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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Flash Quiz Tools

Update June 2008 - added one free flash quiz tool based on a question I received. This tool is listed at the bottom.

A client wanted to create online quizzes that would live inside of a larger site. They didn't really need tracking of user responses, instead they wanted them to be fun. I suggested a couple of tools, but then wondered if I had given them the best list of tools.

So, the eLearningGuild research again to the rescue... Here's guild member satisfaction ratings for tools in the test / quiz category. Note: there are additional rating items such as would use again, vendor responsiveness, etc.



Note - the empty column now contains links to more information on the tools. So I could quickly gather specific data on the product. Unfortunately, it didn't tell me how they produced output and the desire was for self-contained Flash. But, I could quickly link to the sites to find out more and finally recommended that they should look at:

Articulate Quizmaker allows you to easily create Flash-based quizzes, surveys, and assessments. And, Quizmaker allows you to track your results with your standards based Learning Management System as Quizmaker output is SCORM and AICC compliant.

Adobe Captivate is the easiest way to create professional-quality, interactive simulations and software demonstrations in Adobe's Flash format. Without any programming or multimedia skills, users can automatically record onscreen actions, including editable mouse movements, text captions, and scored click boxes. Add e-learning interactions like data-entry fields and customizable quizzes.

Respondus StudyMate is a Windows authoring tool that lets you create numerous Flash-based activities and games using four simple templates. StudyMate provides an authoring environment that requires no experience with Flash programming, game design, or HTML. Questions and items can also be imported from MS Word, IMS QTI, Respondus, rich-text, and other formats. This makes it possible to create interesting, interactive activities from existing content. Other features include an Equation Editor, a spell checker, the ability to include image files and web links, and question/answer randomization. The Flash activities that can be created with StudyMate include: Fact Cards, Fact Cards Plus, Flash Cards, Fill In the Blank, Pick A Letter, Matching, Glossary, Crosswords, Quiz, and Challenge. It is also possible to generate three activities that can be used with iPods, PSP players and other portable devices.

OnDemand Presenter provides the ability to develop robust multi media content allowing you to easily incorporate both conceptual and transactional information into interactive presentations. Creates interactive questions and tests using 14 different question and survey types.

Rapid Intake Flashform Rapid eLearning Studio creates interactive Flash-based AICC or SCORM-conformant e-learning courseware. Quickly create Flash-based e-learning courses, quizzes, and tests. Add an integrated glossary - Add external audio, video, and images into the course content Flashform is customizeable and extensible by any knowledgeable Flash developer.

So, I had missed a couple that we've not used in the shop. And, I'm sure I'm missing others as well, but since these were at the top of the satisfaction list, I figure it's pretty reasonable.

New tool added June 2008 -

Class Marker - Free. Create multiple choice, true false, free text, short answer, fill in the blank and punctuation quizzes

Monday, November 26, 2007

Camtasia and SnagIt for Free

Found via Leonard Low.

TechSmith is giving away SnagIt and an older version of Camtasia Studio for Free.

SnagIt is a handy tool for capturing screen shots, especially portions of the screen. If you frequently do this (and then copy and paste into your graphics application to cut the portions you want), then go get this tool. It also gives you some nifty delivery options.

Click here to download SnagIt 7.2.5 (English)
Click here to download SnagIt 7.2.5 (German)
Click here to download SnagIt 7.2.5 (French)

Click here for a key to register SnagIt 7.2.5 demo as a fully licensed version.

Camtasia Studio is a great screen recording tool. It consistently gets pretty good satisfaction ratings. You are able to get a full, but older, Version 3.1.3 for free download.

Click here to download Camtasia Studio 3.1.3.

Click here to request a software key to register Camtasia Studio 3.1.3 as a fully licensed version.

Top eLearning Posts

Given the nomination, I'm not sure how much new traffic will come to check out this blog, but I know that it's always hard to come to a blog and get a sense of what the person talks about. This is the reason I created the First Time Visitor's Guide. However, it's been a while since I last updated this page.

Based on my Aha Moment - del.icio.us as Indicator of Valuable Content I've tried to go back and figure out what people were finding valuable.

I first took what I was getting from Google Analytics to see what was viewed over the past six months (approximately 125,000 page views in total). You'll notice that it skips from roughly 600 to 300 in the number of views. That's because I started including pages based on number of del.icio.us bookmarks. Roughly pages that were saved five or more times, I included. See another sort below...

Post Views Comments Bookmarks
18,308
247
6,890 16 152
4,337 11 35
2,345 17 67
1,988 6 40
1,820 9 24
1,724 2 11
1,655 6 98
1,503 0 1
1,500 22 52
1,368 1 22
1,206 17 21
1,199 3 23
1,155 8 6
1,147 2 28
1,140 9 43
972 1 6
967 0 1
959 38 16
949 1 1
911 10 20
880 2 5
847 7 3
837 4 11
832 4 10
814 8 5
754 3 40
702 5 25
701 6 13
667 5 1
602 2 20
298 15 8
276 5 5
237 5 12
180 2 5
109 1 15
107 4 8
106 1 12
57 9 9
51 2 5
46 4 6
31 0 5
19 5 7
16 2 6


Then I did it again, but this time sorted based on number of del.icio.us bookmarks:

Post Views Comments Bookmarks
18,308
247
6,890 16 152
1,655 6 98
2,345 17 67
1,500 22 52
1,140 9 43
1,988 6 40
754 3 40
4,337 11 35
1,147 2 28
702 5 25
1,820 9 24
1,199 3 23
1,368 1 22
1,206 17 21
911 10 20
602 2 20
959 38 16
109 1 15
701 6 13
237 5 12
106 1 12
1,724 2 11
837 4 11
832 4 10
57 9 9
298 15 8
107 4 8
19 5 7
1,155 8 6
972 1 6
46 4 6
16 2 6
880 2 5
814 8 5
276 5 5
180 2 5
51 2 5
31 0 5
847 7 3
1,503 0 1
967 0 1
949 1 1
667 5 1

In my mind, this second list order is a much more accurate representation of what's good to read on this blog.

We're a Finalist - Edublog Awards 2007

The Edublog Awards just announced their finalists for 2007.



Thanks to all of you for participating, talking, blogging, commenting, etc., helping me with ideas, nominating this blog as a finalist, and generally inspiring this. It was great to see the other finalists as well. Clive and Wendy, congrats! Mohamed and Susan as well (although I don't think we've exchanged as much). Wendy, I was especially happy to see your nomination as I often hold you out as an example!

You can see the other blogs who were nominated, vote for your favorites and go to the Award Ceremony which will be held in Second Life. To vote, click on the link below.
Vote Here

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Stock Photo Image and Other Media Sources

Weird - after posting, I just saw a post in my blog reader from HeyJude -Find free images online - my list!

She points me to (I don't have time to clean this up. Sorry.)
    • Bigfoto.com offers pictures from around the world, including America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Pacific.
    • Clip Art for foreign/second language instruction. Basic but still valuable.
    • EveryStockPhoto is a search engine for creative commons photos, located in Vancouver, BC. They aim to be a community for designers, developers, photographers and other media publishers who want better, easier access to license-specific media on the web. This is a single integrated search, allowing users to bookmark their photos with private and public tags, and increasingly we will be offering advanced searching options, rating systems and other tools.
    • FreeDigitalPhotos.net has over 2000 free images that you can use in commercial and noncommercial work. You are not allowed to sell, redistribute, or claim these images as your own. You can browse by category or search for exactly what you need.
    • FreeMediaGoo.com has a large collection of images, audio, textures, and other visual mediums that you can use for free with some restrictions. You do not even have to credit the images. The site also features some amazing digital images if you are looking for something different.
    • FreeFoto.com says it is the largest collection of free photographs on the Internet (link back and attribution required).
    • FreePhotosBank.com allows users to have non-exclusive, non-transferable license to images. You can search for photos, see which photos are the most popular, and which ones have the highest ratings or the most downloads.
    • Fotogenika.net has photos for free download for personal, educational, and nonprofit use. The site is well organized, and it includes categories such as architecture, animals, people, and textures.
    • The Geo-Images Project attempts to make images (mostly photographs) that are useful in teaching geography more widely available. Navigate via map points on the globe, and capture images around common themes. Love the one on transport! and community is cool too!
    • MorgueFile.com offers stock photographs in high resolution digital. With over 55,000 images, divided into several categories, they are sure to have something you can use. The thumbnails are small, but your search results display quickly, and the photos are of top quality. (The term “morgue file” is popular in the newspaper business to describe the file that holds past issues flats. Although the term has been used by illustrators, comic book artist, designers and teachers as well The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits. This is the world wide web’s morgue file)
    • Pics4Learning collection is intended to provide copyright friendly images for use by students and teachers in an educational setting. Lesson plans also included.
    • Stock Exchange offers high quality images taken around the world by amateur photographers. If you have an interest in photography, you can even submit your own pictures. There are various searching options and over 100,000 images. The photographers establish the terms, so read the fine print, but most pictures can be reused immediately.
    • TurboPhoto provides free stock images from 10 categories all of which are in the public domain.
    • UVic’s Language Teaching Library consists of about 3000 images useful in the teaching of basic vocabulary in a variety of languages. Its purpose is to provide a set of those graphics most basic and useful for low-level language-teaching, and at the same time, to make them as easily searchable as possible. Transparent an matte images included.
    • Riya - Visual Search provides royalty free images. Riya contains images of People and objects. Each of these also contain subcategories.
    • Wikipedia: Public domain image sources - though in this case you will need to check the copyright.
    • Yotophoto is now indexing well over a quarter million Creative Commons, Public Domain, GNU FDL, and various other ‘copyleft’ images.
Inexpensive (but good)
(1) iStockphoto.com

One dollar for low-rez images and two-three dollars for higher-rez images. This is my favorite site.
(2) Dreams Time
About one dollar for high-rez images for members.
(3) Shutterstock
750 royalty-free downloads per month for $139 (US) subscription.
(4) Fotolia
One or two bucks an image.
(5) Japanese Streets

Excellent source for Japanese fashion, street scenes, people, and much more from right here in Osaka. About $1.50 per pic via paypal.
(6) Photocase. A German site (English and German versions). Low-cost download options.
(7) Stockxpert. Great pricing and great images. Easy-to-use site. Uses credit system.
(8) ShutterMap.com. From $1USD to $4USD for high-rez.
(9) Creative Express (Getty Images). With Getty's Creative Express you can buy one-month or one-year subscriptions and download up to 50 stunning images a day. The Express catalog has 75,000 great Getty images. The license works differently for subscription, but this may be a wonderful option for the right project (check out the FAQ). I will be using this for certain.

Free (but not bad)
(1) Morgue File
Providing "...free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits.
(2) Flickr's Creative Commons pool
Search the myriad photos people are sharing on flickr by the type of CC license.
(3) Image*After
From their site: "Image*After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture...and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial."
(4) Stock.xchng
Close to 200,000 photos. Some gems in there if you look.

(5) Everystockphoto. Indexing over 283,000 free photos.
(6) Studio.25: Digital Resource Bank.
(7) Freepixels. About 2000 photos.
(8) The Photoshop tutorial blog. This cool blog has a laundry list of free photo sites.
(9) Robin Good has a good page dedicated to helping you find good images.

Fonts (free or cheap)
(1) 1001 Fonts.com. A lot of free fonts. You get what you pay for, but many are pretty good. Find by most popular, highest rated. Articles, message board, etc.
(2) 1001freefonts.com. 4000 fonts for $9.95 (download).
(3) iFree. This Australian site links to free stuff in Australia and worldwide, like fonts, freeware, etc.
(4) Indezine on fonts. There are so many font sites out there, I trust the folks at Indezine to narrow it down. They list about ten.
(5) HighFonts.com. Database of about 3000 free fonts.


This post is actually more for me so I can remember these. If you know of some that I'm missing, please let me know:

Photos

www.fotolia.com

www.photos.com

www.istockphoto.com

www.shutterstock.com

www.liquidlibrary.com

www.photospin.com

Stock xchng

bigFoto

FreePhoto

Wikimedia Commons

Free Images

Free Digital Photos

Free Foto

Artzooks

Dreamstime

iStockphoto.com

photosphere.com

Pics4Learning

Pixelperfect Digital

stock.xchng

Freefoto.com

Freeimages.co.uk

Fotosearch Stock Photography

Other Sources:

Google Image Search

www.imageafter.com

www.flickr.com

Clip media

www.clipart.com

JAC Clipart Archive

Absolutely Free Clipart

Animation factory

Classroom clipart

Clipart connection

Discovery School Clip Art Gallery

Animation

Animation Online

Animine

Icons

IconBazaar

Icongalore

Leo's Icon Archive

Sounds

www.soundrangers.com

Sounddogs.com

FindSounds

www.soundsnap.com and features over 30.000 royalty free, high quality sounds, samples & loops, that are created by our users

SoundBible

Ideas

www.creativecow.net

www.commarts.com

Fonts

www.dafonts.com

www.1001freefonts.com

Textures

www.textureking.com