Preparing e-learning Contents

Gone are the days when the students had to satisfy themselves with the chalking and talking mode of teaching adopted by the instructor. There has been tremendous improvement in methodology and technology of the teaching. The advent of computer has opened a new vista in the system of teaching.

The teaching or instruction with the help of computer is known as Computer Assisted Instruction.

Advantages

i) The complex picture, model, flow chart, graph, etc. can be easily depicted.

ii) Big letter size on the screen can easily be seen by the backbencher.

iii) Proper colour combination creates more effect.

iv) Benefits of audio-visual effect can be had.

v) Important point is not missed as the information is present in hard disk or external storage device.

vi) Texts and pictures can be taken backward in the event of any confusion on the part of the learners.

vii) Ease in teaching.

viii) The information and pictures taken from Internet can be directly presented which obviate the need of typing.

ix) Pace of teaching increases, as the teacher need not write on the blackboard.

x) The learners can take the information as such on CD/DVD/Pendrive and go through the matter in leisure.

xi) The communication gap can be reduced to the minimum.

Steps for preparing teaching material

1. Preparing presentation : For preparing presentation Microsoft Power Point software is used. MS Power Point is a graphics software package which provides innovative tools and an easy approach which helps in making professional quality presentations quickly and easily. It permits to create contents of presentation by typing the text, inserting pictures, sounds and animation. A power point presentation is a collection of slides, handouts, speaker’s notes and outline. Slides are the individual pages of presentation. Slides can have titles, text, graphs, drawn objects, shapes, clip art, drawn art, and visuals created with other applications. Handouts consist of smaller, printed version of slides – one, two, three or six slides per page. The speaker’s notes can also be created. A small image of the slide appears along with any note that is typed on the notes pages. Power Point also gives the option of working with presentation in outline form. In the outline, only the titles and main text appear, but not the art or the text typed with tool. The outline can also be printed.

How to operate MS Power Point

i) Starting Power Point

Start – Programme – MS Power Point

ii) MS Power Point Window contains :

Status Bar : The informations appear at the bottom of the windows in an area called Status Bar. Scroll Bar : It is present on the right side in vertical fashion. It has an elevator as well as double arrow buttons.

Tool Bar: The standard tool bar contains icons called tool buttons that represent most common file operations. Format tool bar contains commands to change format of selected texts/objects such as font, font size, alignment, bold, underline, colour etc.

Cue card : This stays on the screen during work and gives step by step instruction on how to accomplish a task.

Menu : Commands are grouped in menu. Menu commands are :

a) File : It is standard to all windows applications. It displays options to create a new file, open an existing file, close open file, save the current work, find file, provide summary information for any file, define slide set up, print slides, exit the software and open the most recent file.

b) Edit : The menu allows to perform editing work such as undo the last change, cut selected text, copy selected text/object to the clipboard, paste clipboard contents, delete or duplicate slide, find or replace and edit an object.

c) View : The command allows to change the view of the slide to a different view type such as slide, outline, note page, slide show, and change the zoom.

d) Insert : The menu permits to insert a new slide, date, time, page, number, clip art, graph, outside object, picture or table.

e) Format : The menu contains the option to change the format such as font, add bullets, change alignment, change line spacing, change case, add colour and lines, define shadow, define a certain template, change slide lay out or background or change slide clour scheme.

f) Tool : This menu contain commands that offer tools such as spell checker, replace fonts, define slide transition etc.

g) Slide show : The menu contains commands to view slides, slide transition, animation, hide slide etc.

h) Help : In case of any confusion, the guidance can be taken from help menu.

iii) Creating a presentation : The presentation can be created by two methods i.e Auto Content Wizard and Pick a Look Wizard. The auto content wizard is used to organise what one’s presentation would say. The pick a look wizard helps to apply a template and set up the masters. A presentation whose format can be applied to other presentations is called template. PowerPoint offers more than hundred such templates. It comes with a presentation called default presentation which has its colour scheme, type styles, etc. A template can be applied before creation of presentation or it can be applied after part or all the presentation has been created. The Template option is available on

Format menu or it can be accessed by clicking at the Template option button of the status bar. There is a master for all the components in the presentation that are created and the format of the

master presentation that are newly created.

Different view

The created presentation can be viewed in five different ways, which are as follows :

Slide show : Only one slide can be viewed at a time

Outline view : Only title and main text can be seen. One can work on the outline view

Slide sorter view : Many slides are spread on the screen. This view helps in recording slides, add transitions or set timings for electronic presentation.

Note page view : Speaker’s notes for any or all the slides can be added.

Slide show view : The slide is presented as a electronic presentation on the computer.

iv) Saving and naming a presentation : The presentation can be saved and named with the help of file menu. In file menu, the Save command will appear, which is given single left click from the mouse. The option for adding/changing name will appear. The name should be given to reflect the nature and relevance of the presentation.

v) Exit : The exit option can be chosen from file menu.

2. Incorporating scanned pictures in the presentation : Scanning is a process of sampling and recording the dots and colour values that make up an image. Images are typically scanned at

resolutions between 50 to 1200 Dots Per Inch (DPI). The image is scanned and sampled line by line and the results are described as a bitmap file. Bitmap files are commonly used in point programmes or image processing programmes like photo shop.

Two-dimensional opaque objects up to the size of a flatbed scanner can be scanned in one pass, usually up to legal size. Transparent materials, such as slides, negatives can be scanned with a special slide scanner or a flatbed scanner that has a transparency adopter. Photos, artwork, drawings and text etc. can be scanned. The digitized images can be saved in a variety of file formats. Some of the formats compress the image in some way to make the file size smaller. Some of the common file types are .txt, .gif,/jpg and /pdf. One may need to work with different programme for which cross compatible format is needed. TIFF ( Tagged Image File Format) is one of the best cross platform graphics format.

Scanning an image

i) Scanning software HP Photo & Imaging is opened either from desktop or from start menu.

ii) The “Scan” option is clicked.

iii) Choose the desired option and click ‘Select’.

iv) The scanning takes a few seconds. The preview of the scanned image appears. Now the ‘Accept’ button is clicked.

v) The image is scanned and stored either in default folder or current folder.

3. Transfer of presentation material to CD/DVD : The instructor has to present at different lecture hall or at different places. Hence, it is desired that matter is transferred to secondary storage device. It includes – CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, floppy disk, pen drive etc. CD stands for compact Disc. It is an optical disc used to store digital data. It is made up of 1.2mm thick disc of polycarbonate plastic coated with a much thinner layer of super purity Aluminum layer which is protected by a film of lacquer. CDs are available in two sizes –120mm 80mm. The storage capacity of CD is 700 MB. CDR (Compact Disc Recordable) can be written only once while CD-RW (Compact Disc Rewritable) can be used for writing about 1000 times. DVD stands for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc. It resembles CD but has very high storage capacity (4.7 Gigabyte). Pen drive is becoming popular due to its high storage capacity and portability.

CD Writing

A CD can be written by two methods i.e. burning and writing.

CD writing with Nero burn

A laser is used to etch (burn) small pits into the dye so that disc can later be read by the laser in CDROM drive or CD player. The laser used to write CD-R is an infrared laser which emits laser radiation at a wavelength of 780 nm. The decomposition of the dye in the pit area through the heat of the laser is irreversible. But CD-RW has a phase–change recording layer and an additional aluminum reflecting layer. A laser beam can melt crystals in the recording layer in to a non-crystalline amorphous base. The different reflectance of the resulting areas make the appear like the ‘pits’ and ‘lands’ of a standard CD.

Steps

i) The Nero burn icon present on the desktop is clicked. If the software is not on desktop it is selected through clicking Start menu.

ii) Make a data disc is clicked.

iii) The Add button is clicked.

iv) The file is selected and Add button is again clicked.

v) The Next button is clicked. The writing speed can be adjusted.

vi) The burn button is clicked and the burning process starts.

vii) On window appears burn process completed successfully. Then OK button is clicked.

viii) The Finish button is clicked.

ix) The CD is taken out

CD writing with wizard

The CD is written with writing wizard. The steps to be followed are as below:

i) Place the CD in CPU.

ii) Open the file to be written to the CD.

iii) The right click is given to the mouse. Send to CD command is given through left click.

iv) The file is transferred to the CD. However, it is yet to be written.

v) The CD is opened.

vi) Write these files to CD command is given.

vii) The writing process starts.

viii) When writing is complete, the command Next is given.

ix) Writing is complete. CD is taken out.