May 26, 2010
Dear Everyone:
No doubt you remember my
Computer Based Training
(CBT) for the
document management system that I've been working on for
weeks and weeks (in between other projects and customers.)
Two of my co-workers are currently working on another CBT for
SharePoint for Power Users.
This is a two-day course, compared with my four-hour one, so they have
their hands full.
Nevertheless, one of them found a "work-around" for the
hyperlink-that-works-in-Preview-but-not-in-Published problem.
And he swears that the hyperlinks will work once the CBT is in
the Learning Management System (LMS).
So I've pretty much finished with the eight
"lecture" modules that tell you how to use the document management
system. Now I'm working on
the "hands-on labs" for modules four through eight.
By last Friday, I had the lab for module four (navigating through
the system) pretty much wrapped up.
I just needed to add the voiceover narration.
And that's where I hit a road block.
I have a headset with a built-in microphone.
But when I plugged it into my computer, the CBT software couldn't
detect it. I tried another
headset, but the software couldn't "hear" it either.
We suspected it was because the computer has been so customized
by the company that it's not compatible anymore.
(By "we" I mean the one co-worker who was in the office last
Friday. All the others were
on their bi-weekly day off.)
So I took the headset home with me over the
weekend. I quickly found
that my home computer was perfectly happy with the headset and
microphone, so I recorded about a half-dozen slides worth of narration
and transferred them to a
flash drive.
When I got into work on Monday, I found out that the CBT software
will only recognize MP3 formats.
No problem. Another
co-worker had downloaded some "freeware" (free software) that would make
the "translation" for me.
I imported the sound files into the CBT and hit
another "wall". This time
the voice was so low that you could barely hear it.
That's when they suggested that I try using "the
box." This turned out to be
a combination of things.
First, there’s a microphone, slightly larger than a softball, on a
tripod. You plug this into
your computer's USB drive.
Next the tripod sits inside a cloth "box".
The inside of the box is filled with foam "baffles" that absorb
sound, so no additional noises get picked up by the microphone (such as
those noisy people in the room next to mine.)
Finally, a filter is placed on top of the box, hanging down in
front of the microphone.
You speak into the filter, using the computer's
sound recorder. Then you
save it to a file. Then you
"translate" it into an MP3 format.
Then you import it into the slide.
Then you Preview it to see if the sound is good.
It took a few tries, but by the end of the day Monday, I had the
module four lab fully loaded with sound.
Yeah!
One down, four more to go.
I even showed it this afternoon to the two guys who
are “evaluating” the CBT and they loved it.
They also wanted to know how soon the whole thing would be
finished.
But here's the Good News:
The first one took me two weeks (in between other projects and
customers.) There was a
whole lot of trial-and-error going on.
The second one is nearly ready after only two days.
Here's to an ever-flattening
learning curve.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |