Newbie Needs Help with Setting Up A Lesson

Newbie Needs Help with Setting Up A Lesson

by Rodney Wolford -
Number of replies: 10

Hello,

I have seen a number of great discussions in this forum which probably could help me answer my questions, IF I understood how the answers related to my problem. Because I don't understand, I am asking questions I am sure have already been answered. For this I apologize. But here is a description of what I want to do and my questions.

GOAL:  I have eight very interactive Shockwave (.DCR) files that will load and run in MOODLE. I want to place these .DCR files in a single lesson, with questions following each file. Trainee must answer questions 100% before proceeding to the next .DCR file.

METHOD: I created course composed of topics and in topic 2 of the course I created a lesson. I filled out the criteria: General, Grade, Grade Options, Flow Control, etc. For the "Pop-up to file or Web page" I used a .gif file that is a graphic representation of the Topic area. I did "Save and Display." Next I created Content Areas 1 through 4 to link in four of the .DCR files.

And here is where I came to an end. At this point, as I tried to populate the Content Areas, I see no way to link these .DCR files.

Questions: What am I doing wrong? Can someone provide me with a blueprint or an example?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Rod Wolford

Moodle newbie

 

 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rodney Wolford

Re: Newbie Needs Help with Setting Up A Lesson

by Mary Cooch -
Piksa bilong Documentation writers Piksa bilong Moodle HQ Piksa bilong Particularly helpful Moodlers Piksa bilong Testers Piksa bilong Translators

Do you mean "content pages"? If you really  want to do this using the Lesson module then in your content page you should have a text editor like on this forum - type in some text  -eg click to open the  file and then click the link (chain) icon and then the icon to the right which allows you to browse for the .DCR file and upload it. I must confess I have never heard of this file type so I presume your students will have the software to open it?

By the way, I am not sure the Lesson module is the best way to do this. You say you want them to have got 100% in the questions before proceeding to the next file? Then perhaps four separate  quizzes and use of Conditional activities?

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Newbie Needs Help with Setting Up A Lesson

by Rodney Wolford -

Thank you, Mary, so much for your response. This is a hurdle that keeps me from getting a very important task completed.

First, .DCR files are Macromedia (Adobe) Shockwave files created by the program Director. They are the most interactive media files that exist, better than flash, which, by the way, was also a Macromedia product before being purchased by Adobe. They use an html file to launch them. Here is a sample single page you can review from our website to see the power (if you wish). http://fofcom.com/dswmedia/rsTTC_Tool_Kit_01_3_p1a.htm  And MOODLE completely supports these files as long as you have Shockwave downloaded on your system!

Clicking on the screen and using associated numbers allows you to move about. Speech is embedded for 508 compliance, even on graphics. What you are viewing is not the final version, just a test file, but you will get the idea. Basically, I envision embedding 8 of these .DCR files into a single lesson as described earlier. But, I am willing to entertain other options.

First, you talk about a "text editor." Again, as a Newbie, I have some difficulty ascertaining what you mean. I have uploaded as a zip file containing a screen shot. In it you see my lesson page showing a content page along with headers for content 1-3 of 8. It offers HTML editing. I assume this is what you mean by a "text editor." If so, are you saying I need to embed links in each of these content areas (1-3 as shown)? In the "add a content page" at top of this screen, an option for upload a file was provided. I see no similar option for each of the content areas 1-3. So how is that done? Do I use the html file that opens the .DCR as html content for this, or am I just calling the HTML file for the .DCR, which then must be located somewhere in my MOODLE site?

Your recommendation for conditional activities seems intriguing. This seems to fit what I want to do, as each segment builds on the knowledge of the previous segment and until a competency in the first area is shown, there is no reason to move forward. However, I reviewed the link you provided as well as the documentation and the FAQ and do not see how the html links that load the DCR (Shockwave) files for use by the trainee would be incorporated. In addition, as these DCR files complete, how does it lead to a quiz? I know I am being lazy here, because I could experiment, but my time frame has become so short for showing a result that a model to follow is my only salvation!

I hope you can help me out.

Regards,

Rod Wolford

Newbie Moodler

 

 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rodney Wolford

Re: Newbie Needs Help with Setting Up A Lesson

by Mary Cooch -
Piksa bilong Documentation writers Piksa bilong Moodle HQ Piksa bilong Particularly helpful Moodlers Piksa bilong Testers Piksa bilong Translators

Ah Ok - well first of all, apologies because I didn't realise you couldn't upload into the content areas- I will go and check the tracker for that. Secondly - your .DCR files - you say they are launched with an htm file  but how many files actually make them up? Presumably you need to upload more than just the htm file? This will have an effect on my subsequent suggestions. I am no longer sure the Lesson will do what you want, but with Conditional activities and a combination of other stuff we might be able to solve this.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Newbie Needs Help with Setting Up A Lesson

by Rodney Wolford -

Hi Mary,

As you can see I was able to use Joseph's method to achieve what I wanted by making each .DCR file into a lesson and incorporating the HTML code into the first screen of the lesson plan.

You wil also that I have some questions about the question pages in the Lesson format. You mentioned this might be solveable with Conditional Activities. I am going to follow that up on the link you provided. But I would be interested in learning more about this.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Rod Wolford

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rodney Wolford

Re: Newbie Needs Help with Setting Up A Lesson

by Joseph Rézeau -
Piksa bilong Core developers Piksa bilong Particularly helpful Moodlers Piksa bilong Plugin developers Piksa bilong Testers Piksa bilong Translators

Hi Rodney,

The fact that your Shockwave .DCR files are interactive does not make things different from if you displayed other media (audio, images, video) in your Lesson's "content pages".

Here is a scenario which hopefully will answer your situation.

  1. On your Moodle course front page, turn Editing ON, in the Activities dropdown list, select Lesson. Set your lesson parameters as you  wish.
  2. On the Lesson Edit page, click the Add a content page.
  3. Enter a page title, e.g. "Page DCR#1"
  4. In the Page contents field, click the HTML (Edit HTML source) button. This is necessary, as you will need to insert your DCR#1 file as an object, and so will need to insert some HTML code there. see Note 1 below.
  5. In the Content 1 Description field, insert some text for the button that will lead your users to the next page, containing the first of your questions you want to ask about Page DCR#1. For example, simply "Continue".
  6. In the Content 1 Jump dropdown list, select Next Page.
  7. Save that page.
  8. Now you are back on your Lesson's Edit page. To add a question related to the DCR#1 animation on page 1, in the set of links below the Page1 Content click e.g. on Add a question page here link and select, e.g. the Multichoice question type.
  9. In the Add a question page section, enter a Page title for your question, the question text, and the various choices which the user will have to select from. Make sure the correct choice Jumps to Next page. For the incorrect choices, you can either:
    1. make them Jump to This page, i.e. the question will be repeated until the user gets the answer right (depending on your Lesson Maximum number of attempts setting)
    2. or, probably better, make them Jump back to Page 1 or your lesson (Page DCR#1) so your users get a chance to have another look at the animation before attempting the MCQ again.
  10. Then you can add more questions and more DCR files, following the same pattern.

Hope that helps,

Joseph

Note 1.- By default a "teacher" cannot insert "objects" by using the HTML editor. When you are logged in as Admin on your moodle site, you have first to unlock that permission. Go to Home ► Site administration ► Security ► Site policies and tick the Allow EMBED and OBJECT tags box.

Note 2.- For instance, here is the code that you'll need to type in your "Page DCR#1" Page contents field (in HTML code view):

<object classid="clsid:166B1BCA-3F9C-11CF-8075-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/director/sw.cab#version=10,0,0,0" id="rsTTC_Tool_Kit_01_3_p1a" height="600" width="800"><param name="src" value="http://fofcom.com/dswmedia/rsTTC_Tool_Kit_01_3_p1a.dcr" /><param name="swRemote" value="swSaveEnabled='true' swVolume='true' swRestart='true' swPausePlay='true' swFastForward='true' swContextMenu='true' " /><param name="swStretchStyle" value="fill" /><param name="bgColor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="name" value="rsTTC_Tool_Kit_01_3_p1a" /><embed src="http://fofcom.com/dswmedia/rsTTC_Tool_Kit_01_3_p1a.dcr" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" name="rsTTC_Tool_Kit_01_3_p1a" swliveconnect="TRUE" swremote="swSaveEnabled='true' swVolume='true' swRestart='true' swPausePlay='true' swFastForward='true' swContextMenu='true' " swstretchstyle="fill" type="application/x-director" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/" height="600" width="800" /> </object>

Average of ratings:Useful (2)
In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Newbie Needs Help with Setting Up A Lesson

by Rodney Wolford -

Joseph,

Your solution works perfectly! Just the help I needed.

1. It answered my main question concerning the code used, which is the same as the shockwave html if it were launched independently, thus not requiring a separate html file for the .DCR.

2. It dispelled a misunderstanding I had about "lessons." I had assumed all eight .DCR files would belong to 1 lesson and each would be "content pages" in the lesson interlaced with question pages. Instead, each .DCR is a lesson and the question pages are added, one question at a time, within each lesson supporting the instructional content of each .DCR.

I do have a couple other issues you may be able to answer concerning the question pages.

1. I see how to control the question stem content in the html option. But for the answers no similar content control options are offered. Does this have to take place in an underlying php page or where?

2. Can these questions generated with the question page be added to the Question pool?

3. Can these question be employed as is in SCORM, or do I need to make a separate post quiz that would combine the lesson quizzes for SCORM purposes?

Thanks again!

Rod Wolford

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rodney Wolford

Re: Newbie Needs Help with Setting Up A Lesson

by Joseph Rézeau -
Piksa bilong Core developers Piksa bilong Particularly helpful Moodlers Piksa bilong Plugin developers Piksa bilong Testers Piksa bilong Translators

Q0.-

Rodney "I had assumed all eight .DCR files would belong to 1 lesson and each would be "content pages" in the lesson interlaced with question pages. Instead, each .DCR is a lesson and the question pages are added, one question at a time, within each lesson supporting the instructional content of each .DCR."

It all depends what you want to do. The 2 scenarios are possible.

Scenario #1: One .DCR file per lesson

Lesson 01 will have e.g. DCR file #1 on page 1, followed by a certain number of questions, each on its own page. Each incorrect answer will "jump" either to the same page, i.e. not allow the student to move forward until answered correctly OR move back to page 1 so the student can revise the material before answering.

Lesson 02 will have e.g. DCR file #2 on page 1, followed by etc.

ditto for Lessons 03 to 08, each lesson containing one .DCR file followed by questions.

Scenario #2: One lesson for all the .DCR files

That was the scenario I had described in my first post.

  • Page 01: DCR file #1
  • Page 02: Question #1 (about the contents of DCR file #1)
  • Page 03: Question #2 (ditto)

...

  • Page 11: DCR file #2
  • Page 12: Question #1 (about the contents of DCR file #2)
  • Page 13: Question #2 (ditto)

...

Q1.-

"I see how to control the question stem content in the html option. But for the answers no similar content control options are offered. Does this have to take place in an underlying php page or where?"

Sorry, I do not understand what you mean here. Please re-phrase.

Q2.-

"Can these questions generated with the question page be added to the Question pool?"

I suppose you mean "Can I use questions from the Quiz Questions bank" in the Lesson module?". The answer is No. Well, not easily anyway. In Moodle, the Quiz and the Lesson activities are 2 totally separate activities.

Q3.-

Again, SCORM, Quiz and Lesson are 3 totally separate activities. No way to combine them.

Hope that helps,

Joseph

 

Average of ratings:Useful (1)
In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Newbie Needs Help with Setting Up A Lesson

by Rodney Wolford -

Joseph,

Q0, I just experimented with all in 1 lesson and I see that it will work. Not sure why first time I tried that no html page to paste into appeared. Either way, this works now and I can do many more.

On Q1, in my lingo a multiple choice question contains a "stem," the question part of the question and "answers," the actual choices. When you add a question page the stem offers up an html option. But the answer sections below the stem do not. For my taste, the answer text size is too small and I see no way to control it.

Q2, I actually meant the reverse of your response, but I think the answer is going to be the same. If you can't draw the questions from the pool for the question pages, I assume you can't add the content of the question pages to the pool. I wonder why this is?

Q3, I understand. What I will do is take the questions I have generated, add them manually to the question pool and to a SCORM post test for this segment.

You have been extremely helpful and I do appreciate it very much.

Rod Wolford

 

 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rodney Wolford

Re: Newbie Needs Help with Setting Up A Lesson

by Joseph Rézeau -
Piksa bilong Core developers Piksa bilong Particularly helpful Moodlers Piksa bilong Plugin developers Piksa bilong Testers Piksa bilong Translators

Q1.-

"stem" = question text

By default, the HTML editor is not available (1) to the Answers fields (nor to the Response, i.e. feedback fields). You have to (2) select HTML format from the dropdown box, then save your question, then re-edit it and the HTML format becomes available (3).

screenshot #1

Q2.-

You cannot use the Quiz questions bank in the Lesson activity (nor vice-versa) because, as I said, Quiz and Lesson are two totally separate activities in Moodle. There have been plans to make the questions bank available to the Lesson activity (for ages) but still no go.

ATB

Joseph

Average of ratings:Useful (1)
In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Newbie Needs Help with Setting Up A Lesson

by Rodney Wolford -

Joseph,

Q 1. I see it now. Just escaped me completely.

Q 2. I understand it isn't possible. Seems like it would be a good thing.

You did a great job of explaining it all.

Thanks for all your help. Have a good New Year.

Rod Wolford

 

Average of ratings: -