Task Analysis

SoftChalk
1. 2. 3. 4. Introduction Starting SoftChalk Examining the SoftChalk Screen Creating Content

Scene 1 Title Slide Scene 2 (Home page of Softchalk) With Softchalk I will show you how to start SoftChalk Create can be used to create lessons. A lesson can be:

a simple text document like you would find in a book a link or series of links that show your students different websites a single activity or a series of activities that allow your students to interact with the content a quiz question or series of questions that allow your students to interact with the content a media rich interactive lesson that can include, links, graphics, media files, activities, quiz questions and text

This short lesson will show you how you can start SoftChalk Create and you will learn how to save your lesson to the SoftChalk Cloud. Scene 3 (Account Logon) Once you click on the login button the screen below will be displayed Logon Screen Enter your user name and password. Then click on the Login button. You will notice the My Content and ScoreCenter and Account buttons are now active. To begin the SoftChalk Create program, choose My Content and select Create Content. Scene 4 (jnpl file) The first time you start the program you will be asked if you would like to open a Java Web Start file. This jnlp file is from SoftChalk Cloud and must be opened. Jnlp screen

Notice the check box in the dialog window above. You should click on this check box so this will be done automatically the next time you start SoftChalk Cloud. Scene 5 (jnlp file #2) You will also be asked if it is okay to Launch a program from the SoftChalk Cloud website. You must allow this file to open. Next jnlp screen Scene 6 (SoftChalk Launch) Finally you must allow the SoftChalk Launch access to your computer. Once again you should click on the check box to always allow applications from www.softchalkcloud.com. The dialog boxes will not appear. Softchalk launch screen The Create program will start. Initially Create does not open in a full window view. You may want to expand the window to the full screen by clicking on the Expand window button. *PUBLISH SOFTCHALK TO CLOUD Scene 7 (Title and layout) When you finish creating your content in SoftChalk Create (use the Create Content Lesson), it is time to publish your lesson to the cloud. Before you publish to the cloud you may first want to title your lesson. You can title a lesson by following the menu path Properties=>Style Properties=>Title&Layout. Title And Layout Screen Click in the Title line and enter a Title for the lesson you have created. If you want you can also add a subtitle. Here you can also decide what will appear at the bottom of each page of your lesson. You can place a copyright on your lesson, you can also display the late day the lesson was modified. Best Practice You can also make your lesson a creative commons object. As a default SoftChalk Create assumes you will not specify a creative commons license option. If you click on the License line you will see the creative commons licensing options. You can also include additional text by typing in the Text dialog box. You can include anything you would like your students to see. Now you are ready to Publish the lesson. Choose File from the menu bar and select Publish to SC Cloud. Since you have already entered a title for the lesson the dialog window will have that title as the name for the published lesson. Scene 8 (Softchalk Create Window) The large white area is where you would place the content of your lesson. A lessons content may include:

Text like you would find in a book Links that show your students different websites Activities that allow your students to interact with the content Quiz questions that allow your students to interact with the content Graphics, video and audio files to enrich the students learning experience

You should notice the current style and language for the lesson you are about to create. The language will indicate which language the commands generated by SoftChalk Create will display in. Both the Style and the Language can be changed by using the Properties menu.

Scene 9 (Softchalk create Tool bar) f you think of SoftChalk Create as a word processor, the toolbar should look very familiar to you. There are many word processing tools that are easily recognizable. Let's now examine each of the tools. *The font type tool will allow you to choose the font that will be used for text in the lesson. Clicking on the font name or the list triangle will display the list of available fonts. *To increase or decrease the size of the selected text, click on the number or the list triangle and select the value for the font. The larger the value the bigger the font *When you are ready to save your lesson, click on the save tool. This will save your lesson to a temporary folder that is located on the computer you are currently using. Keyboard Short Cut for PC or Macintosh. *The preview tool will display your lesson using the default browser on the computer you are using. This will allow you to see your lesson the way your students will. SoftChalk Create will work with Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer and many other browsers. You should instruct your students not to use Google Chrome. Word Formatting Tools The next five tools on the toolbar are tools that will change the look of the selected text. They are normally used to make the text stand out in the lesson. The bold tool will change the selected text to display in Boldface. The tool will comply with ADA guidelines by placing a " Strong " tag around the text.

The italic tool will change the selected text to display in Italic. The tool will comply with ADA guidelines by placing an "Emphasis" tag around the text.

The underline tool will change the selected text to display with a line under them. The text color tool will allow you to change the color the selected text.

The highlight color tool will allow you to highlight selected text by placing a background color behind the text. This works similar to a highlighting pen. It will allow you to have selected text stand out from the normal text in your lessons. Paragraph Formatting Tools The paragraph formatting tools will change the look of the paragraph. If you are only changing a single paragraph just click anywhere in the paragraph and then click on the tool. The alignment tools will change the position of the paragraphs in relation to the left and right side of the screen. The red line indicates which section of the screen the text will align with.

The bullet tool will place bullets to the left of the selected paragraphs. If you click on the bullet tool and type, that paragraph will be bulleted. Pressing 'Enter' will create a new paragraph that is also bulleted. Pressing 'Enter' twice will turn off the bullets.

The number tool will place numbers to the left of the selected paragraphs. If you click on the number tool and type, that paragraph will be numbered. Pressing 'Enter' will create a new paragraph that is also numbered. Pressing 'Enter' twice will turn off the numbers.

The style tool will allow you to apply a style to a paragraph. Four different styles available. A standard paragraph will have a style of plain text. The other styles are used to define navigation points within your lesson. You can think of the styles as a topic outline.

Heading 1 would be a main topic, Heading 2 a sub topic and Heading 3 a sub-sub topic. When a heading is applied to a paragraph the paragraph text will increase in size, with Heading 1 the largest text and heading 3 the smallest text. If a heading style is applied prior to typing that style will only apply to the current paragraph. When you press 'Enter' the Plain Text style will be used for the next paragraph. Insert Image The insert/ modify image tool will allow you to insert an image into a lesson, or modify an image that was already inserted into the lesson.

Insert Link The insert/modify link tool will allow you to insert a hyperlink that can be used to display another website, or a document.

Importing from SoftChalk Cloud Repository Scene 10 - You can look for content that has already been created in SoftChalk Create and stored in the Public area of SoftChalk Cloud. This Open Education Repository can be used by anyone. You can actually download and modify lessons that others have created a stored publicly. Just follow the menu path Tools==>Media Search . This will display the Media Search Dialog window, as shown below. Click in the keywords box and enter the topic you want to look for. Select SoftChalk Cloud as the search repository and click Search. In a few seconds, you will see the search results. Look for content that has an L to the left of the name. This will indicate the content is a lesson. You can now click on the Open button and it will open the lesson in the current SoftChalk Create program window.