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If last week's 3D learning article piqued your interest
in learning via virtual worlds, you might want to check out this article addressing lessons learned by Karl Kapp and Tony O'Driscoll, authors of Learning
in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration, while conducting 3D virtual world learning
experiences.
~ AJ George
Since its release in February, Google Buzz has
been making headlines, not only for its debatable innovation in bringing
together such social networking sites as Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr (to name
a few) but also for its privacy flaws, its efforts to rectify said flaws, and
for whether or not the name is a rip off of Yahoo's similar feature. Headlines
aside, click here
to learn how Google Buzz could effectively be used in the realm of eLearning.
~AJ George
by David R. Mankin
There are powerful utilities
that skillfully guide the conversion process to include advanced features, as
is the case with PDF Maker–the
Microsoft Office to PDF utility that come with Acrobat 9.
Acrobat itself will
do conversions to PDF. Take a look at the very first task button: it's called Create. Clicking this button reveals
various sources from which Acrobat will create a PDF file. One of these
options, PDF from Scanner allows you to grab an image of a document and convert it to PDF.
An image-based PDF file can pose a few challenges. A
pixel-based document is generally a large file. Not only that, it doesn't
contain any text at all, even though we can read it with our eyes and brains.
Using Acrobat's Find command is
guaranteed to yield no results. This PDF file is a picture of words, not
actually searchable characters. Acrobat has a terrific OCR (Optical Character Recognition) engine built in, allowing us to
take an image-based PDF file and convert the shapes of letters and words into
actual text.
A
brand new feature in Acrobat 9 Professional is an OCR option called ClearScan. ClearScan analyzes the pages
of your image-based PDF and determines which regions contain text and which
contain foreground and background images. The shapes of individual text
characters are analyzed, and Acrobat actually assembles a unique scalable font
within the document. This makes a markedly smaller PDF file that is searchable,
looks amazing, and will print faster thanks to the custom fonts being utilized.
To use ClearScan, open an image-based PDF and
choose Document > OCR Text
Recognition > Recognize Text Using OCR. Click the Edit button to set your OCR options. Be sure to select ClearScan as your PDF Output Style.
Once
complete, zoom way in to the text to see that the original escalator-like
pixels have been smoothed by using the custom font. Do a Find or Search. Also
check out the document's size by visiting the Document Properties Description
tab. Amazing!
by Jennie Ruby
While I was working on a web page recently, I needed more information about CSS. I accessed a training site and played an eLearning demo that explained how to redefine an HTML tag. During the video, I found myself both listening to the voiceover and reading the captions. I quickly realized the captions were identical to the voiceover. At about the same time, I realized that I had not absorbed the content of the last two screens, because I had been trying to figure out whether the voiceover really was the same as the caption. I also noticed that I could read the captions way faster than the voiceover was reading them, so I turned off the audio and just read the rest of the tutorial.
I had just experienced firsthand what I have heard from fellow eLearning developers over the years: a screen caption identical to the voiceover narration can be a distraction rather than an added value to the learning process. In fact, the best scenario is to have graphics, animation, or video accompanied by voiceover only–with no screen captions at all. Because learners are trying to pay attention to the visuals, the need to move their eyes to focus on the accompanying caption is a distraction. Having a voiceover explain the visual enables the learner to absorb the audio and visual information at the same time.
So my decision to turn off the audio was a mistake. I would have had a better learning experience if I had listened to the audio while focusing on the videos and ignoring the printed captions at the bottom of the screen.
So does that mean eLearning should never include screen captions? Of course not. Sometimes screen captions are required simply because there is no voiceover or the learner may not have access to the voiceover.
Other times when captions should appear on screen are
Ultimately, the use of captions and voiceovers must be coordinated to enhance, not distract from, the learning experience.
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Worried about your class canceling? You'll be happy to hear that IconLogic never, ever cancels classes (even if there's just one student registered).
by Kevin Siegel
Adding links to related topics is a common feature found in most Help Systems created with RoboHelp. However, if you spend the time typing out See Also and then adding related links, you'll be looking at a lot of work if you want to add those same links in other topics. Instead, consider adding See Also controls to your topics.
See Also's allow you to place related RoboHelp topics into one common group. The See Also keywords are related to Index keywords except they will not appear on the Index when you generate your project. Instead, See Also keywords remain hidden and will appear only when called by a customer. One popular way to get a See Also to appear is to use Link Controls (a button that links to topics or other See Also keywords).
In the following steps, you will learn how to create a See Also group and name and associate some topics with it. Then you will create a Link Control in a topic that tells the See Also to appear if the control is clicked by a customer.
Now you need to associate topics with the new See Also keyword.
Now you need to insert a link control in a topic.
The See Also Wizard – See Also Keywords Selection screen appears. The See Also keyword you created should be the only keyword available to Add.
Your button should now appear in the topic.
To test the button, you would generate and view the project and open the topic containing the button.
Need to learn the basics of Adobe RoboHelp fast? Attend a live, instructor-led, project-based, online training class. Click here for more information.
Worried about your class canceling? You'll be happy to hear that IconLogic never, ever cancels classes (even if there's just one student registered).
Follow Kevin on Twitter: http://twitter.com/iconlogic
Since they hadn't taken an Acrobat class and knew little of Acrobat's advanced features, many of John's colleagues simply placed the default Acrobat Digital Signature on the document.
Not John. John learned Acrobat on his crude computer (it was made of wood, naturally). And during his Acrobat training, John learned that he could go to Acrobat's Preferences ([Ctrl] K on a PC, or [Cmd] K on a Mac), select Security and then click New next to the Appearances list box.
John chose to configure his Digital Signature's custom appearance by importing a scan of his actual signature. He chose just a few text descriptors to show, like Name, Date & Reason–to keep his custom digital signature appearance unique and uncluttered. He gave his custom appearance a name (he used his own–he wasn't very creative).
John attended his group's big convention in Philadelphia that July. It was hot, but the pretzels and cheese steaks were awesome, so they say.
When John's colleague Thomas sent him the all-important PDF file, John grabbed Acrobat's Digital Signature tool (I think the icon was a quill back then) and drew a rather large rectangle.
John then entered his secret password in the dialog box (they only had 2-bit encryption back then–I'll let you make the joke on this). Unlike his unlearned colleagues, John knew that if his digital signature was to be noticed, it had to look different. He confidently clicked the down arrow next to Appearance, found his newly-created custom appearance and selected it. He then chose I am the author of this document from the reason for signing.
John Hancock's digital signature was huge, and unique. Everyone at the convention was very impressed… except Thomas (it was Thomas who actually authored this important historical PDF). In the end, Thomas had the last laugh… his house is on the nickel today, and John just has an insurance company.
Looking for Acrobat training? Join David for a live, 2-day online class. Click here for more information.
by AJ George
In James Cameron's blockbuster Avatar, scientists created avatars to interact with natives of another planet without the scientists actually having to use their own bodies to interact with said natives. The avatars allowed the scientists to blend in with the natives and accomplish tasks that the scientists couldn't physically do on their own. While I think that this made for a delightful movie-going experience, perhaps it could, in a sense, be applied to learning in the real world. And not in 2154. More like now-ish.
Learners using avatars, like those used in Second Life, have the opportunity to create characters representative of their individual personalities and physical traits (or, at the very least, representative of the personalities and physical traits they wish they had). Creating an alter ego fosters a type of bond between learner and avatar that goes beyond 2D learning that uses just a name or a picture. That's weird, but apparently it's true.
While doing research with Stanford undergrads for their book, Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete, Byron Reeves and Leighton Read noticed that students showed an actual bodily change in their heartbeats and their brains while controlling their avatars and genuinely seemed to care about what their avatars did, even though the avatars existed entirely in a virtual world.
In situations where learning is essential to business functions, presenting information in a virtual world where a learner-controlled avatar can act out procedures, learning becomes more hands-on than simply seeing the procedure in video format. Students can work together with other students to collaborate on processes together, even if they are on opposite sides of the globe. There is less chance of losing more reserved students or those that would be uncomfortable asking questions. And in situations where a failed learning attempt could mean a wasted product or an unsafe environment, learning through a virtual world could save money while ensuring safety. Connie Malamed of The eLearning Coach blog, calls it "The Power of Being There" in her review of Karl Kapp and Tony Driscoll's book Learning in 3D, because knowledge is being applied, rather than just taught.
Also, learning in a virtual world is fun! Toy and video game manufacturers market products to our children all the time that promote learning while having fun. 8D World, a startup out of Massachusetts, runs a virtual world for Chinese-speaking children who are trying to learn English. Each player selects an avatar and moves up levels for properly pronouncing English words into a microphone. The program's use of virtual worlds has even caught the attention of China's CCTV which will be using the program as the official training platform for its Star of Outlook English Talent Competition.
So maybe we're not going to incubate ourselves in a vessel on another planet. Maybe we're not going to feel the wind on our faces as we leap through trees, big and blue and wearing a loin cloth. (Not this year anyway.) But what we can do (and not one day, but now) is immerse our learners in virtual worlds to make learning more hands on while saving money and resources…all while our students actually (gasp!) enjoy themselves.
About the author: AJ George, a cum laude graduate of Towson University, is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of the book "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and the soon-to-be released "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." You can follow AJ on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andrayajgeorge.
by Lori Smith
When creating Captivate eLearning lessons we, the developers, need to enable the student to be as successful as possible. By successful, I mean being able to complete the lesson as intended, not necessarily passing any quizzes.
In addition, developers often want the student to feel as if they have the power… the students are in control (when in reality the design of the lesson is forcing them to proceed in a given manner).
You can elect to have the TOC displayed in a lesson (Project > Table Of Contents, Show TOC) and allow it to be navigable (via the TOC settings, Enable Navigation checkbox). This gives the students a lot of power to navigate, but clicking the TOC while on the wrong slide (e.g. quiz slide) could derail the entire lesson.
Enter the system variable cpLockTOC. Yes, you can temporarily lock the TOC so it is not clickable during crucial slides and then re-enable the navigation later.
Disabling and enabling the TOC can be done via any interactive item as well as on slide enter/exit. In each case, the cpLockTOC should be assigned the value 1 to lock the Table of Contents.
To lock the TOC on slide enter, show the slide properties and set the On slide enter field as shown below.
To re-enable the TOC navigability (unlock the TOC) set the cpLockTOC variable to 0. To unlock the TOC on slide exit, show the slide properties and set the On slide exit fields as shown below.
This is a simple constraint to implement. Here's one piece of advice before forging ahead locking and unlocking your TOC: know your navigation. Be sure that the student will actually execute the locking/unlocking. For example, if the student is allowed to navigate away from a slide via a button, the student will not execute the OnExit commands. In that case, ensure your button unlocks the TOC before jumping away.
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Worried about your class canceling? You'll be happy to hear that IconLogic never, ever cancels classes (even if there's just one student registered).
by AJ George
"Now, Momma said there's only so much fortune a man really needs and the rest is just for showing off." –Forrest Gump
Could it be that the same applies to our Facebook friends? According to a study still in its early stages by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, his previous assertion that people can only maintain meaningful relationships with 150 people holds true even in the age of social networking (where we can have 5000 Facebook "friends"). Apparently the human brain can only cognitively handle and maintain roughly 150 relationships, even if through Twitter and LinkedIn you are connected to thousands of people.
The study has been all aflutter on news outlets and the internet recently, but this is not a new topic. In fact, a year ago, Chris Brogan wrote in his community and social media blog about Beating Dunbar's Number. He upholds Dunbar's Number as fact, but asserts there are ways to work around the theory and maintain networks with more people. One example: databases. He puts in the typical info for his contacts (name, number, email address, etc) but goes further and adds tags so he can easily find people depending on where he is, where he's going to be, and what he's doing.
Furthermore, Jacob Morgan of the SmartDataCollective's blog asserts that as far as social networking is concerned, Dunbar's number is "irrelevant" because our weak connections are so much more important to networking than those relationships we consider meaningful, those that would fall into our core 150. He cites Morten Hansen's Collaboration when he states that when networking for the purposes of gaining new jobs or knowledge, relying on your close friends who know many of the same things and people as you do, can prove frivolous. Furthermore, those weak ties take less time to establish and are easier to maintain.
So when it comes to our virtual friendships, perhaps there is strength in numbers, as long as we don't expect too much from too many of those friendships, and instead see the untapped potential in our myriad loose affiliations.
About the author: AJ George, a cum laude graduate of Towson University, is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of the book "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and the soon-to-be released "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." You can follow AJ on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andrayajgeorge.
And, I like to use en spaces to separate my run in heads from the text that follows:
Finally, I can correctly anticipate the non-breaking space in my Cross Reference format when I see the "\ " in the Heading & Page building blocks between page and <$pagenum>.
About the author: Barbara Binder is the president and founder of Rocky Mountain Training. Barbara has been a trainer for nearly two decades and has been recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide.