I'm participating in GHOP, too. Today I created the second version of a video tutorial showing how to use outcomes.
It would be very nice of you, to tell me whether you like this tutorial or not and why.
You can access the video here:
Thanks,
Stefan
Stefan:
Thanks for the contribution! I learned a good deal from your video about what outcomes are about (I can now think of them as rubric elements). Without your video, I would have thought that they were course goals needed to pass.
Ideas to improve future videos:
1. The audio does not seem to be set high enough.
2. You may want to consider using callouts to visually identify important items being pointed at.
3. My guess is you don't need as much of a level of zoom that you are using. It seems like there is more panning than needed.
But some of these items are just individual preferences. Overall, your video was effective.
Take care,
--Gary
Thanks for the contribution! I learned a good deal from your video about what outcomes are about (I can now think of them as rubric elements). Without your video, I would have thought that they were course goals needed to pass.
Ideas to improve future videos:
1. The audio does not seem to be set high enough.
2. You may want to consider using callouts to visually identify important items being pointed at.
3. My guess is you don't need as much of a level of zoom that you are using. It seems like there is more panning than needed.
But some of these items are just individual preferences. Overall, your video was effective.
Take care,
--Gary
Hi Stefan,
Thanks for your video on outcomes - it's very informative.
I'm in agreement with Gary that you need to set the sound level higher and you don't need to zoom in quite so much.
Otherwise, as I commented in GHOP task 38, the content is really good.
Best wishes and thanks for participating in GHOP.
Thanks for your video on outcomes - it's very informative.
I'm in agreement with Gary that you need to set the sound level higher and you don't need to zoom in quite so much.
Otherwise, as I commented in GHOP task 38, the content is really good.
Best wishes and thanks for participating in GHOP.
Thanks for your comments!
I thought it may be unreadable and that's why I zoomed in that much. You said that it is not necessary to change it and so I decided no to do because then I had to create all the movies again and merge them together, it were a total of 20 small videos I think ;) If you wanted to have it I would create it but while you say that it is ok, it's to much work ;)
I tried to add callouts (after I translated it, it's not mentioned in any dictionairy ;) ) and created a new video, but I didn't look as I expected it to be. There is already this red circle I created around the cursor, I think that's enough. The two flags didn't show better where to click on but the may confuse, so I decided to keep the old version of the pictures...
The audio is now much louder. You could check out the new version at:
Thanks again,
Stefan
I thought it may be unreadable and that's why I zoomed in that much. You said that it is not necessary to change it and so I decided no to do because then I had to create all the movies again and merge them together, it were a total of 20 small videos I think ;) If you wanted to have it I would create it but while you say that it is ok, it's to much work ;)
I tried to add callouts (after I translated it, it's not mentioned in any dictionairy ;) ) and created a new video, but I didn't look as I expected it to be. There is already this red circle I created around the cursor, I think that's enough. The two flags didn't show better where to click on but the may confuse, so I decided to keep the old version of the pictures...
The audio is now much louder. You could check out the new version at:
Thanks again,
Stefan
Hi Stefan,
I really like your video, it has a good flow and a very clear commentary. However the large zoom does make it quite difficult to see what is going on. If you do find the time to create it with a broader view then I think it'd make it really useful.
Great work!
Dan
Hi Stefan,
Thanks for your new video with louder audio. I'm sure it will be of help to admins and teachers new to Moodle.
I've added a link to your video in the outcomes documentation.
I'm also going to move this discussion to the gradebook forum so that other people in the community hear about your video.
Well done for successfully completing GHOP task 38.
Thanks for your new video with louder audio. I'm sure it will be of help to admins and teachers new to Moodle.
I've added a link to your video in the outcomes documentation.
I'm also going to move this discussion to the gradebook forum so that other people in the community hear about your video.
Well done for successfully completing GHOP task 38.
Hi Stefan,
I agree with all the previous comments, but was wondering if Youtube is the best place for these tutorials. The resolution they allow seems poor, making high zoom levels seem necessary and there are other places e.g. http://www.stage6.com that allow for much higher resolutions.
Matt
I agree with all the previous comments, but was wondering if Youtube is the best place for these tutorials. The resolution they allow seems poor, making high zoom levels seem necessary and there are other places e.g. http://www.stage6.com that allow for much higher resolutions.
Matt
Matt - Actually, I think that this videos should be on a Moodle server somewhere - preferably part of the documentation. I think it would be great to setup a way of autolinking to a Moodle documentation video. I'd like to see autolinking into Documentation similar to how we do with autolinking into the tracker. I'm keen on the idea of student produced videos as I believe it is a great way for students to contribute to the Moodle project. Peace - Anthony
Hi Matt and Anthony,
Thanks for your comments on where to store video tutorials.
All the GHOP video tasks state that videos should be uploaded to YouTube, I assume because this provides an easy way to view the videos. When I checked out Stage6, that you mentioned Matt, I was told I needed to download a plugin in order to play videos.
I'd be grateful for expert advice/suggestions on the best solution for storing and sharing videos, as I know nothing about it. Yes, we could store videos on a Moodle server, but wouldn't we need a special server to offer streamed videos (or whatever it's called
)?
Thanks for your comments on where to store video tutorials.
All the GHOP video tasks state that videos should be uploaded to YouTube, I assume because this provides an easy way to view the videos. When I checked out Stage6, that you mentioned Matt, I was told I needed to download a plugin in order to play videos.
I'd be grateful for expert advice/suggestions on the best solution for storing and sharing videos, as I know nothing about it. Yes, we could store videos on a Moodle server, but wouldn't we need a special server to offer streamed videos (or whatever it's called
)?
Helen - I suspect some type of streaming server would be helpful. This is an area that I'm not up to speed on; however, I like the idea of having video documentation. I think the students involved with GHOP have done a wonderful job and I would like to see that momentum carried forward. Peace - Anthony
"I think that this videos should be on a Moodle server somewhere"
Definitely.
"I was told I needed to download a plugin in order to play videos."
Oops. I must have downloaded that one ages ago and forgotten about it. I suppose the advantage to youtube is that they take care of the embedded player and and bandwidth, but there must be an open source alternative. I'm also not really up to scratch on streaming video technology, so can't offer solutions. What would the preferred format be? Flash, mpeg and wmv are all proprietary (I think), so what to use?
Definitely.
"I was told I needed to download a plugin in order to play videos."
Oops. I must have downloaded that one ages ago and forgotten about it. I suppose the advantage to youtube is that they take care of the embedded player and and bandwidth, but there must be an open source alternative. I'm also not really up to scratch on streaming video technology, so can't offer solutions. What would the preferred format be? Flash, mpeg and wmv are all proprietary (I think), so what to use?
It also occurred to me that a lot of people may well be making their own tutorials, but cannot make them public due to confidentiality of student data shown within them. I was thinking of making my tutorials for the 1.9 gradebook public, but that would be against privacy and child protection policy at my organisation.
It would be great to have a test server with dummy student data that people could use specifically for recording videos on. This woulkd also reduce the problem of everyone having a different moodle theme, which would make the series of video seem incongruous if made by many people on different servers.
It would be great to have a test server with dummy student data that people could use specifically for recording videos on. This woulkd also reduce the problem of everyone having a different moodle theme, which would make the series of video seem incongruous if made by many people on different servers.
Matt - Have you considered doing what the GHOP folks have been doing - namely - using the Moodle demo server for creating videos? Peace - Anthony
Ah, no I hadn't. The zoom on the one discussed above didn't make the rest of the page clear for most of it and I must have missed that. I just had a look though (demo.moodle.org) and there isn't any dummy student data in the features course to use for gradebook stuff. Could do with 5-10 students with stuff submitted.
I agree with Matt on his point of having dummy student data to show gradebook stuff. The only remaining GHOP tutorial tasks involve showing the inner workings of the gradebook (very useful to teachers) and that means I would have to create various dummy student profiles and then have the video done within the hour so it is not deleted from the demo Moodle. Any suggestions for help?
Hi guys,
I'd like to wade in here and say that YouTube is not the best place for these Moodle video tutorials. My reasons below:
- Youtube's video size is really too small for displaying enough information for a software tutorial (which is what these would be). Its default video player window size is about 480x360 pixels. To display enough of a software interface for an effective tutorial you would need something more like 800x600. And in fact nowadays I tend to use a capture size designed to almost fill the screen of a 1024x768 pixel monitor resolution. (I experimented and found that it didn't increase file size as much as I thought it would.) I've also found that nowadays the number of people running monitors at 800x600 pixels resolution is negligible so I always build for 1024x768.
- Making a software tutorial as a video presentation where every frame is captured is a waste of bandwidth and produces unnecessarily large filesizes. For example, the YouTube tutorial for Moodle 1.9 outcomes is 3 minutes 20 seconds long but the filesize is almost 8 megabytes. Even at my normal capture size of 1014x702 I can deliver a software tutorial with good quality audio voiceover for around 500 kilobytes per minute of content. A four minute tutorial would be well under 3 megabytes. For 8 megabytes you could get 10-15 minutes of content.
- The ideal format for software tutorials is now Flash SWF, in my opinion. This is sort of a 'package' file format that can contain almost any type of content including text, audio, animation, vector or raster graphics, and video. YouTube converts all uploaded video content into Flash FLV format video, which is a very efficient compressed format, if you started out with a video file, but not necessary for software tutorials that are mostly static graphics with occasional movement.
- Though a dedicated streaming server will definitely give you better performance where you have streaming content that is getting hit bigtime, for most applications an ordinary old web server will do just fine if all you are serving up is Flash SWF and HTML files.
I make my living from creating e-learning presentations and software tutorials. I've played around with many of the tools of the trade for e-learning. So I can save you all a lot of time and frustration by recommending Adobe Captivate as the best tool for creating Moodle's online instruction tutorials.
Captivate's method of demonstrating software is to capture a series of still images of the interface and animate the mouse movement. A new capture is only taken when something changes on the screen. You can capture a full-motion video on demand (such as to show a scrolling window etc), but I tend not to use this as I'm always trying to conserve bandwidth.
So I feel we should definitely create these tutorials for Moodle, in SWF format, using a capture size calculated to display on a 1024x768 monitor, and they should be served up from a Moodle server...not YouTube. For those that have external-facing webservers, we could all share the bandwidth drain by uploading tutorials and allowing Moodledocs to link to them.
My two cents worth.
Rod Ward
Ron,
I can backup and confirm your points exactly, Flash video by something like Captivate is far and away the smallest, most efficient bandwidth video of almost all the tutorial recorders I have tried. Captivate has had many owners RoboDemo, Macromedia, and now Adobe. the last version by Macromedia had some bug but I learned to live with them. I expect Adobe has doubled the price, and I hope fixed some of the bug in the last Macromedia version. but I would strongly suggest checking out a timed demo version of Captivate.
Mark H.
Mpls., MN USA
Mark,
Yes Adobe did increase the price of Captivate slightly when they bought out Macromedia, but not by that much.
However the good news is that they have an "educational" version which is the same as the full commercial product but available for students or teachers at a fraction of the cost. You can see the educational pricing of all Adobe's products here: http://www.adobe.com/education/purchasing/education_pricing.html
It lists Captivate 3 at $199 USD. This should be within budget for any educational institution that wants to teach technical communication...and a worthy investment indeed for any aspiring technical communicator. This app is hot property in the job market at the moment with more and more positions relating to e-learning requiring experience with Captivate listed as "favourably considered".
Rod Ward