Category: Elearning

Using toggle javascripts to build an FAQ page.

Posted on October 19, 2009 by ellen

FAQ pages are sometimes requested in our learning modules so we’ve built in the scripts to create an easy- to-read, easy-to-use FAQ by applying simple CSS classes to elements on the page. When the FAQ page loads, all the questions appear in a collapsed view which can be quickly scanned.

On clicking any question, its associated answer expands and pushes the rest of the questions down. When another question is clicked, the first answer closes and the new answer opens up.

Here’s how to add this type of FAQ to your own HTML pages.

Captivate scoring problem

Posted on September 14, 2009 by ellen

An instructional designer came to me with a Captivate issue the other day. She had converted a working version 3 Captivate file to version 4. The converted file no longer calculated scores properly. There was a walk-through tutorial showing how to use a new web application, then a short multiple-choice quiz with 5 questions. The setting “Show Progress” was turned on, so each question should show a label: “Question 1 of 5, Question 2 of 5, etc.”

In version 3, everything had worked fine. In version 4, things looked fine in Edit mode, but at runtime, the numbering was off. The first question was numbered “Question 2 of 7” and it would increment from there.

I immediately assumed it was counting clickboxes from somewhere else in the file, but when I looked at the Advanced Interaction page, Add to Total was grayed out for all buttons and clickboxes, and Track Score was also not checked for any of them. So, I assumed it could not be the clickboxes. Thinking it might be some corruption in the question slides, I re-created all the quiz questions, and yet the problem remained.

Captivate, right-click and accessibility

Posted on September 14, 2009 by ellen

One of my colleagues wrote that she had used the right-click feature in her latest Captivate project. When she previewed the file using Preview > Project, it worked fine. But when she attempted to publish

Decision support tools, performance support systems and just-in-time learning

Posted on September 8, 2009 by ellen

Where is the best spot for an educational (or other) intervention?

When there is a workforce performance or knowledge gap to fill, trainers understandably think first of using training to fill it. But is more training really always the best answer? Depending on the skills involved and the characteristics of the audience, process improvement, usability improvement, training or performance support may all be worth considering.

Adobe Captivate for Mac is in beta

Posted on August 6, 2009 by ellen

Good news for those who are interested in creating interactive learning content on the Mac: Adobe Captivate for Mac is in beta testing. You can volunteer to test the pre-release versions here: Prerelease Interest Form

Drupal: Use Taxonomy Access Control Lite to protect content areas for each course

Posted on July 26, 2009 by ellen

Drupal is often used in education these days, and a common requirement for course sites is to create protected areas for each course. You could simply have a separate Drupal site for each course, but sometimes that is not an option, or not efficient, particularly if you want to have some common areas, and other areas which are restricted by course.

There are many approaches you could take to do this using various Drupal modules, but one relatively simple method is to use the Taxonomy Access Control Lite module. This tutorial will help you get started with managing rights in Drupal course sites. In a later tutorial, I’ll cover forums, wikis and and blogs.

IE8: Navigation to the webpage was cancelled

Posted on June 16, 2009 by ellen

With the advent of IE 8, I started getting calls about a new error when accessing our learning management system.

“Navigation to the webpage was cancelled.”

This error can be caused by many things, but in this case, I believe it has to do with the fact that the LMS has both secure and insecure assets in the frameset. Unfortunately, many times messages will come up asking people whether they want to view both types, and they will click “no” without knowing that the page requires them to function.

Since I can’t ever really know what is going on with a user’s home computer’s security setup, I simply tell them to reset their Internet Explorer to its default settings.

A SCORM-Ready Template: Part 6A. Adapt the SCORM template for Moodle

Posted on June 10, 2009December 1, 2013 by ellen

The HTML SCORM template works with Moodle, but it needs a few modifications to work perfectly.

Server side include statements in the content pages must be replaced with the real code
The closing javascript on buttons in the navbar needs to be modified from “top.window.close()” to “window.close” because of the Moodle uses a different learning activity window structure than our own in-house LMS.

I’ve made these changes and created a “Moodleized” version of the template for you to download:

DOWNLOAD MOODLE VERSION OF TEMPLATE

This template is an unscored activity and should just mark itself complete. I will soon be posting one that will allow scored interactions on each page as well.

Serious Games: References, Resources and Templates

Posted on May 20, 2009 by ellen

References, Resources, Templates

References

View all chapters in this article

Games and Education in General

Ahdell, Rolf and Andresen, Guttorm. Games and simulations in workplace eLearning: How to align eLearning content with learner needs (Study that seems to show that Interactivity is the most significant contributor to engagement)

Serious Games: Edutainment Examples