General Libraries eLEADER Project (final report April 15, 2003)

Sue Phillips, Project Director
Michele Ostrow, Project Director
Peter Keane, Application Developer/Project Coordinator
Susan Rittereiser, Content Conversion Specialist

The University of Texas at Austin eLEADER project aimed to develop efficient methods for delivering effective e-learning. Some of the objectives for the project were to:

Explore various ways to deliver content (esp. streaming technology)

Examine digital content production options and format options

Evaluate costs and effectiveness of projects

Towards these ends, the General Libraries eLEADER project, under the direction of Sue Phillips and Michele Ostrow (and originally Beth Dupuis), set out to create five online tutorials aimed at students, faculty, staff, and the general public.

Tutorial One: Using UTNetCAT [return to top of page]

Goals and Objectives:

To create an online tutorial which will provide basic instruction for searching the UTNetCAT Online Public Access Catalog.
The tutorial should be easily accessible for any user with a web-browser which has the appropriate RealPlayer plug-in installed. Links for downloading such a plug-in will be provided.
The tutorial should be modular, so users can work through it at their own pace, and in order that the tutorial might be more easily updated.

Intended Audience:

UT Austin Students, Faculty and Staff

Relevant Statistics:

Each semester the library teaches seven one-hour classes on using UTNetCAT as part of the "Class of the Day" series. In Fall 2002, a total of 37 students attended these sessions. While we cannot count the number of users who have actually viewed this tutorial, the tutorial page had over 2000 "hits" in each month, January and February 2003.

Production Tools Used:

text editor (for SMIL markup)
hard-disk digital audio recorder and computer-based digital audio recorder
Adobe Photoshop (and/or other image manipulation software)
CoolEdit and SoundForge digital audio editing software
digital video camera and Adobe Premiere software
RealProducer Plus and Media Cleaner for stream encoding

Delivery Methods:

Web-based delivery utilizing HTML and the RealPlayer plug-in.

Programming Languages/Web Standards:

Evaluation:

Before mounting this tutorial on the public UT Library Online pages, we had the opportunity to have the tutorial "tested" by about 100 undergraduates. Quinn Stewart, an instructor in the School of Information assigned his students (as optional extra credit) the task of viewing all of the modules in this tutorial and then filling out an evaluation form and taking a short quiz.

Findings/Discussion:

Our findings from the evaluation were twofold: first, students generally seemed to like the tutorial and to find it useful. Secondly, we asked the students if they had technical difficulties and if so, did those technical difficulties prevent them from completing the tutorial. This was a particularly important question to ask because unlike HTML, the implementation of SMIL (RealPlayer-based) is by no means bug-proof. Usually manifest by a presentation unexpectedly pausing or even stopping completely as bandwith restrictions force the player to rebuffer, it was important to test whether a large pool of students would be able to complete the tutorial or whether glitches would cause frustration and prevent completion. (Either way, the students participating would receive the extra credit). While many small glitches were reported, only one or two students reported not being able to complete the tutorial. Our experience here, as well as in the Electronic Reserves service through which students get access to class-related video and audio materials, is that students are willing to put up with a small bit of unpredictability in the use of RealPlayer if it means gaining the convenience of accessing materials from home.

Equally important are our findings about the usefulness of SMIL as a tool for providing e-learning.

Some facts and findings:

SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) is the technology we chose to use to produce our tutorials. SMIL is simply a mark-up language that serves as the "glue" for a number of different media types. Whereas HTML pulls together words and images, SMIL pulls together words, images, sound, video, animations, etc. The SMIL markup specifies exactly where on a screen particular words, images, video clips, etc., will appear, and sets exact timings for when they begin and end (or appear and disappear). Similarly, audio clips can be started and stopped at precise moments in order to synchronize with images on the screen.

SMIL is W3C standard. It is currently implemented in the RealPlayer multimedia player with proprietary RealPlayer extensions. In other words, we designed our tutorial based not only on the SMIL standard but also on RealPlayer's "RealText" and "RealPix" extensions. Why? Because RealPlayer is the only commonly-available implementation of the SMIL 1.0 standard at this point. As a result, we are somewhat beholden to RealPlayer's proprietary (i.e. "closed box") implementation. In practical terms, this means that if the latest RealPlayer release is "buggy" (as the latest player, called RealOne, was upon release) we can either recommend that users stick with the older version, or put up with some unpredictability in RealOne. Likewise, when we began production, no RealPlayer had yet been released for Mac OS X, so even our project director (who had a Mac OS X workstation) was unable to view the work on her desktop computer (Real has since released an OS X version of RealPlayer). We also tested Microsoft Explorer 6.0 implementation of browser-based SMIL (no plug-in needed!) and it looks promising, but we decided that developing on this platform would be too restrictive, given that Netscape/Mozilla has yet to make the initial move towards implementation of the SMIL standard in their browser.

For all practical purposes, streaming technologies require a high-bandwidth connection. While we could have aimed at the 56k modem user, we would have been unduly restricted in our ability to deliver useful multimedia. For these users, our current method of HTML-based user guides, FAQs, and tutorials would be more appropriate.

No SMIL editor exists (at least none that we found satisfactorily useful) and so all of the SMIL markup was done by "hard-coding" in a text editor. This is a time-consuming process since timing and placement indicators can be quite tedious to code by hand. That said, hand coding works, and works well. We were able to create high-quality presentations with very little outlay for development software.

Is SMIL the solution for creating multimedia online tutorials?

The answer would have to be YES and NO. First, we feel it is an important technology, and as a W3C standard, is an essential addition to the instructional designer's toolkit. But it is a relatively young standard and time will tell whether it is adopted by Web Browser (and other Web client) producers. More recent developments include the announcement by the W3C of the Timed-Text working group, a SMIL-related technology that might prove useful for delivery of e-learning. Using UTNetCAT has been widely praised in the library and at least one library department head asked all of her staff to take the time to view it. We hope it proves useful not only to the end-user, but also to instructors within the library for whom it might serve as the "curriculum" for basic UTNetCAT instruction.

We also received a number of helpful suggestions for minor changes in the script, all of which we hope to implement in version 2.0. Here we are reminded that one of our original objectives (updatability) is not quite met: some changes (esp. in the script) will require non-trivial effort and time. Necessarily, audio narration will have to be re-recorded, and synchronized timings re-coded.

A recommendation: SMIL provides an excellent means by which to present multimedia instruction. Production is somewhat time-intensive. Short (say, 5 to 20 minute) presentations with information that is fairly stable (i.e., will not require frequent updating) would be most appropriate. We feel that SMIL is best for task-based learning (e.g., how one performs a subject search on UTNetCAT) and perhaps not as effective for teaching concepts and critical thinking, for which regular text (books!) and face-to-face instruction and discussion might be more effective.

Below we will be describing our other tutorials which utilized SMIL technology. Happily, we found SMIL to be the perfect solution for a few problems, including how to make a multimedia presentation accessible to disabled users per the section 508 web accessibility standards, and how to use SMIL to introduce users to a new piece of desktop software.

Participants:

Peter Keane (Project Contact)

Sample Screen:

screenshot of the
Using Endnote tutorial

Tutorial Two: Engineering Communication Tutorial [return to top of page]

Goals and Objectives:

To create an online tutorial that provides library instruction in English and other languages.
To base this tutorial on the existing Engineering Communication Tutorial

Intended Audience:

College of Engineering 333T (Engineering Communication) students.
Students in Engineering classes where faculty members and instructors include a "library" assignment.
New Engineering faculty members, instructors, researchers and students interested in learning about library resources in their native language.

Relevant Statistics:

Each semester, the Engineering Library holds library instruction sessions for 250-300 students. This "Engineering Communication" instruction session served as the basis for this online tutorial. As in the "Using UTNetCAT" tutorial, we cannot provide statistics on how many users have actually viewed the tutorial, but the tutorials web page has recieved 400-500 "hits" in each month, January and February 2003.

Production Tools Used:

text editor (for SMIL markup)
hard-disk digital audio recorder and computer-based digital audio recorder
Adobe Photoshop (and/or other image manipulation software)
CoolEdit and SoundForge digital audio editing software
digital video camera and Adobe Premiere software
RealProducer Plus and Media Cleaner for stream encoding

Delivery Methods:

Web-based delivery utilizing HTML and the RealPlayer plug-in.

Programming Languages/Web Standards:

Findings/Discussion:

This was the first of the tutorials undertaken in the General Libraries eLEADER project. During the production we became familiar with the ins-and-outs of the SMIL specification. The specification offers great hope as a standard for multimedia delivery, but in real-world situations, occassional bugs and sporadic network congestion means that developers must take care to optimize projects and to be mindful of possible limitations of the standard.

Findings were the same as those stated in the "Using UTNetCAT" tutorial above concerning SMIL's viability as a technology for e-learning. Production is time-consuming, especially in the area of script production, audio recording, and SMIL mark-up. We set out to produce the tutorial in as many as five languages, and ultimately managed to produce it in English and to provide a summary/review in Japanese. Nonetheless, SMIL is probably the best option for such multi-language presentations. After translation of a script (a time-consuming effort), the addition of a second audio narration to a presentation is quite simple and straightforward. While SMIL can "read" the language of the browser the user has on their machine and deliver a presentation in that language, we felt it more appropriate simply to offer the user an alternate link in order to hear the presentation in another language.

In addition to this tutorial, we produced a Multimedia Tutorial Production Guide which documents the processes involved in a production of this sort. We hope it will be useful to others considering a similar production. In addition, the new skill sets necessary for this tutorial enabled the Engineering Library to produce a CD-ROM introduction to the library for faculty members, which has proven quite useful and popular.

Participants:

Jennifer Haas (project contact)
Peter Keane
Andrea Forte
Ellen Gibbs
Mason Jones
Tim Kerr
Carolee Miles
Susan Rittereiser

Sample Screen:

screenshot of the Engineering Communication tutorial

Tutorial Three: Electronic Reserves for Faculty [return to top of page]

Goals and Objectives:

To provide an online option for UT-Austin instructors to learn how to use the electronic reserves service.

schedule a one-on-one training session
come to a departmental or group training session
read various instructions on the reserves web page (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/reserves)

To create a tutorial comprised of subject-specific modules. Not all instructors use all of the features of ERes. A tutorial created in sections will allow instructors to complete only the sections in which they are interested.
To create a tutorial that could be adapted by other institutions for their own use.

Intended Audience:

University of Texas at Austin instructors who use or intend to use the Elecronic Reserves service.
Librarians and instructors at other universities who use ERes by Docutek.

Relevant Statistics:

Instruction in use of the Electronic Reserves system has been offered to 30-40 faculty members per semester. The online tutorial allows us to offer this training to even more users, although we do not have hard numbers for "hits" on the tutorial at this time.

Production Tools Used:

text editor (for SMIL markup)
computer-based digital audio recorder
Adobe Photoshop (and/or other image manipulation software)
CoolEdit digital audio editing software
digital video camera and Adobe Premiere software
RealProducer Plus and Media Cleaner for stream encoding

Delivery Methods:

Web-based delivery utilizing HTML and the RealPlayer plug-in.

Programming Languages/Web Standards:

Findings/Discussion:

As the third of the tutorials produced by the General Libraries eLEADER project, this proved to be, perhaps, the most appropriate. The tutorial is farily short (10 modules totaling about 18 minutes) and the material covered is static.

As with the "Using UTNetCAT" tutorial, we begin with a short video clip of Michele Ostrow, the narrator, introducing herself. One of the strengths of this SMIL technology is the ability to offer that sort of personal touch to the presentation, which draws the user in quite effectively.

The tutorial was to be mounted on the web in January of 2003 and therefore was required to meet Section 508 accessibility standards. The 508 standards for multimedia stipulate that audio content be supplemented by synchronized text. SMIL is the perfect solution for providing this sort of captioning, and we were able to provide such captioning in each of the remaining tutorials we produced (and intend to do the same when the Engineering and UTNetCAT Tutorials are updated). Another beneficial result of the captioning is that if there is a glitch in the deliver whereby the audio cuts out (and this happens occassionally) users can follow along by reading the captions for those seconds that the narration is not audible.

Participants:

Michele Ostrow (project contact)
Peter Keane

Sample Screen:

screenshot of the electronic reserves for faculty tutorial

Tutorial Four: TexShare [return to top of page]

Goals and Objectives:

To create an online tutorial which will provide an introduction and basic instruction for using TexShare online databases and the TexShare Card Program.
The tutorial will be modular, so users can work through it at their own pace.
The information in the tutorial should be interesting, informative and visually appealing.
The tutorial should be able to be viewed from on and off campus locations.

Intended Audience:

UT students, faculty and staff. TexShare libraries, their users, and any member of the general public who might wish to learn about using TexShare.

Production Tools Used:

text editor (for SMIL markup)
hard-disk digital audio recorder and computer-based digital audio recorder
Adobe Photoshop (and/or other image manipulation software)
CoolEdit and SoundForge digital audio editing software
digital video camera and Adobe Premiere software
RealProducer Plus and Media Cleaner for stream encoding

Delivery Methods:

Web-based delivery utilizing HTML and the RealPlayer plug-in.

Programming Languages/Web Standards:

Findings/Discussion:

Findings here are similar to those of the other SMIL-based tutorials.

Production was aided by the fact that we had learned quite a lot about producing SMIL presentations with the other tutorials, and this tutorial offers what is perhaps the most visually appealing of the tutorials (also due in no small part to the work of the primary developer, Norma DeVries). When small technical challenges arose in the production, Norma was able to consult with the developers of other tutorials and to iron these wrinkles out quickly.

Participants:

Rue Ramirez (project contact)
Peter Keane
Norma DeVries
Susan Rittereiser

Sample Screen:

Tutorial Five: Using EndNote [return to top of page]

Goals and Objectives:

Create an informative online presentation to introduce bibliographic software and its use.
To provide a simple demonstration of EndNote bibliographic software for UT Austin users. EndNote is the most popular of this type of software at UT Austin.

Intended Audience:

UT Graduate Students, also Faculty and Research Staff

Relevant Statistics:

In Fall 2002, 7 EndNote Classes were offered in the library, and a total of 70 students attended these sessions. Again, with an online tutorial we look forward to being able to serve many more students. At this time we do not have hard numbers for "hits" on the EndNote tutorial.

Production Tools Used:

text editor (for SMIL markup)
computer-based digital audio recorder
Adobe Photoshop (and/or other image manipulation software)
CoolEdit and SoundForge digital audio editing software
Camtasia screen-capture video software
RealProducer Plus and Media Cleaner for stream encoding

Delivery Methods:

Web-based delivery utilizing HTML and the RealPlayer plug-in.

Programming Languages/Web Standards:

Findings/Discussion:

We decided to take a somewhat different approach with the EndNote Tutorial. In this case we would attempt to combine the best aspects of HTML-based instruction with the multimedia experience of SMIL.

We began by producing an EndNote FAQ which would attempt to answer the basic questions that a new EndNote user might have. We then identified a number of tasks that this user might need to perform and produced multimedia "walk-throughs" for each. We would attempt to simulate the experience of looking over someone's shoulder as they did tasks such as opening a new EndNote "library" or adding a record to this "library."

While the other tutorials were comprised mainly of a series of "screen shots," production of the EndNote tutorial was speeded up considerably with the use of a screen capture video program called Camtasia. With Camtasia, we were able to perform each task while Camtasia recorded our mouse pointer movements and keyboard typing. The screen capture video is captured as a regular video file which can then be encoded for streaming.

While Camtasia provides the capability of overdubbing a narrated soundtrack, we opted for the increased flexibility (and simplicity) of SMIL. It was quite easy to create an audio narration and text caption for that narration and to tie the whole production together with SMIL.

Recommendation: the Camtasia/SMIL combination is highly recommend for simple task-based learning in which "showing" is as useful as "explaining." We strongly suggest that instructional designers consider this option for e-learning which fits that description.

Participants:

Nancy Elder (project contact)
Peter Keane