Xerte First Project Workbook - October 2015

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Xerte Online Toolkits workbook This workbook is intended for use by all beginners to using Xerte Online Toolkits. It will take you through a first project to get you used to creating a project and adding pages. This workbook is supplemented by a Xerte'Tips and Hints' guide. Before you begin your project Enabling pop-ups Before you start doing anything with Xerte, you should check your browser settings. It is recommended that you use the latest version of Chrome or Firefox, wherever possible. You should also check you have pop-ups switched on in the browser Turn on pop-ups in Chrome

1. Open Chrome.

2. In the top-right corner, click the Chrome menu . 3. Click Settings. 4. Click Show advanced settings. 5. Under "Privacy," click Content settings. 6. Under "Pop-ups", select Allow all sites to show pop-ups.

(If you prefer, you can stick with 'do not allow' and click Manage exceptions to add Xerte as a pop-up exception rule - xerte.cardiff.ac.uk)

Turn on pop-ups in Firefox

1. Open Firefox

2. Click the menu button 3. Choose Options. 4. Select the Content panel. 5. In the content panel uncheck Block pop-up windows.

(If you prefer, you can keep this unchecked and click Exceptions to specify Xerte as an exception rule - xerte.cardiff.ac.uk).

Accessing your own Xerte workspace

If you have logged into Xerte before some time ago, you may need to clear your browser cache before you log in again now. This is simply to ensure all your previous projects appears as they are supposed to. If you have never logged into Xerte before, you will need to do so to create an empty Xerte workspace for yourself.

1. Go to https://xerte.cardiff.ac.uk 2. Log in within your usual network username and password at the top right of the screen.

Xerte First Project Workbook - October 2015

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Creating your first project

Now you are logged in, you have your own workspace and can create projects. To help you get to grips with Xerte, you are going to create a specific project, so you should download the Xerte First ProjResources from http://bit.ly/CUXerteFirstProj1. Now follow below to create your first project and setsome basic settings.

Using the Xerte Online

Toolkit project template,

click Create

Enter a name for the project: Rugby Union topic 1.

Click Create

Enter a title for the learning object: Rugby Union Pitch and Players.

Click the small > on the right side of the screen to toggle open the Optional Properties panel. Click + next toBackground Imageto add a field. Do the same for Background Opacity

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Creating your first page

Now you are ready to start creating pages in your project. The first one you will create will be a title page.

Now click the upload button next to Background Imageand you will get a pop-up window for media.

Click the first floppy disk icon,

browse to the project

resources folder previously

downloaded, select the file

background_image.jpg

Select the background_image.jpg file and click the

arrow icon. The "media" pop-up window will close

and you return to the learning object page with the

white box next to Background Image filled in.

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Type 50 in the Background Opacity box for now. You can always change this again later if needed.

Click the + button near the top of the screen.

Choose Text then Title Page.

Click eitherBefore, After or At End. (Note: it doesn't

matter at this point as it's the first page in the project).

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Congratulations, you have added your first page to your project!

At this point you will also be seeing a preview of your background image. Are you happy with it? Does it

look a bit too strong in contrast to the Title Text you added to the page? You can fix this now.

As you can see, with Xerte, the way you create pages is to add the page type you want and then fill out a

form with all the properties of the page.

The title page you added above is a simple page, so the form to complete it is a simple one. You will now

add a few more types of pages which have more detailed information to complete. These pages you add

have been storyboarded out beforehand, a useful technique you should utilise yourself before creating

Xerte projects. The storyboard is the Rugby_pitchplayers_storyboard.pptx file in your Resources folder.

For a fuller list of pages available within a Xerte Online Toolkits project, try this Xerte object:

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/toolkits/play_8203

Add a Page Title and

Title Text.

Change the Text Size if

you want to.

Click Play now for your

first preview.

Click back on the project title

(above the "Introduction"

page label. This shows you

the project settings from

before. If you felt the image

was too strong/bright,

decrease the number in the

Background Opacity box to

20. Click Play again to check

it.

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Adding additional 'text' type pages A useful page type which is text-based is the 'Orientation' page. This prompts you to add some details about the aims and outcomes, target audience, prerequisites and how you want your audience to use the learning object. To choose this, use the +button, choose Text then Orientation, then At End.

Type the text in each of the provided boxes or copy and paste it in from the storyboard. Note: if you choose

to copy and paste, you should copy it from PowerPoint into Notepad (or TextPad on a Mac) first and then

copy from there into Xerte. This removes any text formatting from PowerPoint.

You will, of course, want to put formatting in after typing or copying and pasting. Xerte helps you with

this.Ifyou want to add formatting, click the small drop down button to get an editing toolbar.

Drop down button to get the

formatting toolset for this

"Goals" section. You will see

this button in many different

page areas in Xerte. Click it

to use the tools.

This gives a set of tools

which you can use to edit all

the text in this "Goals" box.

Try a few buttons out, e.g.

here you might wish to

select the three sentences

(demonstrate, understand,

describe) and click the

bulleted list button.

Bulleted list

button.

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Adding 'media' type pages Media type pages are useful for presenting lots of different sorts of content. For example, it can help you

provide a mixture of images and text, audio tracks with synched transcripts or presenting several images

(with additional information) on one page. Here you will try out a couple of useful types.

Audio with transcript To choose this, use the +button, choose Media then Transcript Reader, then At End.

Now you are ready to synch up the transcript from the storyboard with the actual mp3 file. To do this we

create a nested page per each paragraph (4 in this case). Underneath the panel width option is the nested

page option.

Click New Nested Page.

1. Enter as Page Title "The Pitch"

2. Use the technique used in the top two

screenshots on page 3 to upload and

select from resources the file

pitch_narration.mp3

3. In Page Text, enter the text from the

blue box on the pptx storyboard and

press return.

4. Now, expand the formatting toolbar

for Page Text, click beneath the text

you already entered, and click the

'Image' button on the toolbar. Use the

same technique from page 3 to upload

and select RugbyPitch.png. This

requires completing an extra pop-up

window, Image Properties:

a. For Alternative Text type "rugby

pitch with areas labelled"

b. Set Alignment to Centre, click OK.

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Leave this at

Medium

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For the following three nested page, follow the above, but set the Synch points as follows:

Second page: 14

Third page: 35

Fourth page: 57

When the fourth page is finished, click the Play button, find the page called "The Pitch" in your learning

object and press the play button in the audio playbar to see how the audio synchs up.

Multiple perspectives page This page is useful for presenting several images with explanatory text for each one on one page. To choose

this, use the +button, choose Media then Multiple Perspectives, then At End.

Type (or copy and paste,

remembering to use

Notepad) the first

paragraph from the blue

box in the storyboard slide

into the 'content for the

pane' space.

Leave the Synch Point at 0

as this paragraph is the first

page so will start when the

audio begins.

Click New Nested Page to

create the second one.

Enter a Page Title of

"The Team"

Click New Image

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When the final image is added, click the Play button, find the page called "The Team" in your learning

object and press the play button to see how it looks.You could all use this page typefor sound files or video

files as well as images.

Adding 'interactive' type pages Interactive type pages can often be useful for checking knowledge. For example, you can do drag and drop

exercises, multiple choice and multiple answer questions. Here you will try out a couple of useful types to

test viewers on the content within the previous pages you have already built.

Drag and drop labelling To choose this, use the + button, choose Interactive then Drag and Drop labelling, then At End.

Enter a Title of "No.1 and

No. 3"

Open rugby_players.rtf

from resources and copy

and paste the text

underneath "No. 1 & 3" into

Text area.

Use the usual technique for

uploading media next for

the Image File field. (Go to

the Jerseys folder and use

the file No1.png)

Type "Number 1 jersey" in

the Image Description.

Click New Image to add a

second image (this time

No.2). Add images and text

for all of the positions from

the rtf document in the

same way.

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Now you will be addinga hotspot onto the image for the first drag and drop labels.

(There are five hotspots that will be needed for each of the five labels needed in this case, so you will do

this five times).

Enter a Page Title of "Quiz

Question 1"

Copy and paste the text in

the green box from the pptx

storyboard.

Use the usual technique for

uploading media for the

Image File field. Use

RugbyPitch_nolabels.png

Type "Rugby pitch without

labels" in the Image

Description.

Change the Highlight

Colourto 000000 (black).

Change the Image Width to

Large.

Click the New Hotspot

button

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Enter a Title for the first hotspot;

this one will be "Goal posts".

To edit where you want the

hotspot to appear, click the

image of the rugby pitch. A new

pop-up will open (see below)

which allows you to drag around

and resize the orange box seen in

the top left here. Click OK when

done in the pop-up window.

Enter some feedback in the Text

area. This is text that will appear

once the label is correctly

dragged onto the right hotspot

area. You can get this from the

purple feedback box in the

storyboard pptx.

When you are finished creating the first hotspot,

click New Hotspot to start creating the next hotspot.

Follow the steps above to create hotspots for the

rest of the four labels.

When you have finished creating all five hotspots,

click the Play button, go to the correct page and try

the dragging and dropping interaction yourself.

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Multiple choice question To choose this, use the +button, choose Interactive then Multiple Choice Question, then At End.

You are now going to add the possible answer options for this multiple choice question.

(You will need to do this a further three times, as there are four possible answers in the pptx storyboard).

Enter a Page Title of "Quiz

question 2".

In Instruction, describe what the

viewer is expected to do in this

question. You can get wording

from the storyboard pptx if you

wish.

In Prompt put the text of the

multiple choice question you are

asking, that is, the question

stem.

Leave the Question Type as

"Single Answer", as it is multiple

choice not multiple answer here.

Change the Panel Width to

Large.

Click New Option to add the first

possible answer.

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Adding 'games' type pages Game type pages can be useful for simple memory learning. Here you will try out one type of page.

Matching To choose this, use the +button, choose Games then Memory Game, then At End.

Enter a Page Title as usual and click New Item. An item is required per each matching pair.

Now add a further 8 ‘items’ for each of the NoX_nolabel.png image files in the Jerseys folder. Use the rugby_players.rtf document to find the correct label for each numbered image.

In Option, enter the first possible

option. You can get this from the

pptx storyboard as well.

In Feedback, add what feedback

you want to give should they

choose this option. You can get

this from the pptx storyboard as

well.

In Correct, say whether this

option is the right one or wrong

one. (Obviously, one of the

options you add will need to be

set to "true".

Click New Option to the next

possible answer.

For this first item, enter “Prop”

as the label.

Use the usual technique to select

the No1_nolabel.png file from

the Jerseys folder in resources.

Click New Item to add the next.

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Adding 'misc' type pages Xerte has some additional page types which make it simple to bring in multimedia content from third party

websites, such as Flickr and YouTube. Here you will try adding a YouTube page.

YouTube Video To choose this, use the +button, choose Misc then YouTube Video, then At End.

Add a Page Title as usual.

Now you need to copy and

paste in the YouTube Embed

Code. You get this from the

YouTube video page (see below

for where to find it).

Add some Instructionstext

whichwill appear on the page

next to the video. You can get

this from the pptx storyboard.

Find your chosen video on

YouTube (here is an example).

Click the Share link for that

video.

This will give you 3 options,

share, embed, email. Click

Embed and select and copy

the <iframe….>. You will paste

this into your Xerte YouTube

page.

Finding the embed code is done

by looking on the YouTube page

for the video you want to use.

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Sharing or publishing your Xerte project You can share a project you are working on so that another person can edit it along with you (co-authors). You can also change the access rights of your completed Xerte object so it is available to viewers (learners)

To Share (give Editor rights) OR To Publish (make available to learners)

In your workspace, select the

appropriate Xerte project and

Click the “i”(Properties)

button.

1. In the pop-up Project properties

window that appears, click the

Shared settings tab.

2. In the white box type the other

person’s username. This user will be

listed underneath the white box.

3. Click the Add user button to add

them. They are given Edit rights by

default, but you can also change to

Read-only access if required.

The other user should now see the

project in their own workspace in Xerte.

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1. In the pop-up Project properties

window that appears, click the

Access tab.

2. Check either the Public or Password

protected option.

3. Click the Change access button.

If you click on the Project tab now, you

will see half way down the page your

Xerte object has a URL link which you

can use to share with learners/viewers.

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