A method for recording Captivate Simulations with Narration

Depending on the size, and the number of people involved, recording a simulation in captivate with narration can be a little frustrating.

I've recently started using a new method which is working out really well. Since i'm not a huge fan of Captivate's audio editing tool, I try and record all the narration separately in something like Audacity (free) or Audition (not so free).

With some nice narration recorded, I then start recording a new simulation while listening to my recorded track. The trick here is to select "record narration" before you start recording, this way the slide timing will match the audio you are listening to.

Once you've created your simulation, all that is left to do is to go into Advanced Audio and delete all the audio tracks that were recorded (which would be blank or just a poor recording of what you were listening to). Then import your recorded narration to slide one and select retain current slide timing.

You may need some slight tweaks depending on how good your video timing was but most things should line up great for you. Hope this helps, and feel free to share any other practices you use that work!

Remove a Flash Movie Clip from the stage AS2

Just some pure flash geekery:

Ok, so removeMovieClip() only works for dynamically created movieclips, but what if you have a bizarre scenario where you want to trash a clip that was created during development?

Easy as pie:

Assuming "myMovie" is what you want deleted:

myMovieClip.swapDepths(_root.getNextHighestDepth());
myMovieClip.removeMovieClip();

Dude, where's my elearning posts?

Apologies for dissapearing, I know it's not been that long, but in the blog world not posting in a couple days likely means you're dead.

I've been rocking some awesome food poisoning, so I guess if I can offer any words of wisdom with this post it's don't eat breakfast sandwiches that don't look right, apparently it doesn't matter how much ketchup you throw on that thing, it will still make you sick.

Anyways, here's something remotely learning based, but more just for fun. As a huge "Lost" fan, I learned about a new viral marketing campaign they have for the final season. It's called Lost University and one of the coolest parts about it is they seem to have imagined and created a fake Portal/LMS which actually looks pretty cool....I just hope Blackboard doesn't sue them....or buy them....I guess it's 50/50

How web direction should influence a new generation of Learning Management Systems

To me web pages/applications have been evolving as follows:

1. Initial web sites were static pages

2. A new wave of web sites allowed for users to customize the page/app (I think this is probably when 'widgets' showed up..)

3. The latest wave of web sites customize the page based on the actual use of that site.

The quickest example of this latest wave is when Amazon uses a permission based marketing strategy of suggesting items based on what you have been looking at on the site.

I think the next evolution of a Learning Management System, will be platform that doesn't simply house content, and record students grades, but will intelligently respond to users and help customize and improve their education experience.

What are some features that could easily be implemented using today's technology?

• Course home pages will have a widget displaying a couple key topics that the user read last time they logged in.



• Topics in the course index can be bolded and suggested for review if the user has been showing trouble with them in quizzes



• The LMS can make suggestions about the users pace through the content based on there current pace and the deadline for completion - this could even become as smart as the LMS chunking content for the user and giving customized lessons - users that log in frequently would be given less content, and users that log in once a week would be given larger amounts at once, but both users would be pacing through the content so that they finish on time.



• LMS can cross reference different courses and grades to help with time allocation, "Jim, I noticed your Chemistry mark has been dropping, would you like me to allocate you more time for those lessons?"

With or without the above ideas, the role that Learning Management Systems have in their interaction with the user is sure to increase.

or maybe I've just been playing too much wii fit....

Using regular expressions to pimp your find and replace skills in Dreamweaver

I had a post planned for today, but while doing some research I came across exactly what I was going to write only way better, so props to Rob Christensen at Adobe for this article on regular expressions:

Introduction to Regular Expressions in Dreamweaver

This concept is especially important for those developers who DO use Dreamweaver for offline development, and are trying to maintain lots of content. If you ever find yourself opening page after page to make the same edit over and over again, stop and read this article.

Not only do regular expressions allow you to do some awesome find and replaces, but when you combine it with Dreamweaver's ability to search through every file in your site, you have a pretty powerful tool in your hands.

Fixing Captivate Slowdown

Quick note on a problem i've encountered with Adobe Captivate.

It's seems that when working with some larger simulations with audio my captivate files become increasingly large in filesize and in turn cause the program to run very slowly.

I'm certain that this is because I was doing a lot of editing with the internal audio editor (cutting/pasting and moving slide cues around). Anyways there is a way to quickly solve the issue:

(Note: I suggest saving a backup of your file prior to this, not that anything could possibly go wrong....)

1. In the advanced audio options, choose to export your audio as one mp3.

2. In the advanced audio options, delete all the audio from your slides.

3. Run Captivate again so you have two windows, create a new blank project.

4. Copy all your slides from your project and paste into the blank project.

5. Import the exported mp3 on the first slide and choose to "Retain Current Slide Timing and distribute audio files over several slides"

6. Save your new smaller quicker project and get back to work!

Remove the 'finish' button from quizmaker quiz endpage

*Updated*

There is a silly problem with Articulate quizzes in that they always have to have a finish button, and that button can ONLY close a window, or direct to another URL. Not very helpful if we want them to be in a linear course is it?

Anyways, I found a flash exploit to hack away the button, enjoy:

Solution Summary:

Because Articulate developers did not use "_lockroot" by inserting a custom swf on an end page, we can write custom code to turn the finish button invisible.

Solution:

1. Create a new flash movie
2. In the actions panel insert the following code:

_root.g_mcFrame.mcFinish.swapDepths(_root.getNextHighestDepth());
_root.g_mcFrame.mcFinish.removeMovieClip();


3. Publish

4. Using the slide view on your first slide in Quizmaker, choose to insert a swf, browse for your custom code and insert.

5. Publish your quiz.

Note: the object (_root.g_mcFrame.mcFinish._visible) was found by making a flash movie that simply loads a quizmaker quiz.swf to the root, then I used the flash debug options to list all objects.

Hope this helps, and also inspires some more exploration of the endless possibilities of this exploit!