Tip Number 1:
Smaller files upload and download faster
If given the choice:
Use a .png image file instead of a .jpg
Resize images to roughly 640 X 480 if very large, i.e make them about a postcard size
When creating a video use .mp4 format will probably give you the smallest file
Instead of word documents and PowerPoint, share the .pdf version
Compress the .pdf, the smaller the better
Very short video clips with no audio can be saved as a .gif file
Remember all learners have varied internet connectivity, the smaller the file the simpler is for them to access the electronic media. Don't make them too small, to much compression and you will lose image quality. It a case of testing what's effective and learning from it.
Turn a 1-minute video clip into a gif
Make your PDF smaller
Make your images smaller or change the type e.g. jpg to .png
Tip Number 2:
Upload once and use links as much as possible
If you upload your files to a central directory in Student Manager, you can create your file and folder structure there. Then copy the links to those files to the respective e-learning pages.
The benefits are:
You only upload once and re-use wherever necessary in the entire system
You can rename the files and links, after the upload
You can make mistakes in the folder and not in e-learning
Having an organised folder structure save time
You can use your Module > Resources to add folders and files or use More > Resources and then work off a given campus
The benefit of the use the campus resource is more people have access.
The benefit of using the resources in the module is that only staff who have access to a certain module can access the resources.
Tip Number 3:
You can use .gif files instead of video for smaller instructional slides
If you are trying to explain a certain action, e.g. how to right-click a mouse, just have the text and a looping .gif file, the file will animate the action, while the text will give the explanation.
Tip Number 4:
Save your .ppt or .pptx to a .pdf for sharing
To save your PowerPoint to a .pdf
Option 1: in PowerPoint select File > Save as, then for the file format, select PDF
Option 2: in PowerPoint select File > Export, the for the file format, select PDF
It may be a large file, to compress it before you upload it to Student Manager, use the SmallPDF link given above to compress it.
Tip Number 5:
Use unlisted video in YouTube to share videos
When you have logged into YouTube you can upload a video and set it to unlisted, this will allow your video to not be searchable, but you can still share the link
If you want to know more about uploading videos to YouTube, at this stage, select the link below
Uploading videos to YouTube in 2020
Tip Number 6:
You can schedule when a group of learners can view certain pages
When adding pages there is an option for saved pages to "Make Visible", you then choose a date range for the page to display.
If you wanted something to only display midway through a semester, instead of using the same start and end date of all the other pages, set this one to a mid term date. This way as you reach that part in your teaching/training, the page will only display on that date for the learner
Tip Number 7:
Make Multiple Choice assessments Self-Assessment by setting the weighting to zero
When we added an assessment earlier, we added a weighting so that each assessment forms part of the learner's final calculated mark. For self-assessments, you can set the weighting to zero, this way you can use multiple choice to enable self-assessments as well.
Tip Number 8:
Pages and chapters only display if you set them as visible, use this as a draft mode
If you haven't set a page to visible the learner won't see it and if all your pages in a chapter are not visible, your learner won't see that chapter either. Use this to build up your e-learning resources over time, so that by the end of a given period you can now re-use the e-learning content for other groups of learners.
Tip Number 9:
Use the dates on pages to restrict access or make it simpler to copy to groups "forever"
If you set the start and end dates for making a page visible as 10/4/2020 to 10/05/2020, if you copy this page to another group which is later in the year, the pages won't display for the because that time-frame for the page to be visible has passed.
Now if you were to set the page visible start date to 01/01/2020 and not set an end date, you could keep copying this to other groups "forever" and the pages will automatically be visible, because all the start dates will be in the past and there's no end date.
Tip Number 10:
Create the structure then fill in the pages
Plan the layout, as described on the previous section, i.e. will it support the flow of lectures/teaching/training or will it just be for file sharing. If just for file sharing label each page the resource they need to access, give instructions about the resource and link it for download. (we'll cover how to do this in one of the upcoming sections)
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