Nathan Blume

Author Archives: Nathan Blume

Adding SCORM quizzes to Camtasia lectures May 2017

Did you know you can add quizzes to your Camtasia Studio recordings? When using the SCORM format for uploading your presentation to Blackboard, students’ results will even be added to the Grade Center automatically. You can choose to also receive the results via email in case you want to collect results outside of a Blackboard course.

To get started, open an existing Camtasia Studio project (.camproj) or create a new project by opening a Camtasia Recording file (.trec).

Opening the Quizzing panel

To open the Quizzing panel, either click on the Quizzing button on the toolbar or select the Tools->Quizzes menu item. If the Quizzing button doesn’t appear on your toolbar, click on More, then on Quizzing.

GIF as SCORM

Now, move the playhead to the spot in the timeline where you want a quiz to appear. The presentation will pause while the quiz is running so you can place it anywhere without worrying about students missing part of the presentation.

2017-05-18 12_02_54-Camtasia Studio - Grade_Center_Overview.camproj

In this example, the playhead is placed at 40 seconds into the presentation. We’re going to insert the quiz here.

Now that we’ve selected the spot we want a quiz to appear, we’ll add a quiz to the timeline. Start by clicking the “Add quiz” button in the upper left corner of the Quizzing panel.

2017-05-18 12_28_25-Camtasia Studio - Grade_Center_Overview.camproj

You’ll see a block appear in the timeline representing the new quiz. If you want to move the starting point of the quiz, just drag the block left or right. To edit the quiz options, double-click the quiz block.

2017-05-18 14_02_47-Camtasia Studio - SCORM tutorial.camproj

If you’ve created a quiz but don’t see the Quiz blocks above the timeline, look to the left of the timeline for the view options button and select Show Quiz view.

2017-05-21 18_49_52-Camtasia Studio - SCORM tutorial.camproj

Quiz Options

Quiz name – This name displays in the Camtasia Quiz view block. It does not appear during the presentation.
Score Quiz – If enabled, users will see their score during the quiz. If disabled, scores will only appear in the Grade Center or My Grades.
Viewer can see answers after submitting – Disable this to prevent the correct answer from showing after the quiz.

Adding and Editing Questions

Your first question is added for you. To add additional questions, click the Add Question button. To select a question to edit, click the question text in the list of Questions.

Question Options

There are four types of questions available in a Camtasia quiz.

2017-05-18 12_30_00-Camtasia Studio - Grade_Center_Overview.camproj

Multiple Choice – One correct answer. One to many options.
Fill in the Blank* – Multiple correct answers (exact match). Student types an answer.
Short Answer* – Ungraded. Student types an answer.
True/False – One correct answer. True/False options.

*Fill in the Blank and Short Answer responses are not copied to Blackboard. You will be able to see if a student answered a Fill in the Blank question correctly, or if they replied to the Short Answer question, but you will not be able to see the responses. If you choose to receive email reports when publishing your Camtasia presentation the daily reports will contain the complete details.

Previewing the Quiz

Unfortunately, the built-in preview quiz feature does work correctly in Camtasia 8.6, the version used at the Instructional Design Studio. However, you will have a chance to preview your presentation including the quiz during the publishing step.

Publishing the Quiz

Once you’ve created all your quizzes, and entered all the questions and answers (and made sure to select the correct answers) you’re ready to publish.

To publish, select the File->Produce and Share menu item. Select one of the three Smart Player formats (720p recommended, 480p will be product a smaller video frame and file size, 1080p a larger frame and file size.)

2017-05-21 19_49_38-Production Wizard

Click the Next button. On the Quiz Reporting Options screen, choose whether to include quiz scores in the Blackboard Grade Center (SCORM), receive daily reports via email (required to see Fill in the Blank or Short Answer responses) or both (recommended).

If you enable email results, fill in your email address twice. Note: this email address cannot be changed without republishing. You can also decide whether to allow anonymous responses. Anonymous responses are only possible in presentations that are not uploaded to Blackboard as SCORM items. Blackboard will automatically fill in their name and email address.

2017-05-18 12_32_16-Camtasia Studio - Grade_Center_Overview.camproj

SCORM Options

If you enable SCORM, make sure to click the “SCORM Options…” button.

Do not change the Identifier. This number is used to keep track of the quiz results.

Enter a Title. This is the name that will display in the Grade Center. You will have a chance to change this once when you upload the presentation to Blackboard.

At the bottom, be sure to select “Produce ZIP file” under SCORM Package Options.

If desired, change the score required to pass, and/or the percentage of the video that needs to be viewed to count as complete.

None of the other fields are required. When finished, click OK to continue.

2017-05-21 20_18_35-Manifest Options

You will return to the Production Wizard screen.

The “Quiz appearance…” button is entirely optional. You can change the labels on various buttons inside the quiz or disable “Allow replay last section.” This option enables or disables a prompt to replay the last section of the presentation (sections are considered everything between two quizzes.)

2017-05-18 12_32_44-Production Wizard

If you opened the Quiz Appearance window, click OK or Cancel to return to the Quiz Reporting Options screen.

Now that you’ve set your SCORM options and/or entered your email address, click Next.

On the Produce Video screen, enter a Production Name if you have not already saved the file. This will be the filename as well as the folder where the presentation is stored inside My Documents->Camtasia Studio. If you would like to store the published presentation somewhere else, change the Folder by clicking the folder icon to the right. Be sure to remember where you saved the presentation.

2017-05-21 20_29_11-Production Wizard

You’re now ready to preview and/or publish your presentation and quiz. These steps will take quite some time for longer presentations.

If you’d like to preview the presentation and your quiz, click Preview and choose Preview Current Settings. After the preview is rendered, the presentation will open. On most machines the video will not play, but you can manually move the timeline marker to the quiz dot to preview your quiz.

When you’re satisfied with the preview, or if you don’t wish to preview, click Finish to publish your presentation.

Uploading to Blackboard

First, open the content folder in which you want to place the presentation. Then, select Build Content->Content Package (SCORM).

2017-05-18 13_07_04-new junk – Nathan's Course

Attach the SCORM ZIP archive by clicking Browse My Computer, selecting the file, and Clicking Open. The default location is My Documents->Camtasia Studio->Presenation Name.

2017-05-18 13_07_40-Add Content Package (SCORM) – Nathan's Course
Click Submit to upload your presentation.

SCORM Information, Availability and Grading Options

At the top of the page, enter the name for the presentation link in the Content Area, and any description text you wish to appear underneath.

In the SCORM Availability section, set “Make SCORM Available” to Yes.

Choose the number of attempts allowed, any date restrictions, and if you want to track the number of views.

2017-05-18 12_54_25-Add Content Package (SCORM) – Nathan's Course

In the Grading section, decide if you want to store the results in the Grade Center. Note: this is the last chance you have to change the Grade Center Column name. This is the “Title” option. Optionally enter a due date to mark students late.

Grade SCOS should remain on “No” for Camtasia SCORM presentations.

Grade Timing should not need to be changed unless you want the Grade Center to only show the results of the students’ first attempt rather than the most recent.

2017-05-18 12_53_53-Add Content Package (SCORM) – Nathan's Course

That’s the last step! Click Submit and verify that the presentation appears correctly. Remember you can use the Student Preview option in Blackboard to try taking the quiz yourself.

Quiz results will appear in the Grade Center, and if you selected the email option you’ll receive a daily report with spreadsheet attachments.

Build / Add Content, Content Area, Create Assessment, For Faculty Nathan Blume Updated: May 21, 2017

Using My Groups for Students May 2017

The Groups feature provides students with an easy way to collaborate online, share notes, and submit group assignments. Groups can be self-enrolled, or manually-enrolled (instructor-assigned.)

Enrolling in a Group

To enroll in a group, click on Tools in the left-side content menu, then on the Groups item. If there is a sign-up sheet for a self-enrolled group you will see a button to view the sign-up sheet.

2017-05-21 18_04_41-Groups – Nathan's Course

After clicking the Sign-up Sheet button, you will be able to choose a group by clicking the Sign Up button corresponding to the group you want to join.

2017-05-21 18_05_43-Sign Up Sheet – Nathan's Course

Creating a Group

Even there are no groups created, you may still have the ability to create one yourself. Your fellow students will be able to join your group using a sign-up sheet. Click the Create Group button to start.

Give your group a name and give the Sign-up Sheet a name, and if you want, limit the number of members. Click Submit to create your group. You will automatically become a member of the group. Other students can join the group by visiting the Groups tool.

Using Groups

Students who are enrolled in an active group will see a new section in the course underneath the content menu named My Groups. Depending on the course settings, some of the items in the image below may not be available. Note: If the group is not active you will not see this section.

2017-05-21 18_20_42-Groups – Nathan's Course

About the Group Tools

File Exchange – A place where you can upload files so other group members have access to them.
Group Blog, Discussion Board, Journal, Tasks, and Wikis. – Copies of the main course tools, but private to your group and the instructor.
Send Email – Simple way to send emails to only your group members.
Group Homepage – The starting place for your group. You can add various Blackboard modules to the page.
Customize Group Banner/Color – Change the image or color theme for your Group’s Homepage.

Submitting Group Assignments

One of the most common ways Groups are used is to submit group assignments. If you have been given a group assignment, you will see “Group Assignment” at the top of the submission page. Beneath the Browse My Computer button you will also see your group’s name.

Important: Only one person from the group can submit an assignment, so be sure to work together.

If someone else in your group has saved a draft, submitted a file, or if they leave the assignment page without hitting cancel, you’ll see a Review Submission History page when you click the assignment. If the assignment has not been submitted, you can click the blue Continue button on the right-side of the page to edit the draft and/or submit the assignment.

2017-05-21 18_41_33-Review Submission History_ Group Assignment – Nathan's

Note: If the assignment has already been submitted you will not see a Continue button.

Leaving a Group

If you need to leave a group or are having problems with a group member, please contact your instructor.

For Students, Getting Started, Groups Nathan Blume Updated: May 21, 2017

Fixing incorrect menu colors from the December 2016 update January 2017

The Blackboard update applied in late December contained a bug which may alter the colors of course menus making them difficult to read. If one or more of your courses is incorrectly showing the menu in green/blue the following steps will restore the default menu colors.

Note: These steps can only be performed by an instructor. If you are a student in a course affected by this glitch please contact your instructor.

1. Open the affected course.

2. Make sure Edit Mode is On. This setting is found in the upper right corner of the screen.

3. Hover over on the multi-colored Course Theme icon and click on Default.

4. Click the Student Preview button and wait a moment for Student Preview mode to start up.

5. Click the “Exit Preview” button in the yellow bar at the top of the screen.

6. Choose “Delete the preview user and all data” and click the Continue button.

Your course menu has now been restored to the default colors. Sorry for the inconvenience caused by this Blackboard bug.

Course Menu, For Faculty, Issues Nathan Blume Updated: January 9, 2017

Embedding Facebook videos January 2017

Facebook has been lauded as a new mainstream media outlet. If you find a Facebook video you’d like to share with your class, you can embed it into your Blackboard course site so your students don’t have to visit Facebook to view it.

A. Getting the embed code from Facebook

1. Click the down arrow menu in the upper right of the Facebook post and choose “</> Embed.”

Note: If Embed is not an option, click on the “video” or “live video” link at the top of the post to open a new page then try again.

2. Determine if you want to include the entire post or just the video. If you want to include the entire post, check the “Include full post” box in the upper right.

3. Click into the box starting with “<iframe>” to select all the text. Use Ctrl-C (Command-C on Mac) or right-click and choose “Copy.”

B. Adding the code to your course site

1. Open a content area go to the “Build Content” menu. Select the “Item” type.

2. Enter a name for the video.

3. In the Text box, click on the “HTML” button on the third row of the toolbar.

Note: If you only see one row of toolbar icons, click the “two down arrows” icon on the right side of the toolbar.

4. Paste the code using Ctrl-V (Command-V on Mac) or right-click “Paste.”

5. Submit the page.

That’s it! Your students will now be able to watch the video right from Blackboard.

Build / Add Content, Content Area, For Faculty Nathan Blume Updated: January 4, 2017

Disabling IE Compatibility Mode September 2016

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, included in Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8, does not work properly with Blackboard if “Compatibility Mode” is enabled. When this feature is enabled you will see a message “Module information is temporarily unavailable. Please reload the page.”

We strongly recommend accessing Blackboard using either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, but if you only have access to Internet Explorer and cannot install new software, the following instructions will allow you to access Blackboard using IE.

1. Click on the settings icon (gear) in the upper right corner of your Internet Explorer window and select “Compatibility View settings.” gif5

2. In the window that opens, find “knowledge.udmercy.edu” and/or “udmercy.edu” in the list, highlight the item, and click Remove. Make sure no sites ending in ”udmercy.edu” appear on the list. When you’re done, click “Close” and the page will refresh.

gif4

That’s it! Your My Courses list should have loaded when you closed the Compatibility View Settings window.

For Faculty, For Students, Issues Nathan Blume Updated: September 27, 2016

Page 1 of 212