This session will cover:

• Why use audio in e-learning?
• Using non-linear editing tools
• How to record audio
• How to produce audio
• How to integrate audio into commonly-used rapid e-learning applications

 

Here’s the agenda for the full two days of the Lights, Camera, Action: Using Media to Engage the Learner event.

Opening General Session
Thursday, June 4 — 8:30a to 9:45a

•     Selecting Media for Learning: Thinking Inside and Outside the Box
  • Patti Shank, Learning Peaks LLC

Concurrent Session Block 2
Thursday, June 4 — 10:15a to 11:30a

• 201 | Integrating Audio into E-Learning Courseware
  • Michael Hanley, Cúram Software, Ltd.
• 202 | Rich Media on a Poor Budget
  • Jeff Tillett, T-Mobile

Concurrent Session Block 3
Thursday, June 4 — 12:00n to 1:15p

• 301 | Finding, Hiring, and Directing e-Learning Voices
  • Harlan Hogan, E-learningvoices.com
• 302 | Rapid Video and User Generated Video
  • Mark Chrisman, T-Mobile

Concurrent Session Block 4
Friday, June 5 — 8:30a to 9:45a

401 | Creating Interactive Learning Experiences With Video in Flash

John Crider, Intuit, Inc

402 | Storytorials: An Instructional Strategy for e-Learning

Kevin Cassel, James Kinnamon & Pete Safran, SAI Global

Concurrent Session Block 5
Friday, June 5 — 10:15a to 11:30a

• 501 | Sometimes a Video Isn’t Just a Video
  • Stephen Haskin, S  Media
• 502 | Immersive Simulations that use Voice Technologies
  • Paul Howe, Allen Interactions

Closing General Session
Friday, June 5 — 12:00n to 1:15p

• Cool Tools: Spice Up Your Training with Web 2.0 – Legally
  • Michelle Lentz, Write Technology

If you’re participating, I hope to see you there (metaphorically speaking), and best of luck to all presenters as well as the backroom team of organizers and moderators who have worked so hard to make this event happen.

–

One of the tools I looked at in the past is an open source Integrated Development Environment for producing e-learning called Salasaga. According to the author it will be

a free, easy to use GUI authoring environment that helps you create visually impressive and actually useful learning material. The short term goal for this project is to provide such an environment, and we’re well on the way to a first release for doing that.
Initially similar to Adobe Captivate, but will eventually incorporate an AJAX (browser based) playback capability for advanced content. Flash has at least one serious design limitation (from [his] POV) making it nearly useless for comprehensive e-learning, and this appears to be addressed by the existing capabilities of AJAX in browsers these days.

Today, I just received an e-mail from Justin Clift, the developer behind the IDE. He updated me on the latest developments with the tool; primarily that it’s in Alpha 4 version at the moment, and that going to included in Ubuntu Intrepid. He’s excited.

In my view, any tool or utility that enables a wider range of people to access e-learning, whether as learners, or as in this case through leveraging the means of production can only help the future growth of e-learning as a means of educating the widest possible group of people.

–

One of the tools I looked at in the past is an open source Integrated Development Environment for producing e-learning called Salasaga. According to the author it will be

a free, easy to use GUI authoring environment that helps you create visually impressive and actually useful learning material. The short term goal for this project is to provide such an environment, and we’re well on the way to a first release for doing that.
Initially similar to Adobe Captivate, but will eventually incorporate an AJAX (browser based) playback capability for advanced content. Flash has at least one serious design limitation (from [his] POV) making it nearly useless for comprehensive e-learning, and this appears to be addressed by the existing capabilities of AJAX in browsers these days.

Today, I just received an e-mail from Justin Clift, the developer behind the IDE. He updated me on the latest developments with the tool; primarily that it’s in Alpha 4 version at the moment, and that going to included in Ubuntu Intrepid. He’s excited.

In my view, any tool or utility that enables a wider range of people to access e-learning, whether as learners, or as in this case through leveraging the means of production can only help the future growth of e-learning as a means of educating the widest possible group of people.

–

Now read on.

For a while, I’ve been following the development path of an open source integrated development environment (IDE) called The Flame Project which

brings what Adobe Captivate offers to the Windows community, to Linux/*nix and others. The final aim is to provide functionality superior to Adobe Captivate, by enabling production of in-depth eLearning with properly verifiable results.

Flame has been renamed Salasaga, and the application is now available as and alpha release for Linux Ubuntu.

The developers’ vision is

…imagine a free, easy to use GUI authoring environment that helps you create visually impressive and actually useful learning material. The short term goal for this project is to provide such an environment, and we’re well on the way to a first release for doing that.

Initially similar to Adobe Captivate, but will eventually incorporate an AJAX (browser based) playback capability for advanced content. Flash has at least one serious design limitation (from my POV) making it nearly useless for comprehensive eLearning, and this appears to be addressed by the existing capabilities of AJAX in browsers these days.

As an alpha release, the IDE is not stable or functional enough to be used in a production environment, but in my view it shows great potential (particularly now that Adobe have opened up the runtime on Flash (as reported here), thereby freeing up developers to actually work with the code from the ‘inside.’

Where Salasaga differs from tools like the popular Jing screen capture application, is that the former is available under the GNU LGPL, the latter is a free-to-use product created by TechSmith (of Camtasia fame). While Jing is a great little tool, it is, as the owners say “free for now” – similarly, the owners decline to state for how long the application will be publicly available. Finally, Jing content created by all its users is stored and delivered on TechSmith’s ScreenCast streaming media hosting service, which locks content creators in to using TechSmith’s solution end-to-end.

From an open source development perspective, this is not ideal.

The current system requirements to run Salasaga are:

Operating Systems

• Linux
• *BSD
• Solaris Nevada
• Windows XP – No development build presently available
• Windows Vista – No development build presently available

Most recent distributions of Linux should work out of the box. Debian Testing on AMD64 has specifically been reported to work.

Please note that the *BSD, Solaris Nevada, and Windows testing only gets done around package creation time.

Requirements

• Glib and GTK+ – version 2.10 or higher of both is known to work
• Pango – version 1.16 or higher is known to work
• libxml2 – version 2.6.30 or higher is known to work
• Ming – version 0.3.0 or higher is known to work

Click here to view a short demo about installing Salasaga – presumably recorded and produced using the IDE.
–

Now read on.

For a while, I’ve been following the development path of an open source integrated development environment (IDE) called The Flame Project which

brings what Adobe Captivate offers to the Windows community, to Linux/*nix and others. The final aim is to provide functionality superior to Adobe Captivate, by enabling production of in-depth eLearning with properly verifiable results.

Flame has been renamed Salasaga, and the application is now available as and alpha release for Linux Ubuntu.

The developers’ vision is

…imagine a free, easy to use GUI authoring environment that helps you create visually impressive and actually useful learning material. The short term goal for this project is to provide such an environment, and we’re well on the way to a first release for doing that.

Initially similar to Adobe Captivate, but will eventually incorporate an AJAX (browser based) playback capability for advanced content. Flash has at least one serious design limitation (from my POV) making it nearly useless for comprehensive eLearning, and this appears to be addressed by the existing capabilities of AJAX in browsers these days.

As an alpha release, the IDE is not stable or functional enough to be used in a production environment, but in my view it shows great potential (particularly now that Adobe have opened up the runtime on Flash (as reported here), thereby freeing up developers to actually work with the code from the ‘inside.’

Where Salasaga differs from tools like the popular Jing screen capture application, is that the former is available under the GNU LGPL, the latter is a free-to-use product created by TechSmith (of Camtasia fame). While Jing is a great little tool, it is, as the owners say “free for now” – similarly, the owners decline to state for how long the application will be publicly available. Finally, Jing content created by all its users is stored and delivered on TechSmith’s ScreenCast streaming media hosting service, which locks content creators in to using TechSmith’s solution end-to-end.

From an open source development perspective, this is not ideal.

The current system requirements to run Salasaga are:

Operating Systems

• Linux
• *BSD
• Solaris Nevada
• Windows XP – No development build presently available
• Windows Vista – No development build presently available

Most recent distributions of Linux should work out of the box. Debian Testing on AMD64 has specifically been reported to work.

Please note that the *BSD, Solaris Nevada, and Windows testing only gets done around package creation time.

Requirements

• Glib and GTK+ – version 2.10 or higher of both is known to work
• Pango – version 1.16 or higher is known to work
• libxml2 – version 2.6.30 or higher is known to work
• Ming – version 0.3.0 or higher is known to work

Click here to view a short demo about installing Salasaga – presumably recorded and produced using the IDE.
–

So today, I’m going to look at some developments that have the potential to positively affect e-learning content delivery.

Now read on…

I have talked on other occasions about using what Douglas Adams called PETs (Personal Electronic Things) to deliver e-learning content. On May 20th, British e-learning company Atlantic Link announced that they had developed an e-learning authoring solution for the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP). According to their press release:

Atlantic Link’s …rapid e-learning authoring tools … now allow courses to be designed specifically for the Sony PSP Slim & Lite. The courses can be deployed locally (from the Memory Stick Duo) or from the Internet, giving users a true mobile learning experience … all the functionality of Atlantic Link’s rapid e-learning authoring tools can be applied to small screen format.

[Click image to view demo]

Atlantic Link MD Mike Alcock states:

The potential applications for this technology are huge … [t]ourist guides, language training, product training and updates, maintenance guides and training, medical training, interactive museum guides, schools training, the list is almost endless.

Based on the information available from Atlantic Link’s website, I can’t tell whether the organization have developed a new set of templates for their current Rapid e-Learning authoring tools, or have created a new authoring platform specifically for PSP /Lite content development.

Given the range of potential applications for their content development system, Atlantic Link may have opened up a niche market for themselves by repurposing e-learning content authoring tools to deliver informational material in predominantly non-networked environments (see Mr. Alcock’s quote above).

Is this innovative or new?

No.

Flash Lite has been around since 2004; what Atlantic Link seem to have done is created a point solution by simplifying the authoring environment (much like Captivate and Articulate do) to enable output on the PSP device. Similarly, I can’t discern from the press release or website whether this content supports learning tracking, SCORM / AICC specifications and learners’ formative and summative test results can be sent to and stored on an LMS.

It also may be the case that this type of approach has just been overtaken by events.

As well as announcing the latest version of their enterprise collaboration solution Adobe Connect Pro 7 (I’ll review it once we get our sticky hands on it here in the office), Adobe have also announced the Open Screen Project, which they say is

dedicated to driving consistent rich Internet experiences across televisions, personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics.

[by] taking advantage of Adobe Flash Player and, in the future, Adobe AIR — that will remove barriers for developers and designers as they publish content and applications across desktops and consumer devices, including phones, mobile internet devices (MIDs), and set top boxes. The Open Screen Project will address potential technology fragmentation by allowing the runtime technology to be updated seamlessly over the air on mobile devices. The consistent runtime environment will provide optimal performance across a variety of operating systems and devices, and ultimately provide the best experience to consumers.

To support the Open Screen Project along, Adobe is:

• Opening up the runtime to Flash Player so that anybody can develop a customized player. Specifically, it is going to open up the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications. In the past, developers had to sign agreements not to create derivative Flash players because Adobe wanted to avoid the fragmentation that Java experienced during its early years.
• Removing licensing fees for Flash on mobile devices. While Flash is free on PCs, cell phone makers and other device manufacturers must pay a royalty fee. Instances of Flash are on 500 million mobile devices already (expected to grow to one billion over the next 12 months). As of the next major release of Flash (and AIR) for devices in 2009, it will be free to device manufacturers.
• Publishing the APIs for porting Flash to other devices. This currently also incurs a royalty fee. Now, every device should come with a pre-installed Flash API.
• Publishing Adobe protocols for pushing content to devices like Flash Cast and AMF. Adobe will also work with wireless carriers on protocols for over-the-air software updating.

I would suggest that the primary implication for learning professionals is that this could be the basis for a common (if not open) platform to enable learning materials to be delivered via multiple channels. With the support of a range of hardware manufacturers, there seems to be little threat of vendor lock-in; maybe manufacturers have finally understood that wider customer access has the potential to generate higher revenues than forcing people to use proprietary communications solutions?

in any case, being able to create content for a ubiquitous, device-independent platform will make my life less complicated and I suspect the same goes for a lot of other people too.

FOGRA: I was meant to be presenting at this year’s ILTA EDTech 2008 Conference on ‘non-formal workplace learning’, but had to cancel due travel commitments: best of luck to all attending and presenting – I’ll be keeping up with activities on the ILTA website.

–

Figure 1. Inputs and Outputs
[Click to enlarge]

Here’s the end-to-end development process (see Figure 1):
1. Content authors agreed course structure according to the structure outlined in the instructional design
2. XML text data authored with XXE and the DocBook DTD
3. Images created and in GIMP and imported in to XXE
4. Course developed in XXE
5. Content reviewed and signed off
6. Content stored on Apache/MySQL/PHP-based content management system (CMS)
7. Narration script text generated from signed off content
8. Using Audacity, voice-over narration for multimedia presentation is recorded
9. Voice-over narration is post-produced in Audacity, reviewed and signed off

Final integration
1. Content accessed from CMS
2. XML data imported into OpenOffice.org Impress and exported as PPT-formatted file
3. Audio retrieved from database
4. Separately recorded video content retrieved from database
5. Content integrated in Microsoft Producer 2
6. Content rendered to final compiled format for delivery via multiple channels (see Figure 2)

Figure 2. Overview of Integration Process
[Click to enlarge]

7. Content exported to open source LMS/LCMS such as Moodle, or burned to DVD for delivery to customers (see Figure 3)

Figure 3. Final Course Structure
[Click to enlarge]

–

Figure 1. Inputs and Outputs
[Click to enlarge]

Here’s the end-to-end development process (see Figure 1):
1. Content authors agreed course structure according to the structure outlined in the instructional design
2. XML text data authored with XXE and the DocBook DTD
3. Images created and in GIMP and imported in to XXE
4. Course developed in XXE
5. Content reviewed and signed off
6. Content stored on Apache/MySQL/PHP-based content management system (CMS)
7. Narration script text generated from signed off content
8. Using Audacity, voice-over narration for multimedia presentation is recorded
9. Voice-over narration is post-produced in Audacity, reviewed and signed off

Final integration
1. Content accessed from CMS
2. XML data imported into OpenOffice.org Impress and exported as PPT-formatted file
3. Audio retrieved from database
4. Separately recorded video content retrieved from database
5. Content integrated in Microsoft Producer 2
6. Content rendered to final compiled format for delivery via multiple channels (see Figure 2)

Figure 2. Overview of Integration Process
[Click to enlarge]

7. Content exported to open source LMS/LCMS such as Moodle, or burned to DVD for delivery to customers (see Figure 3)

Figure 3. Final Course Structure
[Click to enlarge]

–

A topic I’ve touched on briefly in the past is that of repurposing content already developed in a different format. In my view, one of the more common (and unsatisfactory) processes used to develop courseware is to use Microsoft PowerPoint as the primary courseware authoring application. While the reasoning behind this is practical – for example, instructors delivering training in a classroom environment typically use PowerPoint as their presentation tool of choice, particularly in the corporate environment. Similarly, courses authored in PowerPoint can also end up being used as the basis for hard-copy document generation.

A typical process includes:

1. Content (i.e. a series of lessons) authored in PowerPoint
2. Lesson text extracted from PowerPoint imported into Microsoft Word. The content text is reformatted to enhance usability in hardcopy form (i.e. slide header made bold, 14 point etc)
3. Slide images and text exported as WMF format images from PowerPoint and stored in a graphic assets folder for integration into the Word document version of the courseware.
4. Because of file size issues, WMF images batch converted to high-quality GIF format.
5. Images reinserted in Word document with adjoining text.
6. Typically 10 to 12 lessons then inserted into a Word template and saved.
7. Saved documents exported as PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Pro.

There are a number of significant inadequacies in this process, not least among them being:

• complicated editing
• difficulty revising materials
• lack of traceability
• versioning issues
• discoverability of keywords and terms in either the source Microsoft Office application files or the compiled PDF document
• severely restricted interoperability of content
• restricted ability to deliver content using multiple channels (i.e. efficiently over the web)
• use of proprietary formats to create content
  

Proprietary tools do not “play well with others” (Meyerding, 2004). For example, the Microsoft Office productivity suite has a long history of file format changes and despite the much-vaunted interoperability of Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) in Office 2007, it can be said that there are still issues with integrating MS Office-produced content into an open environment, and by extension problems using this suite if you need to integrate your content into another environment or platform.

–

References:

Meyerding, H. (2004). XML and Content Reuse Systems for Instructional Design Part 2: Implementing Content Repositories & Selecting Tools Part 1 The eLearning Developers Journal 3(1) [Internet] Available from: http://www.elearningguild.com/articles/abstracts/index.cfm?
action=view&CFID=822922&CFTOKEN=16828758 (Subscription required) Accessed 22nd October 2006

–

A topic I’ve touched on briefly in the past is that of repurposing content already developed in a different format. In my view, one of the more common (and unsatisfactory) processes used to develop courseware is to use Microsoft PowerPoint as the primary courseware authoring application. While the reasoning behind this is practical – for example, instructors delivering training in a classroom environment typically use PowerPoint as their presentation tool of choice, particularly in the corporate environment. Similarly, courses authored in PowerPoint can also end up being used as the basis for hard-copy document generation.

A typical process includes:

1. Content (i.e. a series of lessons) authored in PowerPoint
2. Lesson text extracted from PowerPoint imported into Microsoft Word. The content text is reformatted to enhance usability in hardcopy form (i.e. slide header made bold, 14 point etc)
3. Slide images and text exported as WMF format images from PowerPoint and stored in a graphic assets folder for integration into the Word document version of the courseware.
4. Because of file size issues, WMF images batch converted to high-quality GIF format.
5. Images reinserted in Word document with adjoining text.
6. Typically 10 to 12 lessons then inserted into a Word template and saved.
7. Saved documents exported as PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Pro.

There are a number of significant inadequacies in this process, not least among them being:

• complicated editing
• difficulty revising materials
• lack of traceability
• versioning issues
• discoverability of keywords and terms in either the source Microsoft Office application files or the compiled PDF document
• severely restricted interoperability of content
• restricted ability to deliver content using multiple channels (i.e. efficiently over the web)
• use of proprietary formats to create content

Proprietary tools do not “play well with others” (Meyerding, 2004). For example, the Microsoft Office productivity suite has a long history of file format changes and despite the much-vaunted interoperability of Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) in Office 2007, it can be said that there are still issues with integrating MS Office-produced content into an open environment, and by extension problems using this suite if you need to integrate your content into another environment or platform.

–

References:

Meyerding, H. (2004). XML and Content Reuse Systems for Instructional Design Part 2: Implementing Content Repositories & Selecting Tools Part 1 The eLearning Developers Journal 3(1) [Internet] Available from: http://www.elearningguild.com/articles/abstracts/index.cfm?
action=view&CFID=822922&CFTOKEN=16828758 (Subscription required) Accessed 22nd October 2006

–