Context

Over the past year, Auburn University has slowly adopted Blackboard as its new Course Management System. Although Blackboard is the next version of WebCT (Blackboard was originally called "WebCT Vista" until Blackboard the company bought out WebCT), there are a few stark differences. To help faculty and staff with the migration, I was put in charge of creating Flash videos tutorials. Each Flash video covered a specific task, such as adding a teaching assistant to a class or configuring Internet Explorer 7 for Blackboard. Over the past year or so, I have created over 40 Flash videos and PDF help guides for faculty, staff, and students.

Audience

Since Blackboard is a new system, faculty, staff, or students would probably not have any experience with the program. To help these new users, we developed an online resource that would allow faculty to quickly solve common issues with Blackboard. This led to two project choices for the videos: 1) The Flash videos were step-by-step through a common task. The videos usually started at the Homepage in Blackboard (just after logging in) and continued until the task was completed. Much like other documents for the IMG, we must always balance too much and too little information: "If we underestimate audience knowledge, we may be seen as 'talking down.' If we overestimate audience knowledge, we may confuse the audience." (Hayes and Bajzek) The Flash videos tread this line by showing only the needed clicks to perform the action. If a user has a question that the Flash video does not answer, then he or she may contact us. As we are talking to the person over the phone or in-person, we can tailor the amount of information provided on an individual basis. But for videos used by the entire campus, concise step-by-step directions reduce confusion. 2) The Flash videos were mostly created "as needed" based on input from faculty and staff. I created basic videos (many were "how to log in" or "how to configure your browser") in the beginning, but thereafter most videos were responses to commonly asked questions. If a faculty member asked how to perform X task and we didn't have a video, I would create one. The videos were created as "quick start" for faculty to learn something without spending exorbitant time at a seminar. Also, they were created to serve as reminders, in case a faculty member forgot a single step. They were quick and direct without going into the why of performing the task.

The authoritative audience for the Blackboard Flash videos differs in type from course work. While assignments in class are for experimentation and education, these Flash videos are for ongoing practical use by University faculty, staff, and students. The process of creating the videos involved several steps: Dr. McClelland, Manager at IMG, would ask me to create a Flash video for a specific task. After completing the video, she would watch it and offer comments and suggestions. I would make the changes and let her review the video again. Once she was satisfied, I would upload it to the website.

Process

The help files were created using Adobe Captivate, a screen recording program. I slowly performed the task while Captivate recorded the screen and mouse clicks. Captivate didn't record video (unlike Camtasia), but took screen captures and mouse click locations. When I clicked a link, Captivate took a screen shot without a mouse cursor. After recording, the program added the mouse locations and created a mouse track from the previous click to the current click.

However, the software was not perfect. To overcome these quirks in the software, I began to develop some "tricks" to make the process smoother. First, I lowered the resolution of my monitor to 800x600 and hid the task bar. The lower resolution ensured the Flash video would fit on anyone's monitor. If I recorded the video at my usual resolution, then many off-campus viewers with older monitor/computers would be excluded.

After I had the video size specified, I began recording. The program was effective, but sometimes Captivate captured a loading screen (rather than the proper screen) after a mouse click. To circumvent this, I manually took a screen shot (by pressing Print Screen) before clicking a link. After recording, I deleted these extra screen shots, but that took less time then setting everything up again and re-recording the missed screen.

After all the steps were successfully recorded, I then tweaked the slides (moving mouse positions, adding callouts, editing highlight boxes). Many callouts were added automatically by Captivate. However Captivate's callouts were not completely accurate as I had to add or delete basic callouts, such as "click here," and create all descriptive information, such as policies or best practices. After the callouts were added, then I exported the help as a Flash video.

In addition to the Flash video, I created a help file by exporting Captivate screenshots into a Word file with an IMG template. Once in Word, I tweaked the file by moving/expanding images and then convert it to PDF.

Reflections

The Flash videos were effective, but I would improve on the PDFs. The videos played from beginning to end like a movie. Viewers may also pause, skip ahead, or rewind at anytime to go over a step multiple times before attempting it. The videos showed exactly what is needed to perform a specific task. As I said, they did not offer reasoning behind the tasks or any context for the tasks, but served as reminders or quick tutorials. And in this regard, they were very effective. If a user would like to know more about a task, then he or she would have to contact us. But as general help for those who forget that one step, they served their purpose.

The PDFs have an advantage of being printable, but the images were small when printed. This is a limitation of the program. Captivate exported the slides as small pictures in Word, and I can't find a way to export at a larger size. The small images greatly impacted the effectiveness of the documents. If the images were larger, then I would say they served their purpose well, but right now, the steps were just too small.

Captivate was a good program for creating these kinds of help files. The program had limitations, such as adding callouts sporadically throughout the show or capturing the wrong screen but made the process a lot quicker than the old method of screen capturing with Print Screen. Each Flash video was a mini-project for which I am the lead designer. I had to plan (perform the task before recording), create (record the project), develop (add/delete content), proofread, and finalize the video.