Friday, October 29, 2004

The time taken to add one lecture

OK, so I’ve got this 2-hour lecture, ready to go onto the OHP, for Space Systems Technology. The notes, in practically book-chapter quality, are already on the WebCT course, so I shouldn’t feel compelled to put anything else online. But I do. Somehow, I want to make the customer offering complete (note how I come out with spontaneous marketing-speak now?), and also make a handy on-screen revision tool that might jog the memory more than memory itself.

Let’s see what’s involved in providing Powerpoint – they like to print out the Notes pages, and why not – and Impatica versions of an existing presentation. I’ve already anticipated a little by having a sequence of slides, illustrative of the progressive degradations that you get when compressing images, be longer than I would use for actual overheads. The sequence itself is like frames of a movie, and the learning point is all about comparison rather than analysis of any particular one.

First of all, I make sure I’ve got my Powerpoint file ready (it’s called “processing” and the course is called PHYS3C64), so let’s start the clock. Here are the steps:

1. Transfer processing.ppt (786 kb) to a network drive
2. Log on to server running Impatica 3.0.2
3. Find the source file, Add to batch list. Enable navigation controls and HTML output. (There’s loads more : zip, SCORM, ipk)
4. For this one, I don’t want to introduce two lots of compression artefacts, so I go to the Media tab and (here’s hoping this is right) set the JPEG compression to 100%. I assume that normally, it will compress the whole slide-image as one entity.
5. Oops I spotted an option “apply extra compression” in Output Files. Turn that off.
6. Hit Impaticize!
7. 38 slides take a minute or two.
8. OK, now I’ve got a processing-imp.jar. Turns out it’s 930 kb. Haul this back to my PC, along with the 1 k html wrapper it makes, and the copy of the player it spits out.
9. Bundle these puppies together in a dummy folder.
10. I already have the 3c64 setup as a Network Place – using the webdav info provided in MyWebCT. Copy the dummy folder across. For some reason I can’t copy files this way, only folders. However, I can move files once they are present on the server, so I put them where I want now.
11. Log on to WebCT.
12. The next bit takes ages, it seems. Putting two additional files at arbitrary places in an existing content module seems overly clunky (I know, I know, it’s because HTML forms don’t generate Events). WebCT doesn’t help me by not having a proper file browser dialog for selecting to-be-linked file, just this huge list in a tiny font.
13. Switch to View mode for a quick test. Press F11 to get more actual screen back. Click through the subject icon, this link here and Boing! my first slide.
14. Having minimal/no compression is good for me (I’m working on a fast-ish network) since all my text and graphics are clean. Now how about that series of compressed photos. The slides are now coming out at 800 x 600 rather than my native 1024 wide. Excellent – all OK.
15. My native powerpoint file is launched ok from WebCT (although it leaves an empty screen on the browser – weird).
16. Check that the titles are consistent in this module’s table of contents. It should say “Science Data Processing – for on screen viewing” and “Science Data Processing – Powerpoint for Printing”. Getting the phrases rhythmically the same is important, I feel. One thing I hate is when the browser launches a helper app without warning!
17. All done. Update Student View so they actually see the new stuff. Takes no time (but funny how it goes through all the hidden files too). All I have to do now is wait for the complaints.
18. About 40 minutes, including typing this lot. I’ve probably missed Top of the Pops now.

Dan's introduction

As requested, allow me to introduce myself. I work as the FISO for the Life Sciences faculty, a job which centres on staff IT training and advice, and website development, but also happens to include quite a lot of e-learning-related work.

In many cases the e-learning work has been using WebCT, since that's the main e-learning vehicle provided at UCL, but also important is Tony Gardner-Medwin's LAPT tool. It provides self-paced learning through questions and answers; I've had some involvement in developments with that.

I do have an interest in website development and programming, which has meant that I've been able to develop various web-based tools. Here's a personal project of mine which I've been working on:
http://hiv.sourceforge.net/
(N.B. It's a personal project done in spare time - not connected with UCL!)

My UCL homepage:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/is/fiso/lifesciences/

Let's have a meeting!

But not like this: Dilbert

Auricle ... diverse platforms

Dan suggested we look at Auricle, Bath's e-learning website (actually a blog, though more formal than this one).

This will go in the sidebar (the bit over there, under our names) when I get time. Meantime, one article caught my eye directly, about diversity of toolsets in e-learning. Derek Morrison says
I put forward a couple of refreshing alternatives to the 'e-learning=proprietary VLE' furrow now being ploughed by many institutions. I think we have a lot to learn from institutions that have opted for an eTools and services model as an important part of delivering on their learning and teaching strategies, so I'm revisiting this theme today.
More.

Please Welcome ...

... Dan Stowell and Julie Voce, as team members. Whilst probably known to most readers here anyway, can I suggest that they say a little bit about themselves?

WebCT conference

From reading the October 04 WebCT newsletter, it looks like we just have enough time to convince our HoD's to send us for tapas-leave in Barcelona - the annual WebCT jamboree.

e-learning reports - introduction

Hello, and welcome to e-learning reports.

This blog has been set up by staff at UCL to illustrate, entirely unofficially, how the development of e-learning tools works in practice. We don't have any particular message, system or theory to impart. We are not experts by any means, nor are we e-learning strategists. This will be a record of our observations "doing" teaching through electronic media. Education practices are continually changing, now more than ever. Taking part in this blog is one easy way of keeping in touch.
Use the site feed for an easy way of keeping abreast of new articles. Paste this feed URL into your feedreader (Help! What does that mean?) : http://elearningreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
The team members will be reporting on their experiences of creating courseware, adapting existing materials, and incorporating electronic tools in their teaching practices. Some of the team members may be learners, and we'll see reports on their perspective, too. The reports you'll see will be fresh from the field, reflecting the reality of teaching practice.

We'll also recommend websites, blogs and other resources that will allow you connect with other interesting e-learning topics and practitioners.

Along the way, we'll learn about what works (and a little bit about why), reveal common frustrations and difficulties -- and their solutions -- and hopefully inspire others to get involved too.

Comments from you will always be welcome; in fact, they are expected of you!