The Creative Trainer

How to Capture Screenshots in Windows 8

2013-03-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

It's not Snagit, but it's free.

These directions are specific to a Toshiba Laptop, where you must use the FN key for functions, but will work for other computers with a few alterations.

To save a screenshot as a png file, hold down the Windows key and press the FN key and PrtScn (Print Screen) button on your keyboard.

Now press the Win + E keyboard combination to open Explorer. In your Pictures library, you will find a newly created Screenshots folder which contains the screenshots you have taken, listed in chronological order.

You can still copy the screenshots to your clipboard, using FN+PrtSc, and Alt-FN-PrtSc captures just the active window to your clipboard.

Use Captivate Animation on your Website.

2013-01-14T13:43:00.002-08:00

What a great idea! Create a standalone text animation to use on a web page, blog, or non-Captivate e-learning project.

This article tells how:

http://blog.integratedlearningservices.com/2011/08/using-captivate-to-create-cool-text.html

They Give Away Cool PowerPoint Stuff

2012-12-04T07:24:00.004-08:00

http://www.presentation-process.com/powerpoint-steps.html#.UL4VDKzAd8E

So many sites are just for sales. "We'll sell you this diagram or that template," but this site gives away stuff, and, better yet, teaches you to build it yourself. A real find!

Change the Background, Keep the Objects

2012-11-15T13:35:00.002-08:00

Adobe Captivate 5.5: Change the Background, Keep the Objects

by Kevin Siegel

A fellow Captivate developer sent me an email asking for advice. It seemed that he had just completed a slick eLearning lesson in Captivate. But as soon as he published the lesson, an email arrived from his application developer informing him that the application had just been updated. There were "minor" changes to the interface that needed to be included in the eLearning lesson.

I was asked if there was anything that the developer could do to show those "minor" updates short of re-recording and re-producing the lesson. (He had spent 40 hours producing the lesson and didn't have another 40 hours to spare.)

I asked him if the interface changes were, in fact, minor.

"Yes."

I asked him if he had included a significant number of buttons, text captions and other objects in the original project.

"Yes."

"Yes."

and "Oh yes!"

One final question from me: Was it possible to record the new lesson using the same width and height of the original?

"Yes."

After his final yes, I had a "yes" of my own. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, you will love the instructions you find at this link:

http://iconlogic.blogs.com/weblog/2011/07/adobe-captivate-55-change-the-background-keep-the-objects.html

Adobe Captivate 5.x: Web Page Widget

2012-11-15T11:33:00.003-08:00

Bring the web into your presentations. This widget allows you to insert a web page into your Adobe Captivate 5.x web projects.

What can it do?

It can insert a web page using a:

Web address such as http://CaptivateDev.com
Relative Path such as “myfolder/myHTMLFile.htm”
HTML string such as “<html><head></head><body>Hello Wolrd Wide Web!</body></html>”
Captivate User Variable such as $$UserVariable$$ that would contain the html syntax in a string like the above.
It can also interpret variables so you could have a string or a URL such as http://mywebsite.com?user=$$myUserVariable$$
You can have two-way communication between the web page and Captivate 5 if you know JavaScript.

Use Cases:

Inserting PDF files (embedded into your web page).
Displaying Legacy AS2 .swf files (such as Articulate Presenter files or Captivate 3 or 4 files) in your AS3 Captivate 5 projects.
Showing corporate policies that must be kept to date. No need to republish your Captivate 5 project every time a policy changes if you’re displaying a web page that already has the current info from your corporate intranet.
Display a Google Form, Spreadsheet, or Doc that shows up-to-date information.
Create your own web mashups with Facebook, or Twitter and place them inside of your presentation.
Have users take a training evaluation survey from http://www.surveymonkey.com/ or http://polldaddy.comall within Captivate.
Whatever you can stuff into a web page, you can now show inside of Captivate.

http://captivatedev.com/2010/11/05/adobe-captivate-5-web-page-widget/

2012-10-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

I am using Captivate again after many years, and, of course I'm looking for tips and tricks all the time. This seems a good place to list the useful ones I find. Then I can come back to them and you can take advantage of them too. (Oh, by the way, I'm using Captivate 5.5, but if you have a choice, go to 6.0. Worth the upgrade in my opinion because of how it works with PowerPoint and grouping. You do need grouping.)

Today, I'm leaning about Advanced Actions

What's That: Episode 7: Working with Advanced Actions in Adobe Captivate 5.5

Video. I'm coming back to this one when I can actually follow him and build a math interaction.

Captivate 5.5 Advanced Actions (can’t move on until all clicked)

Three videos. Watched first two. Three is recap. Learned a lot.

Controlling Audio with Advanced Actions and Variables

Video. Use advanced actions to play audio on the decision screen only the first time learner visits the screen. I'm coming back to this one when I have time to actually create one too. Today I'm after pretty basic stuff.

USING CAPTIVATE: Chapter 11-Variables and Advanced Actions

Fantastic find! Saving to desktop! Actually, I can't download unless I'm a premium Scribd member, but I did put a link on my desktop!

Advanced Captivate Tips, Tricks, & Tutorials

http://www.infosemantics.com.au/book/export/html/207

11 Free Authoring Tools for eLearning

2012-07-24T07:01:00.001-07:00

In this post I will present you a list of Free Authoring Tools that you can use in your eLearning design and development process. If anyone of you have used these authoring tools I will very much appreciate if he/she share with us a demo of the final output!

If you know a free authoring tool that is not included in the list I will highly appreciate if you leave a comment with a link!

Feel Free to embedded the Presentation to your website/blog:http://www.slideshare.net/elearningindustry/free-authoring-tools-for-elearning

1) authorPOINT by authorGEN Technologies
authorPOINT is an authoring tool that allows users to capture presentations and add pre-recorded audio/video, all inside of Microsoft PowerPoint. authorGEN also offers authorPOINT Lite, which converts PowerPoint presentations to Flash.

2) Dipity by Dipity
From what we can glean from their website, Dipity is an online timeline creator. Users, known as Dipsters, can create their own content on subjects that are meaningful to them and share them with other users. Dipsters can also integrate social media into their timeline, utilizing real-time updates.

3)Document Suite 2008 by JetDraft Software
Document Suite 2008 is an authoring tool that helps transform documents into online help modules.

4)Izzui by QuickLessons LLC
Izzui is a hybrid social learning application that can be linked with QuickLessons. Izzui uses Facebook as an LMS to track and deliver courses. Izzui also has an e-Commerce capability allowing users to charge and pay for courses that they have created.

5) Jackdaw by e-Learning WMB
Jackdaw produces SCORM 1.2 compliant content that is easily integrated into any LMS. Users can create interactive content either from scratch or with the the help of over 100 templates. Jackdaw also lets users create content that they can then sell on the Open Elms webstore.

6) LessonWriter by Lesson Writer
From what we can gather from their website, LessonWriter is a tool for teachers that allows them to create lessons from any passage. These courses allow teachers to be creative with their lesson plans and also saves them a great deal of time.

7) MOS Solo by MindOnSite
MOS Solo offers a way for users to create content on the go without having to rely on a constant Internet connection. Even though they are using an offline content creation tool, they do not lose any of the functionality or power to create their multimedia content.

8) myUdutu Course Authoring Tool by Udutu Online Learning Solutions
A free online authoring tool with a suite of WSIWYG tools, allowing users to create courses in an approachable environment. Claims to export SCORM 1.2/2004 conformant courses to be used in a 3rd party LMS or integrate into social media sites, such as Facebook.

9) QuickLessons Authoring Tool by QuickLessons LLC
QuickLessons was built from the ground up to be a completely SaaS based content authoring tool, requiring the user to only have access to a web-browser. QuickLessons comes equipped with quizzes, games, characters, out-of-the-box animations and other customizable content to allow users to create truly unique and interactive flash-based content to meet their needs. Users can either use QuickLessons for free, publishing their content only to Facebook, or they can buy an individual, corporate or academic account.

10) Scratch by MIT Media Lab
From what we can gather from their website, Scratch is a creative tool that helps users create content that is beyond the barriers of traditional page-turners. Scratch users can create interactive stories, animation, music, and art, then share their creations on the web.

11) xtimeline by Famento Inc
xtimeline is a tool that allows users to create timeline based content for free. Users can also share their timelines with other users, creating a community.

100 Free Online Tools to Learn a New Skill in Almost Anything

2012-06-08T07:56:00.001-07:00

"While there is much to be learnt from taking a course or learning from a professional instructor, there are many online tools that can help you learn just about anything you’d like and for free.

With a little dedication, these online tools can help guide you through the learning process step-by-step. Whether you want to learn how to cook healthy meals, renovate your kitchen, play a musical instrument, learn a new language, discover the intricacies of calculus plus so much more. You’ll find the assistance you need through the below resources."

GREAT RESOURCE!!

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2012/06/06/100-free-online-tools-to-learn-a-new-skill-in-almost-anything/

Cartoons About Cartoons

2012-02-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

I love my college student friends!! They keep me inspired to not only reach creatively, but to also stand up and do the right thing. And I applaud Facebook, because, if not for it, I wouldn't still have such good communication with my son's friends in college. Lucky, lucky me and lucky all of us for defeating SOPA!

Anyway, if you are a trainer or a teacher, you may be aware that writing comics is a robust way to teach some topics. Well, two of my son's friends this week posted some great stuff about writing comics.

Simmon Manning, Architechual Student at OSU, created the following graphic as a class assignment. I've added hyperlinks to the originals of both of these graphics so you can click on them to see them larger. The assignemnt is to create a "how to" comic, so he created a comic about how to create a comic. Love it!

Jonathan Knox posted a link to the comic below on his Facebook Page. He studies software design and art. It's Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work. As a writer, I really LOVE the verbage at the top: "Some interesting ways to get a variety into those boring panels where some dumb writer has a bunch of lame characters sitting around and talking for page after page!"

HELP!! Problems With Presenting PowerPoint

2012-02-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

I just found a very handy site, designed for your phone, to help you troubleshoot presentation problems. A LIFESAVER!!

http://m.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/

Includes:

Setting up the Equipment/Room
Problems Discovered While Testing Your Slides
Problems during Delivery of the Presentation
Setting up the Equipment/Room

Great Linkedin sites for Educators

2012-01-30T12:43:00.000-08:00

LINKEDIN

Inside Higher Ed: Readers of Inside Higher Ed can come together in this group to discuss higher education.
Women in Higher Education Unite: Get connected with and support women in higher education, especially STEM academics, in the Women in Higher Education UniteLinkedIn group.
Global Academic Innovation Network: The Global Academic Innovation Network is a great place to discuss new developments and innovations in academia.
The Hub for Education Professionals: In the Hub, you can become a part of a group that helps professionals become leaders in education.
International Association of Academic Professionals: Take part in this group that connects academic professionals worldwide.
Higher Ed Experts: On Higher Ed Experts, you can take advantage of professional development and networking for marketing, communications, and more in higher education institutions.
The PostDoc Forum: In this group, you’ll be able to network with other postdocs for collaboration and assistance.
Leaders in Higher Education: Through this network, professors, administrators, and other academic staff members can come together to discuss best practices in higher education.
GBSSA: The Graduate Business Student Services Association shares networking opportunities in graduate business education programs.
Laboratory Robotics Interest Group: Take part in this interest group to discuss laboratory automation in pharmaceutical, biotech, and academic organizations.

Check out this site for 40 more!

BOT TALK

2012-01-27T09:38:00.000-08:00

"Always speak the truth, think before you speak, and write it down afterwards." -Lewis Carroll (b January 27, 1832)

This blog was written for advetisers, but I think the problem with "BOT TALK" applied to e-learning as well. I know that I just created a part of an elearning module, and I always made changes after I tried to record it the first time, which supports the advice:

Interesting article by Jason Falls: Death to Bot Talk: Tips on Voice in Writing for the Web

The Ten Top Flash Websites of 2012

2012-01-27T08:52:00.000-08:00

You just have to look at these Flash websites!!!

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/best-flash-sites

Every one of them is absolutely

but I think my fav is Infinite oz.

maybe....

They're all great!!!!

Getting Ready for Black History Month

2012-01-27T08:10:00.000-08:00

I just found a great website for teachers, and if you're looking for ideas for Black History Month, this site has them!

"February’s Black History Month is the perfect time to investigate the tremendous contributions that African Americans have made to the history and cultural development of the United States. In this special feature, teachers, parents, and students will find a collection of NEH-supported websites and EDSITEment-developed lessons that tell the four-hundred-year story of African Americans. They will also encounter some of the most influential voices and the most memorable images in American history and culture."

Cool Charts

2012-01-26T07:07:00.001-08:00

I make charts and diagrams for a living (at least that's part of what I do), and I love creative ones, so I'm going to subject you to some of the coolest that I discover.

When my book is finished . . .

2011-10-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

I keep running into wonderful articles about what to do when my book is finished, so for now, I'm putting them in this blog so I'll know where to get to them when I'm ready. For now, I'm re-writing the beginning of my book to make a better hook before I attend my first writers' meeting next Monday, so, quickly ( so I can get back to writing), here's what I just found:

What Is a Book Proposal for Fiction Writers out at BookEnds, LLC

They talk about what to send in when you submit a proposal: The Query Letter, Chapters, Synopsis and other tidbits.

By the way, here's another article on the same subject. Can't wait until I'be submitted a few successful ones so I can share my tips and tricks with you all!

Circles of Influence: Visualizing Creative Debt Across Time

2011-10-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

The Brain Pickings blog discusses what 48 hours of sleeplessness have to do with Kafka’s influence on Lemony Snicket.

Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter and people say it’s cool. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles.

Read the whole article here

What to Consider When Building Help for Mobile Devices for Field Workers

2011-10-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

How timely is this? My next project is to work on training for a mobile devices in the field, so I was delighted to find this article on the TechWhirl bog:

What to Consider When Building Help for Mobile Devices for Field Workers

There’s no denying that smart devices are taking over. Everywhere we turn, people are talking about the newest app they’ve downloaded (Angry Birds anyone?). But aside from avian masochism and borderline obsessive updates on Facebook, smart phones and other mobile devices (tablets, PDAs, etc.) have proven their usefulness in the professional world, and in particular, for workers in the field. Service providers like Verizon and ATT offer multiple business solutions for field workers. AirStrip Technologies, offered by Verizon, has a product called AirStrip OB which “delivers patient data, including fetal heartbeats and maternal contraction patters, in real time to the physician’s Blackberry, Palm, or Windows Mobile device”

Click to read more . . .

Writing for a Living in the Digital Age and a Sluggish Economy

2011-10-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

Jason Boog from GalleyCat, (probably the book industry's leading website for insider news and gossip) claims that writers can learn from the Great Depression, according to HuffPost Books. He outlines how writers suffered, then took to the streets to protest their plight in the 1930s, and how paperback books helped safe them. Can digital publishing save us during the next few, hard years, he asks?

Read more about this interview at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/writers-great-depression_n_998995.html

Another Way for Writers to Earn Money: Whitepapers

2011-10-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

Writers can do so many things: We can write fiction and nonfiction books. We can teach others how to write. We can be editors or marketing writers. We can be instructional designers or technical writers. Here's another opportunity for those of us who know how and love to write: Writing Whitepapers.

The bog Klariti: Small Business Tips for Smart People outlines what you need to know to get started:

"If you’ve got good writing skills and have in-depth subject matter expertise, you should be able to generate additional income by writing white papers.
I started writing them by accident when the in-house white paper writer fell ill and someone had to write it. Looking back, it wasn’t the greatest document I’ve written but the client accepted it and the customer response was positive.
Since then, I’ve managed to carve out a niche as a white paper writer, which has been very helpful when other avenues dried up. I thought I’d share a few tips on how I got started, how to build up a client list, and how much you should charge."

Click here to read tips on writing White Papers:

Websites to help you get published . . .

2011-10-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

OK. I'll admit that I'm writing a book. Aren't you? Well, the following article really caught my eye. It's about two websites where you can advertise your books with the possible result of becoming published.

The sites are Pubslush (part self-publisher, part crowd-sourcing service) and Inkubate (a digital slush pile in which publishers and agents bid to negotiate terms with writers.) From what I read, I like Inkubate the best. Follow this link to read more about the services these two sites offer authors.

Click here to read article

9 Ways to Encourage the Adult E-Learners

2011-10-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

I love Tom's new post, over at the Rapid eLearning Blog:

9 Ways to Encourage the Adult E-Learners

(click above to read it all)

The core of the article is a listing of these nine points, and
from my experience in the worlds of both higher education
and workplace training, I can see that he's right on target.
He includes some very good suggestions and comments
on each:

Set clear expectations and objectives Let them know why they’re taking the course and what they should be learning. People like to get oriented and know what’s expected of them.

Adult learners don’t like to fail, and they don’t like to fail publicly. Make it clear when they are being tested and when they aren't. (His article says a lot more about this, and I think it's a crucial point. Click above to read the whole thing.)

Create an environment where they have as much freedom as possible. Let them click around and explore. I know that many customers want to lock navigation so that they “get all of the information.” This is faulty thinking. If they need to confirm their grasp of the information, then give them exercises to practice applying it so they can demonstrate their understanding in a real way. (The more a learner interacts, the more they're probably learning)

Give them ways to collect information. This is a great way to counter the locked navigation issue. Create situations where they need to make decisions and then free up the navigation to collect the information needed to make decisions. This is a much better way to assess understanding than viewing a screen full of text. ( See above. Dito)

Focus on relevance. I’ve worked on plenty of projects where the learners are never considered. I recall one company I worked for that wouldn’t let me talk to any potential learners, even though we were rolling the training out to 3500 people across the country. If you’re content isn’t relevant to the learners, they’ll just tune out and you’re wasting time and money. You can guarantee that little learning will happen. (So true. They have better things to do than waste their time on something that they do not think will help them do their job better.)

Create a visual design that is friendly and inviting. This helps with the initial engagement and sets the tone of the course. I’ve had customers tell me that they can’t do that because the subject matter was real important and serious. So they needed to have a very serious tone (read boring). If it’s important, than it makes sense to create a course that’s as visually inviting as possible. (Metaphors really do help people understand complex concepts.)

Elearning is a multimedia experience so it makes sense to leverage as much of the multimedia as you can (in context though). You don’t want to add multimedia for the sake of it, but you do want to use all of your resources to create the best course possible.

Free Willy! People are like orcas with floppy dorsal fins. They yearn to be free. One of the worst experiences in elearning is when the course navigation is locked. There are better ways to help people learn. Focus on relevant, decision-making scenarios. And if you’re building a compliance, click-and-read course with no performance expectations, then make the course as simple as possible so that they learners can get in and out. Don’t frustrate them or waste their time with a bunch of extra branched scenarios. Tell them what they need to know and let them go. (Get them involved. Use graphical metaphors.)

Do you need to test everything? Every day we take in all sorts of information that is critical to meeting our goals. When my boss sends an email detailing new plans, he doesn’t follow it up with a quiz. Assessing a person’s understanding is an important part of learning, but do we need to always have a test? In many ways it retards the learning process. As soon as people find out they’re being tested, they quit learning and focus on how to pass the test. If you don’t need a test, don’t include one. If you do need to assess their understanding, perhaps there’s a better way to do so. (Game Shows!! Actually, if you are required to test [often the case] little game show-like quizzes along the way will help keep them from failing and build their confidence.)

Investing in your customer's knowledge is well worth the return

2011-10-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

All companies strive for high customer satisfaction ratings, but many fail to achieve them. Have you ever wondered why?

Kevin Oakes knows a thing or two about these things. He's the CEO of the Institute of Corporate Productivity (i4cp), the world's largest vendor-free network of corporations focused on building and sustaining highly productive, high-performance organizations.

The traditional method for achieving high satisfaction ratings is to equip employees with a set of customer service skills and hope for the best. However, research shows that best-in-class companies spend training dollars on the customers themselves to boost customer loyalty. In the following article, Kevin shares his thoughts about the all-important yet often ignored link between customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Download White Paper Here:

Intrepid Thought Leadership Whitepapers

YouTube Launches New Site Just for Teachers!!

2011-09-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

Check it out here!

It contains guides on how to use YouTube in the classroom, as well as curated video playlists that will be suitable for teachers to use. For teachers who have yet to really use YouTube it’s a great place to start. Experienced users may still learn something new.

You can also sign up to the YouTube Teachers Community and receive regular updates from the YouTube team, including tips and tricks for incorporating YouTube in your classroom, best practices from other teachers, and great new content uploaded on YouTube.

According to Mind Shift, the new teachers site is part one of two big YouTube projects for teachers. In the next couple of weeks, a bigger announcement will be made about huge changes that will address many of the concerns teachers have had about using YouTube videos in the classroom.

Don’t forget that there is also YouTube Edu which has lots of educational videos on it as well.

Thanks to the Whiteboard Blog for this tip!

Free Quick Reference Guide

2011-09-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

To introduce you to their training products, Custom Guide offers free downloadable pdf Quick Reference Sheets. You can download Windows 2010 ones without even signing up, and if you do a free sign-up, you can download many more!!

Down load yours here.