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Presentation of On-line Courses

by Sloan-C

ABSTRACT
This paper describes a model for implementing on-line presentations. The model proposed is based on a World Wide Web implementation that includes both Multimedia technology and Web-base design. The capability of this model is to integrate and display the material in various formats including Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and other documents on the web.

I. INTRODUCTION

The objective of this project is to show a variety of techniques and several different ways to create presentations on the web. The main objective is for instructors to apply these techniques in presenting their materials for an on-line course. In addition to a plain web page, this project presents new alternative ways of making presentations on the web using Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, synchronized multimedia with RealAudio, or using the Microsoft Office viewer in the browser.

This project will also try to provide additional techniques in making the presentation look more attractive and interactive. Finally, using all the techniques, the main strategy of this project is to figure out the best way to increase performance of web pages - combining all the materials or contents and providing the format to put them into one presentation

II. CURRENT TECHNIQUES FOR PRESENTATION ON THE WEB

A. Plain Web Pages
There are many methods used to create or prepare HTML files. The basic method is using an HTML editor such as Microsoft FrontPage. In addition to this method, other simple methods are not difficult to use. Microsoft Office 97 provides a feature that saves any document as an HTML file. You are most likely already experienced in creating documents in Microsoft Office using Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, so it will not be difficult for you to create educational materials. Your students who also use Microsoft Office will be able to easily use these environments.

Click here to see an example of a document created by Excel and saved as HTML document.

To create a document such as the one shown above is very easy. You create the Excel document and save it as an HTML file and select the options you desire for your web page. With those features, you can create your educational web page to show data in many different formats and you can arrange the layout as you want it to be.

Converted Microsoft Word documents do not look different than the files created using FrontPage. The advantage of this method is that you can use previously created documents in Microsoft Word and post them easily to your web page.

B. PowerPoint Presentation on the Web
Microsoft PowerPoint97 provides a feature for converting a plain PowerPoint presentation to HTML pages.

1. Open the Microsoft PowerPoint97.
2. Create a slide presentation and write the note page for each slide.
3. Convert them into HTML pages.
4. Press SAVE AS HTML..
5. Next enter the name of the layout that you are creating (Microsoft PowerPoint can recall your format so that you can use it again for the next presentation you create.)
6. Next select the page style. There are only two types: Standard and Browser frame (shown in the pictures below).

Browser frame format (with note page)

Standard format (with note page)

1. Choose the graphic type: GIF or JPEG are recommended.
2. Define the graphic size that fits your screen resolution. Check your screen resolution by going to Settings under Display in the Control Panel. Then, define the size of the graphic shown on the screen (1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full width of screen.)
3. Define the information you wish to be shown on your page such as the e-mail address and the web page. You can put some additional information and a link for downloading your PowerPoint documents and/or Internet Explorer.
4. Select page color and button placement.
5. Select the button style.
6. Define the standard layout options (only for Standard format.) If you have any slide notes, you can also put them in your presentation web pages.
7. Name the HTML folder.
8. Press the Finish button.

C. Synchronized Multimedia
Synchronized Multimedia is one of the features provided by RealAudio. With this feature, you can create a presentation of HTML pages that will correspond with audio. The audio presentation will launch the HTML pages, page by page automatically.

First, if you have no knowledge about RealAudio, look at this recommended link to review RealAudio equipment and usage.

After you have created the presentation set converted from a PowerPoint document, you will have one set of the slide image graphic files and one set of the HTML note pages. Then, after you understand RealAudio you can create one set of Synchronized Multimedia with PowerPoint slide images. Follow these steps:

Creating Synchronized Real Audio and Graphics Files for Win95 and WinNT 4.0

1. Create a set of graphic files.
(For example we will use .gif files.) You may use, for example, slides in a PowerPoint presentation that have been converted for delivery on the Web. Be sure to use only graphic files (e.g., gif). These will be something like img001.gif for a PowerPoint presentation converted to HTML.
Note the sequence of the graphic file names.

Organize the graphics in the order in which they are to appear. Keep them all in the same directory.

2. Create the audio file.
Get the Real Audio Encoder.
Record and encode the audio in sequence for the entire presentation.
Open the browser and open the graphics page and record your corresponding audio at the same time you show the pages.

FTP the file to the Real Server.

3. Create .rae file

To create the .rae file that will launch the HTML pages, you need to have some data to begin, such as the start time and end time to open and to change from one page to another page. Therefore, you should prepare a table to help you collect all this data.

You can use the RealPlayer to playback the sound you record. Use it also to decide how much time it will take to open each page and make the decision of how much time you will use on the audio for each page including the time used to open it. The important thing you should note when you play it back is the End time and the Directory Source.

If you do not desire to present the presentation image in frame format page or the new window, you can leave Target frame/page blank. Then, in detail, you can read the official document from the RealAudio web site, Create the RAE (RealAudio Synchronized Multimedia file.)

4. Create the Text Event File

Use a text editor (e.g. notepad) to associate a portion of the audio with a particular graphic file.
Use the following format: u starttime endtime URL of graphic file. Note that start and end times are in the format of hours:minutes:seconds.tenths
An example is:

u 00:00:00.0 00:00:08.9 http://www.aln.org/alnweb/SALT97eweb Design Distr Lrng/img001.gif

Save the file as text (.txt) in the RAEncode directory (this directory was created when Real Audio Encoder was installed.)

5. Change Directory to RAEncode

Convert the text (.txt) file to a RealAudio Event (.rae) file using the following commands.
Use the DOS command prompt cevent32 <filename.txt> <filename.rae>.
An example is

cevent32 olintrial.txt olintrial.rae

6. Ftp the RealAudio event file <filename.rae> and the encoded audio file <filename.ra> to the RealAudio Server in the same directory.

Open the RealAudio Player, then open location (CTRL-L) by typing in pnm://<full URL of the server/directory/filename.ra>

Try the example: pnm://jrbnt.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/ocampas/olintrial.ra

You will hear the audio and see the graphics, synchronized with it.

In the procedure shown above, not only can you use a set of graphic file presentations, which can be created automatically using Microsoft PowerPoint 97 with RealAudio Synchronized Multimedia. RealAudio Synchronized Multimedia can also be used to launch any set of HTML pages or any file viewed by the normal browser presented on the web.

This is one example that uses Synchronized Multimedia with normal HTML web pages. This example is the Vanderbilt PhotoTour that plays the audio music file and launches the photo page by page every ten seconds without clicking to open them.

D. Microsoft Office Viewer
This new technique can open the Microsoft Office in the web browser. The audience just needs to download the viewers. Download these viewers below:

Microsoft Word Viewer (Plug-in) with the browser [ download ]
Microsoft Excel Viewer (Plug-in) with the browser [ download ]
Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer (Plug-in) with the browser [ download ]

This section of the project will provide a brief teaching in each technique and some other interesting techniques. Examples will be provided for the techniques. This project will skip the procedure of creating HTML pages using an HTML editor and Microsoft Office97.

As stated previously, you can use Microsoft Office 97 to convert a document to HTML. However, the disadvantage is that this method cannot convert formulas in Microsoft word to HTML language. Nor can it convert flow charts or organization charts in Microsoft Excel to an HTML page. However, you can view these documents in the browser by downloading Microsoft Office Plug-in (Microsoft Word Viewer, Microsoft Excel Viewer, Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer.)

Reasons to use Microsoft Office documents in the browser:

1. People (instructors and users) are generally experienced with the Microsoft Office applications. Therefore, it is not hard to collect them and create a presentation set if you already have Microsoft Office documents.
2. The documents can be downloaded, therefore solving any network connection problem - even if the user has the lowest bandwidth.
3. After it is downloaded, users can review, edit, or convert the document anytime they want.
4. If the user desires to use another application they can open any other channel to present the material or contents except with Microsoft PowerPoint.
5. It is easier for a creator to edit or update mathematical formulas, flow charts, organization charts, tables, charts, graphs, or any object in Microsoft Word or Excel than in an HTML file. The user can also edit or add a note to the downloaded file and keep it in the format that they prefer. Such as (if you view it in HTML, it will be one image and the user or even the writer cannot edit or add anything to it.

III. SPECIAL TECHNIQUES MAKE YOUR PRESENTATIONS LOOK MORE ATTRACTIVE

The materials above give brief and basic methods for presenting web pages by using RealAudio Synchronized Multimedia. Here are some tactics or tricks that can be added to your web presentation to make it look attractive.

Techniques from the RealAudio Education Websites.

A. Adding more interaction in detail (by using a bookmark technique)
Dr. Burks Oakley II's technique
A RealAudio Synchronized Multimedia Website becomes more interesting and useful when it is interactive. The next technique is named the "Bookmark's technique." If a user has some knowledge about Synchronized Multimedia, they will know that it is possible to create a Synchronized Multimedia file (.rae file) that will open a web page or web site page by page.

Synchronized Multimedia files are different than Microsoft PowerPoint files that generally have an animation technique that opens bullet by bullet or picture by picture along with a physical presentation.

Dr. Burks Oakley II uses the principle of synchronized multimedia by having a website open page by page by using the bookmark's technique in FrontPage. Here is his presentation using this technique. Click here for an example. If you manually click the link provided it will appear that another piece of information has been added to the page. The link is simply connected to other bookmarks on the same page. Each bookmark was created to be exactly similar to the one above it but add one more bullet or point, etc. This method can allure the user into thinking that the page has launched a program to pop-up the content.

You can adapt this idea and not only add content to each link, but take it out and put something back in its place. Alternatively, you can use this idea with a picture so that it will appear as an animation.

B. Using Microsoft Office Viewer with RealAudio
This method is different from the normal Synchronized Multimedia RealAudio file (RAE) because you can simply use the RealAudio file (RA file) alone. With this method, the document will be downloaded automatically and the viewer will popup. Then the user can follow the lesson by listening to the RealAudio sound (RA file).

The benefit of this method is to allow the users to view the document in a format that they are familiar with and also keep the document to study for themselves as long as they want. If they do not understand some part of a file, they can go back to that web page and review the lesson as often as they need. Not only can the user benefit from viewing a document in their favorite format, this process can also solve any problems caused by the network connection. With a fast network connection, users can be annoyed with long speeches made because the author wanted to give ample time to web users with slow connections so that both the audio and images can be viewed at the same time. On the other hand, the users who have slow connections are confused or cannot catch up on the lesson because the web pages do not load fast enough. Another benefit of this method is that the creator does not need to put all the information in one page due to the fact that they can use the audio sound to explain instead.

Here are some examples of RealAudio playing synchronously with Microsoft Office documents:

View the Microsoft Word example HERE. (You must either be using Internet Explorer or download below the Microsoft Office Plug-in for Netscape in order to see the example.)

To download the Microsoft Word Viewer (Plug-in) with the browser [download]

To create a viewable word document with audio, you must write the following JavaScript code in your HTML page:

Click the Insert Menu, Script.., check JavaScript, and copy the following code into the box provided:

function presentwindow() {
window.open("URL that contain your microsoft word document","","toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,menubar=yes,status=yes,scrollbar=yes")

function presentwindow() {
window.open("http://locutus.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/ocampas/test/synword.doc","","
toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,menubar=yes,status=yes,scrollbar=yes")

You will have created a WebBot, but you need to call the Java code through a link. When you create the link, click on Extended... and write the following code:

Attribute name : onclick
Value : Presentwindow()

Because a user may only want to read or may not have a sound card, you should provide another link to directly download the document or audio such as: here (synword.doc.) Also provide another direct link to the audio file, in case they have already downloaded the file and they just want to review by listening again.

Do the same method in the other office documents.

Microsoft Excel Viewer (Plug-in) with the browser [ download ]

View the Microsoft Excel example HERE

C. Using the RealAudio Plug-in
The RealAudio Plug-in is one feature of RealAudio that allows you to put the RealPlayer into the web page. With this method, the user can select or adjust the Control Panel directly through the web page.
View the example page of the RealAudio Player plug-in. You can also create a page that will play the audio immediately when the page is loaded (autostart).

With this method you have to create another kind of metafile, the extension is ".rpm file". The same format is used when you create your metafile but change to .rpm extension instead of .ram and save it. Then, transfer the file into your Web server.

Then create the plug-in command in your web page, which is somewhat like creating the link to the metafile to tell RealPlayer where to get the URL of RealAudio file. There are two methods:

1. If you're using Microsoft FrontPage 97,

• Go to the "Insert" menu and select "Other component,"
• Select "Plug-In,"
• In Data Source browse for the file or if you know the name insert the .rpm file that you want to run on the web page.
• Next,
  • If you want to make it autostart, click Extend
    for the attribute name, type "autostart"
    for the value, type "true,"
  • You can also create the control panel built-into your page so that users can select and adjust the controls themselves. Go to Extend
    for the attribute name type "Controls"
    Type the "(name of the Panel)" you want to appear in the value on your controls,
    and press OK.

2. If you aren't using FrontPage, you can also edit and add RealAudio to your existing web page by using this format.

<embed src=".rpm file" autostart="true" controls="name of the tool">
<embed src="audio/dana.rpm" autostart="true" controls="volumeslider">

Here are the examples of a RealPlayer Plug-in:
- Click here to view the example of AutoStart running with the opening page.
- Click here to view the example of the RealAudio Plug-in in which the audiences can adjust the volume or the track scroll bar.

D. Using JavaScript
An interesting educational web site from the University of Washington is shown below. This example is very useful for the student or user. However, the creation of a page like this is difficult for the creator, especially those who are new to web site creation. Anyone who wishes to create materials in this format should have a good computer background as well as excellent JavaScript programming skills. A sample screen is shown below. Click here to go to the example at the University of Washington web site.

This presentation is quit nice, but likely required considerable effort to create because of the JavaScript programming.

In the example, the lectures have 24 pages. The creator used the frame format to present everything in one page. The four frames you see on the page above are named List, Thumb, Option, and Control.

List: The left-hand frame shows all of the slides vertically. You can click any slide you want to view and the software will launch the audio file along with the currently shown slide.

Thumb: The right-hand top frame shows all the slides horizontally and also launches the audio along with the slide when selected.

Option : The right-hand lower left frame contains four buttons for the user's selections: Previous Slide, Next Slide, AutoPlay Off, and To Thumbnail.

AutoPlay Off: This button will turn off the synchronized multimedia mode. This will show the slide and play the audio sound belonging only to that slide.

To Thumbnail: This button returns you from any slide to the Thumb page.

Furthermore, it will show the slide number that's being viewed.

Control: The final frame in the right-hand lower corner shows the RealAudio Player Plug-in.

There are disadvantages for the author of materials in this format, especially when users are permitted to begin playing the audio sound at any page they desire. Many audio files must be generated for one lecture. For example, if you click the first slide, it will take around 50 mins to present all of the slides. However, if you click the second slide, you have saved yourself five minutes from the first slide but there will still be about 45 mins of audio from slide two until the end. So every slide will be a little bit less than the one before, but will still take up a considerable amount of space and time because you must prepare an audio file for each slide in your lecture.

The more minutes of audio files you have, the more space you will require on the hard drive of your server.

IV. CONCLUSIONS

The benefits for the methods presented are summarize below.

A. Plain:
The "plain" method is a set of the downloadable files that after the user downloads them, they can use the browser with the Microsoft Office plug-in to view the documents or be opened in Microsoft Office. This format is appropriate for those who cannot play Multimedia (no sound card and/or speakers) and probably have a low bandwidth network connection. It will also be useful to the user to keep a back up file after downloading for review at a later time.

Click here to download PowerPoint presentation
Click here to download Microsoft word document
Click here to download Microsoft Excel document

B. Organized Plain:
This presentation method uses Microsoft PowerPoint to convert files into HTML format as the main content. The instructor can also add the Microsoft Word or Excel documents to fill the rest of the content. This option is useful for those who have adequate bandwidth.

This project presentation has been prepared in two formats:
Please click here to view in the browser frame format
Click here to view in the standard frame

C. Synchronized Multimedia Presentation:
This method is similar to the Organized Plain method; however, in addition, you can use Synchronized Multimedia RealAudio to launch pages automatically in two ways: first, using RealPlayer or second, the RealAudio Plug-in. This option can solve the problems of those documents that need considerable explaining, a glossary, or many paragraphs. Sometimes, such supplemental documents can annoy the user when they read them, and may lose the user in the middle. Audio will certainly solve this problem.

This overall project presentation has been created to be viewed using RealAudio Plug-in with Synchronized Multimedia RealAudio only. The RealAudio Plug-in is easier to use than the RealPlayer because the control panel can be adjusted.

To view this presentation, click here.