1. Courseware Development for the Internet & Intranet
Developing Experience of a Small Organisation
Ian Wright
Avion WBT Limited
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

2. Background Goal Develop web courseware. Solo enterprise.
Approx 18 hours.
Solo enterprise.
Commercially viable.
AICC and/or SCORM.
Complete LMS solution.
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

3. Courseware Characteristics
Narrative driven tutorial
MP3 streaming audio, full text backup
Interruptible, with free navigation
Jump menus, bookmarks, restart points
Full support for student preferences
Text, audio, colour, alerts
Integrated and forum
Mastery test always available
As fast as Internet connections allow
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

4. Setting Up for the Internet
Requirements
Learning Management System
Helpful ISP
Broadband and Narrowband
Server installation
Internet protection – firewall and anti-virus
Suitable development software
Friendly subject matter reviewer(s)
Minimum time overheads
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

5. Setting Up for the Internet
Solution No 1
WBT Manager developer licence
Accepted “willing” ISP - mistake
Server installation – drew blanks
Broadband – a learning experience
Internet protection – firewall and anti-virus
Installation on working PC a disaster
Suitable development software: MX Studio
Friendly subject matter reviewer(s)
Minimum time overheads – total failure
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

6. Setting Up for the Internet
Solution No 2
WBT Manager developer licence
Mainstream (BT) with fixed IP address
Broadband – LAN access point
Server installation – own PC on fixed address
Internet protection – remote in access point
Trouble-free, care free, withstands IP spoofing
Suitable development software: Flash MX
And then there was Flash MX 2004
Friendly subject matter reviewer(s)
Minimum time overheads – success
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

7. Setting Up for the Internet
Home
Page
ISP
Fixed IP Address
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

8. Development Software Flash MX + Paintshop Pro.
MX Studio a bit wasted – Some use of Dreamweaver.
Flash – The proverbial Curate’s Egg.
Good things about Flash MX.
Small files.
Smart graphics.
Universal acceptance.
And so on….
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

9. Development Software
There are things they don’t tell you about Flash as a Tutorial development tool.
Long steep learning curve in comparison.
Labours under legacy.
Inherently time-line animation.
Debugging both very easy and very difficult. Time consuming.
Some things are incredibly easy.
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

10. Using XML Narrative text MCQ data Menus Glossary
Narrative driven course with full text backup
MCQ data
Single, random linear, review modes
Menus
Easily changed, function, URL
Glossary
Easily maintained
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

11. Using XML
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

12. Development Technique
Get as close to final development application as quickly as possible
Make XML an integral part of the process
First draft of narrative in Word
Spelling, thesaurus, word processing
Cut and paste to XML shell
Search and replace Word with XML tags
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

13. XML in Development
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

14. Flash for Tutorials Don’t Use Scenes Use multiple movie layers
Backgrounds don’t carry over
Problem bookmarking
Problem restarting
Use multiple movie layers
Overlays offer extended capability
Use components & Movie clips
Productive
Surprisingly easy
Smaller file size
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

15. Flash Frames Sequence Steps Lesson Frame Content Layers 7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

16. AICC CMI & SCORM AICC-style courseware SCORM marketplace
Neither meets the requirements of this courseware
Decided to use SCORM API and augment programmatically
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

17. Student Preferences: Text & Audio
There may be difficulty with web audio
Don’t want to dedicate screen area to optional text with 800x600 display
Need to Switch ON or OFF
Need to relocate around the screen to suit
Need to change font size
Want to have preferences persist
AICC API & SCORM values for .text & .audio are CMISinteger (–32768 to )
I ought to be able to do this
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

18. Specification of .text
Definition In a lesson designed for audio, it may be possible to turn off the audio, and view the audio content in a text window. Or it may be possible to leave the audio on, and request that the text be presented simultaneously with the audio. Or it may be possible to make the text disappear so that only the audio and the screen graphics are available.
This keyword identifies whether the audio text appears in the lesson.
Value One of three digits.
format
-1 text is off, not shown
0 no change in status. Use default.
1 text is on screen, shown to student
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

19. Limitations of .text 0 “no change” value is meaningless
Requires local persistence
+1 implies a fixed position
No potential for position data
No potential for other attributes
-1 throws data away
Current text data is lost
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

20. Specification of .audio
Definition Audio may be turned off, or its volume controlled. The keyword arguments indicate whether the audio is turned off, or on.
Value Digit from -1 to 100.
format
-1 is off
Any minus number is an off command.
0 is a no-change status.
The lesson uses its defaults or the status of the audio remains the same as the last lesson taken on the terminal.
1 to 100 is volume level.
1 is soft, 100 is loudest possible.
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

21. Limitations of .audio Potential is CMISinterger
A signed integer number from –32768 to
0 “no change” value is meaningless
Requires local persistence
1~100 is an arbitrary limitation
Flash is OK up to 200
No provision for multiple sound channels
-1 throws data away
Current audio volume is lost
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

22. REAL Preference Requirements
Text display mode (docked top, docked right, float, etc)
Text screen position for float
Font size
Audio volume on restoration
Audio attributes, e.g. streaming, not streamed
Colour theme
Advance prompt – sound, sight, both, off
Bookmarks
Lesson notes
Global notes
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

23. Storing Preferences .text .audio Suspend_data MySQL + PHP Text mode
On/Off
Position X
Font size
Audio vol
Streaming
Colour
Prompt
Bookmarks
Notes
Local
Global
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

24. Using cmi.suspend_data in Flash
4096 byte block of free-form ASCII
Cannot use ini-file functions
Flash is cross-platform
Split data using ActionScript string.split()
Use weird delimiter like <?>
Use HACP-style name-value pairs
e.g. bookmarks=<comma-delimited string>
Use .split() to put multi-values into an array
textSwitch=top<?>textLocation=413,267<?>textSize=12<?>audioVolume=100<?>audioStream=true<?>theme=7<?>nextPrompt=1<?>bookmarks=<?>userLessonNotes=Delete this line and enter your notes here.
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

25. Flash and LMS API
Flash is really difficult to get into conversation with an LMS
Flash can’t get data and process it in the same frame
Too many things can go wrong
Debugging is a black art
WBT Manager comes with good examples
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

26. Favourite Tools Flash MX XML Audio XMLwriter (Wattle Software)
Project management
Well-formed-ness & Validation
Edit Plus 2 (ES-computing shareware)
Spell-checker
Word wrap editing
Audio
Nero with MP3 extension
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

27. Favourite Tools MS Word narrative XMLwriter
EditPlus2: Word-wrap + spell checker
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

28. Best References
Never out of reach
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

29. How I learned what Flash programming
Best References
How I learned what Flash programming
is about
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

30. My once-a-week reference for when Flash help fails me
Best References
My once-a-week reference for when Flash help fails me
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse

31. Nice to See You All Again
Ian Wright
Avion WBT Limited
7th Oct 2003
AICC Toulouse