Softchalk Lessons
Getting Started
Softchalk 7
This tutorial introduces you to Softchalk. This program will let you make a lesson consisting of a series of linked pages with text and learning activities. The tutorial was written using the Softchalk program.
By the end of this lesson you will
This won't be everything you might want to know to use Softchalk, but it should be enough to get started!
You can navigate through this lesson in several ways.
Click on the next page link below to begin the tutorial ....
A Softchalk lesson is a series of webpages. It may have
When editing you don't see all those pages - you will see only a single editing window with pagebreaks between what will become the webpages.
The Table of Contents Page is created automatically by the Softchalk program. Even if you don't choose to have a Table of Contents Page, the program will still create the Table of Contents (TOC) and you can make it available through a navigation menu.
This is an example of one of the activities that can be included in a Softchalk lesson. Click on the graphic below to Test Yourself.
When you first "Save" a Lesson in Softchalk, you will be prompted to browse on your computer for a location for those files. What will create a folder in that location in which multiple files will be stored. To open a lesson for editing you must start the program Softchalk, from the File menu choose "Open", then browse to that folder and click on the "index" or "index.html" file. You may also open a recently edited lesson by choosing "Open Recent" from the file menu.
The next page will show how to set up the Styles for your lesson and choose the type of navigation.
The first thing you'll want to do is choose a Style for your lesson. This can always be modified later.
This determines the colors and text styles and text colors for your pages.
You won't be able to see that Style while editing. To view the pages with the Style applied - go to Preview and select Preview Document (Ctrl-P). A quick short-cut to Preview is Ctrl-S Ctrl-P. This will save your page then preview it. Close the Preview window when you are done - otherwise you will get a lot of open windows!
If you are using Internet Explorer then every time you Preview you may get a message asking if you want to run "Active Content" on your computer. (This will not happen when the lesson is hosted on a website). To avoid this message.
or in Internet Explorer
Click below for a quick Self-Check
The next page discusses how to set the Title and navigation methods for your lesson.
This gives your lesson a title and sub-title which appear at the top of the page. You'll also decide what kinds of navigation to include with your lesson.
The Lesson Title will be listed at the top of each page.
You can also customize the footer for each page.
The TOC page is created by the program - you won't see it when you are editing.
Including a Table of Contents Page is optional. If used it will be the first page in the lesson. If you do not include this page, the TOC is still available when you choose the Rollover menu or the Dropdown menu.
This lesson does not have a TOC Page. Experiment with your lesson to decide if you want one. Softchalk can also be used for making single page activities, in which case you would not want a TOC Page.
You can include a navigation menu on each page. Choose only ONE of these settings.(3)
You can include an "On This Page" Sidebar which will list all the headings on a particular page. (4)
Unfortunately it does not distinguish between heading levels (that is sub-headings are not indented). You can only enable/disable this for the whole lesson. This Sidebar menu will not appear unless there are at least two headings on a page.
Headings are set by selecting some text and choosing the heading level from the dropdown box (or by choosing a heading level at the start of a new line).
The first choice on this dropdown box is "Plain Text". The heading levels are: Page Heading, Sub-heading 1, and Sub-heading 2. After typing a heading, the text style will return to "Plain Text" at the start of a new line.
This page has the Dropdown menu at the top and the "On This Page" Sidebar.
Other Navigation
These items don't take much space, so the default is to leave them enabled.
If you want to force the student to go through the lesson sequentially then you must uncheck all the boxes listed under "Table of Contents" and also disable the Page numbers in the navigation. Remember that if you do this the student will not also not be able to go back and review parts of the lesson (except by navigating through the whole lesson again).
Recommendations:
When you are inserting text or images in a Softchalk lesson, you can add hyperlinks to websites or link to documents (any type of file - Word, Excel, PDF etc.) . Simply select the text you want to use as a link, then either go to the Insert menu and choose hyperlink or click the button that looks like a globe with a chain. Type in the URL (web address) of the website you want to link to or use the Browse button to choose a file from your computer. If you choose a file, then the file will actually be copied into your softchalk folder. This means that if you change the file at a latter date, you will need to reselect it to copy the new version into your Softchalk lesson.
You can embed a Youtube video in softchalk so that it will play directly on the lesson page. Go to youtube.com and find the video you wish to embed. Then
Now in your Softchalk lesson, click on the page where you want your Youtube to reside. From the Insert menu, choose "Widget." (A Widget is a piece of code that adds a gizmo to the page.) Paste the embed code into the box labeled Widget Code. Your video won't show up in editing mode, but will show up when you preview the lesson in your browser.
The formatting ability of Softchalk is a little limited (and a little quirky - more tips about formatting later). The strength is the ability to insert a number of different types of learning activities. These will be "Check for Understanding" activities since the student will be able to attempt them multiple times. You can ask the student to report the results to you, either by printing a score summary or emailing results. In the Blackboard Learning Management System, the total score of a lesson can go into the gradebook if the lesson is uploaded as a SCORM unit.
The previous paragraph contains examples of a "Text Popper" - move your mouse cursor over the text that is bold and colored and you'll see a comment or definition appear.
You create learning activities by using the Insert menu.
The Text Popper will "popup" additional information linked to any text on the page. Use it for definitions of terms or supplementary information.
Once the Text Popper (or any other activity) is created, you can edit or remove it by Right-Clicking on the symbol for the activity, then choosing Modify or Remove. (Ctrl-Click on a Mac). You can also select the Activity then from the Insert menu choose Modify or Remove.
An example of a quiz or self-test was shown earlier in this lesson. Each quiz contains a single question - there are a variety of types.
Options
When you create the quiz, the Options tab lets you decide what to call it ("Quiz Me", "Self-check" or "Test Yourself" are some of the options). The Options tab is also where you'll choose to have the question initially shown or hidden.
Here is an example of an "Ordering" activity.
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Here are the steps for inserting a Text Popper. |
You can also create a Quiz Group that contains multiple questions. From the Insert menu choose "Quiz Group" and add your questions. At this writing, the Quiz Group does not work in the Chrome browser.
Crossword
These activities can add some fun and interest to a lesson. They can be frustrating for some so you might want to make them unscored activities.
The activities are self-explanatory to set up. The crossword puzzle may not use all the words you input, but if you click the "Restart" button it will generate a new puzzle, making different choices of which word to use.
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Click below to start the crossword - it will open in a new window. |
Seek A Word
This activity lets you hunt for words in a grid. Type the words in a plain text file (using Notepad for example) and you'll be able to import them into the activity. (Use the Browse button). WARNING: using too many words causes the activity to freeze up. If that happens you will need to delete the activity and start over. Under 20 words seems to work.
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Click below to Seek A Word
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Match Terms with Definitions. You can include images with the Definition only, but can also choose to show the Definition first and ask for the Term. An image will be resized to fit the card, so it is best to use images that are close to the expected size. The student can use these for self-testing or for review.
This activity allows the students to sort cards into categories. The cards can contain text or pictures (with or without captions).
This activities lets the student drag a box of text to match a second box. It is more of a matching activity than a general "Drag and Drop". Unfortunately there is no way to insert pictures. You must use two to seven pairs of items.
This activity lets the student drag labels onto an image.
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A Hot Spot activity lets students move their mouse over a picture and get information.
Creating a Hot Spot activity
For each hotspot (active area) in the image you will need to color the areas that are hotspots and then add text.
These are the tools used to paint the image:
There are five tools (in the top row)
For a new image you will
To modify or edit a hotspot after it is created
The type of "Popup" (Square Caption, Balloon, etc.) you choose to show the text applies to the entire activity - you cannot use different ones for different areas.
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Click on the link below to take a quiz on the Hot Spot tools! |
Softchalk continues to add more activities. These are all accessed through the "Insert" menu. Once you have made an activity, you can always edit it by right-clicking on the placeholder (Cntrl-click on a Mac) and choosing Modify.
For additional video tutorials and even free online courses, go to www.softchalk.com and click on Learn More. There you'll find Quick Tour Video Tutorials and be able to sign up for free online training webinars.
At the end of the lesson there are several options for reporting results.
A reporting mechanism is added to the last page of the lesson by
Note
Unfortunately, there is no easy way for distance students to "turn in" their score summary or certificate. (They can view and print it but they cannot save it in any format that may be turned in to instructor. They only way to "save" the Certificate or Summary electronically is to take a "screen snapshot" of the window showing the certificate or summary. They can then turn in the image as a graphics file or as a graphic pasted into a Word Processing document.
The results may be sent to an email address. The instructor must have access to the original Softchalk lesson to update the email address. Unfortunately, the email subject does NOT contain either the lesson name or the name of the student, so this is not an ideal solution if you have a large number of students and a large variety of lessons.
The completed lesson can be uploaded to UAS Online or Blackboard. In Blackboard it can be loaded as a SCORM unit which will let the score for the lesson be recorded in the gradebook.
Important!
All of these methods report the results for ONE session of the lesson. Students cannot start the lesson, complete only part of it, then return later. This is because there is no way to "store" student scores between sessions. It is best not to ask the students to report results from a lesson that is too long or has too many graded items in it. (This lesson is an example!) Even if results are not reported, you will still find the learning activities useful to make the lessons more interactive and to provide a means of "self-evaluation."
Two reporting mechanisms are shown below. A 50% passing rate has been set for the activities in this lesson - you will not be able to view a certificate unless you have that many points. You can always "View Score Summary" however. The option to email results was not chosen for this lesson.
When you upload to UAS Online or Blackboard, you will Browse to the lesson folder, then find the zipped file "LessonName.zip"
To upload to UAS Online - upload the zipped package as you would any other resource but make sure you choose "Unpack Files". The link in your Resources section will point to the first page of your Softchalk lesson.
To upload to Blackboard - follow these instructions: http://blackboardhelp.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/upload-a-zipped-package-file/
