How to Use SoftChalk Lesson Builder TABLE OF CONTENTS

Edit Text 2 Insert a Heading 3 Insert an Image 3 Insert an Audio, Video, Flash or Shockwave File 5 Linking to a Powerpoint Presentation or Excel 6 Insert Special Characters or Math Characters 7 Insert a Table 7 Insert a Hyperlink 8 Add a Text Annotation (TextPopper) 9 Creating Page Navigation 10 Add Quiz Questions (QuizPopper) 10 Add Activities (Flash Cards, Labeling, SeekaWord, DragNDrop, Crossword Puzzle, Ordering, Hot Spot)

12

Lesson Reporting 12 Select a Style, Title and Layout Style Properties 13 Customizing the Sidebar 15 Zipping Up Your Lesson 17 Opening a Packaged (Zipped) Lesson 18 Packaging the Lesson for Uploading (e.g. into WebCT) 18 Uploading Your Lesson into WebCT 19 Uploading Your Lesson to Homedirs (lesson not in WebCT 24 Making a Link to Your Lesson on Homedirs 26 Free Download 28

Questions? Contact the CTL front desk at 4804617331 or

Melanie Kroening (4804617799, mkroening@mail.mc.maricopa.edu), Donna Gaudet (4804617929, donna.gaudet@mcmail.maricopa.edu), or Peggy Johnson (4804617703, johnson@mail.mc.maricopa.edu).

You can download the latest instruction manual on using SoftChalk from http://www.softchalk.com. Click on the Support tab.

last updated 91806

2

How to Use SoftChalk Lesson Builder © SoftChalk works a lot like Word software. Launch SoftChalk, and use the File pulldown menu to open a blank document. Type in some text.

The document you are creating is in html format, which can be viewed on the internet. It is a good idea to save your document periodically as you work on it (from the File menu, choose Save or Save As...). SoftChalk will save all the images you incorporated in your document in the same file as the document so you can upload them to the internet as one package.

Note: If you open a document that was not created by SoftChalk, you may lose formatting and the document may become unusable if you save it using SoftChalk. So it is best to create your document using LessonBuilder. If you do copy and paste text that was created using Word software, save it as Plain Text. While you have the document open in Word, select File>SaveAs>Plain Text (*.txt) from the toolbar. This will strip out the Word formatting that could cause problems. Then copy and paste from Notepad into SoftChalk. Proceed to edit and save the document in SoftChalk as usual.

Edit Text You will recognize most of the standard text editing features on the toolbar. Highlight the text you want to modify and select the appropriate tool to change it to bold, italics,

underline, or change its color. . You can also change the font and/or font size using the pulldown menu to make your selection.

Note that if you want to highlight text, type your text and then click on the highlight

color tool on the toolbar. Choose the color you want to use for highlighting and click OK.

You can use the tools that have small arrows on them to increase or decrease any

indentation in the document.

Add bullets or numbers to a list by using the appropriate tool.

You can check your spelling using the Tools menu.

3

You can undo or redo the previous action using the Edit menu. Alternatively, you can undo your last action by hitting the control and Z keys simultaneously. You can redo your last action by hitting the control and Y keys simultaneously.

Insert a Heading To insert a heading, type in the text for the heading. Highlight the text (drag your cursor over the heading text). Then use the pulldown menu on the right hand side of the tool bar (it probably says Plain Text until you change it) to select Page Heading.

For illustration purposes, type in at least two headings (at different locations in your document).

Insert an Image When you want to insert an image, use the Insert pulldown menu or the insert image tool on the toolbar. Notice that you can also use this pulldown menu to insert a link to audio or video files. Images are supported that are in gif, jpg, or png format.

4

or

Browse to your image.

.

If you wish to specify what the viewer will see when they mouse over an image, type in the Alternative text box. (The Long Description box is used for text that can be read by special programs like Jaws readers. )

You can change the size of the image if you wish using the Change width and/or Change height options.

Use the alignment options on the toolbar to center your image if desired (or align left or

right).

5

Insert an Audio, Video, Flash, or Shockwave File Use the Insert pulldown menu to select Media. Audio files may be midi, wav, au, mp3, aiff, ram, rmf, mp3, aiff, wma, mid or ra format. Video files may be avi, mov, mpg, wmv, or mpeg. Flash files are swf. Shockwave files are dcr.

Click in the appropriate radio button for your file type. Browse to Select file

6

If you wish the file to be displayed “inline” with the text of your lesson, click in the radio button in front of “Linked file”. If you wish the activity to appear as a link in the text of the lesson, click in the radio button preceding the words “Inline player”.

If you’d rather not insert the media into your SoftChalk lesson (it make be a large file), you can type in the URL of the audio or video hyperlink into the File path or URL dialog box.

Linking to a Powerpoint Presentation or Excel You can put a hyperlink to a Powerpoint Presentation or an Excel file you have created anywhere in your lesson, including the Sidebar. The Powerpoint slides and Excel files placed within the SoftChalk lesson will now be images; thus, they are no longer editable.

To put a hyperlink in a SoftChalk lesson

• Select text or an image in your SoftChalk lesson that you want to use for the hyperlink (by dragging your mouse across it).

• From the toolbar, select Insert. Then select Hyperlink. • Select the desired file by browsing to the file location. • Check the box to open link in a new window. Click OK.

This procedure will assure that a copy of your Powerpoint or Excel file will be packaged into your SoftChalk lesson when you zip it up and upload it to the internet.

7

To put a hyperlink in a sidebar

• From the toolbar, select Properties. Then select Sidebar. • Select the option you want for your Sidebar heading: Handout, Learn More,

More Resources, or Text. • Type in some text. • Select the text (highlight it by dragging mouse). • Using the right click menu while the text is selected, select Hyperlink. • Browse to the file you wish to link and select it. • Check the box to open link in a new window. Click OK.

Right Click Right clicking will open a menu with many of the features found in the main menu.

Insert Special Characters or Math Characters Choose the Insert menu and then select Special Characters (e.g. copyright symbol or registered symbol) orMath Characters from the pulldown menu.

.

Insert a Table

Choose the Table menu and then select Create Table.

In the dialog box that appears, select the number of rows, columns, etc. that you desire. If you want the border of the table to be invisible, set the border width to 0.

To modify your table, place the cursor within the table. Use the Table menu on the toolbar to select the appropriate action.

8

Insert a Hyperlink

• To insert a hyperlink (link to a website), type into your SoftChalk document words that describes the hyperlink, e.g. "MCC Homepage".

• Select the text "MCC Homepage" by dragging your mouse over the text to highlight it.

• Use the Insert menu to Insert Hyperlink.

.

• A dialog box will appear that includes http:// in the URL text box. Type in the rest of the URL, e.g. www.mc.maricopa.edu

9

• Click the checkbox to "Open the link in a new window". This will open a new browser window when the link is clicked.

• Click OK.

• To modify an existing hyperlink in your document, select the text associated with the link. Use the Insert menu (on the toolbar) to select Insert Hyperlink. The Insert Hyperlink window will open and you can modify, replace or delete the hyperlink.

Add a Text Annotation (TextPopper) Use the TextPopper tool to add a mouseover annotation or definition with your text.

• Highlight a word (or words) that you want to annotate, e.g. highlight the word " DNA".

• From the Insert pulldown menu on the toolbar, select TextPopper.

• In the dialog box that appears, fill in the bottom text area to display a note or definition when the viewer mouses over the word "DNA". If desired, use the top text area to display a word or phrase (such as the term being defined). You can rightclick on your mouse in either the top or bottom area to get more formatting options (e.g. set bolding or italics, include hyperlinks).

• Select the appearance you want. Stickaround TextPoppers remain open in the text until closed by the user.

.

10

• When the viewer has the mouse over the word DNA, this popup box will appear:

• To modify a TextPopper, click your cursor so it is located within the TextPopper in your document. Then choose the Insert menu, and TextPopper. In the TextPopper window, make your changes. Choose OK after you've made your changes or Remove to delete the TextPopper from your document.

Creating Page Navigation To enable multipage navigation links, insert pagebreaks within your lesson. Use the Insert pulldown menu (on the toolbar) to select the Page Break option.

Alternatively, if you hit the Control and Enter keys simultaneously, a page break will be inserted at the location of the cursor.

When you save the lesson, the pages will be separated and linked to each other, with arrows automatically added for navigation.

Add Quiz Questions (QuizPopper) Insert quiz questions periodically in your text to encourage interactivity. The QuizPopper tool allows you to easily insert true/false, multiple choice, multiple answer, short answer, matching, or ordering questions.

• Click your cursor in the location of your document where you wish the quiz question to appear.

11

• Use the Insert pulldown menu (on the toolbar) to choose the QuizPopper option.

• In the Q & A tab, enter your question or statement. Then provide answer choices.

• Select the correct answer by clicking in the appropriate radio button.

• Within the QuizPopper dialog window, you can rightclick on most of the text boxes where you type questions, answers, feedback and hints. This will dispaly a textediting menu so you can bold the text, make it italic, etc. You can also insert Special Characters or Math characters.

• If desired, you can enter feedback for correct or incorrect responses.

• In the Hint tab, you can choose to make a hint available.

• In the Options tab, you can set the link icon or text, choose to hide or show the question when your lesson is opened, and make the quiz appear inline in the text or in a popup window. There is also an option to set the question value.

• Click OK when you are finished constructing the quiz.

• To modify or remove a QuizPopper, click on the QuizPopper icon within your document. Then choose the Insert menu, Modify Question or Remove Question option.

12

• After you have created several QuizPopper questions, you can highlight them and

put them in a list (use the bullet/list tool) You may also create a Table and place quizpoppers within the cells of the table.

Add Activities (Flash Cards, Labeling, SeekaWord, DragNDrop, HotSpot, Sorting, Crossword Puzzle, Ordering) From the Insert menu (on toolbar), choose the type of Activity you want to add to your SoftChalk document. Each Activity has its own Help tab with instructions on how to use it. Simply complete the dialog menu for the Activity. Then click OK to insert the activity into your lesson.

Note: These activities appear in a popup window, so you may have to disable a popup blocker to see them.

To modify an Activity, rightclick on the activity's icon within your document. Or you may click on the activity's icon within the document. Then choose the Insert menu and select either Modify Activity or Remove Activity.

Lesson Reporting When a student completes the activities in your lesson, you can generate a report of the experience. From the toolbar, choose the Properties menu. Select Lesson Reporting. You can then opt to have the program print a certificate of completion for the student, print a summary of his/her score, and or email completion/score results to you.

13

Select a Style • Use the template for color and theme for your file. Pull down the menu for

Properties and select Style Properties.

14

• With the Styles tab selected, choose a style from the options that appear by clicking on the style you want to use (you can choose a “nonstyled” lesson also).

Then click OK.

• To see the style you have selected applied to your document, click on the Preview menu on the toolbar and select Preview Document.

or click on the Preview button .

Title and Layout Style Properties After making your style selection, click on the Title and Layout tab at the top of the Style Properties dialog box. Here you can enter a title for your lesson, a footer, and

select the page layout and navigation options.

15

• Enter a Lesson Title and subtitle if desired in the Lesson Title dialog box. • Customize the text for the Footer as desired. Leave the box checked to display a

copyright notice and/or the date last modified. Uncheck either box if that item is not desired.

• The Style Layout dialog box allows you to select a right or left justified layout. This selection will change the location of the sidebar and heading.

• The Table of Contents dialog box allows you to choose none, one, two, or all three options of how the TOC will be displayed. If you choose none, the TOC will not be automatically generated.

• The Navigation options box allow you to specify whether you want arrows or page numbers to be displayed in the navigation bar at the top of each page of a multipage lesson. Selecting the "On This Page" sidebar option will display bookmark links to page headings and subheadings on the sidebar of the lesson page.

• Click OK to save your selections.

Customizing the Sidebar 1. The Sidebar allows you to highlight information on the lesson page by

placing the information in a left or a rightsidebar column. There are two ways to create a sidebar. You can create a sidebar Table of Contents link and a sidebar On this Page module by making the appropriate selections on the Style Properties/Title and Layout dialog (see previous directions in section entitled Title and Layout Style Properties.)

2. You can create customized sidebars by choosing the Properties menu, then Sidebars. There are four different types of sidebar modules that you may customize: Handouts, Learn More, More Resources, and Text Only. To begin customizing a sidebar module, choose one of these to display in the Sidebar dialog.

• Type in the text you wish to be displayed in the textbox provided on screen. You can rightclick within the textbox to access text formatting

16

options, such as creating a hyperlink in your sidebar. The icon that will appear in the sidebar is visible with each option (Handouts icon, Learn More icon, etc.) The Text Only sidebar does not have an associated icon. Instead you may type in a title that you want to appear in the Sidebar module in place of the icon (so you can customize the name of your sidebar module).

• By default, the Sidebar module will be created for the lesson page you were editing when you opened the Sidebar Dialog. You can change the page placement of the Sidebar module by modifying the For Page option in the Sidebar Dialog box. You can also direct that the sidebar be placed on all pages (click the Copy to All Pages in the Sidebar Dialog box.)

• You may insert one of each type of Sidebar module on each lesson page. So, for example, you could have one each ofHandouts, Learn More, More Resources, and Text Only on each page.

17

3. To remove a sidebar module from a page:

• Open the dialog for the Sidebar module you wish to remove. (For example, if you wish to remove the Learn More module for your page, select the dialog for that module.)

• To remove the Sidebar module from one page only, first make certain you have the correct page selected by using the For Page: option on the Sidebar Dialog.

• Click the Clear Text button to remove all information from the text box. Click OK.

• To remove the Sidebar module from all pages, click the Clear Text button to remove all information from the text box. Then, click the Copy to All Pages button. Then click OK.

Zipping Up Your Lesson Zipping up your Soft Chalk file compresses it (makes it a much smaller file size). This is handy if you want to transport your files from one computer to another.

To zip up a Soft Chalk file:

• Use the File pulldown menu (on the toolbar) to Save your file.

• Use the File pulldown menu again to select Package Lesson, and then Zip format.

SoftChalk will create a zip file that contains your lesson and all associated files. It stores the zip file in the same folder on your local hard drive where it saved your original lesson. The zip file will have the same title as your original lesson with the zip file extension (.zip). So if your original lesson is titled "DNA", the zip file will be entitled "DNA.zip".

18

Opening a Packaged (Zipped) Lesson If you want to open a file you have zipped up, you can use the File pulldown menu (on the toolbar) to select the Open Packaged Lesson option.

Packaging the Lesson for Uploading (e.g. into WebCT) • Use the File pulldown menu (on the toolbar) to Save your file.

• Use the File pulldown menu again to select Package Lesson, and then Zip format.

19

Uploading Your Lesson into WebCT First you will upload the zip file into your WebCT course. Then you will unzip the file and link it to the appropriate course content.

1. uploading the zip file of your Soft Chalk lesson

• Open your WebCT course and click on the Build tab.

• Select File Manager within the Designer Tools

menu .

• Click on Get Files on the next screen that appears.

• Browse to find the zip file on your computer that you created in SoftChalk. It will have the zip icon next to the file name. Note: You may have to click on the My Files icon to make the My Computer icon appear.

20

• Upload the zip file by clicking on the file name and selecting Open. A folder will now appear in your Files list that has the extension ".zip" (e.g. PegSoftChalkDirections.zip).

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you already have a SoftChalk file with the same name as the file you just created, change the name of your new file. Otherwise you will replace your older SoftChalk lesson with the new one you just uploaded.

2. unzipping (extracting) your Soft Chalk lesson

• Browse to find the uploaded zip file. Click on the action link next to the name of the file to access the Extract command.

• A new folder will appear in the File Manager that contains your SoftChalk lesson and all files associated with it (such as images, audio files). The folder will have the same name as your original SoftChalk file had.

21

• Click on the folder to open it. You will see your lesson (the file that has an html extension) and all the files that are associated with it.

3. making a link to your Soft Chalk lesson

• With the Build tab selected, select Learning Modules from the list of Course Tools. Then click on the button to Create a Learning Module. Name this Learning Module as desired.

22

• Use the Action Link to rename the Learning Module if you wish by choosing Edit Properties.

• Click on the name of your SoftChalk learning module (underlined module name, e.g. SoftChalk Directions in above example).

• Click on the Add File button to create a link to the html file (lesson) you created in Soft Chalk. Use the Action Link to select Browse for Files.

23

• Check the box to the left of the name of the html file in the SoftChalk folder you uploaded into your course (and extracted). Note: If you have more than one page in your lesson, you will see several files with the html extension but some have numbers in their name (e.g. PegSoftChalkDirections2.html, PegSoftChalkDirections3.html). Choose the html file name WITHOUT a number in the title (e.g. PegSoftChalkDirections.html).Then click OK. When students click on this learning module, it will take them to your Soft Chalk lesson.

24

Uploading Your Lesson to Homedirs (for a Webpage not in WebCT)

Upload your zipped SoftChalk lesson into a folder on MCC Homedirs (Samba) server. The lesson will have a zip extension on it (such as DNA.zip).

Use Filezilla to upload your file from either your home or office computer. Filezilla software is free to MCC faculty. It can be downloaded from the Technology Support Services website at http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/its/tss/index.html Click on the the File Transfer link on the left side of the screen to access directions on downloading and using Filezilla. Download Filezilla to your computer (Filezilla is already loaded on the CTL workshop room computers.)

a. Open Filezilla by clicking on the Start button.

b. select All Programs. c. Locate Filezilla from the list of programs and click on it to open.

d. Click on File. From the pulldown menu, select Site Manager.

e. Click on New Site.

f. On the next screen: i. Type inMy MCC Homedirs as the FTP site ii. Type in homedirs.mc.maricopa.edu in Host (the port number will

automatically fill in as 22). iii. Select SFTP using SSH2 in the Servertype iv. Select Normal in the Logontype v. Type in your MCC username in the User vi. Click on the button to make this your Default site vii. Click on the Connect button.

25

g. When prompted to ask for your password, type it in.

h. Click OK.

i. If a screen appears with text and the question, “Store key in cache?”, click Yes.

j. Double click on the www icon.

k. Browse to find the SoftChalk Lesson on your computer.

(If you can’t locate the files, use the Search feature (click on the Start menu, then Search, type in your file name and hit search.)

l. Drag and drop your SoftChalk lesson (that ends in zip) into your www folder on homedirs.

26

Making a Link to Your Lesson on Homedirs (for a Webpage not in WebCT

Using software such as WinZip, extract the zip file into the folder you created for your SoftChalk lesson. A number of files will appear in your folder.

If you have a multipage lesson, you will see a number of files that have the name of your lesson and have numbers on them (e.g. DNA1.html, DNA2.html, DNA3.html). You will also see a file that has the name of your lesson but no number in it (e.g. DNA.html). Make a link on your homepage to the file that is present in the folder and ends in html and does not have a number on it (e.g. DNA.html) by putting in this code:

<A HREF=”http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~johnson/DNA.html”> DNA Lesson </A>

Substitute your MCC username for “johnson” and the file name you used for “DNA”.

Substitute the name you want your students to see for the words “DNA Lesson”.

Alternatively you can use Front Page or Dreamweaver software and insert a link to the htm file in your homedirs folder.

Note: This is casesensitive. If the HTML code (htm file) says to go to the swf file that begins with a capital letter, you need to be sure your swf file begins with a capital letter.

27

AUTOMATED MCC HOMPAGE

If you don’t have a WebCT page, the easiest way to create one is with the Automated MCC Homepage option. If you need directions for how to set up your automated MCC homepage, log on to the CTL homepage at http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/other/ctl Under the Quick Links heading on the left side of your screen, select (click) on All HowToDocuments.

1. Click on the arrow to the left of the heading My MCC Portal to bring up a menu of options. Select Create an Automated Homepage for stepbystep directions.

It will take up to 24 hours before your automatic homepage is created. It will have this URL: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~username where username is your username.

2. To add a link to your StudyMate game on your MCC homepage:

28

a. Log into the MyMCC portal (http://www.mc.maricopa.edu) b. Select theMyTools tab. c. Select Manage UserLinks. d. Select Add a Personal Link. e. Type in the exact URL (full webpage address such as

http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~johnson/DNA.html ) for the StudyMate game you uploaded to your homedirs (samba) file. Substitute your username for “johnson” in this example. Substitute the name of the html file you created in SoftChalk for “DNA”.

f. Type in the short (20 characters) description (e.g. DNA Lesson); g. Click on Add Link to save changes.

FREE DOWNLOAD

If you are an MCC employee, the district has a site license for SoftChalk. You can download the software to your computer at this address: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/other/ctl/softsense

Log onto this site using your MCC username and password.

SoftChalk Lesson Builder is also available for your use on the computers in the pod (central work area) in the CTL.