Debate - displaying all of the pages

Do ALL of the resulting pages need to be displayed? I think not because

1. It diverts attention from the purpose of the examples, which is to highlight how Course Genie can be used to create interactive web pages.

2. We need to get the reader to focus on the style of the examples, not the content, although the content will be one of the hooks.

It may be appropriate to remove long pages but keep the cgPageTitle and cgSectionTitle, to maintain the structure of the pages.

Another debate - could a TW be used for the comments (both theirs and mine?)

Pros -

Showcases TW

A good method of indexing text

Cons -

Not so accessible! Would need a text-only alternative for searching.

Style vs Content

I have an idea what I would like my e-learning object to look like when it's finished. It's very tempting to think about the appearance of it, especially when trying to explain to the Learning Technologist how I want things arranged.

I have just got involved with the TW again and am sure that this is the best way to put in the written information. It gives tutors an opportunity to search for items needed. And to engage with new e-applications!

Back to the content!

One decision - cut out superfluous text in the examples, so that people can concentrate on the items displayed. The superfluous text arises in the "work in progress" where pages have not yet been formatted, so the last page can be very long. (I suggested that people start from the beginning, considering one page at a time, and continually regenerate the files.)

"Critical Friend"

It was extremely useful to have a colleague act as "critical friend". Basic attempts to explain what I was doing helped me!

Useful things:
Categorise the objects, highlighting various aspects of them.

Looking through the examples

Not too difficult to look at the structure and categorise what types of questions and formats have been used.

The formats were by guessing and remembering the requests of colleagues from the sessions. I may need to go back to the original Word documents to check.

I will also need to anonymise the documents where people have put in their own names. But I have put that on my list.

Next - creating the e-learning object

I need to do the following...

Examples created by people:

1. Look through the examples
2. Decide whether to do any more editing other than forgotten personalisations
3. Look through the TW text of stories
4. Decide whether to edit the TW stories

Commentaries of the examples; what they illustrate; possibly a list of Word/CG skills and links to the examples.

Text handouts:
Create a list of handouts that are needed
Perhaps guidelines need to be given for TW use (small tiddlers)
FAQs?

Movies:
"To do" bits - need a list!

Putting it all together:
What's it about; skills involved; skills gained
How to index the examples (see commentary above)
Snapshots of the examples?

FIRST - I need to compile a list of these lists! See cipel.pbwiki.com

Post collection courses

Now I have a lot of examples.

I need to build the e-learning object around it.

Then I need to test the e-learning object.

I spoke with colleagues suggesting that I ran an external course, previously to collect the "finished objects" for the e-learning. However, I think I have enough now. However, a course would be an ideal opportunity for people to evaluate the e-learning object; having access to it and to the examples during the course.

Final two sessions

Four people for each session. Just enough. Certainly the "going round each person" part was a little crowded. I would have planned the starting bit in a separate room but am glad we did a round robin.

Both sessions made me think that they could have been longer as they both overran.

In the first session there were two people who were from the same office. A disadvantage. At least they didn't sit together, although I suspect that they were influenced as one person had to "leave early" and so did the other.

The second session - one out of the four arrived on time. This really bugged me.

Not everyone brought a Word document with them. This really bugged me too.

I found that they needed guidance in writing the sentences about the document (the TW) so I created a helpful screen with a list of things that they could include. This worked well for the next-last session but not the last session where I really needed it - it was online and there was no online access to the computers.

The examples that I demonstrated must have been useful. Comparing it with the last session, when I did not have access to the examples and instead used solely the question examples produced by CG, the earlier sessions were moe successful.

One conclusion - I need to have local alternatives to everything! Hopefully the examples that have been created during the sessions will illustrate these.

Late Arrivals

Someone arrived very late at one of the sessions. Without a Word Document. And without written questions.

Everyone was specifically told by email the arrival time for the session (but some brought along an old document). BUT the email would have told them that they had a place and what day to arrive, as well as the time. They were also specifically told to bring Word documents with them, with potential for questions.

The person who arrived late was encouraged to attend the session and to use the PowerPoint, because in the previous session someone had a PowerPoint and others found the demonstration of exporting to Word (saving as a rich text file) useful. BUT, because of the late arrival, did not see the earlier part of the session and as a result ended up doing things that, they didn't understand and didn't "get". I have yet to look at what the person had done but I suspect that it may not be useable.

Third Session

Four people! All different needs.

I still need to emphasise the need to bring a Word document with the potential for questions. One person changed her mind over a document after I had demonstrated Course Genie. Another person didn't have a Word document anyway and wasted a lot of time trying to find one, ending up with modifying a PowerPoint.

They seemed to build up a good understanding of creating questions. Using the generated examples and working from the Word example seemed to make sense for them all.

Problems

Didn't have time to talk about the files that were produced but it's in the notes.

PowerPoint import as a rtf didn't do too well as there was a lot of formatting. Best to copy the text from the rtf and paste as plain text into the Word document, then don't get problems when re-generating.

The LESS THAN sign caused problems when re-generating. The GREATER THAN didn't... possibly because it was at the beginning of a line.

One person seemed to spend a lot of time with a large file, despite my suggesting that only one criterion out of four be addressed. Time ran out and the person only put in questions for the revision aspect of the section - the first criterion. Learning the hard way!

The wiki - despite my mentioning that it was the story of the document, not an evaluation of the course or an explanation of the features of Course Genie, some of them still started off with evaluation/features. I need a handout / PowerPoint to say otherwise, I think.

Strategies

Put in some headings, Generate Course, then look at the metadata.

The Properties of the document (File - Properties) revealed the title and the author... unexpected author in some cases!


I need to minimise the number of examples, concentrating on the ones with questions.

Someone had an image to add - it needed to be pasted as a .jpeg image and re-entered as a file import. Demonstrated image techniques (Grouping, Moving, Selecting)- slightly off topic but I think it was appreciated.

The Wiki

All entered items in their wiki. I got this right because (while they were having lunch)...

1. Previously got them to save their files on the desktop (NB Need to suggest their initials as the folder name)
2. Removed their sticks
3. I put in the stick with the Fx and wiki (the one they were to take away)
   
4. Started Fx Portable and dragged the wiki file over it, starting up the file
5. Talked them all through creating text rather than demonstrating first
6. Made sure the wiki were saved
7. Coped the wiki to their desktop folder
8. Copied the files back to their new stick (they would have 2 copies of the TW)
   
9. Copied the files to my stick
   

Two Courses gone...

This week I ran two of my courses in CIPeL. Only two people in each one but both sessions were very fruitful -
* interprofessional interactions between colleagues
* good examples - unexpected nuggets of gold!
* different issues
* transfer from print to interactive e-pages
* contrast of styles of documents

Nuggets - gaps between text boxes

I used the html break and then put the style into cgHTMLinclude style. Three breaks were sufficient to make "just the right sized" gap between successive paragraphs. All the person had to do was highlight these (surrounded by unformatted "Enter"), copy and paste where needed.

Nuggets - Easy question with not too much typing

the gapfill! Just paste a paragraph (into the answer box) and add [] round each word to be missing, then it's nearly done.

The Gap

I was away in August attending the Assistive Technology conference, visiting a colleague whose role was similar to mine in Accessibility and Learning Technology and visiting the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre.

And having a vacation between the visits.

Assistive Technology Conference - http://tinyurl.com/2yu2lm

Colleague - Educational Technology Manager http://www.eplt.educ.ubc.ca/

Adaptive Technology Resource Centre http://www.atrc.utoronto.ca/