Elevate Your Course by Going Digital

Pam Martin
Pam.martin@desire2learn.com

Look up Karen Mcalla (sp?) good resource for ADA

Color Schemes (free schemes out on the web) Colorschemer.com

Consistent look and feel (color and font)

Style sheet allows, contemporary design (D2L has 5 preformed packages in the LOR in the community site) for a fresh contemporary design

Style sheet that shared files images (check with IT)

Embedding Videos
YouTube usually defaults to iFrame (so you can click on "old embed code") iframes won't work in news item

YouTube is an http site so that's why internet explorer flags and sends much (double negative message to say "no" and allow) or you can save yourself this by either typing in the "s" to the link code http://youtube/.....) or by clciking the "use HTTPS button

Can unclick:"Show suggested videos when the video finishes"


Apply in navigation page/template
Apply on homepage

HTML
Use the HTML editor
THis is the most effective way to communicate within an online course. Unlike word, powerpoint or pdf no additional program is needd to veiw this content.

Use paste from a word into

Cascading Sytle Sheets (CSS) in community center from learning repository. Download to desktop which comes zipped)

(To get to the community session for D2L you can individually enroll or have someone send an excel sheet with all that need to be enrolled)

SHORTCUTS
* SHIFT ENTER will get you the line right below and not like the start of a new paragraph with more space.
*In excel spreadsheet ALT ENTER will allow you to add a second line within the same cell
*F5 refresh


Formatting Content

LEARNING REPOSITORY from community center

Open up notepad, copy and paste (plain text)

Juicy Studio does a contrast study of your conten (?) color contrast analyzer. It even tells you the minimum size your font should be.

Cross Browser Checking (internet explorer and firefox) in order to instruct and guide students.
June 2011 23.2% of users use Internet Explorer and 42.2% use Firefox! (Much higher for firefox) Chrome 27.9 (Data comes from w3schools.com This is an excellent resource for web statistics)

Embedding is still not DOWNLOADING so you are not violating copyright.

Embed a google gadget into widegets (content, and in html code)

Tool, internet options, advanced tab (scroll to very bottom), warn about certification address mismatch* should be enabled

Get embed code go to widgets--may have problems

FLASH VIDEOS
video format recommended is flash--compression is good without a loss of quality (so you end up with small formats) Get a plugin if using an apple mobile devices (phone or ipad)

Best practice to embed and provide link to download
.flv simulates streaming vs. .swf which requires them to download
98% of people have a flash plugin
If you have a video that isn't flash (.avi or .mov) then you can upload them to youtube to convert them to flash.
Best practice is to also include an URL

Interactive (SPACE JUNK is an example)

Can convert powerpoint to flash
*add voice
*good design
*consistent graphics

simple search for a plugin

Adobe Captivate, Articulate and Camtasia are free converters on the market. Camtasia is gigantic file sizes--recommended (Adobe Captivate)

Audacity is free and can be used for audio

SoftChalk

Technology needs to be helpful. Use the best format for the content you are trying to communicate.

Create the course and then look at it from outside of the class (overall, big picture)