Building Course Content with exe

Transcription

1 Building Course Content with exe According to the exe website, "The exe project developed a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in exe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple selfcontained web pages." In this tutorial, we will take a look at this free tool and explore how to use it to create e-learning materials and add them to your D2L course. Download and install exe 1. Go to exelearning.org and download the program 2. Double click the exe installer file. This will launch the exe Setup Wizard. 3. After the program has been installed, exit the Setup Wizard and launch the program. Create a new package 1. Click on File > New to create a new package. 2. Click File > Save As to give your new package a name. PSCC - exe 1

2 The exe Interface The exe interface consists of the 4 main areas detaild below: menu bar - used for saving your package, editing or creating new devices, choosing a style for your package, and accessing the help files. outline pane - used to create the structure of your learning object. You can build a complex hierarchy or keep it simple. devices pane - this pane contains all of the devices (or activities) that you can add to any of your pages. When a page is selected in the outline pane, clicking on an idevice will add it to your document. editing/preview pane - this is where you'll do all of your actual editing. PSCC - exe 2

3 Create an outline Now that you've created a new package and taken a look at the interface, it's time to build the overall structure of your learning object using the outline pane. For this workhop, we are going to keep things fairly simple, but you can do much more when developing your own materials. Use the Add Page button to add a new page to your document. Double click on a page title to change the name of it. Use the icons at the botton of the pane to move your pages up or down in the heirarchy. Let's create our first page together. We want to start off by providing students with a brief overview of the lesson along with it's learning objectives. 1. Double click on the word Home and change it to Unit Click Add Page. 3. Double click on the word Topic and change it to Introduction. PSCC - exe 3

4 4. Go ahead and create 3 additional topics - Reading, Self Check, and Module Quiz. Yours should look like the image above. Add idevices 1. Select the Introduction page. 2. In the idevices pane, click Preknowledge. You should now have a preknowledge idevice in your editor. Type some of your prerequisites in the content area. 3. Click on the Objectives idevice to add it to your page. Go ahead and type something in the content area. You can add as many idevices as you like to any page you like following the same basic steps outlined above. If you need to rearrange the display order of your idevices or edit a device after you move to another, use the icons at the bottom of the content area. You can add as many idevices as you like to any page you like following the same basic steps outlined above. If you need to rearrange the display order of your idevices or edit a device after you move to another, use the icons at the bottom of the content area. 4. Finish editing a device. PSCC - exe 4

5 5. Delete a device. 6. Move a device to another page. Exporting as a Common Cartridge When you're finished editing your learning object, you can export in a number of formats - from a stand-alone website to a common cartridge, which you can import into D2L. Let's take a look at how to export for D2L! 1. Click File > Export. 2. Choose IMS Content Package. 3. Give the file a name. 4. Click Save. PSCC - exe 5

6 Importing to D2L Once you have exported a ZIP archive, we need to import it into your D2L course. 1. Access D2L. 2. Navigate to one of your courses. 3. Click on the Edit Course link. 4. Choose Import/Export/Copy Components link. 5. Choose the ZIP file that you exported. 6. Click Next. When prompted, click Next again. 7. Click the option to Select All Content. 8. Keep clicking Next until you receive a success message. PSCC - exe 6