March 2016 – The Logical Blog

March 31, 2016

TechSmith Camtasia: Cursor Effects

by Kevin Siegel

If you attend my introduction to TechSmith Camtasia mini course, you learn how to use the Camtasia Recorder tool to create a software demonstration pretty early. During the recording process you will, of course, capture every click you make with your mouse. Later, in the Studio, you can elect to hide the mouse completely, or add some nifty cursor effects that can enhance the learner experience.

To add Cursor Effects, record a video using the Recorder and add it to a Camtasia Studio project. (Don't forget to also add the video to the Timeline.)

Double-click the video you added to the Timeline to move the Playhead to the beginning of the video and then Preview.

As the video plays, pay particular attention to the mouse cursor. It's moving around the screen just fine, but you can't hear or see any visual mouse clicks.

To add a click sound and visual effect, on the Timeline, double-click the video object again to move the Playhead back to the beginning of the video. Then choose Tools > Cursor Effects.

The Cursor Properties appear. From here you can hide the Mouse cursor or add effects. For instance, from the Left-click effect drop-down menu, choose Rings.

Preview the video. And just like that, Camtasia adds a nifty effect every time the mouse was clicked during the recording process. How cool is that?

You can add click sound effects to the cursor just as easily. From the Cursor effects panel (Tools > Cursor effects), click the arrow to the left of Click sound effect to expand the options. From the Left click drop-down menu, choose Mouse click.

You can click the yellow speaker icon at the right to hear the sound effect. And as with the visual effects, you can preview the video to hear the mouse click sound you just added.

If you'd like to see how to add Cursor Effects in Camtasia, check out this video that I created on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

March 28, 2016

eLearning Audio: Sound Absorbers

by Kevin Siegel

During a recent online meeting (we use GoToMeeting), I decided to use my fancy Blue Yeti microphone. It's probably my favorite microphone ever. However, during the meeting, I was told that my audio had a bit of an echo.

My home-office won't ever be confused with a sound studio. When I record my voiceover audio, I make everything as quiet as possible. Nevertheless, the room itself doesn't have the kind of sound-absorbing cushions you'd find in traditional studios. Sure the room has paintings on the wall, furniture, and the typical things you'd find in any office, but the sound waves in my voice still bounce around the room and cause the echo.

Because adding sound-absorbing panels to my office isn't an option (they'd stop the sound from bouncing around the room… but they're, how do I say it delicately… ugly), I went in search of a portable solution.

My search took me from booths that are as big as a small room (you enter them through a door such as the Taytrix SBK) to sound-absorbing kits.

I wanted a truly portable sound-absorbing option that would sit on my desk (or travel well should the need arise). The range of options for portable sound booths included a cubicle-type booth (portable perhaps but I just couldn't see it sitting on my desk).

There are also boxes that can accommodate your microphone and your head.

I'm not claustrophobic so I might be able to use a coffin-like booth as shown in the image above, but I'm betting several of you are freaking out just thinking about it.

So let's move on…

In the end, I went with the ARF-05 Portable Vocal Booth. First of all, it looks cool. My 12-year-old even said so the second she saw it (and she thinks everything is lame).

It's inexpensive, very portable (collapses pretty small in seconds), and can hold the microphone on a bracket so it's always in the same position (I don't currently use the bracket because I'm too lazy to put it on, but I plan to install it soon).

I know you're dying to see how the ARF-05 looks on my desk, so here you go:

I've recorded several audio clips using my new setup. I'm happy to report that my audio quality when hosting training classes using GoToTraining or meetings via GoToMeeting, and the quality of my voiceover audio in my eLearning lessons, have all improved dramatically.

What are you using to absorb unwanted sounds in your home/office recording "studio?" Feel free to share your setup as comments below.

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Looking for training on all things eLearning? Check out this live, online mini course.

March 25, 2016

Jargon Watch: Just Say “No” To Trainings and eLearnings

by Jennie Ruby

From the sound of crickets chirping in my inbox, I can only assume that I have now been written out of the lists of true grammarians for my defense of "trainings"! The one reply I got to my article suggesting that we allow the words "training" and "eLearning" to become plural seems to give the final word on this usage. Thank you Jennifer De Vries for your thoughtful reply:

Honestly, I just always thought that the people who used the word "trainings" were those who were thrown into training because they were a SME. To me, it was an immediate flag that the person didn't have formal education in the training/learning field. I never heard anyone who was trained in our field use that word. (Definition of trained in our field includes degree, certification, and certificate programs. I bet IconLogic doesn't use the word "trainings" in their courses. [Touché!])

I do a lot of strategy work, and I do use the word "offerings" to describe what's in the LMS' catalog. I also use the words "courses" and "products." This fits because most of my work is with "for sale" eLearning offerings, rather than internal training. I may even combine learning, training, or education with these words. (e,g. training products, educational offerings, eLearning courses)

I don't think we should adapt to the way amateurs describe our work products. I think we need to educate people who work in our field, so that they use professional terms properly. The ATD glossary is my source of truth when it comes to learning/training terminology. I use it all the time when I educate my clients about what they are buying.

Note: The word "trainings" is not in this glossary.

Most professions have a set of terminology. It's important for us as learning professionals to have a glossary like this so that the professionals all speak the same language to mean the same thing. This is more critical now that over 50% of training is delivered via technology. The amateurs will always do what they want, but if the professionals all speak the same language, it's easier to identify the amateurs.

P.S. And a lot of people who develop Learning Systems don't utilize personnel with Learning background, and I think they should include Learning professionals in their GUI development and user testing. There are a lot of Learning Management Systems out there that aren't even Learning Management Systems by the ATD definition of the term. Mark Rudden was right to object. I wouldn't event consider buying an LMS that didn't use the language of our field properly.

Jennifer De Vries

So we have our answer: no s on training or eLearning.

Here are some other words that our readers sent in as new jargon. I'd love to get a feel from you as to which of these words you would allow versus disallow into our technical vocabulary.

Please copy these and paste as comments below. Type Y or N beside each. Additional commentary very welcome as well!

actionable (it used to mean you could sue someone, now it means you can use something)
around ("particularly around talent development")
c-suite
curate
curated
curation
cybersecurity
disruptive innovation
enhanced capabilities
gamification
interoperability
intersectionality
iterative
leverage
message
navigating
out there ("there are not a lot of resources out there")
resource
source
space
talent development (means training)
visuals

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Check out Jennie's eLearning writing classes and ensure both your voiceover scripts and eLearning scripts are ready for prime time!

March 22, 2016

Camtasia Studio: Locking Tracks

by Kevin Siegel

You know that saying that the cobbler's kids have the worst shoes? Or perhaps the one where the doctor's kids are always the sickest… something like that anyway. It's sort of the same thing for trainers… there's never time to attend training. When it comes to software, we're often on our own and have to learn via the "click and a prayer" methodology.

When I first started using Camtasia, I "clicked and prayed" as I tried to figure how things worked. (Mind you that this was long before I'd figured things out and written several books on Camtasia.)

I was like any new user–I was developing eLearning content with zero training. Nevertheless, what I lacked in training I made up for with an abundance of energy and hope (hope that I was doing things correctly and the button I was about to click wasn't going to delete my project).

At one point, I wanted to delete part of an audio clip on the Timeline. I'd figured how to make a selection by dragging the green and red Playhead ports. (Shown below. The green icon is known as the "in-port" (or "in-point"), the red icon is known as the "out-port" (or "out-point").

Using the ports to make a selection in Camtasia

Once I had a segment selected, I clicked the Cut tool on the Timeline and successfully deleted the segment.

It certainly seemed like all that praying had paid off, and I went on and did about a million other things to the project.

It wasn't until much later that I realized, much to my horror, that while I had deleted the selected audio as intended, I'd also deleted video segments, images, and other parts of my project. Apparently, when you make a selection on the Timeline, items above and below the selection are also selected… in every track.

Because I had saved several times (I'm a very efficient saver) and closed and reopened my project, the Undo command wasn't a viable option. Sadly, I had pretty much trashed much of my work.

Lesson learned! If you need to delete part of segment on the Camtasia Timeline, make a selection using the ports on the Playhead. But prior to clicking Cut, lock the tracks you don't want to alter prior to using the Cut tool.

Once a track is locked, it will gain diagonal lines across the entire track. While you can still use the ports to seemingly select part of a locked track, clicking the Cut tool won't harm the track. Crisis averted!

If you'd like to see the process of locking Camtasia tracks and then deleting content, check out this video demo on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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Looking for training or help with Camtasia? Check out this live, online mini course.

March 16, 2016

Articulate Storyline: Translations

by Kal Hadi

So you need to create eLearning in various languages but you're not quite sure about available workflows in Articulate Storyline. This article demonstrates the import and export features in Storyline specifically designed for building multi-lingual courses. Please keep in mind that Storyline is NOT going to translate the content from one language into another… that's a job for localization companies such as Carmazzi Global Solutions.

You can export content from Storyline, have the content translated, and then import the translated text back into a project. The process is often referred to as round-tripping.

Storyline objects that contain text (text boxes, smart shapes, buttons, and text entries) get assigned an internal ID that looks something like this: {bmp_5hAyawujdSz.Name}. The IDs, which are automatically generated by Storyline behind the scenes, are the key to performing the round-trip.

To perform a Storyline round-trip choose File > Translation and then choose Export.

The export formats include Word Document (.doc), Word Document with Reference Column, and XML Localization Interchange File Format (.Xliff).

The difference between the two Word .doc formats is whether or not the original language text is retained as a reference for the translator. This is often preferred for immediate point of reference.

The XML-based format (.Xliff) is fairly common in the technical translation field and is used to facilitate the sharing of data between software tools.

Your localization vendor will advise you as to the best export format to use. In any event, the exported file will simply be sent to the vendor and its content translated.

Upon receiving your translated file back from the vendor, it's time to import the file back into Storyline by choosing File > Translation > Import.

Open the translated file and the localized text will replace the original text throughout the project. (The original object styles and formats will be maintained.)

Give the updated project a new name via File > Save As (being careful not to over-write the original language project). Word counts can vary from language to language resulting in undersized or oversized text boxes and shapes. You should go through the slide elements one-by-one and adjust the size of the text elements as needed.

Note: Because you will have to do additional work to a project after importing translated text (resizing slide objects for instance), localization should occur after you have completed the course in your primary language.

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Looking for training or help with Articulate Storyline or Studio? Check out these awesome live, online Articulate classes.

March 14, 2016

Adobe Captivate Prime: Adobe’s Best LMS Effort to Date

by Sean Mullen

This will be the first in a series of newsletter articles which cover the Learning Management System (LMS) offering from Adobe Systems–Adobe Captivate Prime. In the title I mentioned "best LMS effort to date" because it's good to know where Adobe has been on the topic of LMSs. Some of you may be familiar with the menu option to publish directly from Adobe Presenter and Adobe Captivate to Adobe Connect. What most people don't know is Adobe Connect has an easy to use, but feature-light, content management system to deliver courses and curriculums to learners. This workflow has been around for over 10 years from Adobe (well, technically Presedia, then Macromedia, and then Adobe Systems). If you're not familiar with this solution, that's fine, we've now got Adobe Captivate Prime.

In the image below you can see the Publish options in Adobe Captivate 9. Notice that Publish to Adobe Captivate Prime is one of the menu items.

I started testing Adobe Captivate Prime during its beta in the fall of 2014; and from the start, I knew Adobe was onto something special. The product was officially released on August 19, 2015, after two years of building from the ground-up, which makes Adobe Captivate Prime the first new product from Adobe Systems in over a decade.

Adobe Captivate Prime the first new product from Adobe Systems in over a decade.

If this is your first time reading about Adobe Captivate Prime, no problem! If you've seen a little of Adobe Captivate Prime, perhaps you've attended a webinar, even better! The goal for this article series is to provide an unvarnished "deeper-dive" on no less than 10 key features of Adobe Captivate Prime. These features will include:

Fluidic Player
Note-taking & Bookmarking
Video Delivery Performance
Mobile Learning & Offline
Gamification, Leaderboard, and Badges
The Four Distinct Roles
Easy Administration Tools
Skilled-based Learning
Learner Dashboards
Powerful Reporting

Plus, I will cover some of the exciting new features to be released soon, so stay tuned!

March 8, 2016

eLearning: Adding Silence to Audio Waveforms

by Kevin Siegel

If there is unwanted noise (static perhaps or a barking dog) in the audio you're using in your eLearning projects, all of the eLearning tools allow you to quickly edit the audio file and delete the offending noise.

However, if you come across audio gaffes between segments of your waveform, it may not always be appropriate to simply delete them. Sometimes deleting parts of a waveform shortens the segments between two waves and has a negative effect on the timing for the rest of the audio. In those instances, it's a better idea to convert the gaffes into silence.

Fortunately, if you're using any of the top eLearning development tools, the ability to replace portions of an audio file with silence is built-in… and the process is similar no matter the tool.

For instance, if you're using Adobe Captivate, choose Audio > Edit > Slide. Highlight the part of the waveform you want to replace with silence and then click Insert Silence.

In Articulate Storyline, select the audio object on the Timeline and, on the Ribbon, select the Audio Tools Options tab. Then click Audio Editor. As with Captivate, you simply need to select the part of the waveform that you want to replace with silence and then click Silence.

In TechSmith Camtasia Studio, choose Tools > Audio, select a segment of the waveform on the Timeline, and then from the Volume group, click Silence.

Last, but not least, if you're a Lectora user, visit the Home tab on the Ribbon, select a segment of the waveform and from the Volume group, click Insert Silence.

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Looking for training or help with Adobe Captivate? Check out these awesome live, online Captivate classes. Are the Articulate products more your style? We've got you covered. And we also offer 3-hour mini courses on Camtasia and Lectora.