Tools to Convert Assets By William Horton When moving to online learning, you must consider how to convert classroom materials to successful online experiences. Once you've outlined your new course design, you can begin converting the assets from your classroom course. Assets include anything of educational value: slides, lecture notes, handouts, exercises, and motivational stories. Some conversions may involve simply converting a file format; others may require you to recreate the asset in an entirely new form. Here's how. Video The simplest way to convert lectures is to videotape the instructor, digitize and compress the video, and post the video clip onto a streaming-media server. This may not be the best solution for your particular course, however, especially for learners who lack fast Internet connections or for subjects not easily conveyed by a talking head. If you decide to use video, try hiring a professional videographer who can deliver a digital-ready format. Here are steps for filming the video in-house. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Demonstrations should require little camera movement, and ensure that action will be visible in the small video window online. Light the scene well. Most low- and moderate-cost video cameras capture only a narrow range of light contrast. Position lights to fill dark shadows and reduce unwanted glare. Use an external microphone, such as a lavaliere microphone, rather than the camcorder's built-in microphone. Use earphones on the camcorder to monitor sound during recording. Digitize the video. Analog cameras will require a capture board to digitize video. Digital cameras and computers that use an IEEE 1394 interface can directly transfer digital video. (IEEE 1394 is called Firewire by Apple Computer or i.LINK by Sony.) Edit the video. Use a program like Adobe Premier (www.adobe.com) or Ulead's MediaStudio Pro (www.ulead.com) to splice together the best cuts. Save the video in a Web-ready format. Specify frame rate, window size, compression settings, and so forth. If possible, use a streaming format, such as RealVideo (www.real.com), Advanced Streaming Format (www.microsoft.com), or QuickTime (www.apple.com). Audio Audio has several advantages over full video. High-quality audio files are smaller and require less bandwidth than even poor-quality video. Record audio in a professional sound studio, and be sure to request a digital format. Here's how to record your audio in-house. Reduce background sound. Close windows. Turn off or unplug all unnecessary electrical and electronic devices, such as computers, telephones, copiers, printers, and fax machines. If the room has an echo or reverb, throw a rug on the floor or hang a curtain on a wall. Position the microphone. Place the microphone close to the speaker's mouth just outside the breath stream. Record digitally. Connect the microphone to the sound-in port on a computer equipped to record sound. Remember that some computers require a powered microphone. Record at the highest quality possible; you can downsample later. Edit the recording. Using a sound-editing program, select the best attempts. Remove the "uhs," "ahs," coughs, and so forth. Save in a compressed format. Experiment with various settings to produce a file that learners can download and play smoothly. Inserting the sound into a multimedia program, such as Macromedia Flash, will take care of the compression. For additional tips on recording your voice, see Answer Geek. Slides Slide presentations have been the lifeblood of most training classes. Before converting classroom slide presentations for use in an online course, evaluate the complexity of slides, such as animation, transition, sounds, and other special effects. Here are some tips on converting slides. Convert to HTML. If your're using PowerPoint slides, which most people are, the simplest solution is to use the Save As HTML command. This option creates a linked series of Web pages corresponding to the slides and lets developers target particular browsers. Before saving slides, you may want to add features. For example, to include voice narration, use the Record Narration command. Record the presentation. You can record narration or other sounds for playback over the Web using PowerPoint or such third-party programs as RealPresenter (www.real.com). Import into authoring software. Some authoring tools, such as Macromedia Director or Authorware, enable users to import slides or slide text. Keep in mind that advanced PowerPoint features, such as sophisticated transitions and animation, may not convert. Please note: Macromedia Director requires PowerPoint version 4 slides; Macromedia Authorware requires users to save slide text as Rich Text Format (RTF) before import. Recreating slides in a multimedia application. If your slides use animation and transition effects--or would benefit from such techniques--try recreating them in a multimedia product, such as Macromedia Flash or Macromedia Director. There are two methods for importing slides into Flash or Director. 1) Use the screen-capture option to snap a picture of each slide after a transition or animation element. Drop snapshots into Flash or Director, arranging them in their original sequence. Then apply appropriate transitions. If slides contain voice narration, save them as HTML and add the resulting sound (.WAV) files to your Flash or Director project. Synchronize imported sound files with each imported picture. 2) Copy and paste each graphics object from the PowerPoint presentation into Flash or Director. Another method, is to save the presentation as HTML and then import all the resulting GIF files. Sequence and animate the objects, then copy and paste the voice narration. If necessary, use a sound-editing program to break the narration sequences into shorter pieces for better synchronization. Handouts Courses typically use handouts, textbooks, and assigned library readings. All readings can be converted to electronic form. Adobe Acrobat PDF (www.adobe.com) enables users to distribute high-fidelity copies of any document that can be printed. Creating PDF documents requires Acrobat publishing software, and learners must have the free Acrobat Reader program. Acrobat documents can be simple replications of their paper counterparts, or you can add hypertext links, a table of contents, thumbnail images of pages, sounds, and other multimedia. Interaction Tests. Macromedia Authorware and CourseBuilder for Macromedia Dreamweaver offer standard test templates, including true-or-false, multiple choice, drag-and-drop, and text entry. Practice exercises. Many courses include laboratory sessions or other hands-on activities. Remember that online versions need to exercise the same decision-making processes rather than mimic the classroom activity. The example below illustrates a simple way to guide learners through a hands-on task using a series of linked Web pages. To advance in the procedure, learners must answer a question that tests whether they successfully performed the preceding step. This kind of activity requires no technology other than plain HTML and a Web browser. Simulated tasks. Sometimes it's too complex or expensive to have learners interact with the actual system. The example below illustrates how advanced computer users can learn to set up a database connection. Because failing at this task could adversely affect existing database access, it's best learned through simulation. Essentially, a basic simulator is a linked series of image maps of the various dialog boxes. Successfully performing a step, such as clicking on a tab or button, displays the next panel or dialog box in the process. This activity uses Dynamic HTML and JavaScript programming. However, such tools as Macromedia Director, Authorware, and Flash walk developers through building rich interaction by automating scripting. Conceptual tasks. Many tasks depend on correct decision-making rather than manipulating physical devices, as illustrated in the example below. This jigsaw puzzle requires learners to assemble a working computer network by dragging components into place. As each piece is dropped into place, the program checks whether it's at the correct level and compatible with surrounding pieces. If incorrect, the learner receives a brief explanation. In this activity, any combination of components would work, teaching learners how to select appropriate combinations. This example was created in Macromedia Director, using automated guides for the Lingo script. Discussion forums. Most Internet server packages include a component to support discussion groups, and similar software is often included in browsers or email readers. If you're setting up a discussion group, consider using a third-party discussion and chat software package, such as BuzzPower (www.buzzcompany.com) or O'Reilly WebBoard (webboard.oreilly.com), that enables learners to participate right from their Web browser. Assembling assets The final step is to integrate your converted components into a complete course. This may involve combining separate HTML pages and creating a table of contents and index for them. If you're using multimedia development tools, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver or Flash, import the components into a project file. With careful design and diligence you can produce online courses that preserve the strengths of traditional training while adding the benefits of Web technology. Converting traditional courses to effective online learning requires talent, technique, and most important, the right tool for the job. Published: June 2001