Moodle in English: New resource type

New resource type - simple presentations

by Jan Dierckx - Wednesday, January 25, 2006, 10:14 PM

A quick way to add slides used for a presentation to a Moodle course. It is based on Eric Meyer's S5 format.

You can use Moodle's HTML editor to add text, tables, images and formatting to your slides.
Each title (formatted in heading 1) starts a new slide. (See screenshot)
Students navigate the slides using the arrow keys. An outline is available for printing by pressing the t key.

This module is a resource type and as such doesn't allow students to make their own resources.
A whole slideshow is loaded at once. If your slideshow has a lot of images, the page may load very slowly.

FYI The presentation module Karen has made doesn't have this problem as it loads each slide separately. If people are interested there might be a way of combining functionality of the two modules.

I haven't yet included an English help page describing use of the module. The demo (and of course Eric Meyer's page) has some information.

Demo and download

(Choose slideshow in the navigation menu on the left. The slideshow is best shown in your browser's full screen mode.)

Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Bhupinder Singh - Thursday, February 2, 2006, 2:38 AM

Jan,

Having a presentation as a resource type is a good idea.

If mergerd with the presentation pack it will give the flexibility that is required for full potential of this module/type.

Garry

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Matt Cromwell - Thursday, March 16, 2006, 7:41 PM

Is there any plan or hope for providing a way for students to make presentations using this resource?

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Jan Dierckx - Thursday, March 16, 2006, 10:11 PM

Matt,

I read your question regarding a student extension for Anne's presentation module. Sorry, it is not possible to allow students to make presentations using the resource module, simply because it is a plugin for the resourcemodule and this resourcemodule does not allow student submissions.

(It was easier to add presentation functionality as a resource type because then the resource type takes care of things like backup/restore)

I looked at rewriting this as an assignment type (because this module also allows plugins similar to the resource module and it would be relatively simple to add) but there is one big problem:

Students using the HTML editor to write a presentation could only upload 1 picture as an attachment. This number is sufficient for forums and glossaries, but is hardly usable for presentations.

Sorry to have to disappoint you. There is merit in teaching students how to use presentation software like Powerpoint or OpenOffice. After all this is software they are likely to use in the rest of their professional life...

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Matt Cromwell - Friday, March 17, 2006, 2:30 AM

Jan,
Thank you for your answer and for investing time into this matter. I realize now you were also most likely the one who emailed me in reponse to my post about Anne's module. Thank you for that as well.

I agree that the Presentation software is helpful for future purposes, I only have a slight hesitation about them:
PPT - It's expensive! And we have many students from eastern europe who cannot afford the software (and we wouldn't want to encourage pirated copies, which is common, especially in the CIS)
Ooo Impress - It's a burden to use! Perhaps this is only in contrast to PPT, but I feel as if it takes at least 3 times as long to make a simple presentation with Impress as with PPT. I love the Ooo project in general and encourage our students to use Writer whenever possible, but so far... I'm holding out on Impress until there's a significant improvement in user-friendliness.

Thanks anyway...
~mc~

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Jeff Forssell - Friday, March 17, 2006, 5:54 PM

When I saw: "Students using the HTML editor to write a presentation could only upload 1 picture as an attachment." I noticed that I hadn't tried to put in more than one picture.

What I found was that I could only upload one picture at a time but that I could put as many as I wanted into a page. I also found that I wasn't too sure WHERE the picture file wound up when uploaded, but it seems to be in the course root.

I find that it seems better to use the Image dialog popup for all picture handling rather that the upload thing. In that way I can chose or create suitable folders to put files in, rename files and so on.

I've never used PowerPoint much, but yesterday I was checking it out since a collegue was redoing some eucational PPs to Flash for putting into web courses. If someone is USED to a program it's always difficult for a new program to feel as easy. I'm not used to PowerPoint so I didn't feel like there were any major differences in using it or Impress (OpenOffice presentation). Impress could, by the way, very simply remake a PPT to a SWF (Flash). PowerPoint would export things that could be incompatible with non-IE browsers. But it could keep together even sound connected with a PP. I haven't finished trying them out.

It seems to me that pupils could make things in PP/Impress and export them in ppt format as files that others could open with whatever they have. At least those that are just pictures and text should work fine.

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Jan Dierckx - Friday, March 17, 2006, 6:01 PM

What I found was that I could only upload one picture at a time but that I could put as many as I wanted into a page. I also found that I wasn't too sure WHERE the picture file wound up when uploaded, but it seems to be in the course root.

Exactly! And because students do not have access to the course root, they can not use the HTML editor to upload files. A teacher however can add as many pictures as needed. This limits the usefulness of a webbased presentation assignment type for students.

I agree that it takes a while for students to get used to impress / powerpoint, but IMO it's worth the effort.

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Dan Stowell - Friday, March 17, 2006, 6:53 PM

This is very, very nice indeed.

The README in the zip is completely wrong, by the way - it's about something else! mixed

It would help to fix that, if you'd like to encourage people to be able to install it. Luckily I know how...

I like the easy way of creating the slideshow, by writing an outline in a single HTML area. People will need a bit of guidance - I think the design page should have text on the page it saying "Insert a top-level heading when you wish to start a new slide", since this is the core of it! But I personally find this much more convenient than the frame-by-frame method in Karen's presentation module.

Because of the name conflict, how about renaming your module to "Easy presentation" or "Quick presentation"? I prefer that rather than "simple" presentation.

I think it is a brilliant feature, and very suitable to being a "resource" rather than an "activity module". We should buy Eric Meyer a big drink...

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Dan Stowell - Friday, March 17, 2006, 7:28 PM

Re the naming - you've used the name "slideshow" in the filenames etc so how about we stick with that?

The text in the resource pulldown should then say "Compose a slideshow" by analogy with the "Compose a text page" / "Compose a web page".

This is such a simple but effective addition to Moodle that I'd quite like to push it up the agenda.

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Dan Stowell - Sunday, March 19, 2006, 3:43 AM

Attached is a version of slideshow updated slightly - I've added some instructions directly into the edit page, and I've also added a "tidy-up" function that allows me to copy-and-paste directly from PowerPoint's "outline" view, into the HTML editor, and instantly produce a (simplified) slideshow.

I'm not sure if this works on all platforms or on all versions of PowerPoint. Any testers?

slideshow.zip

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by J B - Tuesday, March 21, 2006, 8:28 PM

This looks very interesting and I would be keen to try it, as a lot of our users are "powerpointy-headed" but am guessing that, resource type or not, it will conflict with the "slideshow" activity module we are using, demo visible here and downloadable here:

slideshow.zip

The functionality is somewhat different, as I wrote this module last year (original thread here, although the module has developed since) primarily to help tutors who had directories full of raw digital photographs that they wanted to display, so the idea was to make numerous large images easily navigable and bandwidth-friendly within reason, and captioning was added as a bit of an afterthought. However, it would be nice to be able to offer a resource more targetted to pp-style presentations, especially with this direct "tidy-up" option.

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Will Taylor - Wednesday, March 22, 2006, 5:48 PM

The Demo is "currently unavailable to students".
I'd love to see it, can it be opened up for access?
thanks - will

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by J B - Wednesday, March 22, 2006, 6:18 PM

Apologies - fixed that, you will need to log in as guest.

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Art Lader - Wednesday, March 22, 2006, 6:50 PM

Wow, James,

That is GREAT!

Thanks,
Art

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by J B - Thursday, March 23, 2006, 8:53 PM

Thanks Art,

we aim to please!

James

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Ernesto Gaston Pacheco - Thursday, May 11, 2006, 1:13 PM

James it worked perfect!! Thanks. I did the translation into Spanish so if you want to add it to the Lang´s, I send it here.

Please let us know when you upgrade the module (if you do). I find it great automatic resizing and that one can add pictures to the slideshow even after it is done, just by dropping a new jpg image in the directory!!. Gastón

lang_es.zip

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by J B - Monday, May 15, 2006, 4:38 PM

Ernesto

Many thanks for your translation into Spanish, this is now in the zip. big grin

I am glad the module works for you, it was always meant to be user-friendly rather than technically impressive. The most recent code update was the 9 May 2006, when I removed a bug from the backup/restore function.

Latest version is always available here:

slideshow.zip

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Ernesto Gaston Pacheco - Friday, November 17, 2006, 7:04 AM

James,

Hi!! Here I am again, I am using slideshow a lot. Is there any newer version?
If there is please send it and I wil gladly translate the new messages.

I am having a problem with the captions, when I write themn using accents like á é í or Ñ ñ etc. I get rubbish after saving and If I use the html "&aacute" for example it one works one time then it dissapears.

Kind regards.

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by J B - Saturday, November 18, 2006, 12:50 AM

Hi Gaston

I don't know which version you are using - the latest version (2006082800) may have solved your problem. I did try with those characters and they all worked fine for me on this version, but there may be server related character type issues. The latest version is always at http://virtual.cornwall.ac.uk/downloads/slideshow.zip and the main discussion for this module is at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=38935

If the latest version does not solve your problem please let me know and I'll see what I can do.

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Jan Dierckx - Wednesday, March 22, 2006, 6:15 PM

Dan,

Thanks for your help.

You are right. I somehow uploaded the readme of another module. I have uploaded a correct readme in CVS. You can find it here
I would really like to add your instructions to this module. I however need some time to change them into language strings. (otherwise the hardcoded strings mess up the Dutch instructions I have on my site.) When I am finished, I will surely add it to CVS.
Not sure about the tidy up function. I thought this module would be used to quickly convert an outline to a webbased presentation and then maybe afterwards take that outline an convert it to a real powerpoint with animations and the like... I hadn't imagined people using it in the opposite direction. Does the added variable break existing resources which don't have the variable? I will do some testing.
About the name. I named it like that because the origin of this resource type is S5, a Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System, but then I somehow started writing about presentations in the documentation. Hence the confusion. However, I don't know how to change the name inside CVS. Sorry about that.

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Tahir Akhtar - Sunday, April 16, 2006, 3:37 AM

I am getting following error when I choose Make a Presentation

<>Fatal error>: Call to undefined function print_visible_setting() in C:\websites\lms\mod\resource\type\slideshow\slideshow.html on line 125

on a moodle 1.4.3+ (2004083131)

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Jan Dierckx - Sunday, April 16, 2006, 3:50 AM

Sorry, the documentation should state more clearly that this resource type only works with Moodle >1.5
Upgrading your moodle should fix this.

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Tahir Akhtar - Sunday, April 16, 2006, 4:40 AM

Yes, I tried on a 1.5 and it works fine. There are some glitches though but I think they relate to underlying S5

IE 6.0.29.... : First slide's headind appears in content area
Firefox 1.5.0.1: Text and heading keep changing places as I move back and forth on same set of slides.

Also if we don't choose new window option then there is no way to get back to the course, i-e without playing with the URL.

Excellent contribution however... I plan to be a heavy user of this.

The installation note say that it is not ready for production yet. Any plans to be shared?

I may be able to share in few cents of my programing knowledge if required...

Regards

Tahir Akhtar

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Jan Dierckx - Sunday, April 16, 2006, 5:07 AM

if we don't choose new window option then there is no way to get back to the course

Normally there is a link at the left side of the bottom of the page which takes you back to the course. Does it work?

The glitches are indeed caused by the underlying S5. My knowledge of CSS and javascript is very limited. That's why I can't really tell what is causing this. If you would care to help with that this would be fine.

Dan Stowell already made some modifications. Please download his version and continue with that. Unfortunately I can't directly upload his version to CVS because it contains some hardcoded English text that will show up on my (otherwise Dutch) site. I haven't yet had the time to convert them to language strings.

I'm not sure how this resource type will behave when upgrading to Moodle 1.6. If you want to be on the safe side, there is always the option to make your presentation with an HTML editor and include Eric Meyer's S5 script inside the HTML file. Then you can upload these files as normal HTML pages.

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Tahir Akhtar - Sunday, April 16, 2006, 7:28 PM

OK there's a link in bottom left corner of page with course name and it do take us back to the course. But appearance of this link is not suggestive of its behavior. I never thought it is a link before you pointed out. Can we make its appearance more like a link.

It would also be helpful to change the text of link from "<course name>" to "go back to <course name>".

Popup window would have been fine with me if I could control the position of it on the screen. Currently we can control the size but not the location.

I have moderate skill in JavaScript programming but whenever I hear "browser compatibility", i shudder and start googling for a cross-browser JavaScript library. I feel that the problem might be more related to the way different browser handles CSS styles then the JavaScript.

I will be googling about the S5's compatibility with Mozilla and Firefox. If this is really a known issue we might find some concrete solutions out there.

Regards

Tahir

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Tahir Akhtar - Sunday, April 16, 2006, 4:42 AM

Also I would second the tidy-up function for copy-pasting ppt outlines. This would be imensely useful IMO.

Regards

Tahir Akhtar

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Jan Dierckx - Sunday, April 16, 2006, 5:08 AM

Then Dan's changes should definitely be included.

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Christopher Sanderson - Monday, July 17, 2006, 11:37 AM

I was curious to know if their is a way to add slide shows and voice. Similar to the features within ppt today with your code?

Cb Sanderson

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Re: New resource type - simple presentations

by Jan Dierckx - Monday, July 17, 2006, 9:07 PM

It is based on Eric Meyer's S5 format, it's just like a normal HTML resource but with some CSS and javascript added to it, to make every heading display like a separate sheet. It's more like a quick way of showing some ideas, hence the name: simple presentation, someone even suggested quick presentation.

As such you can add all things you can add to a normal resource. I think it is possible to add a flash sound player, but I know of no way to synchronize the sound with the slides.

I don't know of a way to add slide transition effect.

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Resource types

New resource type - simple presentations