Mobile Learning covers learning with portable technologies, where the focus is on the technology that can also be in a fixed location such as a classroom. It also covers learning across contexts, where the focus is on the mobility of the learner, interacting with portable or fixed technology. The last thing that it covers is the learning in a mobile society, which focuses on how society and it institutions can accommodate and support the learning of an increasingly mobile population that is not satisfied with existing learning methodologies.

Mobile Learning has technical, social and educational challenges. The technical challenges are: connectivity and battery life; screen size and key size; ability for authors to visualize mobile phones for delivery; multiple standards, multiple screen sizes, multiple operating systems; Repurposing existing e-Learning materials for mobile platforms.

The social and educational challenges are:

* Accessibility and cost barriers for end users: Digital divide

*How to assess learning outside the classroom

* How to support learning across many contexts

* Developing an appropriate theory of learning for mobile age

* Conceptual differences between e- and m-learning

*Design of technology to support a lifetime of learning

* Tracking of results and proper use of this information

* No restriction on learning timetable

* Personal and private information and content

* No demographic boundary

* Disruption of students’ personal and academic lives

* Access to and use of the technology in developing countries.

In Articulate Engage there are ten different interaction types. The first one is creating a process interaction where it allows you to create step by step procedures or work flows. You can add steps by clicking the add steps button where a tap will appear in the work space, where you can change the title, add text, sound and media to the step. The second one is creating a labeled graphics interaction where in this step you can insert an image and assign labels to it so that you can present detailed information like the features of a new software. All you have to do is insert a graphic and then place the label on top of it so that the user can click on it to get information. The third one is creating a tabs interaction allows you to create interactive tabs where you can explore a group of relate items. The fourth one is creating a circle diagram lets you display the relationship of items in a circle. The circle diagram is made up of different layers, and segments that contain the actually information. The fifth one is creating a timeline interaction where you can list events in a timeline. The timeline is a great way to highlight key milestones in a schedule. The timeline is made up of time periods that has different events. The events are the areas that contain the actually information, and you can separate the periods by color. The sixth interaction is creating a media tour interaction. In this interaction you are able to create a tour of multimedia files such as images, flash animation, and video. You can add item by clicking the add item button and browse to the item location and it will show up as a tap in workspace area. With this you can add a media that already has audio.  The seventh interaction is creating a FAQ interaction. This interaction helps you provide answers to frequently asked questions. This interaction is a great way to provide solutions and answers to users questions. The interaction allow you to ask the question and give the answer to the question in the same area. The eighth interaction is creating a pyramid diagram. This interaction allows you to display relationships in a pyramid shape. This interaction is good for showing strategies and/ or business relationships. The pyramid is made up of different layers, colors, and shapes. Within each layer there is a segment where you can add different things. The ninth interaction is creating a guided image interaction where it lets you highlight, examine and edit important information of an image or a diagram.  This interaction allows you to insert an image and add arrows so that you can explain different parts of the image. The last interaction is creating a glossary interacting. This interaction is an excellent way to define common terms, technical information and challenging acronyms. To use the glossary interaction all you have to is insert the word and the definition.

In order to insert engage interactions you have to first click on the engage interaction button from the articulate menu. A new window will appear where you can choose which display option you want. You can either place it in as a slide or as drop down taps on top of the player. To insert an interaction into the slide you can click on the engage interactions tab, where you will have the option to create a new interaction or insert one that already exists. When you click on create new, engage will open and from there you can create the engage interaction that you will like hit okay, and edit the interaction. Once you complete the interaction you click the save and return to presenter button on the toolbar. When it is saved you will see the new interaction in the list. If you have interaction that you have already completed then all you have to do is click the add existing, and if you want to edit one that is already there you just click on the edit existing button. If you want to add the interaction as a drop down tap you will click on the player tab. This tab is the same but the only difference is that you can edit the label of the interaction. Once you hit the close button articulate had already inserted a placeholder for the interaction you created.

In the Quizmaker there is graded questions, and survey questions. For the graded questions there is True/False, Multiple Choice, Multiple Response, Fill in the Blank, Matching Drag and Drop, Matching Drop Down, Sequence Drag and drop, Sequence drop down. Numeric and Hotspot.

Where do you add feedback for an answer to a question?

When you choose a graded question and you enter in your question and answer at the bottom you can enter  in your feedback of whether the question is wrong or right. If you want to customize the way the feedback is giving. You can either type it in, have narration, or a branching option. You can choose when you want your feedback is displayed either at the question or the answer.

When you want to set a passing score for a quiz, where do you make this selection?

You have two ways to set the scoring options either at the question level or at the answer selection. The default is the question level. You can set whether or not you want the person to get partial credit for a question by using the scoring by answer option. Once you choose the by answer option you can set the points to whether or not you want to give any points for other answers.

What are the publishing options that are available in Quizmaker?

You can publish through articulate presenter, through the web, articulate online, LMS, on a CD, or through a word document. With Articulate presenter you can publish your work to an already open Powerpoint presentation, or browse for a saved presentation. The web tab lets you publish through a folder and it creates a webpage where you can upload to a server.  To publish to articulate online you have to fill in your account information and hit publish and the file is published and uploaded to your articulate online account where you can manage it. When you publish to a learning management system you have to select your location, quiz properties, and then the output options either SCORM or ACC, and it will create a zip file through reporting and tracking. When published on a CD it creates all the files that you need and once you insert the cd  it will auto play.

When publishing a quiz from Quizmaker, what option should you select when trying to add it to a presentation?

You should choose the articulate presenter, where you can add it to an already open Powerpoint presentation or browse for another presentation.

When you complete your presentation you can publish your presentation either via the web, through a LMS, CD-Rom, Articulate Online, Microsoft Word, and Project files.

What audio file types can be imported into an Articulate presentation?

Articulate Presenter allows you to import WAV or MP3 files. The basic WAV settings that is recommended for articulate is bit rate: 16 bit, sampling rate: 44 KHZ, encoding: PCM, and format: WAV

Please give a description of what function the “Slide Properties Manager” serves?

Slide properties are used to leverage the software you use to build your rapid elearning courses. In slide properties manager you can change the slide, create slide sub groups, alternate between slide views, change presenters, assign background audio, control how the slide advances, and hide slides from view. When you change the slide title in your player menu by default presenter will pull in the Powerpoint slide title and use that for the title in the player menu. But if you have a really long slide title or you just dont want to use that title you can go to “Display in Navigation As” column and you can type in your own slide title. You can create a slide hierarchy by changing the slide level which is a good way to break your course into sections. To do this you have to go to slide properties manager select your slide and change the level. Once you have your slides set at different levels you can control how they appear in the player by modifying the navigation options in the Player Template Builder. You can claim more screen real estate by changing slide views through three different options. You have the standard view with a menu on the side, a view with no menu, and a slide view only. Use multiple presenters in your e-learning course by changing the presenter at the slide level. It is very common to have a presenter in the player’s presenter panel. In order for the presenter to show during the course you have to enable it in the layout view of the publish panel. Once you have the presenter enabled you can select from the presenters you have loaded in your player. From the publish menu click on the presenter drop down arrow and then select your presenter. In order to add background audio to your elearning course the first thing you have to do is add an audio playlist by going to the Articulate drop down menu and select Library & Options and then click Playlists. Once you have the playlist added go to the slide properties manager to assign a playlist at the slide level. Select your slide, click the drop down menu to select the play list that you want. Control the slide navigation by setting them to advance by user or automatically. You can set slides to stop on a click of the mouse to advance, or you can set them to advance on their own. When you want to advance to the next slide you can build animations. It might look like  one slide but it is actually a series of slides that are just auto advancing. Right clicking reveals some extra tricks. Just like other software you can right-click and access shortcut menus and articulate presenter is not any different. When you go inside the slide properties manager and you right-click you will notice that all of the options available to you are also in the right-click menu. Using the right-click can save you some time when you producing your presentation. You can also change all of the settings at once by doing a mass edit.

Where do you edit animation timings in a presentation?

In the Powerpoint animation you can go to articulate and timeline audio editor, and it will open audio editor. Once it is open you it will have all the slides that you have in your presentation. There is also a drop down menu with the same information. The animation triggers are labeled with c1, c2, or c3 which depends on how many animations that you have in that slide. In the timeline editor you can move the animation to play longer or shorter.

When publishing an Articulate Presentation for the Web, what file type will be created?

When you are publishing for the web you will have two choices as to where you want to have your files stored, a local folder/network  share or an FTP site.

It enables people to create audio, presentations, quizzes, engaging courses, and surveys that everyone can use. Also with Articulate you can quickly distribute highly interactive, persuasive materials, help subject-matter experts share their expertise directly, and they can spread their message everywhere in a format that everyone can view.

What presentation software does Articulate Presenter operate off of?

Articulate Presenter operate off of a simple Powerpoint presentation.

There are four programs that make up Articulate Studio ’09. Identify each one and give a description of what each program is used for.

The first type of program is called Presenter ’09. In this program it makes it easy for anyone to add interactivity and narration to PowerPoint slides. With just a click you can turn your presentation into a compelling Flash course. With Presenter ’09 you will also have the power to create real change. You will get attention and inspire learning with easy to use features that you wont find in other programs, such as: animated annotations that highlight important points, clear crisp images and video, multi-level navigation and branching, embedded live web pages and other objects, and multiple publishing options, including flash, word, cd and podcasts.

The second program in Articulate is the Quizmaker ’09. The Quizmaker gives you unprecedented power and freedom in a new streamlined interface. Whether you are a new or seasoned quiz creator, you will easily create professional, custom Flash quizzes and surveys. Quizmaker has two intuitive development modes: form based editing (with form view) which builds a professional quiz in minutes, and it is as easy as filing out a form from tab to tab. Free-form editing (slide view) where you can create your own vision with the freedom of developing in Flash but with none of the bassles. Quizmaker has easily to apply advanced features that: quickly group and randomized questions pools-without having separating questions that should appear together. Include images, Flash, and audio even create a scenario that develops over several screens. It branches quiz takers to different slides depending on how they answer each question. It animates objects and adjust their timing on the click and drag timeline. It also choose from a wide selection of professionally designed themes or you can create your own. It allows you to give your quiz takers specific results and feedback based on their scores. And it gets quiz results through e-mail, LMS, or articulate online. Quizmaker ’09 offers questions types that go beyond the basics. Of course you will have professionally designed multiple choice, true/false, and Likert questions, but you will also engage your quiz takers with drag and drop questions, hot spots, and more.  Quizmaker will be in Flash format which means that they will be accessible to just about anyone anywhere. Quizmarker makes it easy to create quizzes that you can: Integrate with Articulate Presenter ’09 courses and presentations, Connect with your SCORM or AICC-compliant learning management system, and insert into any page on your web site.

The third program is Articulate Engage. Which is a quick and easy tool that lets you create lean forward experiences that learners love. The ability to produce dazzling interactions that turn passive viewers into active learners makes Engage a must have companion to Articulate Presenter ’09 for producing quality e-learning courses. You can now actively encourage discover by prompting learners to interact: Examine in greater detail each step of a process. Explore the relationship between timeline events through text, images and sound. Drill down into key elements of a diagram to better understand the main points.  With easy to use templates you can create rich media interactivity in minutes. You can choose from a wide range of interaction types, including process, timeline, pyramid diagram, labeled graphic, interactions to integrate seamlessly into virtually any e-learning course, or even stand-alone on any Web site.

The last program is Video Encoder ’09 that makes it easier to add full motion video to your Studio ’09 content. You will quickly convert almost any video into a popular .FLV Flash video format, and easily trim, crop, and polish while you are at it. You can even record video directly from your web cam. You can convert any file to .FLV Flash video in the encoder. You can also convert any part of a video just by dragging points to a timeline to set your start and end points. You can also crop videos to remove any distractions and highlight what is important. You can also make simple adjustments like the pictures volume, brightness, and contrast for professional results. You can also add any image as a logo or watermark to make your video match your project or brand. You can choose from the easy presets or specify exactly what you want for your encoding method, bitrate, dimensions, and more. You can save your custom settings so that they are always available. You can choose a setting then apply them to multiple videos with one click, and it is great for adding a watermark to all your work.

With the quiz tool they are different types of questions that you can add to your slide. The first one is the multiple choice question, where you can ask a question and give different answer choices. You can also select the correct answer choice. With multiple choice you can also decide rather or not you want to have one answer or two answers. At the bottom of the screen there is a type button that will allow you to change the answer choices to multiple responses. You also have true or false questions, where you can make a statement and you can decide rather its true or false. There is also a fill in the blank type of question. In this question you can either add a phrase, or just a word and have the answer at the bottom. There is also one that can be a short answer question. Where you can ask a question and the answer will be a sentence or just a word. There is also another one where you can match the correct answer with the correct statement. There is also one where you can create an hotspot. On this you can create a target, and the person has to decide where the right point is or where the correct answer is in an given area. There is also a sequence question. On this you can tell a person to tell you how to do something and you have to give the right answer in the correct order. The last one is a Rating Scale. With the rating scale it can not be a graded question because you are asking a person rather they like or dislike something.

Along with these types of questions you also have different questions that can be added to your slide. For example you can random questions to your slide as long as the questions are linked. This slide helps avoid quiz predictability. Random question slides do not have a time-line of their own but use the timing of the question slide chosen at run time. The questions for the random questions comes from the questions pool manager. With this tool you can put as many questions as you want in here and at random the question will be added to the random question slides.

SCORM is a set of technical standards for e-learning software products. SCORM tells programmers how to write their code so that it can “play well” with other e-learning software. It also governs how online learning content and Learning Management Systems (LMSs) communicate with each other. It does not speak to instructional design or any other pedagogical concern, it is purely a technical standard. SCORM stands for sharable Content Object Reference Model. sharable Content Object indicates that SCORM is all about creating units of online training material that can be shared across systems. SCORM defines how to create “sharable content objects” or SCO’s” that can be reused in different systems and contexts. “Reference Model” reflects the fact that SCORM isn’t actually a standard.

SCORM is a good fit when:

You want to integrate with other vendors. You are creating a large library of learning objects, you are using LMS to deliver and manage learning content, you are designing learning content that might be reused in other contexts, you are designing learning content that track’s learner performance, you are designing learning content that will monitor the learner and adapt according  to the learner’s needs.

SCORM is only useful in certain situations. Unfortunately there are occasionally requirements for SCORM where it doesn’t make sense, simply because it is a buzzword. SCORM is likely a poor fit or overkill if:

You are designing simple, static hyperlinked content (like a web page), you just need to publish simple reference material, your content is short-lived and will only be used one time in one system, you are using a single internal system that will never change, you are using a LMS that is not designed to deliver and track online learning (classroom management systems are often termed “LMSs”), you are developing non-traditional online learning. Traditional education is not always a good fit for SCORM. Advanced simulations and serious games are likewise difficult to do well using SCORM. SCORM can be applied to all of these scenarios, but it must be applied intelligently to provide benefit without being an obstacle.

AICC is the Aviation Industry CBT (Computer-Based Training) Committee. It is an international association of technology-based training professionals. AICC develops guidelines for aviation industry in the development, delivery, and evaluation of CBT and related training technologies.

I think that having a set of standards in e-learning will help people know what they are supposed to use and what they are not supposed to use. For example with the different technologies that is being used today, not all of them will be useful for e-learning. SCORM will a great tool to use when you want other people to critique your work and give feed back.

]]> http://nam1585.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/blog-7/feed/ 0 nam1585 http://nam1585.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/captivate/ http://nam1585.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/captivate/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:58:19 +0000 nam1585 http://nam1585.wordpress.com/?p=19 ]]> Adobe Captivate 4 is a software that is easy to use, that has a rapid eLearning content with an authoring tool that enables virtually anyone to create a powerful and programming. Using Adobe captivate people can create software demonstrations, scenario based training, and quizzes without programming or multimedia skills. Unlike other Adobe programs captivate 4 can automatically generate interactive Flash Player compatible content without requiring users to learn the Flash authoring tool. It can also be embedded into Adobe PDF files and delivered in the AVI format for streaming on the web, publishing to YouTube, viewing on AVI-compatible devices.

Adobe Captivate 4 is mainly for learning professional, educators, and business and enterprise users who would like to create interactive simulations, software demonstrations, and scenario based training complete with quizzes and scoring rapidly. They want to do all that without having to learn Flash or outsource the task to professional multimedia developers.

Users can create most types of simulation based or interactive learning content with Adobe Captivate 4. From software simulations and demonstrations to complex, scenario based, soft skills training.

Adobe Captivate 4 is compatible with Learning Management Systems. This is because it generates SCORM 2004 and SCORM 1.2 certified content as well as AICC-compliant content, and it offers one click publishing to leading LMSs. Adobe Captivate 4 automatically generates the manifest file while is an XML document that contains all the data required by the LMS to communicate with Adobe Captivate interactive simulations and scenario based training.

Adobe Captivate 4 also integrates with other authoring tools such as, Acrobat Connect Pro, Flash  Professional, and the Questionmark Perception assessment tool, which gives the users the power to do more with their simulations. Users can export Adobe Captivate 4 projects to Flash Professional for more complex editing and ActionsScript coding. Integration with Acrobat Connect Pro means users can add interactivity as well as quizzes to Adobe Presenter presentations or live meetings and publish directly to Acrobat Connect Enterprise Server to track and manage courses, learners, and scoring data.

With Adobe Captivate 4 projects can be imported from Powerpoint in the PPTX format and the PPT format. You can also edit Powerpoint content in Adobe Captivate 4 and keep the projects in sync.

Interaction in the terms of eLearning is a learning activity where an individual is presented  with a problem or a scenario that they must work to achieve a certain goal. Interactions should not be taken as a game, but they should have a purpose that will gain a learner’s attention.

Engaging interactions are necessary because they are able to help learners stay interested and mentally stimulated in what they are trying to learn, instead of them reading through a bland text. It is ideal for the learner to be able to mimic real world task in the interactions, which is some times not possible. By learners being able to apply their knowledge in ways that they can relate to it will help them process the information in more detail and in return it will allow them to recall information and use it in a real world situation.

There are four levels of interaction that will help select and design interactions based on the type of knowledge that is going to be teached. The first level of interaction is Passive and in this level the learner acts merely as a receiver of information. Passive eLearning systems represent the majority of online learning being used today. When information  needs to be distribute quickly people use passive interaction.

The second level of interaction is Limited interaction, and in this interaction the learner makes simple responses to instructional cues.Level one can have multiple choice exercise, pop-ups, rollovers or simple animations. This level adds a component of scenario-based multiple choice and column matching related to the text and graphic presentation. With this level there may also be some interactive animations where the learner has the ability to investigate.
The third level is complex interaction, and in this level the learner makes multiple varied responses to cues. In addition to the types of responses in Level two, this level can require text entry boxes and manipulation of graphic objects to test the assessment of the information presented. Techniques for engagement in a complex  interaction include complex simulations where the learner must enter actual data into fields and experience  consequence for errors and faulty data.

The fourth level is real time interaction which creates a training session that involves a life like set of complex cues and responses. In this level the learner is engaged in a simulation that exactly mirrors the work situation. Stimuli and response are coordinated to the actual environment. Real time learning and assessment occurs, and the session is most likely held in a collaborative environment with other learners and a facilitator.