New Media Technology multi-media User's Manual
Contents
1. Multimedia Tutorial Production Guide McKinney Engineering Library A guide to the production of multi media library instruction using streaming media technology Table of Contents Is Streaming Media the Right Choice cssseececccccsssceeececees 3 Planning Your Instruction ssssessssosesssesscsrsecsceroroseecereroseseeeo 4 Determining Available Technology Skill Sets cseeeeecccccceeeees 5 Script Creation seessiriesirgiri rier ten EnEn EEEE ESETET NEEE NETE EEEE SEENE 6 Visual Media Creation scicrasceesencnuses cus siv bax banter cena crussi deveevestirectdss 7 Audio Media Creation censecssscaccaceiss poenseeswetnbcoetua iat sncenasdeedeaceauess 9 Synchronizing Your Tutorial with SMIL ssssssesessssosesessesosesssee 10 Publishing your Tutorial Online ssssessssssesessesesesssscseereroseseeeo 12 Evaluating Your Tutorial sesesessosesesessosesesscerseoseecereroseseeres 13 THANKS and Credits wccncosceccssvpsedeos sew ienecuensteindesaeehieteecedorsseeuentss 14 Is Streaming Media the Right Choice There are a variety of media formats that can fa cilitate the successful delivery of online instruc tion the one you choose should reflect the goals and abilities of your instructors and learners This guide is based on the redesigned online Engineering Communications Tutorial at the University of Texas developed by the McKin ney Engineering Library in partnership with2. a computer with a sound card In conjunction with free soft ware such as Real Producer Basic or Windows Sound Recorder this method will result in ser viceable audio files but not professional grade sound If high quality audio is a priority for your tutorial secure the use of a professional grade microphone and mixer Regardless of how you capture your audio tracks media cleaning software such as Media Cleaner will help reduce background noise and increase the quality of your final product Since animation and video sequences have their own timeline the synchronization of your audio with animated or video segments will demand considerable attention For video segments you may choose to incorporate your audio into the video file itself Remember that audio in Flash movies will not play through Real player As with video your final audio files will need to be saved in the Real media format rm using settings appropriate for your server and audi ence See Real Networks documentation for details TIP When you save your audio files be sure to use the same Real media settings for your audio as you used to save any video p 9 Synchronizing Your Tutorial with SMIL SMIL the synchronized multimedia integration language is an XML based mark up language If you ve ever used HTML to create a Web page SMIL will look somewhat familiar Avery simple SMIL file and an included RealPix file appear on the right Notic
3. computer screen with a prod uct like Camtasia This can be helpful if you are trying to convey procedural knowledge such as interaction seqences with a computer program or Website Screen capture video is not as effec tive for teaching conceptual knowledge such as Boolean logic or information evaluation Regardless of the software hardware or format in which your original video is captured you will need to convert the file to Real media for mat rm Real Producer Camtasia and other media creation applications provide options for saving your files in Real media format Your set tings will vary according to the type of server that will host your media and the connection speeds of your users To determine the appropriate set tings for your tutorial consult your Webmaster and the Real Networks online documentation p 8 Audio Media Creation There are as many software combinations avail able for audio media production as there are for visual media production In addition a range of audio recording hardware is available depend ing on your needs and expertise Remember that the quality of your audio is affected by the quality of every step in the recording and editing process the microphone the mixer the sound card and the software you use will all influence the caliber of your final presentation The simplest hardware option for recording your audio is using a high quality microphone that plugs directly into the back of
4. spend too much time perfecting the timing of your Flash pieces As with video Flash segments will need to be synced up with the Audio portion of your tutorial later on and this will likely include some tweaking within the leans Visual Media Creation Flash segment itself Short simple animations are the easier to integrate with audio than pro longed displays Third the more keypoints in your Flash movie the larger the file Keep keypoints to a minimum Complex scripting should also be avoided Although Real maintains that interaction with Flash elements as defined using ActionScript is preserved through the Real player we rec ommend extensive testing before you include significant interactive elements in your Flash pieces Don t forget that the use of Flash for our pur poses is only to enhance the display of visual information If you find that Flash is becoming the centerpiece of your tutorial you may wish to reassess the decision to use streaming media as your method of delivering instruction Video Production Digital video is a bandwidth intensive medium that requires some special skills to edit and prepare for presentation If there are segments of your tutorial that will benefit greatly from the inclusion of video use it However if your tuto rial does not require video to be successful you may choose to use other less complex visual elements One way of using instructional video is to cap ture actions on a
5. the lecture As you assemble a series of images you will likely find that your audio script requires revisions here and there Remember as you create your media that your learner will need at least several seconds to absorb each new piece of visual information It is important to save your images in GIF format Gif is the only image format that sup ports streaming Animated gifs are supported as well however to obtain the smallest pos sible file size you may wish to use short Flash animations rather than animated gifs You don t need to do anything special with the gif files themselves you will learn how to synchronize the images with the audio when we create our SMIL file later on Your final tutorial will run in a Real Player window of a specified size Before you begin creating your media be sure to establish the size of your tutorial DO NOT plan on using the entire screen for your presentation In order to keep download times reasonable you ll need to restrict the size of your tutorial to around 500x350 OR LESS 1 I I I l The final determination should be based on the quality of server you will be using to host the tutorial and the type of media that will be pres ent For example Real video requires more bandwidth than Flash animations so a tutorial containing a lot of Real video should be smaller on the screen than one containing Flash Image Creation for Beginners Perhaps the easiest and fastest method
6. ally evaluated using learner assessments of some kind Assessment may include an interview a skills demonstration or a written test By carefully planning and choos ing participants for the evaluation you can determine whether or not users of your tutorial are learning the skills you are trying to teach Be selective when choosing evaluation partici pants Don t use staff members or even regular patrons of your library to test library instruction unless they are the intended learners While it is tempting to use the resources close at hand you ll be surprised at the fresh perspective and ideas that outsiders will bring to the project When designing the test itself use the instruc tional goals you developed in the planning stage Imagine ways that your learner could demonstrate newfound competencies whether you use a written skills test a personal dem onstration or a personal interview be sure to maintain a consistent format for each evaluator Finally remember that you are testing your in struction not the evaluators wile Thanks and Credits The redesigned Engineering Communications Tutorial and the development process upon which this guide was based would not have been possible without the contributions of the staff at the Digital Library Services Division and the Dig ital Information Literacy Office eLeader Project Thanks go out to Aaron Choate Peter Keane Mason Jones Carolee Miles and Susan Rit tereis
7. and Alan Wallace Building Library Skills Computer Assisted Instruction for Undergraduates Research Strategies 16 1998 93 102 Duchastel A Web Based Model for University Instruction Journal of Educational Technology Systems 25 1996 97 225 Dupuis Elizabeth A The Times They Are A Changin Students Technology and Instructional Services Reference Services Review 26 3 4 1998 11 16 Gagne James and Lesie Briggs Principles of Instructional Design 4th ed Fort Worth Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers 1992 Kocour Bruce Using Web based Tutorials To Enhance Library Instruction College amp Undergraduate Libraries v7 n1 p45 54 2000 Tobin Tess and Martin Kesselman Evaluation of Web Based Library Instruction Programs In IFLA Council and General Conference Conference Programme and Proceedings 65th Bangkok Thailand August 20 28 1999
8. d in the appropriate Real format This process requires a computer equipped with a sound card high quality micro phone and software for recording and editing the audio files An inexpensive option for audio software is the RealSystem Producer Basic which is freely downloadable as of summer 2002 at www realnetworks com Image manipulation can be done using a vari ety of applications including the ever popular Photoshop and Fireworks In addition to being able to create the images you ll want to know something about optimizing them Optimizing images allows you to reduce file sizes with as little image degradation as possible If you wish to use video in your tutorial the obvi ous requirements are a video camera and video editing application In addition you will need to become familiar with the options for synchroniz ing your audio and video segments as well as optimizing video files for streaming in Real me dia format For screen capture video the product Camtasia is one of the only products on the market and can be found through www realnetworks com Flash animations can be played in RealPlayer 7 or 8 and the RealOne Player although sound effects embedded in the Flash animation itself will not be heard Instead sound must be syn chronized using SMIL Flash animations can be created using either Macromedia Flash or Adobe LiveMotion p 5 Script Creation The first step in producing your instructional ma ter
9. e able to identify signs of unreliable information him or herself Now determine what the learner will need to be able to do to demonstrate that the instruction has achieved the stated goals Write out instructional objectives in the form of activities that the learner will be able to perform when finished with the tutorial This exercise will help you structure your tutorial to the greatest advantage of your learner It will also assist you in evaluating whether or not your completed tu torial meets all of its instructional objectives Finally make an outline of the topics you ll cover over the course of the tutorial and think about the most sensible order in which to present them It may also be useful to list the skills that learn ers will need to master before they can success fully complete the different sections of your tuto rial Looking at this list may bring attention to the areas that require the most attention and may even suggest topics of instruction that weren t in the original outline For example if students must know how to construct a boolean search string in order to complete a tutorial about your library catalog you may wish to include a sec tion or even a separate tutorial on the subject of boolean logic Consult Tips for Developing Effective Web based Library Instruction by the ACRL for more recommendations O Oo oO p 4 Determining Available Technology Skill Sets The technology
10. e that in SMIL as in XML every tag is closed using the character If the tag does not contain other tags the character simply ap pears adjacent to the closing gt The two most important sections of the docu ment appear in red and blue The red section simply describes the layout of the presentation The root layout appears in every SMIL file it defines the dimensions of the entire SMIL pre sentation Once the root layout has been estab lished individual regions are defined within the root area in which the visual media may appear In this file only one region has been defined It begins 0 pixels from the top of the presentation and 0 pixels from the left and occupies the entire presentation area In the blue section the individual pieces of me dia are synchronized The audio and the first image begin simultaneously as indicated by the lt par gt tags but the first image disappears after 6 seconds Note that the audio file is referenced with the full URL using the protocol rtsp instead of http this is because the audio file is hosted on a machine running Real Server The second image appears 6 seconds into the audio piece and disappears at 12 seconds The third image tutorial smil lt smil gt lt head gt lt meta name title lt meta name author n content Engineering Communications Tutorial gt content Tutorial Team gt lt m
11. er for contributing their technical and creative expertise to the tutorial design and pro duction process We also thank Tina Ochiai and Adriana Oldham for their translation services For More Information Visit the Engineering Communications Tutorial on the McKinney Engineering Library Homep age www l ib utexas edu engin Contact McKinney Engineering Library for more information about our online library instruction initiatives englib lib utexas edu This guide was created by Andrea Forte aforte alumni utexas net 14 References 1 Nancy H Dewald Trasnsporting Good Library Instruction Practices into the Web Environment An Analysis of Online Tutorials Journal of Aca demic Librarianship 25 January 1999 26 2 Brandon Hall Web Based Training Cookbook New York John Wiley amp Sons 1997 4 3 Dewald 26 4 ACRL Instruction Section Teaching Methods Committee Tips for Developing Effective Web Based Library Instruction lt http www lib vt edu istm WebTutorialsTips html gt accessed 06 05 2002 Other Resources Anderson Anne David Gray and Jacque Dessino Tutorials and Other Web Aides Inquiry 4 n2 Fall 1999 48 57 Dewald Nancy H Web Based Library Instruction What is Good Pedagogy Information Technology and Libraries 18 1999 26 31 Dick Walter et al The Systematic Design of Instruction 5th ed Boston Addison Wesley Publishing 2000 Dixon Lana Marie Garrett Rita Smith
12. eta name copyright content c 2002 McKinney Engineering Library gt lt layout gt lt root layout background color white width 500 height 330 gt lt region id graphics top 0 left 0 width 500 height 330 gt lt layout gt lt head gt lt body gt lt audio src rtsp real myserver edu tutorials audio rm gt src intro gif region graphics begin 0s end 06s gt src picturel gif region graphics begin 06s end 12s gt src slides rp region graphics begin 12s end 25s gt src conclude swf region graphics begin 25s end 35s gt lt par gt lt img lt img lt img lt img lt par gt lt body gt lt imfl gt lt smil gt slides rp lt head width 500 height 330 title Indexes author Engineering Communications Tutorial Team copyright c 2002 McKinney Engineering Library timeformat dd hh mm ss xyz duration 0 13 0 bitrate 100000 aspect true background color ffffff gt lt image handle 1 name images slidel gif gt lt image handle 2 name images slide2 gif gt lt image handle 3 name images slide3 gif gt lt fill start 0 color white gt lt fadein start 0 duration 1 target 1 gt lt crossfade start 3 duration 1 target 2 gt lt wipe direction up start 6 durat
13. ials is creating the audio scripts for the indi vidual sections The audio will guide the learner through the information in each section of your tutorial so the script should be crafted with your instructional goals and objectives in mind Create scripts for each section of the tutorial outline that you developed in the instructional planning stage Include staging notes in your script that describe what the learner might be seeing while the script is being played This will assist you when you create the visual materi als In addition the types of visual cues that you plan to offer your learners may alter the script considerably Once you have created your scripts proceed to the visual media creation step DO NOT RECORD your scripts before you have created your visual media You will likely discover new and creative ways of presenting the information throughout the visual media creation process which can result in significant script revision O O OQ p 6 Visual Media Creation The options for visual media creation are limited only by your imagination and project dead line Between static images animations video and text there are infinite combinations of rich expressive visual delivery methods for your in struction The next step is to create visual media that will be displayed as the learner listens to your audio lecture Using the script that you wrote begin creating visual pieces to accompany each por tion of
14. ion 2 target 3 gt lt fadeout start 12 duration 1 color white gt lt imfl gt p 10 Synchronizing Your Tutorial with SMIL file called slides rp is a RealPix file The contents of the RealPix file appears to the lower right RealPix is a lot like SMIL it s a mark up language that makes it easy to define transitions like fade outs and wipes between your images Notice that the RealPix file contains references to three images for a total of six visual media files to be played with the audio file TIP You may wish to create a skeletal SMIL or RealPix file that sequences your visual media without precise timing Then listen to your audio track note the times at which image transitions should occur and modify the SMIL file accordingly Real Networks maintains excellent documen tation on producing multi media presentations with SMIL and RealPix Refer to thier support website http service real com for detailed help files and to learn about more sophisticated SMIL syntax od Publishing Your Tutorial Online The final step in producing your online tutorial is publishing it on the Web Your tutorial may consist of just one SMIL presentation or it may be a series of presentations You must decide how to present these files in a way that facili tates your instruction You may wish to provide a link to the SMIL presentation directly from an existing Web page Or you might create a s
15. look at two different evalua tion processes one that examines the usability of Web resources and one that assesses the success of the instruction itself Usability In recent years usability has taken center stage in the world of Web development Becoming familiar with standard usability heuristics Such as those published by Jakob Nielsen can help you make good design decisions through out the planning and production processes Remember usability encompasses a wide range of Website characteristics such as ac cessability for the disabled visual and syntactic organization navigation and labeling and many other distinct features of interaction When you test the usability of your tutorial do it in multiple browsers and platforms the most basic test of usability is whether or not your site can be seen by Mac and PC users with a variety of browsers The best way to test your finished tutorial for us ability is to observe first time users navigating your page or site and accessing the instructional materials Don t worry about the success of the instruction itself while you test for Usability First determine whether or not users understand how to use the tutorial and can do so successfully Usability problems can create false negatives when you test the efficacy of your instruction it s best to eliminate lingering usability problems before evaluating the instruction itself Evaluating Instruction Instruction is gener
16. of creating visual media is through the creation of PowerPoint slides You may create an entire presentation in PowerPoint and then save your slides as gif images The precise method for exporting your slides as images may vary depending on the version of PowerPoint you use Refer to the PowerPoint help documentation for further directions More on Image Creation If you are familiar with PhotoShop Fireworks or other image creation applications creating your visual media can be a lot of fun Although streaming your media allows you to use larger file sizes than would be reasonable on a stan dard Web page you should not neglect image optimization If your final presentation is too large it will take a long time to load and may not play as smoothly as you d like Since you are saving your images as gifs optimization means reducing the number of colors as much as pos sible without significantly reducing the quality of the image Refer to the help documentation of your image creation application for details Flash Animation Flash animations can be played through Real Players 7 and 8 as well as the RealOne Player If you would like to animate sections of your tutorial Flash provides a low bandwicdth alterna tive for doing so as long as you keep a few rules in mind First sounds that you create in your Flash movie will not play through Real Create silent anima tions and synchronize any audio using SMIL Second don t
17. pe cial tutorial Web page with links to one or more related presentations Alternatively you can embed your presentation in HTML files which allows for substantial control over the viewing environment In addition embedding in HTML allows you to include quizzes assignments and other non multimedia elements in a consistent framework By now you will have determined whether Real Server is available to host your media If so be sure to place any media RealPix and SMIL files on the Real Server If you elect to embed your multi media segments in an HTML framework place the HTML files in your usual Web publish ing folder TIP Remember that streamed audio and video hosted on a machine running Real Server are retrieved using the rtsp proto col instead of http Be sure to reference your media appropriately O QO o oz image by freeimages co uk Evaluating Your Tutorial Evaluation is a crucial step in the instructional design process Evaluation allows you to con tinuously increase the effectiveness of your instruction and hone your design skills Since your instruction is an online tutorial you ll face unique challenges in evaluating your work but don t be discouraged You will likely learn as much from the evaluation process as you did throughout the planning and production stages Your tutorial has elements of both a Website and instructional material To accommodate these dual purposes we ll
18. t is not ubiq uitously available Even SMIL the technology recommended in this guide has cross platform limitations Looking Ahead Although this guide focuses on the produc tion of audio visual elements the Engineering Communications Tutorial development team acknowledges the importance of active learn ing in online library instruction Nancy Dewald notes in the Journal of Acadmic Librarianship that active learning is accomplished with indi vidual or collaborative exercises questioning by the librarian or other forms of practice to reinforce instruction Similarly Brandon Hall states in the Web based Training Cookbook that Interactivity makes the difference between a program that simply presents information and one that actually trains the user By integrat ing streaming media instruction with interactive segments like quizzes assignments or follow along exercises the effectiveness of your tuto rial may be improved Keep in mind that even on the Web doing is a better teacher than simply watching and listening O O o p 3 Planning Your Instruction cous on no Instructional designers spend a great deal of time planning instruction before actually creat ing any instructional materials This step is vital whether you are a teacher planning classroom activities a writer developing a textbook or a course developer for online instruction Before you begin creating your online library ins
19. the Digital Information Literacy Office and Digital Li brary Services Division The tutorial underwent analysis and revision with the goal of creating effective library instruction with guidance in mul tiple languages and diverse media Streaming media was the format selected for the project because it would allow the development team to use separate audio files for each language while drawing from a common bank of visual imagery The images and audio files could be synchro nized using the Synchronized Media Integration Language or SMIL Other formats such as Flash and simple HTML were rejected for a variety of reasons Although Flash offers many interactive features that lend themselves to the development of rich learning experiences Flash animation is far more time consuming to produce and more complex to modify than a SMIL based tutorial In addition Flash production requires a highly specialized set of technical skills and costly software The use of simple HTML was rejected because an audio component was deemed cru cial to the multi lingual sections of the tutorial When you are deciding on a format for your tutorial remember to consider your audience s learning environment If you expect the majority of learners to use a dial up connection or older lower speed computers you may wish to avoid bandwidth intensive solutions that rely upon the latest browsers and plug ins FlashMX is an example of current technology tha
20. truction tutorials take the time to thoroughly identify and organize the information you want to deliver Remember that library instruction is best recieved when it is course related and specifially assignment related 2 Assuming that you have already identified a genuine need for online instruction on the topic of your tutorial the next step is to analyze your learners and estab lish instructional goals Analyzing your Learners Consider the age experience cultural back ground and technical expertise of your learning audience Are they a homogenous group with similar goals or do they vary widely What are learners probable goals in completing the on line tutorial What aspects of online instruction might they prefer to classroom instruction How will they use the knowledge they gain Once you have successfully answered these questions you are in a good position to create online instruction that will be both meaningful and enjoyable for your learning audience Clarifying Instructional Goals Objectives Think about your instructional goal for the learn er Does it match the probable goal of the learner 1 eani students wi Course Objectives 1 Students will be e Google e Yahoo e Altavista im for effective Internet searching A 4 LAL Students will be able to construct a Boolean search Students will be able to explain the concept of stop words and identify the more common ones Students will b
21. with which you choose to deliver your instruction should complement the instruc tional goals and audience profiles that were de fined in the first section This guide focuses on the use of streaming media using Real media delivery tools to deliver audio video animation and slide show presentations Bear in mind that the use of streaming media can be augmented by more interactive material that engages your learner in active learning If you are using this guide to prepare your tuto rial you need to have some basic knowledge of e SMIL an XML based mark up language like HTML e audio recording e image manipulation Fireworks Photoshop etc e Real media formats Optionally you may wish to use video or ani mation in which case you ll need to be familiar with e digital video editing e video screen capture Camtasia e Flash animation production Software Hardware Requirements Many of the files required to produce your tutori al can be created using a variety of applications that are available at little or no cost A basic text editor like WordPad or Notepad can be used to create all of the SMIL RealPix and lt SI nit id grat region id inse Beg wens a ert region acl f layout gt head gogy lt lt par gt src im RealText files that will synchronize the audio and visual components of the finished tutorial The audio for your tutorial will need to be digitally recorded and save
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