Lead ID, ADP often! – 22 Content. Content. Content. Concentrate on the content, not the vehicle. Great e-Learnings that are a product of a PowerPoint to Flash conversion come from the content developed in a great PowerPoint. The best Flash vehicle can't make it look any better, or be any more instructionally sound. Concentrate on the content! – 22 Always provide a context for the learning program. Start by telling learners what's in it for them. There must be a strong and obvious connection between what they're learning in the program and how they will apply it in their jobs. Otherwise there will be no motivation for them to stick with the program. – 62 Sometimes Rapid is Slow. Road Runner, the Flash, and Speed Racer would make a great team for rapid development activites! But, it seems to me that often the work of rapid development begins with characters like Huckleberry Hound, The Tortoise without the Hare, and Sleepy with- out his buddies. The good news is that is really a great place to start. I mean you have to wind up a generator to power a source, and slow start-up teams have that effect. They connect orga-
- 35. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 35 High-end author- III. Tips for Using Rapid e-Learning Tools continued ing tools don't always translate nizational goals to the learning, identify obstacles for development teams to overcome, and build a sense of reality around the project. So, my advice is to appreciate the slow starts of to high-end rapid learning – but only until the generator powers up! – 72 learning prod- PowerPoint-to-Flash tools, such as Adobe Presenter, enable instructional designers to build ucts. “Low-end” e-Learning quickly. Rapid development tools also allow SMEs with little to no ISD or e-Learning rapid develop- design expertise to push out content quickly and cheaply. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's easier, cheaper, and faster than ever to produce poor-quality online learning. When ment tools don't “lay” development methodologies are used, the need for creativity and instructional design have to translate integrity increases. Given new tools for rapid development, our role as e-Learning designers is more critical than ever in terms of front-end analysis and design. Unlike SMEs, we are experts in to low-quality “figuring things out.” We are uniquely qualified to determine what learners need in order to e-Learning. As perform well on the job, who needs to learn what and when, and how best to convey, practice, and test new KSAs. E-Learning instructional designers can: leaders in the • Influence the quality of rapidly-developed e-Learning by guiding the use of rapid industry, the onus e-Learning tools. • Help organizations decide when to use rapid development tools, and when to invest is on us to figure more time and money to develop more robust online learning products. out ways to • Support rapid development by adapting the ADDIE model, without diluting industry best practices for product development and project management. apply rapid devel- • Provide consultation on how to transform existing PowerPoint content for delivery in a opment tools, self-paced, online format. • Help our clients avoid boring, self-paced online presentations by putting creative, re- while maintain- usable strategies in the hands of SMEs and trainers-turned-designers. ing high stan- • Work with rapid development tool vendors to increase tool functionality, portability to m-Learning devices, and compliance with Section 508 standards, so that outputs will be dards of creativi- high-quality, highly-accessible learning products. ty and instruc- Rapid e-Learning development tools are here to stay. Clients are excited about lower-cost, and quickly-created options. PowerPoint-to-Flash tools add another option to our ever-expand- tional design ing toolbox of development and delivery options. The role of e-Learning designers is to carry integrity. the banner for quality and creativity, regardless of what development tools are used. We've all seen a lot of “click and read” page-turners developed with expensive authoring tools by ISDs, Susan McDonald Osborn, graphic artists, and programmers. High-end authoring tools don't always translate to high-end Owner, Laurus Design, LLC learning products. “Low-end” rapid development tools don't have to translate to low-quality e-Learning. As leaders in the industry, the onus is on us to figure out ways to apply rapid devel- opment tools, while maintaining high standards of creativity and instructional design integrity. – 105
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- 37. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 37 One of the most III. Tips for Using Rapid e-Learning Tools continued valuable assets of [Articulate Tool recommendations Engage] is the I found a product from Wildform Software (www.wildform.com) that combines the features you normally have to get in multiple products. These include: PowerPoint to Flash conversion, ability to build a screen recording, quiz creation, video-to-Flash encoding, and Flash creation. The product is glossary. We are WildPresenter, and I've found it to be incredibly useful at a fraction of the cost of other related products. They also have a lot of tutorials on their site, and they provide good support, which is in an industry really rare nowadays. – 102 that is heavy Character Builder from Media Semantics: The only tool that provides automatic audio with TTS with acronyms, engines. The audio is synched with the media, and also with powerful avatars. It’s fantastic for and this is a rapid learning development. – 43 wonderful Course Genie is great for MS Word-to-HTML conversion. – 6 teaching and Articulate Engage has become a favorite of mine. I have found that I can create interactions resource tool. even for highly technical content, and get it across with student involvement to facilitate reten- tion. I open a template, and see it not just as outlined in the software, but what I need to do, Dixie Scott, Instructional and how I use what is here. One of the most valuable assets of this program is the ability to Designer, Blood Systems Inc. build a glossary. We are in an industry that is heavy with acronyms, and this is a wonderful teaching and resource tool. The tool is easy to use, and even a beginning designer can produce high-quality training with just a little instruction. And the answer is Yes, I even use it to devise learning games. – 33 Social networking use in Oncourse CL at higher education:“Oncourse CL” was developed by the Sakai Community. Currently, campuses of the Indiana University System, such as Indiana University Northwest, have been implementing Oncourse CL in terms of electronic collabora- tion and learning. As an instructor, you can use the features of Oncourse CL not only for formal online classes but also for projects and even social networking. Oncourse CL itself has various features such as Syllabus, Roster, Gradebook, Assignment, and others. If you want to do elec- tronic social networking, you might want to try the features of Forum (asynchronous) and Chat Room (synchronous). In Forum, you are able to adjust the level of permissions, authorships, and form posting palettes. Also, in Chat Room, you can modify viewing, editing format, recent chat display, and authoring. One nice thing is that you can actually use both features concurrently. For example, when you and your students implement an electronic forum in Oncourse CL, the participants actually send their questions and concerns before inputting their opinions and thoughts into the forum. By utilizing both features concurrently, you can motivate critical think- ing and active learning, because the participants may have other participants' advices and resources through both features. When occurring properly, electronic social networking may be an effective tool for the participants to actively engage in learning. – 54
- 38. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 38 Make sure you III. Tips for Using Rapid e-Learning Tools continued find a product that's easy to Articulate – by Articulate www.articulate.com: We spent about a year researching these prod- ucts. Articulate was the tool that out-performed the rest for converting PowerPoint presenta- learn to use. tions to Flash documents. It's very simple to use, provides a very familiar environment, and has Some products become a standard development tool within our organization. On average, depending on how much of the functionality you use, you can convert a PowerPoint presentation of any size to a require a long Flash document to load on the Web or place in an LMS within 30 minutes. – 80 learning curve. If the marketing Tool selection tips for rapid e-Learning says “rapid,” Look for these features in a Rapid e-Learning Tool – obviously every brochure or presentation make sure that's will talk about all the features. Here are some pointers to look out for: the case by • Hygiene features – Import and export features with common documentation formats such as DOC and PPT files. The tool should be able to convert a 10 page DOC or PPT to a 10 using the demo page course. version to create • Collaboration – Does the license you are budgeting for allow multiple authors and re- viewers to work on parts of a common copy? Most tools would ask you to buy an exorbi- something sim- tant enterprise version to accomplish this, and might even require substantial hardware ple. investment. • Publishing to standard LMSs – It is usually called a one-click publish, but even a multi- Shirley Solano, IT click would do. What happens if you copy and paste content from Word or PPT? The for- Training, Hudson Health matting should not go haywire. But it usually does! Plan • AICC and SCORM functionality – Not just have that, it should allow these functionalities at the click of an option button. Should not require any plug-ins or installation on client machine, except ones required to play any course-specific media elements (such as Flash player). • Ability to export course as a standalone CBT, or executable. It should run on most browser platforms. It should at least run on the browsers usually patronized by your learners. It should have some scripting functionality so that customization is possible. • Ability to embed various media elements such as Flash, director, and WMV. • Advanced features: 1) Should have functionality of software simulations to be captured. 2) Ability to create custom interactivities. 3) Scripting mode should allow function calls with embedded media elements such as Flash animations • Good to have – Especially if you have any specific Section 508 compliance needs, ensure that it has the one you are looking for. Most tools are basic 508 compliant, but may not have all the compliance parameters you are looking for. – 112 Consider first the type of content you wish to create, and then buy a tool to fit your need – and always remember that one tool will rarely meet all of your training development needs. – 41 Make use of the free trials that are available from many vendors before locking yourself into a solution. – 41
- 40. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 40 Rapid e-Learning III. Tips for Using Rapid e-Learning Tools continued is only as good as the thought One of the biggest challenges of an instructional designer is to find open source software tools to cooperate with locally designed templates to automate the rapid development of content put into its over- that is reusable and SCORM / IMS compliant. The open source software tools are necessary all purpose. because of the lack of economical resources in the educational sector. The templates save time, and allow developers to focus on learning production. Standard SCORM / IMS compliance guar- Decide early on antees portability between different delivery environments. – 46 to create learn- Captivate is a great tool that I have been using for building e-Learning modules, but in terms of ing that is tar- comparisons there is nothing that gives the pros and cons in terms of measuring it with, say, Articulate or Viewlet Builder. I think we need to make sure that there is a comparison among all geted and dis- the best selling tools so that we know what is the best one for one’s needs – 95 crete, and that Make sure you find a product that's easy to learn to use. Some products require a long learning is aligned to curve. If the marketing says “rapid,” make sure that's the case by using the demo version to cre- address small ate something simple. Always use The eLearning Guild as a resource for recommended soft- ware! – 100 learning chunks. In other words, Thoroughly research available tools, and keep up to date with evolving releases. Before commit- ting to one, compare them against your project's priorities, and review the tool's support for- think less about ums. If none exist, steer clear of the tool. What makes an e-Learning tool great is its flexibility courses and cur- for customization, ubiquitous design, ease of use, and continued developer support. – 117 ricula, and more in terms of tuto- Specific tool tips rials or Just-in We use MS PowerPoint for lesson story boarding, script writing, and production notes before Time (JIT) learn- conversion to Flash with Articulate. Since the SME, editor, graphic designer, and voice talent share the PowerPoint file, we have devised a simple system for separating the script from pro- ing. duction notes. Brackets, i.e. [Name – comment text] are used for the editor to ask the SME a Danny Ortegon, Training question or [Narrator – phonetic spelling] to guide pronunciation of a medical term. Manager, Walgreens- OptionCare Since all are lessons that must receive accreditation, we have to endnote all references. It is unreasonable to expect SMEs to insert and format endnotes. Instead, the SME fills in the blanks on a works-cited chart and puts the author's name in parentheses, i.e. (author name) in the script. We publish the script to a MS Word document with Articulate, and an editorial assistant uses the (author names) and works-cited chart to insert and properly format endnotes. Finally, use the Auto Correct feature to replace short text strings with commonly typed phrases. For example, some of our content is specific only to advanced life support providers, and is only used for the ALS version of the lesson. Thus “[a” auto corrects to “[ALS only]”, or “[b” auto cor- rects to “[BLS only]” or “nn” auto corrects to “no narration”. – 42 Articulate Presenter Pro. If I think the learner may use search terms which do not match the words on the slides or in the Notes text, I add most-probable search terms in the Notes field. I
- 41. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 41 One item that III. Tips for Using Rapid e-Learning Tools continued decision-makers fail to think also add probable search terms to the Notes field when inserting Flash files. Since I don't like the way Presenter removes formatting from the narration text, I wait until I have created my about is the final version, then use Notepad to open the presentation.xml file (in the data folder) and man- overall file size of ually insert formatting by placing the cursor in front of each new paragraph and pressing the Enter key. I found this tip on the user forum, and it has really helped me. – 81 the training. For Captivate: Here's a quick tip on how you can hide screenshot items in your training module, instance, if a using Captivate. As you record your screen and mouse movements, you can always go back training module’s after the fact and edit any “screen captures.” I prefer using Macromedia Fireworks for this. This is great in the event that you need to hide account numbers, or anything else that you don't file size is 10MB, want the learner to see. From within Captivate, go to the slide that needs editing, and then do it may take for- the following: • Right-click the screen and “Copy Background.” ever for learners • Open Fireworks (or your preferred image editor) and start a new document. to download the • Paste the screen into the window, and blur out any items you don't want to appear. • Finally,“Select All” items on the screen and click Edit | Copy. training. • Go back to the Captivate movie and Right-click “Paste as Background.” – 7 Andy Riley, e-Learning Technology Guy, Articulate and any LMS: Here's a quick tip for narrowing down the Rapid e-Learning Tool for Wachova Securities your organization. You can choose many different rapid development tools to quickly create online training. One item that decision-makers fail to think about is the overall file size of the training. For instance, if a training module’s file size is 10MB, it may take forever for learners to download the training. A work-around is to use software such as Articulate. This handy, easy-to- use software will package up your entire training module into smaller, individual files which download very fast. Similar tools are advantageous from within an LMS infrastructure, especial- ly if there is a separate “content server” involved. It just makes sense when catering to your training audience! – 7 QuickLessons, QuickMind Knowledge Management: QuickLessons’ newest version brings a “Cloning Tool” so you can easily duplicate an existing course. Just open your course, click on its name, and then click on the “Save As” button at the main menu. That way you can create a new course, and still keep valuable content from the old one. When you create a copy of your course, you save it with another name and nickname in your library. You will be able to access it nor- mally, through the home page or through the search engine. The system will duplicate every media, text, and template used in the old course. That is a handy feature to help authors who need to create similar courses, but with a few adjustments to address different target audi- ences. You can also duplicate Evaluations and Learning Objects by following the same proce- dure. – 11 Acrobat Professional, Adobe: I convert Microsoft Word documents into Acrobat PDFs with rollover fields and buttons. In these documents, I like to keep the content paired with my design notes, but I don’t want to maintain two document versions. So I create information “for my eyes only” as hidden text, which remains with my source document but is not visible when
- 42. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 42 Keep Captivate III. Tips for Using Rapid e-Learning Tools continued recordings short. The longer they the final document is created using Acrobat. For example, the source document includes hid- den text describing rollover actions and appearance, hyperlinks, and other development infor- are, the longer it mation. It might also include notes for future enhancement. If I have to update the document takes to publish later, it's easy to display the hidden text in the source document to remind me of how and why I organized content in that way. I capture information I’ll only need for the short term as a com- them, and when ment, such as a prompt to find a suitable illustration to include. These comments need not you want to become part of the final document if the end user doesn’t need them, but they’ll still be avail- able to me in the source document. I also compose text in comment boxes that will display in make small rollover fields on my final document, so I can indicate which text should appear in what area. changes to one The rollover pop-ups are contained in a single Microsoft Word document, with each pop-up box created on a separate page. When you turn that document into a PDF, the resulting pages are area, you need to easily turned into icon buttons in Adobe Acrobat and incorporated sequentially in the final doc- republish the ument. This makes it simple to manage the content for all of the rollovers in one place, rather than as individual source files. – 15 entire thing. Articulate Engage, Articulate: Use the Timeline interaction to create interactive knowledge Deborah Davidson, checks. (1) Create a customer scenario to appear on the first screen, and include a supporting IT Educator, Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Limited photo of the customer. (2) For each Milestone segment, insert a feature name instead of a date. (3) Instruct the learner to review the features (appearing in the timeline section), and click on the feature that best meets the customer's needs. Clicking on the correct choice reveals a “cor- rect” feedback message, and why it's correct. Clicking on a feature that's not the “best” choice reveals a “not best choice” feedback message with instruction to select another feature. This is a nice way to convert a pre-made template for a different use, and enhance the learner experi- ence. – 20 Captivate, Adobe: Make your Captivate screen walkthroughs sound better and more confident by recording the audio and screen actions separately. At Healthy Media we tested people's per- ceptions of some different screen captures in Captivate. In one series, the instructor recorded the audio as he recorded the movie; in the other we wrote a proper script, recorded the movie and the audio independently, and then synched them together by editing in Captivate. Users found that the movies with the independently recorded audio were easier to follow, sounded more confident, and were easier to understand. It may take a bit more effort, and therefore cost a little more, but in our opinion it's worth the investment if you’re trying to create quality learning materials. – 28 Keep Captivate recordings short. The longer they are, the longer it takes to publish them, and when you want to make small changes to one area, you need to republish the entire thing. – 29 Articulate Presenter 5 Pro, Articulate: When you need to wrap text around images on a screen, you can use more than one PowerPoint text box to do so. However, before you publish, click on each text box, and then right-click to select Grouping | Group to group them all together. This way, after you publish your project, the text boxes won't “jump around” on the screen, and will stay in place. – 51
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- 44. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 44 Record your III. Tips for Using Rapid e-Learning Tools continued audio in a sepa- rate program. Captivate, Adobe: Create a narrated tutorial with just a PowerPoint presentation and an MP3. If you already have an MP3 of a presentation, perhaps from a Podcast or previously recorded Utilizing the in- Webinar, and you want to add a visual, you could import a PowerPoint presentation into program audio Captivate and then import the MP3. When you import the MP3, Captivate will ask you how you want to distribute the audio file across the slides. If you want to manually distribute the audio, recorder and edi- you can listen to the audio and click “Start Next Slide” to sync the PowerPoint presentation tor is playing with the audio file. – 108 with fire. The typical file nam- ing and organi- Time- and money-saving tips zation is horrible, I like easy, and I found an easy way to create a room image for use as a background in CBT development. Here is what you need: 1. Internet access. 2. Snag-it. 3. Your favorite development and the quality tool (e.g. Toolbook). 4. Photoshop, or a photo editor (such as Paint.net). There are Web sites out and capabilities there that let you design a room. These are mostly real estate Web sites. I like this one from ERA: http://www.era.com/myera/createaroom/. After I create a room, I use Snag-it to grab a are limited. screen shot of it. Finally, I use the screen shot to create a background in my CBT project. – 44 Brian Dusablon, Instructional Designer, Rapid e-Learning is only as good as the thought put into its overall purpose. Decide early on to Administaff create learning that is targeted and discrete, and that is aligned to address small learning chunks. In other words, think less about courses and curricula, and more in terms of tutorials or Just-in Time (JIT) learning. – 26 Record your audio in a separate program. Utilizing the in-program audio recorder and editor is playing with fire. The typical file naming and organization is horrible, and the quality and capa- bilities are limited. For instance, we use Articulate. Rather than record in Articulate, we record using SoundForge or Audacity, and then import the files into our project. – 16 Keep the content separate from the structure. This makes changing content very easy, and saves time down the road. – 85 Using Video-Sharing On-line Tools: Embedding video in e-Learning content has always been a challenging task for all e-Learning developers, except media specialists. Distributing large video files often meant sacrificing quality to tackle bandwidth issues, as well as fitting content onto CDs. Often the solution is to place a small video embedded in the content, or just keep the file size as low as possible. Expensive studio-produced video in high-quality e-Learning content can always be accommodated – and many courses feature video that enhances the learning experi- ence. But what if your approach to designing e-Learning content is to make use of rapid e-Learning development tools? Suppose you don't want to have to worry about file formats, file size, media players, or that you don't have a studio to make high-quality video. Suppose that you have some short training videos in your organization, or that you have the facility to create sim- ple videos using a modest video recording camera or Webcam. How will you go about deliver-
- 45. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 45 When cutting III. Tips for Using Rapid e-Learning Tools continued and pasting text from Word or ing this content as part of your rapidly developed e-Learning course? Unless you are skilled with adding video to on-line- or CD-ROM-delivered content, you need to look at an easy way to other programs deliver your videos. into rapid Why not use on-line video sharing sites such as YouTube or Google Video? These easy-to-use e-Learning devel- Websites make publishing video content easy, and they accept all sorts of video formats such as AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, Real, and Windows Media. YouTube is great for short videos, while opment tools, it Google Video accepts much larger files. Anyone can access these videos over the Web, and you often is helpful do not need specialist software to view them. You can simply put a link to the on-line video in your content, and YouTube or Google Video will do the rest. You can also link to videos produced to paste the by other people – there are many examples of seminar presentations, experts giving short text first into talks, case-studies, and other useful content. While being careful about copyright infringe- ments, there is a vast untapped library of content available quickly to you at almost no cost. Notepad, and Doing a course on the development of information technology? Link to Apple’s 1984 commer- then cut and cial for the launch of the Mac, or link to the 1995 commercial for the launch of Windows 95 including the Rolling Stones “Start Me Up” song (both available on YouTube)! What about an paste into the explanation of what e-mail spam is? Where did the name come from? Link to the Monty tool. This step Python sketch about spam (where the name originally came from) for a fun, cheap, and rapid way to develop and learn. Just think, only a few short years ago how difficult this would have removes any for- been to do. Of course a major worry is security, and giving access to your videos to people that matting, and in you don’t want or need to let see them. You can share your video with everybody and make it public, or you can restrict who views the video by making it private to viewers whom you most cases select. By making the video private, only those that you want to see the video as part of an reduces the for- e-Learning program get to do so. Using video has just gotten easy! You can add video content to your course, and provide variety in the learning experience – all without expert help or high matting needed cost, and quickly too. – 31 within the rapid You can use Flash as a rapid development tool if you have created a template for e-Learning. If e-Learning tool. I have a completed storyboard and screenshots, I can develop an interactive Flash tutorial in Taft Eaker, Instructional about 2 hours. The published files are also smaller than Captivate, and load faster to the user. Designer, TIAA-CREF Tip: develop a good Flash template. – 50 Make your programs as visually rich as possible. Minimize the use of text bullet points. Subscribe to an online photo site, such as Dreamstime, to obtain high quality photos and graphics for your presentations. The quality and quantity is unbeatable. – 62 When cutting and pasting text from Word or other programs into rapid e-Learning develop- ment tools, it often is helpful to paste the text first into Notepad, and then cut and paste into the tool. This step removes any formatting, and in most cases reduces the formatting needed within the rapid e-Learning tool. – 106
- 46. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 46 When you are IV. 9Tips for Media Tools capturing [audio] clips, nor- Use PowerPoint 2003 as a quick graphics tool for creating banners and logos. Open a new pres- entation, go to File | Page Setup and select Banner (or create your own custom size). Put in a malize each of background color, add a border, insert some clip art, add a header – knock yourself out! When them before you you're happy with the results, go to File | Save As, and in the Save As Type dialog box at the very bottom, pick GIF, JPEG, or PNG. Give your file a name and save it. You'll be prompted as to which edit and save slides to export. If you've created multiple slides and choose to save "Every Slide," PowerPoint them. That can will save them in a folder as individual graphics, naming them Slide1, Slide2, and so on. If you want to give each slide a unique name, choose "Current Slide Only" to save each graphic one at make the editing a time. This is a very quick way to create a basic graphic, and can be used by those familiar with process much MS Office, but not familiar with the more powerful graphics programs. In fact, even those graphics pros who use Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, or Freehand might choose this when a easier and com- quick turnaround is needed, but the industrial-strength feature sets are not. – 14 pensate for mix- Normalize your audio carefully. Whichever tool you use, make sure to normalize your audio to a ing clips from consistent level. Normalizing audio makes each clip sound roughly as loud as the others, and prevents users from being deafened or hearing whispering. Seeing as I make courses where the different record- audio carries up to 80% of the information, getting the voice right is really important to me. ing sessions too. When you are capturing clips, normalize each of them before you edit and save them. That can make the editing process much easier and compensate for mixing clips from different record- David Swaddle, Director, ing sessions too. – 28 Healthy Media Limited Learn Flash! Don't be afraid, just do it. Flash is a great tool even at the basic, Timeline animation level. Take a basic course at your community college, and then explore the Web to learn from the Flash community in cyberspace. Flash, at its basic level, has helped me create interactions that I have used in both ToolBook and Articulate. – 51 Dreamweaver MX, Adobe: Keep it accessible! I always enable the features in Dreamweaver MX before I start a Webpage. Go to Edit | Preferences | Accessibility and then check all the boxes to the right (Form objects, Frames, Media, and Images). Click “OK.” – 57 The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies at http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/ Tools/media.html should be your first stop for free and commercial tools. A simple, concise table lists each tool with a hyperlink to its respective Web site. In addition, it gives a summary statement and availability key for each tool. – 58 Free Web 2.0 online tools are great for quickly resizing images on the fly. No software download is required. QuickThumbnail – http://quickthumbnail.com is a favorite of mine! – 58 Snag-it (TechSmith) is a versatile and inexpensive screen capture program. Because of the robust editing features, I am often able to use the capture directly into the courseware without opening a professional paint package. – 59
- 47. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 47 Use PowerPoint IV. 9 Tips for Media Tools continued 2003 as a quick graphics tool for Initially, when I wanted to include audio and video in my e-Learning content, I would reserve a room, ask for volunteers, set up the lights and sound, and then record and/or edit the video creating banners myself. This was a very tedious and time-consuming process. That was about five or six years and logos. ... ago; since then I have been using a company called Digital Juice, and have accumulated a large library of their products, including video clips, music tracks, and even sound effects (which help [E]ven those to add depth and interest to my video files). All of their products are commercial quality, and graphics pros they have categorized their video clips into topics such as Family and Friends, Health, Environmental, even Extreme Sports, all of which have dozens of clips. All of their products are who use like pieces of a puzzle, simply use whatever video editing software you have to put the puzzle Fireworks, together! – 71 Photoshop, Remember, you can edit most clipart available within PowerPoint to suit your needs. Select the clipart, Ungroup the layers of color used to make the image, take out the layers you don't need, Illustrator, or and regroup only the pieces you do. Clipart of an office picture could be ungrouped into a desk, Freehand might computer, book, chair, etc. It's a really handy way to create what you need, without being a graphic artist. – 111 choose this when a quick turnaround is needed, but the industrial strength feature sets are not. Bob Joyce, Senior Educational Specialist, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
- 48. Solution Brief Adobe eLearning solution for rapid training Rapidly create, manage, deploy, and track the effectiveness of highly engaging online training that virtually anyone can access instantly Organizations today face tremendous financial, logistical, and other challenges when training employees, channel partners, and customers: scarce training resources; complex eLearning solutions that make it difficult for all but technically minded training professionals to develop eLearning courses and curricula; costly custom eLearning solutions that require long development times; potential incompatibilities with existing user and learning management systems; and, of course, bland, lifeless training sessions that fail to produce results because they fail to engage learners. Cost-effectively transfer maximum knowledge in minimum time With the Adobe eLearning solution for rapid training, you can overcome these challenges cost- With this solution, you can: effectively and productively while increasing your ROI through faster training and better results. • Rapidly develop, update, and deliver This solution has what training professionals need to address a wide range of training needs— engaging self-paced training development of standards-compliant content, on-demand or virtual classroom deployment, and • Administer formal assessments and surveys, and measure the reliable formal assessments and reporting—at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional effectiveness of on-demand eLearning systems. It also provides comprehensive curriculum and content management capabilities presentations and integrates with common learning management and user management systems to help • Measure the effectiveness of course reduce application management costs. content and analyze training results • Increase the effectiveness of Use one solution for all your training needs instructors, and easily conduct Avoid the hassle of dealing with multiple solution offerings. With the Adobe eLearning solution virtual classes for rapid training, you can build a streamlined, fully integrated training solution that includes • Customize the look and feel of eLearning experiences Adobe® Acrobat® Connect™ Professional software for virtual classroom sessions; Adobe Presenter • Manage virtually all facets of for easy Microsoft PowerPoint authoring of self-paced training courses and on-demand multimedia employee, partner, and customer presentations; Adobe Connect Training for creating and managing eLearning courses and training curricula; and Adobe Connect Events for managing and tracking users of large online courses. • Enhance your existing corporate user and learning management systems Rapidly deliver engaging, self-paced training With this solution, nontechnical subject matter experts can leverage their Microsoft PowerPoint skills to create engaging multimedia experiences. Using their desktop computers and a microphone, trainers can easily add voice-over narration to their content from within PowerPoint. Built-in audio editing tools make it easy to isolate and cut out embarrassing pauses or slurred speech. And integrating rich media such as talking head videos, animations, or simulations is as easy as selecting a command from the Insert menu. Finished courses can be published at the click of a button—courses are automatically converted to the Adobe Flash® format and delivered live or on demand using Adobe Flash Player, which already is installed on more than 97% of Internet- connected desktops worldwide, so learners can access them instantly without cumbersome software downloads, virtually anytime and anywhere.
- 49. Administer formal assessments and gauge the effectiveness of courses With the Adobe eLearning solution for rapid training, trainers don’t need an IT department or database administrator to help them assess learners’ skills and progress or analyze the effective- ness of their courses. Trainers can integrate quizzes with course content using a range of question types—including short answer, fill-in-the-blank, true/false, matching, and Likert rating scale—add pass/fail criteria, and use question branching and custom audio-visual feedback to guide learners in their progress. Likewise, they can gauge the effectiveness of their content using a simple, web-based interface to generate custom reports that provide slide- and question-level feedback and help pinpoint content that may have to be revised to ensure trainees get the information they need. Provide instant access to online meetings and virtual classes Trainers can also use this solution to set up virtual classrooms and conduct cost-effective collaborative training sessions in real time with geographically dispersed instructors and learners, complete with multimedia presentations, software simulations, application sharing, and participant polling. Classroom sessions can be easily recorded for later on-demand viewing and shared through an instructor’s dedicated, personal meeting room that can be accessed instantly at any time by anyone using Adobe Flash Player, giving learners the opportunity to review content after the live event is over. And in the case of recurring classes, trainers can considerably reduce preparation time using customizable layouts, which they can save for future sessions, complete with all required content. Because the system supports permissions-based access to course content and meeting room layouts, multiple presenters can share meeting room templates as well as course content and assets, using a fully searchable, centralized content library, which makes it easy to find, retrieve, reuse, and update existing training content. Customize and manage all facets of online training A cost-effective training solution enables professional trainers to manage virtually all aspects of employee, partner, and customer training. With the Adobe eLearning solution, trainers can schedule courses, enroll learners, grant viewing permissions, automate enrollment notices and reminders, and track learner statistics. Trainers can also develop curriculums that drive results by combining live classes, multiple self-paced training courses, and other training content. In addition, they can easily define course prerequisites, specify optional and required modules, and establish progressive learning paths for self-paced training, live instructor-led training, and external events such as manager assessments. And, they can customize the look and feel of self- paced courses and virtual classrooms using company logos and colors, in accordance with the company brand guidelines. Leverage your existing infrastructure The Adobe eLearning solution for rapid training integrates smoothly with common corporate For more information user management and learning management systems. It supports Active Directory and LDAP for For more information on the Adobe user authentication, and all rapid training content produced with this solution is SCORM 1.2, eLearning solution for rapid training, SCORM 2004, and AICC compliant, making it easy for trainers and administrators to deliver go to www.adobe.com/products/connect/ and track courses through their existing corporate learning management systems. solutions/rapid_training. Produce measurable results with an affordable end-to-end training solution The Adobe eLearning solution for rapid training is a cost-effective end-to-end training solution that can help you solve your most challenging training issues. It enables training professionals with PowerPoint skills to develop progressive training curriculums and create and deploy standards- compliant, rich training modules that will engage minds and get your employees, partners, and Better by Adobe. ™ customers on message and up to speed in no time. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Acrobat Connect, Adobe Connect, Flash, and “Better by Adobe” are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Adobe Systems Incorporated Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Any reference to Global 345 Park Avenue Electronics and its logo is for demonstration purposes only and is not intended to refer to any actual organization. San Jose, CA 95110-2704 USA © 2006 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. www.adobe.com 95007254 9/06
- 50. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 50 Pre-record your V. 20 Tips for Simulation Tools audio and syn- chronize with 1. The simulation should be as close to the original software application as possible. 2. Highlight User Interface items for ease of use. your screen cap- 3. Include assessment questions that involve the software application. – 98 tures, it sounds When using Captivate, split your screen captures into small segments to ease editing and so much better republishing of the material. – 29 than trying to Don't be afraid to use tools differently than what they are marketed for to realize a greater capture your return on investment. For example, Captivate is one of the most highly-regarded simulation tools ever. It doesn't, however, have to be used only for simulations. Engaging courses can be audio as you built solely in Captivate, and published to .SWF, .EXE, or other formats. By using the full func- navigate a piece tionality of tools such as Captivate, you can often create robust learning solutions with very inexpensive investments in time and software. – 2 of software. For applications training, STT Trainer by Kaplan IT Learning produces all modes of training from David Swaddle, Director, Healthy Media Limited one capture: demo, training, test, live help, and documentation, as well as being an excellent v-Tool for classroom and desktop training etc. – 61 Pre-record your audio and synchronize with your screen captures, it sounds so much better than trying to capture your audio as you navigate a piece of software. Programs such as Captivate encourage users to record their screen and audio at the same time, often leading to pretty hopeless results. – 28 At our company (manufacturing industry), we have used Adobe Captivate movies for capturing software simulations with recorded audio files attached. The audio is procedural and software system information and background as the SME navigates through system screens. The audio serves a dual purpose. Our technical writers use the audio to write work instructions for our end users. I, as the ID, use the same recorded Captivate files to create software demonstrations, using the audio as a guide to build the demonstrations without always having to call the SME. After I have created the software demonstrations, I remove the audio. This also makes the Captivate files much smaller. Works like a charm. – 8 Learn enough Flash to be dangerous (basic interactivity / coding and animation). From there, the sky's the limit. – 119 Character Builder from Media Semantics: The best tool I know for serious game development. Flash output. Comes with powerful avatars (plenty of emotions and movements), automated audio with TTS engines (TTS is key to fine-tune the content, and to international developments – very interesting agreement with Loquendo, but any TTS is OK) and very powerful scenario capabilities. The limit is the designer's imagination. Full SCORM. – 43 Captivate, Adobe: To avoid a movie automatically transitioning from slide to slide, you can insert a click box on any or all slides of the simulation, and select the “Pause until the user clicks the check box” in the Options tab. Just place the click box back in a corner where it won't be
- 51. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 51 We use SnagIt to V. 20 Tips for Simulation Tools continued capture frames from the video. accidentally selected. This way the movie will not go forward until the user chooses to click a forward arrow, if you are using a skin. – 56 This way, we For simulations, here's a great tip. don't have to go 1. Write your step-by-step first. Include installation, activation, updating, removal using your back to the actu- Operating System's removal / uninstall tool, Help files, About, online support, and etc. 2. Run through the application with all the possible clicks and inputs. al application or 3. Redo, this time recording the screen or window. (We use Camtasia.) have it running 4. We use SnagIt to capture frames from the video. This way, we don't have to go back to the actual application, or have it running on the PC or Mac we use to develop the simulation. on the PC or Mac 5. Now, rather than use hotspots in Camtasia or Captivate for guided simulations, we use we use to devel- Swish. We feel that Swish is easier to use, and quicker to develop in than Flash. Our stage is 950 x 600 for 1024 x 768 screen resolution. op the simula- 6. Using Swish allowed us to build branching and self-exploration into our simulations. A tion. simulation should be just that, an annotated and encouraging simulation of the real soft- ware. Doug Marlowe, 7. For reusability, we build common software operations into Sprites, independent animations / President, CVSI Instructional Design/Sr. simulations. Teachnical Trainer, Tips for making instructions clear: Authentium, Inc. 1. Use “Click the button labeled Start” rather than Click Start. 2. Use a consistent symbol, frame, or highlight to denote a clickable region. 3. Use roll-over annotations and “Click here for help” liberally throughout your simulation. 4. Give the simulation to your parents, grandparents, sisters, and brothers. Watch them use it, but keep your mouth shut. If you have the time and equipment, you might want to bring in some strangers and video their screens and faces as they try out your simulation for usability. 5. Fine tune, fine tune, fine tune. Make sure there are no dead ends. – 34 I use Captivate for multiple stages of course development, classroom facilitated or e-Learning facilitated. It's a great authoring tool, but I've also used it to cull expertise from my Subject Matter Experts. By simply placing that individual in the driver's seat, and recording his or her screen actions and audio comments via Captivate's robust features, my hands are freed up to take copious notes. I can comfortably center my full attention on the session, because I know it’s being recorded for playback later. When an e-Learning course is ready for stakeholder feed- back, I use Captivate's print publish option to create a user-friendly, printable handout of the entire course to collect comments. The stakeholders appreciate having a professional looking, electronic version of a Word document to comment on, and I appreciate getting my feedback in a legible file. It really streamlines the whole feedback process for me. – 60
- 52. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 52 When using a V. 20 Tips for Simulation Tools continued simulation tool like Captivate, I When using a simulation tool like Captivate, I develop a standards document (aka Style Guide) of all of my capture and post-editing settings, to ensure consistency in my simulations. This develop a stan- ensures that multiple developers can work collaboratively on a project, and there is no risk of dards document noticeable differences in output. As a contractor, it also ensures that when you hand your simu- lation based e-Learning project over to your client, it can be easily maintained. – 68 (a.k.a. Style Keep current. Don't just settle for a tool because that's what was always used. A simulation tool Guide) of all of with a $400 license today has likely superseded a tool that cost $15,000 per license five years my capture and ago. Read, research, test, and always keep current. – 22 post-editing set- Let the learner make mistakes by keeping the simulation as true to a representation of the tings, to ensure original product as possible. The exploration of the simulation will increase the learner’s knowl- edge and comfort, much more than a multitude of help texts, glowing boxes, and hints that consistency in don't exist in real life directing them to a “right” answer. – 22 my simulations. Captivate, Adobe and Camtasia, TechSmith: Before you download a trial version of the software, This ensures that make sure you (and your team / customers) first complete a thorough needs analysis. What multiple devel- simulation elements do you want to add to your e-Learning courses? What features must the software offer so that you can build those elements quickly and effectively? After you down- opers can work load the trial version, have your list next to you and thoroughly test the software program collaboratively before you purchase it. – 51 on a project. If you want to author Captivate training for use on the SumTotal LMS, the published training will, by default, contain two players or control panels: the Captivate Player and the SumTotal Matthew Masci, Global Content player, the controls of which (Previous, Next, etc) won't work with the Captivate Player. Help Manager, Aconex You'll want to get rid of the SumTotal Content Player so as not to confuse your users with use- less, redundant controls. You can find the code and instructions for doing so in a PDF file called “Working with the API for SCORM Extensions in SumTotal” on the SumTotal customer service site. If you are a SumTotal customer, you should have access to this site. – 64 Bringing e-Learning to a new dimension: I use a product called CodeBaby® that allows you to have a 3-D you, giving instructions both visually and audibly. It gives the learner a connection to the instructor and the learning. It is a fantastic new way to engage the learner. – 69 When designing complex branching cases in Captivate, use a word processor with tables to script the entire case start to finish. Use each line in the table to represent a single choice. Then reference each choice to the linking page or the next branch. Doing this before you develop in Captivate will prevent errors in your linking. – 70 Camtasia Studio, TechSmith: You can create interactive software tutorials or simulations, as opposed to demonstrations, with Camtasia Studio. The key is to use the Transparent Hot Spot tool, which is one of the many Callouts available. As you are editing the movie, insert a Transparent Hot Spot around an area where you want the user to click. When the movie plays,
- 53. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 53 I originally used V. 20 Tips for Simulation Tools continued Camtasia to do screen capture it will pause according to where you placed the hot-spot caption on the timeline. Be sure you give instructions to the user of where you want them to click, either with voice narration or motion capture. other text captions. – 108 Now I use I originally used Camtasia to do screen capture motion capture. Now I use Instant Demo Instant Demo because I find it puts out a smaller SWF with greater image clarity. – 110 because I find it puts out a smaller SWF with greater image clarity. Tony Daguanno, e-Learning Designer/ Developer, Gradepoint
- 54. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 54 I recommend VI. 21 Tips for Combining and Deploying picking just a couple of Authoring Tools authoring tools, Overall strategies for combining and deploying and sticking authoring tools with those Based on feedback from students and faculty, I recommend picking just a couple of authoring when at all pos- tools, and sticking with those when at all possible. Each authoring tool comes with a different look and feel that can confuse or irritate students. If you must use different authoring tools sible. Each within a course, always use the same type of tool for the same type of material. I always use authoring tool Adobe Captivate when I want to show a demonstration. For general lecture materials, I build the lessons using an Articulate template. Although this gives the students two different looks, comes with a they at least know what type of material to expect when they get the different screens. – 104 different look Match delivery strategy to content, and vice versa. It is vital that you incorporate, as much as and feel that possible, how your audience will use what they learn in class into your course design. Other- wise, you risk simply teaching your audience how to recall information when in the context of can confuse or taking your course. It is difficult to transfer simple information, or understanding, into a context irritate stu- that requires application or evaluation. I like to use Bloom's Revised Taxonomy to align “how" my audience will learn with "what" they will learn. – 94 dents. If you must use differ- The approach we are taking is to integrate our custom-developed online offerings with the same navigational look and feel as our Intranet Web site, with some slight modifications to the ent authoring way the left navigation works as a standalone. Given that 98% of what my team creates is tools within a internal application training, we are finding many benefits to this approach, namely: 1) learners don't have to learn a new navigational interface, 2) it complies with our Cisco branding guide- course, always lines, 3) it leverages the accessibility standards we have set up for our Web sites, and 4) we can use the same incorporate performance support directly into applications with the same navigational look and feel. type of tool for the same type So far this is the easiest and fastest way to develop content. We can display videos with closed captioning, plus the interface supports keyboard keystrokes and shortcut keys when either the of material. JAWS screen reader is turned on or off. We can insert SWF files from various authoring tools like Captivate, Flash, Raptivity, Viewlet Builder, Final Cut, etc. into the content area, so we can be Sue Subocz, Interim Director, Innovative either static or dynamic with the content. Currently we use Flash Based Components to wrap Teaching Center, content with, or produce text / graphics / audio pieces, and then build the course with Dream- College of Southern weaver. Although both of these pieces of software can be complicated to use, we've simplified Maryland it so a non-programmer can put all the pieces together quickly. Eventually we will use one of the common authoring tools so we can just click “publish“ and everything will be done behind the scenes. If anyone is interested, I am more than happy to explain this approach, and show some sam- ples of how this works. It keeps the instructional designers focused on developing content, and away from any course- or content-level navigational issues. It's an SHTML/XML/CSS-based approach that allows for server-based visual changes, so we stay in lock-step with the Intranet's
- 55. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 55 Whenever I use VI. 21 Tips for Combining and Deploying Authoring any type of Po- Tools continued werPoint con- verter, like Arti- look and feel, plus being able to offer a downloadable version of the content. This approach could easily be applied to a company's external Website, and provide the same user experience culate Presenter, across Netscape, Firefox, or Internet Explorer, without any content-shifting based on your or a software SHTML code. So far, multiple learning organizations across our company have shown great interest in using this approach, because it helps us become vendor agnostic, thus allowing us simulation tool to focus our energy on finding vendors who are strong in instructional design vs. those strong like Adobe Cap- in Flash or Web design. – 75 tivate, I always Know your audience. Different audiences have widely different restrictions on the technical record my narra- capabilities of their computers. Some corporate users are still on Windows 2000. Many people in companies cannot install, or upgrade, any software. Most home users can install whatever tion first using they like. This leads to restrictions on the delivery mechanisms you can use for both Web and Audacity (or any CD based e-Learning. For secure corporate users, such as banking employees, stick to the lowest common denominators: assume Internet Explorer 5.5, Windows Media Player 6.4, Flash 5, no audio editor Quicktime, no Real Player, no Shockwave player, Adobe Acrobat Reader 3, and no ability to available). That install or upgrade. This can make things a challenge, but you can still create great e-Learning. Just do simple things like use WMP with AVIs/ASXs in MS-MPEG4 for video, rather than Flash way, I can use the video. Above all, make sure that you know the audience, test early, test often, and test again. mixing capability – 28 of the audio edi- Do not look for an “all in one” solution. Use tools for their strengths. Create a “tool box” of applications that can be used in different combinations depending on your need and content tor ... and man- creator. Example: Have a graphics tool, animation tool, screen recording tool, and a 3-D tool. Do age my audio not try to do everything in one application – 5 files in a much Just like at Sam's Club or Costco, package it, and then buy in bulk. Look at all your tools as a better way, and I package – and see what your primary vendor can “throw in” for buying several of their prod- ucts. Often it may be an add-on that you are needlessly spending money on with another com- can decide to pany – or worse, paying that vendor for separately! Combine the strength of your organization’s export my learn- buying power across all divisions to negotiate and buy all licenses in bulk. – 22 ing object in mul- When combining different authoring tools (and perhaps technologies) it’s useful to structure tiple formats ... attributes by importance – e.g. “universal attributes” which appear across most media ele- ments, or “optional” or “required” elements. This will identify the common elements, and allow Mathieu Plourde, the project team to refine content-specific approaches if needed. – 99 Instructional Designer, University of Delaware At CourseAvenue, we appreciate the value that many different software applications contribute to the overall e-Learning experience. Why not use the “best of breed” for each of the many aspects of courseware development? Adobe’s Flash allows advanced developers to create some amazing interactions for Learners. Captivate includes advanced audio editing features useful in today’s multi-media courses. Many authors begin the course development process using
- 56. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 56 Be sure to VI. 21 Tips for Combining and Deploying Authoring include the time Tools continued and budget for training team Microsoft’s ever-popular tools such as Word, or repurposing information contained in Power- Point. We encourage you to leverage the tools and expertise already within your organization members on the by selecting an authoring tool, or better yet an authoring platform, that allows you to easily applications integrate different file types and multi-media objects into your e-Learning courseware. – 103 you select. It isn't enough to Specific combinations assume one Combinations driven by PowerPoint member will We like to provide instructional designers with productivity tools that are familiar to them, and train others, or that are easy to learn and adopt. That's why we have included in our development methodolo- that members gy custom-made MS Word and MS PowerPoint templates that help them work faster while maintaining quality. Because instructional designers are confident creating and editing infor- are self-moti- mation in Word and PowerPoint objects, they can concentrate on designing without disrup- vated and will tions from the authoring environment. They don't have to know how those Word and PowerPoint templates feed later into the Flash or Toolbook components. – 55 schedule time for classes out- Whenever I use any type of PowerPoint converter, like Articulate Presenter, or a software simu- lation tool like Adobe Captivate, I always record my narration first using Audacity (or any audio side work hours. editor available). That way, I can use the mixing capability of the audio editor (to add a jingle or Jill Easterday, some sound effects) and manage my audio files in a much better way, and I can decide to Consultant export my learning object in multiple formats (Flash-Based, MP3, PDF handout, mobile-device compliant video, etc.) by simply reimporting them in another rapid development tool. – 66 Combinations driven by Captivate Combining Captivate and Articulate: Looking for an idea to spice up your Articulate presenta- tion? Instead of solely using the PowerPoint-to-Conversion functionality offered by Articulate Presenter, you can add what looks like “live video” footage to your presentation, by combining Articulate with Captivate. It's fairly easy, and adds a compelling, professional feel to your train- ing / presentation. To do so, go ahead and create your PowerPoint presentation within Articulate Presenter, then do the following: • Open Captivate, and use the tool to capture screen and mouse movements. • Export the Captivate simulation to Flash. • Create a new slide within your Articulate presentation. • Click Articulate Insert Flash Movie (locate your Captivate Flash file from above). That's it. You'll be amazed at how much more interactive you can make a simple Articulate presentation. – 7
- 57. Success Story WebAssist Market-leading developer of Adobe® software extensions relies on Adobe Captivate™ 3 and Adobe Acrobat® Connect™ Professional software to create engaging eLearning experiences WebAssist Optimizing online presence www.webassist.com In today’s time-challenged marketplace, web professionals need to build and deploy attractive, content-rich pages that can be updated quickly and easily. Since 1999, WebAssist has been making web development easier and faster for designers, developers, and e-commerce professionals with its market-leading software extensions that plug into Adobe software. Industry Technology Based in Encinitas, California, WebAssist helps individuals and businesses improve productivity, increase potential, and extend commercial opportunities with tools to build better websites. More Challenges than 250,000 developers and business owners worldwide use WebAssist products to create websites • Create interactive product demonstrations for e-commerce, enterprise, government, and education. WebAssist’s flagship product, eCart—an • Provide easy-to-follow, Adobe Dreamweaver® software extension—offers web designers a cleaner, simpler way to create customizable tutorials for end-to-end online store solutions. company’s latest product rollout WebAssist provides online training and product demonstrations in support of more than 20 Solution solutions. When the WebAssist developers needed to create a series of product demonstrations, • eLearning they turned to Adobe Captivate and Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional software to build and WebAssist is using Adobe deliver intuitive eLearning tools. By leveraging simulations created in Adobe Captivate, WebAssist Captivate and Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional to produce customers can “test drive” the company’s software and get up to speed quickly. engaging training and product demonstrations that give web Adobe Captivate flattens the learning curve developers a better understanding Joseph Lowery, vice president of marketing at WebAssist, explains that Adobe Captivate is the best of how to build feature-rich tool on the market for rapidly developing interactive tutorials, training, and product demonstrations. e-commerce sites. eLearning materials developed in Adobe Captivate empower users at all skill levels to quickly Results increase their proficiency in a wide range of business processes, such as communicating procedures, • Increased revenue from software meeting compliance standards, training co-workers, or marketing products. extensions by 44% • Reduced the time previously required “What I love about Adobe Captivate most is the fact that you can mold training to your way of to revise old video content by 85% thinking rather than having the application determine the route,” says Lowery. The WebAssist • Enhanced customers’ engagement development team used Adobe Captivate to create the tutorial for its eCart solution, enabling users with company products through to page through its online store tutorial. Users can easily navigate to any section—from creating a interactive materials catalog to checking out—and drill down for specific information. • Extended reach of customer support by offering web-based When he first encountered Adobe Captivate, Mark Fletcher, WebAssist’s training manager (whose training available any time background is eLearning and instructional design), was astounded. “When I came across the level Systems At A Glance of flexibility provided by Adobe Captivate, I was amazed at how easy it is to visualize content and • Adobe Captivate 3 make edits to audio, text, and graphic components,” he says. • Adobe Creative Suite® 3 Web Previously, WebAssist developers used a linear video-editing technology to create tutorials. As a Premium. Components used include: matter of course, each time the company launched a new version, the team needed to revise the • Adobe Flash® CS3 associated tutorials. Since it was essentially impossible to rapidly revise content using the old video • Adobe Fireworks® CS3 methods, the team basically had to create a new tutorial from scratch. • Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 • Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional
- 58. Adobe Captivate and Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional software is used to build and deliver intuitive, eLearning tools including product simulations and tutorials for WebAssist solutions including eCart. The artwork for WebAssist’s online materials is created using Adobe Fireworks CS3 software, a graphics editor that works transparently with Adobe Dreamweaver, Flash, and Illustrator software. Image files saved in Fireworks are easily exported to Adobe Captivate. “WebAssist has realized a 44% “Adobe Captivate is a tremendous time-saver in comparison to using video methodology,” says increase in extension revenue Fletcher. “We estimate that the team saves about 85% of the time that was previously spent making revisions to video presentations. I can deploy material to the team for edit and review much more during the first 12-month quickly, and we can easily make changes at the 11th hour.” period after leveraging Adobe Captivate solutions on our site.” The rapid production environment in Adobe Captivate allows Fletcher and his team to create just- Michael Lekse in-time workflows, giving them the flexibility they need to meet tight deadlines and bring products Vice president of sales to market faster. In measuring the Adobe Captivate learning curve, Fletcher estimates that users WebAssist are up to speed within two hours. Rapid development increases net results According to Michael Lekse, vice president of sales, “WebAssist has realized a 44% increase in extension revenue during the first 12-month period after leveraging Adobe Captivate solutions on our site.” Additionally, Adobe Captivate has enriched WebAssist’s ability to deliver quality service and support as part of its web development toolkits and mentoring services. “Adobe Captivate software has given WebAssist a cost-effective way to increase our community support and educate prospective clients. Our worldwide customer base needs solutions, support, and training during all international business hours. Adobe Captivate gives us the ability to communicate with visitors and customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, via self-paced, interactive tutorials and feature tours—without having to increase our departmental headcounts or outsource services,” says Lekse. “Our Solution Recipes, which explain how to create sophisticated web applications step-by-step, have significantly reduced the number of support calls.” For More Information Lekse adds that the ability to rapidly prototype eLearning modules, auto-populate graphic revisions www.adobe.com/products/captivate/ universally, and localize content inside Adobe Captivate are tremendous production time-savers. He also notes, “A really important benefit of using Adobe Captivate is that it enables us to retrieve valuable data to create and analyze reports.” Effective, seamless tool integration WebAssist relies on a wealth of Adobe solutions to enrich the eLearning experience. For example, much of the artwork for WebAssist’s online materials is created using Adobe Fireworks CS3 software, a graphics editor that works transparently with Adobe Dreamweaver, Flash, and Illustrator® software. Image files that are saved in Fireworks can be easily exported to Adobe Captivate. “The ability to launch and edit in Adobe tools like Fireworks CS3 from inside Adobe Captivate significantly streamlines our production process,” says Fletcher. In the future, WebAssist plans to use its Acrobat Connect Professional server to log user statistics so they can readily see what pages are being accessed most frequently. The challenge of providing users with trial versions of its products creates a unique blend of marketing and training opportunities for WebAssist. “Using Adobe Captivate to create presentations, we can show people how to use our software using audio, interactivity, and imagery—without requiring them to download anything,” says Fletcher. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat Connect, Adobe Captivate, Creative Suite, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, and Illustrator are either registered Adobe Systems Incorporated trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their 345 Park Avenue respective owners. San Jose, CA 95110-2704 USA © 2007 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. www.adobe.com 95009831 07/07 A
- 59. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 59 Know your audi- VI. 21 Tips for Combining and Deploying Authoring ence. Different Tools continued audiences have widely different Adobe Captivate: I have been combining both Adobe Captivate and Tech Smith's Camtasia in Articulate Presenter. I then upload the package to SumTotal Systems Total LMS 7.2. One advan- restrictions on tage to using Articulate as a framework, is that it avoids some of the problems the LMS seems the technical to have with Captivate. One tip is that in using a custom pre-loader with Captivate 3, the click boxes cease to work. Neither of Captivate’s pre-loaders, the default one, and the branded one, capabilities of cause the same problem. – 12 their computers. Adobe Captivate: Because Captivate has the ability to export into the SWF format, it is an excel- Some corporate lent way of creating software demonstrations. You can then combine those demonstrations users are still on with other e-Learning design tools such as SumTotal Systems ToolBook or Articulate Presenter. – 101 Windows 2000. Many people in Combinations driven by Lectora companies can- Lectora by Trivantis and Engage by Articulate Global: To include more than one Engage interac- not install, or tion in your Lectora project you need to do a little renaming of files and manual copying of upgrade, any folders. Once you have published your interaction it will be in a file called “engage.swf” and there will also be an “engage_content” folder. Rename both files to something more meaning- software. Most ful, say “timeline.swf” and “timeline_content.” These names must be unique for your Lectora home users can project. In your Lectora project, add the Flash file (timeline.swf in this example) as you would normally do. This will copy the SWF file into the images folder, but there is no way to automati- install whatever cally add the “_content” folder, which you must copy by hand. When you publish the Lectora they like. project to HTML, you will have to manually copy the “_content” folders into the destination images folder, as Lectora will not publish these for you. It is a bit of a pain, and slightly manual, David Swaddle, but well worthwhile for using items such as the Glossary and Timelines that are more difficult Director, to do in Lectora. – 28 Healthy Media Limited Lectora, Trivantis: Don't try to force a single tool to specialize in every area of e-Learning author- ing. Instead, use a package such as Lectora as the magic glue between different specialized tools. I often create packages that combine custom bits for Flash, MP3 files, video, all sorts of interactions, screen cams, and PowerPoint slides. I've never found a single tool that does a really good job of creating all of the media that I need, so I use a bunch of tools such as Captivate, Articulate, Flash, and Premiere to produce the assets, and then combine them for publishing to HTML or EXE files inside Lectora. – 28
- 60. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 60 Looking for an VI. 21 Tips for Combining and Deploying Authoring idea to spice up Tools continued your Articulate presentation? Other combinations: Articulate, FrameMaker, RoboHelp, SCORM, Instead of solely mind mapping as drivers using the Flash, Articulate Presenter Pro, PowerPoint, and Fireworks work together nicely. I use Articulate PowerPoint-to- because it handles audio well, and communicates with my LMS. Animations can be PowerPoint Conversion func- or Flash generated, and Fireworks provides graphic options. I can create a question in Flash, and insert it as a single slide, which allows better feedback, graphic, and instructional design tionality offered options than Articulate alone. It also allows me to reuse the questions in other SWF-supporting by Articulate courses. Articulate's storyboard option helps me provide my client with up-to-date hardcopies. – 81 Presenter, you When analyzing, categorizing, or brainstorming: Use a mind map tool that can export the can add what structure to PowerPoint. Then import the PowerPoint to Captivate, and your structure is more looks like “live or less in place. Tweaks will be needed, but despite that fact it's still a huge timesaver. If your Mind Map tool of preference only exports to bitmaps, then those can be imported directly into video” footage Captivate. It will need more tweaking, so it might not always be a good solution, but many to your presen- times it is. – 78 tation, by com- RoboHelp 7.0, part of the Technical Communications Suite by Adobe: This product is all about bining Articu- the user experience! Easily insert customizable pop-ups, hyperlinks, image maps, breadcrumbs, and rollover messages. I keep discovering new things to love about this product ... screenshots, late with Capti- audio, and video completely bring Help systems to life. Snippets (reusable blocks of HTML) are vate. wonderfully time saving, efficient, and easy to use! – 36 Andy Riley, e-Learning Framemaker 8.0, part of the Technical Communications Suite by Adobe: Easily author and pub- Technology Guy, lish elaborate technical documents with automatic numbering, cross-references, tables of con- Wachovia Securities tents, indexes, books, and more by combining word processing and XML-based structured authoring with template-based publishing. Unicode multi-language support enables content for global audiences, with dictionary and hyphenation support for most languages. Integrate 3-D models, Flash animations, tables, graphics, images, and simulations. Import content from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, QuarkXPress, and Adobe PageMaker, and manage it in XML. Use XSLT during editing, and conform to industry standards such as DITA and DocBook. Easily convert existing documents to structured content through conversion tables. – 36 Our approach to combining and deploying authoring tools takes advantage of Rapid e-Learning development, with SCORM 2004 reusability to present application training. Shared content objects (SCOs) are about 30-minute lessons. Each lesson uses some combination of Articulate Studio (Presenter, Engage, QuizMaker), with Captivate demonstrations and simulations. Articulate Presenter is the platform, and we insert 720x540 Captivate Flash movies into
- 61. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 61 When analyz- VI. 21 Tips for Combining and Deploying Authoring ing, categoriz- Tools continued ing, or brain- storming: Use a Articulate. We score, but not track, quizzes and simulations in instructional lessons. The final exam includes Articulate Presenter SCOs that include a QuizMaker test, and Captivate-only sim- mind map tool ulation SCOs that we both score and track. that can export We specifically designed the Captivate demonstration movies to be reused in an Adobe the structure to RoboHelp on-line help system. In fact, some courses start as on-line help demonstrations, and PowerPoint. over time we consolidate them into an e-Learning course. For this reason, the Captivate movies don't contain audio. Since we use SCORM 2004 features in the Learn.com Learn Center LMS, we Then import the can re-use some lessons in courses intended for different audiences. We can also add new les- PowerPoint to sons into existing courses. This reusability strategy requires a design approach where we use Articulate Presenter exclusively to introduce application functions, use Captivate movies to Captivate, and demonstrate application functions, and use Engage to provide click-and-reveal screen your structure is overviews. – 83 more or less in place. Miscellaneous tips Ole Kristensen, I learned that entertainment value is almost half of your e-Learning experience. A little song e-Learning Consultant, and dance will keep the learner engaged and open to receiving information. – 67 Grundfos Managment Be sure to include the time and budget for training team members on the applications you select. It isn't enough to assume one member will train others, or that members are self-moti- vated and will schedule time for classes outside work hours. Develop an education plan for (and with) each member to assure top performance. – 52 Most current software involved in performance and enhancement of e-Learning is user friendly these days. The promising hype of platform integration, and the ability to quickly adapt, with what we all can learn from what a specified authoring tool can provide. The trend nowadays, is how to maintain reusability and repurposing of learning objects, when considering deployment of an authoring tool. Adobe, for example, is one of most beneficial tools people use daily. Even in everyday life, no one can stay behind Adobe, why? Another example is LMSs. Different organ- izations (military, companies, or educational) are instantly enhancing their LMS to match and interoperate with the methodology chosen. When saying methodology, I mean what instruc- tional system design is chosen, and what learning theory the organization prefers to use to enhance their learning. It's a fact, human beings are built of different learning skills, and with different knowledge acquisition abilities. When people gather in one place and need to com- municate for an objective (take any organization mission), how to enable those people to ade- quately trigger objectives and communicate better is an issue and challenge of authoring tools. – 116
- 63. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 63 VII. Thanks to Our Tipsters 1 Al Moser, VP Engineering, 18 Cara Scott, Community 35 E.A. Langewis, Courseware devel- ReadyGo Coordinator, Desire2Learn Inc. oper, Utrecht University 2 Alisa Jacobs, 19 Cari Mathwig, Instructional 36 Ellen Paxton, CLO, Professional PricewaterhouseCoopers Designer, The AVS Group Learning Board 3 Amy Heckendorf, Instructional 20 Carmen Glovsky, Sr. Instructional 37 Emiliano De Laurentiis, President, Designer, JADE Learning Designer, Nissan North America Knowledge Environments, Inc. 4 Amy Spence, Sr. Instructional 21 Cheryl Lisker, Instructional 38 Erick Emde, LMS/SCORM Guy, Designer, Dick's Sporting Goods Designer elearning, Emde Consulting Take Charge America 5 Andy DeCuir, eLearning Support 39 Fèlix Ouellet, Trainer, Analyst 22 Chris Wilkinson, Lead ID, ADP Desire2Learn Inc. 6 Andre vd Merwe, Chief Servant 23 Corinne Wilhelm, Corporate 40 Gary Davis, Training Consultant, Officer, Eiffel Learning Consultant, Huntington Bank www.clever2gether.com 7 Andy Riley, E-Learning Technology 41 Glenn Hansen, National Learning Guy, Wachovia Securities 24 Dan Karwoski, Senior Media and Development Consultant, Designer, Intuit The Salvation Army Employment 8 Anne Groetsch, Senior Plus Instructional Designer, 25 Daniel Vaughn, Training Hutchinson Technology Inc. Specialist, Capital Group 42 Greg Friese, MS, NREMT-P, President, Emergency 9 Athanasios Papagelis, Technical 26 Danny Ortegon, Preparedness Systems LLC Director, EPIGNOSIS LTD Training Manager, Walgreens – OptionCare 43 Heidsieck, Marketing Director & 10 B.J. Schone, eLearning Specialist, BDM, Netsbrain Ferrellgas 27 Dave Ferrier, Instructional Designer, Comcast University 44 Ian D. Minderman, Instructional 11 Barbara Olivier, Instructional Technologist, Humana, Inc, Designer, QuickMind Knowledge 28 David Swaddle, Director, Management Healthy Media Limited 45 Inge de Waard, Coordinator eLearning, Institute of Tropical 12 Bob Crosby, Sr. eLearning 29 Deborah Davidson, IT Educator, Medicine, Antwerp Instructional Design Analyst, Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Ltd. Pacific Life Insurance 46 Jaime Oyarzo Espinosa, 30 Denny Dedmore, Senior Technical Instructional Designer, Lund 13 Bob Gonzales, Mgr. R&S HR Data Support Engineer, University Systems, Sunoco, Inc ToolBook Technical Support 47 Jan Watrous-McCabe, 14 Bob Joyce, Senior Educational 31 Dr. Eugene F.M. O'Loughlin, E-Learning Consultant, Specialist, University of Texas Lecturer in Informatics, Allina Hospitals & Clinics M. D. Anderson Cancer Center National College of Ireland 48 Janet Wright, eLearning 15 Bonnie Taylor, Instructional 32 Derek Wenmoth, Director, Specialist, Regence Systems Designer, eLearning, CORE Education Ltd Karta Technologies, Inc. 49 Janis Gaines, Curriculum 33 Dixie Scott, Instructional Developer, Easy eCourses 16 Brian Dusablon, Instructional Designer, Blood Systems Inc. Designer, Administaff 50 Jeff Krebs, Senior Educational 34 Doug Marlowe, President, CVSI Consultant, GE Healthcare 17 Bruna Ori, Technology Integration Instructional Design/Sr. Technical Specialist, Highland Park High Trainer, Authentium, Inc. 51 Jenise Cook, Owner, School www.RidgeViewMedia.com
- 64. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 64 VII. The Tipsters continued 52 Jill Easterday, Consultant 69 Melissa Scott, ISS Training Officer, 86 Pierre Clavet, Trainer, Logan City Council Desire2Learn Inc. 53 Joseph Ganci, President & CEO, Dazzle Technologies Corp. 70 Michael Armacost, President, 87 Primo Elodie, MD, MindOnSite Athena Learning Services 54 Ju Park, Instructional Design 88 Radha Giri, General Manager – Specialist, Indiana University 71 Michael Baker, Information Products, Harbinger Knowledge Northwest Resource Consultant, SC Products Pvt. Ltd. Department of Social Services 55 Juan Otero, Instructional 89 Rajesh Devadasan, Program Designer / e-Learning Specialist, 72 Michael Ciambella, Director of Manager, Symantec Corporation Tecadi Learning Programs, Genesis 90 Ray Miller, Program Manager, Healthcare 56 Judy Long, Instructional Designer Northrop Grumman 73 Michael Sunnarborg, Sr. Training 57 Kathryn Schulte, CLA I – Math, 91 Roger Mundell, CEO, Udutu.com Specialist, Target Corporation Central Lake College, 92 Ruben Canlas Jr., CEO and Chief Brainerd, MN 74 Michele Largman, Instructional Knowledge Consultant, Designer, Maxine Enterprises 58 Leah Kendrick Jones, Ed.D., Dig It All Solutions, Inc. Instructional Designer and 75 Milo Dodds, ITLS: Lead eLearning 93 Saadet ROACH, Assistant eLearning Consultant, Leah Developer, Cisco Systems Inc. Manager, English Language Kendrick Jones Consulting 76 Narinder Bhatia, Project Teacher, Yuce Schools, 59 Linda Manlove, Designer, Manager, CII-Shiksha, India Ankara, Turkey Sunbreak Northwest 77 Niraj Swami, eLearning Software 94 Sam Harris, Educational 60 Linda Nelson, eLearning Programmer, BEELINE Consultant, The Hartford Specialist, Iron Mountain 78 Ole Kristensen, 95 Sam Kapoor, Sr. Instructional 61 Linda Solk, Executive Director, eLearning Consultant, Designer, CampusEAI Consortium Adaptive Learning Solutions Grundfos Management 96 Sangeeta Phadke, Director, 62 Lisa Stepanovic, Business Practice 79 Paulo Silva, eLearning Consultant, Abhisam Software Leader, eLearning, Center for SINFIC 97 Sarah Teo, Director, Learning Business, Industry & Labor @ 80 Pamela Koogler, Design, U21Global Pte. Ltd. SLCC Training Administrator, 98 Seethalakshmi Natarajan, 63 Maggie Martinez, CEO, The Northrop Grumman Instructional Designer, Freelance Training Place, Inc. 81 Peggy Burns, Senior eLearning 99 Shai Desai, Partner Development, 64 Mark Guerin, Manager, Specialist, Regence Human Capital Solutions (HCS) Technology Training, Brown 82 Peggy Pang, Senior Manager, Brothers Harriman 100 Shirley Solano, IT Training, Learning Design, Universitas Hudson Health Plan 65 Mary Jo Koplos, Owner, Global Pte Ltd Come Write Inn, Ltd. 101 Steve Johnson, Senior e-Learning 83 Peter Bloom, E-Learning Training Designer 66 Mathieu Plourde, Instructional Analyst, ALSAC/St. Jude Children's Designer, University of Delaware Research Hospital 102 Steve Zee, President, Steve Zee Design 67 Matt Hamparian, Training 84 Peter Vojtik, Instructional Specialist, Nationwide Technologist, U.S. Cellular 103 Sue Pearson, Marketing Manager, CourseAvenue, Inc. 68 Matthew Masci, Global Help 85 Phil Cowcill, Coordinator, Manager, Aconex Interactive Multimedia, Canadore College
- 65. Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools | 65 VII. The Tipsters continued 104 Sue Subocz, Interim Director, 111 Tracy Hamilton, Education 117 Wassim Subie, Sr. Instructional Innovative Teaching Center, Assistant, Southlake Regional Technologist College of Southern Maryland Health Centre, Newmarket, ON 118 Wayne Anderson, Instructional 105 Susan McDonald Osborn, Owner, 112 Uday Kranti, eLearning Business Consultant, Avanade Laurus Design, LLC Solutions Architect, Liqvid 119 Anonymous 106 Taft Eaker, Instructional Designer, 113 Vasselle Barber, Sr. Learning 120 Kristin Ford, President, TIAA-CREF Analyst, Mercer PC Training Source 107 Tim Jones, Senior Multimedia 114 Vic Divecha, eLearning Specialist, 121 Herve Brittmann, Training and Specialist, The Capital Group University of Michigan School of Development Manager, Public Health 108 Tom Deinzer, Educational Compuware Technical Consultant, GE 115 Vladimir Goodkovsky, 122 Vanessa Fletcher, Student, Healthcare Instructional Scientist, University of Hawaii, Hilo University of Virginia 109 Tom Winterstein, Vice President, HunterStone, Inc. 116 Waleed Hassan Saad Sultan, Multimedia University, Malaysia 110 Tony Daguanno, eLearning Designer/Developer, Gradepoint