- This topic has 16 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 5 months ago by ZacharyGuidry.
-
AuthorPosts
-
2 June 2006 at 7:53 am #934
I am experimenting with various options for creating training content in the LearnCenter LMS. I am looking for a way to include “Flash” based animation into my content.
The ability to build HTML based training right in the LMS is great, but the testing portion of this is very limiting. It also limits the ability to re-use the content, since it can not be exported for use in other LMS systems.
The CourseBuilder software is very easy to use, but very limiting. It’s test questions can not be pulled from a larger pool of questions and it does not support importing the Flash format.
I see that Lectora is another option. Is anyone having luck with that? Does that system allow you to use Flash?
I am learning AuthorWare right now. It promises to do all of the things I want, but has a huge learning curve. It requires the user to install a plug-in, and in the end I will probably just be placing Flash content on each page anyway.
Please let me know what Content Creation System you are using and which you would recommend.
Zack
6 June 2006 at 1:09 am #1050Zack – we bought Lectora for exactly the reasons you identify below – Authorware & ToolBook have huge learning curves. We haven’t created a full Lectora course yet but have played with it quite a bit (our LMS goes live at the end of June so we’re a bit busy with it at the moment). It does allow for the importing of Flash but as I’m not a Flash developer I can’t tell you the ins and outs of it. I did import a small flash animation into Lectora and it seemed to handle it fine within the course browser. I didn’t try to have the Flash run in full screen or anything like that. There are quite a few Lectora comments in the other discussion you started – if you’ve not read through those I’d recommend reading through there.
-Russ8 June 2006 at 12:00 am #1051Zack, Lectora does allow you to import flash. See the previous thread of conversation on how to make them transparent. As with anything on the web, you want to keep you file size reasonable. Less than 50k. Lectora is VERY easy to use. You don’t even have to “import” the images or flash. Just drag them into the program right from the folder you saved them in. They offer a training class which I believe is about $400 per day. I skipped the beginner class because I am a graphic artist and finding my way around in the program was very easy for me. The intermediate class (both are one day courses) goes more into the scripting of creating variables, how variables work, etc. Trivantis/Lectora can give you a free demo. I learned a lot just from watching that. I think they may even have a flash demo available on their site.
http://trivantis.com/demosignup/
you have the option to choose which one you want to see. I’d reccomend watching both.
Lectora testing – you can have a pool of questions which randomly selects from that pool. Our post test is set up with 5 sections. Each section contains about 5 questions. From each section, Lectora will randomly selcect 2 or 3 questions, depending on what we set it for. HOWEVER, we are having difficulty reporting test interactions in the learn.com LMS. Meaning, we can easily report on the total score, but we can not find out how people answered each question.
Lectora is up to date in SCORM standards and can be used with almost any LMS if you decide to switch later (main reason we chose them – di not want to be pinned to one LMS). On the course level, it also allows you to create learning objects using a save as library feature. You can then reuse a section, graphic etc, of a course in another course. You can also import content from one lectora course into another by page, chapter, title etc…
I am surprised that course builder does not allow you to import .swf’s!
With any use of flash, I think you still need the flash player on your machine, but these days almost everyone has it. Most sites contain flash in some form. I still save down or export flash to an earlier version so that I know everyone has the player to support it. I think I’m saving down to flash 6 when i export now – just as a precaution. I think I remember hearing that if a computer does not have flash player, that it now automatially downloads the latest and greatest, but I could be wrong. I’m sure the macromedia site will have more info on this.
I’ve heard good things about authorware but that was a long time ago. Back then the issue was that file size was too large and difficult to run via the web. Better for CD delivery. I’m not certain that is still the case though as it has been a while and most everyone optimizes for the web now.
I did not go with ToolBook because I knew a few people using it. What I heard is that it can be difficult/glitchie. Let me see if I have any comments in my research file… can’t find it. I did see a few things on IBM’s tool though…
IBM – Feedback I had recieved from a friend:
The IBM LMS is okay. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t recommend it simply because it is so new. We’re running version 1.05. Verion 2.0 is out also, but we won’t be implementing that until next year.
In the version we are running, we all find it very cumbersome. Lots of steps to get anything done, and it’s not very intuitive at all. For example, reports are not sorted by last name. They list first, last, and sort by first. If you have 950 people take one class (which we often do), it makes the reports difficult to read. Their authoring is really robust, and you can do an awful lot with it, but once you get it into the system, it’s a little tedious to view. It’s about 5 clicks just to get it to launch.IBM (VLS = Vuepoint Learning System):
We were using Dreamweaver, but now we’re switching to the IBM Lotus authoring tool – which is part of the LMS. It’s a great tool – much more robust than VLS authoring, but similar in the end user experience. Easy to use.
But I don’t think you can use it outside the LMS – similar to VLS.10 June 2006 at 1:18 am #1052Great Info on the Lectora. This is Brad Fredrick, I too am hosted with Learn.com.
I went to your link for Lectora training, but that takes you to a registration page. If you register they provide you with this link:
http://www.trivantis.com/completelectorademo/
You can go directly to the training and avoid the registration process.
Hope this helps.
Bradley13 June 2006 at 4:12 am #1053Thanks Bradley… By registering, they just get your contact info and usually have a sales guy call you… not a big deal. To avoid any persistent calls though… that’s a good link to have.
~Mel
12 July 2006 at 4:48 am #1061We use both toolbook and authorware, and also most recently robodemo to run flash content. In authorware I was able to create a “stub” movie in the course and then use a loadmovie call to display external flash content. The advantage to this is you don’t have to wait for the flash piece to download in its segment prior to displaying. Seems to work pretty well. Robodemo seems to offer a true streaming solution as evidenced by how quickly large (8+MB) fles display and play. I don’t have enough toolbook experience to offer up on its virtues (frankly I’m not a TB fan), but we do use it with flash content, although it seems to be “buggy” which has been a long-standing complaint of mine.
Marty
15 July 2006 at 12:51 am #1062We are using Captivate also to create software simulations. For example, we create a few simulations showing the learner how to use their LearnCenter. The simulations are broken out by section, I think we have 6 in total. Captivate records the steps as you click. You can add your own sound and text bubbles. We save them out as a .swf and I have them launching as a pop up window with no header or left navigation from a page titled “virtual tour”. The learner can select which simulation to watch, it pops up, close the window after watching, and then select another.
They are a little slow to load on occasion, depending on server traffic I think? They do fine most of the time though. Again, considering the overall file size, they stream rather well. Large files display and paly as Marty mentioned above.
28 July 2006 at 6:54 am #1071I recently received “Flash Companion eLearning Studio 2005” from wwwRapidIntake.com. This software was created entirely in Macromedia (now Adobe) Flash MX 2004!
RapidIntake includes all of the Flash source files so I can completely customize the courses! I am also using Flash to create the content and quiz’s. This (Flash) is an industry standard software with 98% of web users already having the plug-in. I already know how to use Flash – I’ve used it since 1997!
Needless to say, I am jazzed. I don’t have to spend hours learning Lectora or Toolbook – software that has no other application outside of e-learning. I can continue to use a software I already know that can also be used for other things like websites, CD-Roms, etc.
28 July 2006 at 6:57 am #1072Did I mention it was SCORM 1.2 compliant? And it is AICC compliant. I have tested it with the LearnCenter LMS and had good results. I will know more after I actually get my first full course completed and into the LMS.
29 July 2006 at 3:29 am #1074Mel, I have a question for you about Lectora. A couple months ago you posted information about Lectora and the action needed for Learn to score a test. I’m repasting here.
Lectora and Test ScoresTest scores are averaged together in Lectora. We did not want our Pretest to be averaged with the final score. We have set our Pre-test to be graded (checked), but not to “include test score in overall score” (unchecked).
In order for a score to be registered in the Learn.com LMS, you must add an action. This action sends the score and marks the course as complete.
Action Name: Submit Score to LC
On: Show
Action: Modify Variable
Target: Aicc_Lesson_Status
Value: completed
Modifcation Type: Set Variable ContentsNOTE: AICC actions also work for SCORM courses/classes. We are publishing as SCORM 1.2, but this action works for us!
Where did you add the above action? What page did you do it on and on what object did you add it? Also, for some reason I’m not able to select the Target “AICC_Lesson_Status” and I can’t add it either as it’s apparently a built in function.Thanks in advance,
Russ1 August 2006 at 8:09 am #1076In answer to my own question above but to possibly help someone else down the road, in order to set the action I first had to go to the Title Properties, select the Content tab, select AICC/SCORM/CourseMill (3.x and above) Published Title, and click OK. This made the next variable possible to be selected. I then went to the Assessment Passed page, right-clicked anywhere on the page and selected New/Action and followed the steps listed by Mel. It worked like a charm and the course then showed as completed.
12 August 2006 at 6:15 am #1080Zack,
Have you been successful at getting your first course completed and in your LMS using RapidIntake? I have wasted A TON of time trying to get CourseMaker Studio and StreamMaker to ‘behave’ the way I want it to, but am leary of purchasing more software and going down a different road only to be dissapointed once again. I too am a fairly experienced Flash devloper, but am needing my courses to run in Learn.com and track education and score the examinations appropriately. Let me know what your results were when you get a chance. I’m am deeply intrigued!Thanks!
Andrea12 August 2006 at 6:18 am #1081Has anyone had ANY success using CourseMaker Studio? I pushed the newest version to it’s fullest capacity only to run into bugs and major issues. I am leaning towards switching to a new content development software to use in conjuction with our LMS (Learn.com) and it seems that most people are recommending Lectora. Does Lectora work well within Learn.com and allow all the functionality necessary to bookmark lessons, track education and scoring of exams, etc.? Any guidance would be wonderful… Thanks!
Frustrated with CM Studio,
Andrea15 August 2006 at 12:58 am #1084Andrea,
I’ve only used Lectora for a couple of smallish courses so far but I’ve been happy with Lectora’s SCORM interaction with Learn.com. My experience has been that the course tracks successfully, i.e. opening and closing the course shows the course in “Your Courses in Progress”. Opening the course again brings up a Lectora popup telling you that you’ve been in the course before and asks if you want to go to the last saved placed. Clicking Yes takes you to the last page; No takes you to the first page. After the exam, assuming that the correct action has been set in Lectora, it passes the score completed information to Learn.com and the course shows in the Completed Courses section.
The Lectora trial version is good for 14 days. I’d recommend downloading it, creating a short quiz, using the above instructions to get the SCORM to work, then testing it out. I believe the trial version allows you to do everything although it’s been a few months and I can’t recall exactly. I believe it does watermark the trial but it’s easy to recompile after purchasing a license key and you can overwrite anything imported into Learn.com. You will need to give your information to Trivantis in order to get access to download the trial but they’re actually quite nice folks.
I hope that helps.
Russ16 August 2006 at 2:55 am #1085Andrea,
Rapid Intake also has a free trial version of their software. I tested their sample course in the LMS and everything worked correctly. I am building my first course with their Flash Companion software right now. (Rapid Intake just released a new version of the software – it is now called Flash Form)So far I really love their software. It really can be used with very basic Flash skills. I just customized all of the interface graphics and am now creating the course content. Each “page” of content is a slide-show that I build in Flash. I just import a voice-narration track and edit my slide show in the layers above. I am even using Flash video files to present content.
I believe Flash is the way to go. Flash is an industry standard web development tool with a huge support base and an existing base of users. Just about everyone already has the plug-in installed! And improving your knowledge of the Flash software can only help you in the future when you develop a website or banner ads and such.
Granted, I have not yet successfully completed my course and used it in the LMS yet, but I have complete confidence that it will work properly. These guys really know what they are doing. So far my calls and email to Rapid Intake are answered promptly and inteligently. RapidIntake is a small company that seems to be off to a very good start. Don’t be surprised when Garin Hess, the developer of the software, actually takes your calls and fields your tech support questions!
Zack
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.