Teaching Guide Template

[Enter the name of your Toolbox here]. For example: Business Services – “Up Front!” Series 6 Flexible Learning Toolbox

Technical Guide

Fitness Online

Series 8 Flexible Learning Toolbox

Supporting Certificate IV in Fitness from the Fitness Training Package SRF04

12/10/2005: Version 1.2

© Commonwealth of Australia 2005
The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Commonwealth of Australia.
This work is copyright. It may be reproduced in whole or in part for study or training purposes, subject to the inclusion of an acknowledgement of the source and it is not used for commercial use or sale.

Reproduction for purposes other than those indicated above requires the prior written permission from the Commonwealth. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction and copyright should be addressed to the Branch Manager, Technology and Information Services Branch, Industry Skills Development Group, Department of Education, Science and Training, GPO Box 9880 Canberra City, ACT, 2601.

flexiblelearning.net.au

Fitness Online Series 8 Flexible Learning Toolbox

Contents

List of tables and figures iv

Introduction 1

System Requirements 2

To Play 2

To Customize 2

To Serve 2

Customizing Toolbox Content 3

What features can be customized? 3

Editing Coursebuilder Interactions 4

Basic Editing 5

Customising a Toolbox for single unit delivery 7

Keeping to the Standards 7

Visual Design 8

Navigation 9

File Structure 10

Accessibility 10

Technical Support 12

Installation on a Web Server 12

Installing into a SCORM compliant LMS 12

Producing CDs for distribution 13

Known Issues 13

The Help Desk 13

References 14

List of tables and figures

Table 1: Customizable Elements 3

Australian Flexible Learning Framework iii

Technical Guide

Fitness Online Series 8 Flexible Learning Toolbox

Introduction

This Technical Guide has been developed to support you in delivering the Certificate IV in Fitness from the Fitness Training Package SRF05.

This technical guide provides instructions on how to install the toolbox resources onto a server or use as a CD ROM and how to customise the toolbox resources. The guide also describes the technical nature of the structure and operation of the toolbox resources directories and files. The Technical Guide should be read in conjunction with the Teacher's Guide which provides a detailed description of the toolbox resources and how they may be used for a range of learning outcomes to meet the needs of different learier groups.

The hardware and software required to use the toolbox are also listed.

This Technical Guide is divided into three sections:

· System Requirements

· Customizing Toolbox Content

· Technical Support

System Requirements

To Play

The following hardware and software is required to view the resources within this toolbox

· 600 MHz or Pentium III or equivalent running Windows 2000/ME/XP or
Macintosh PowerPC 500 MHz or above running OS9 or OSX

· 128 MB RAM

· 800 x 600 screen resolution with minimum 16 bit colour

· 1.44 MB floppy drive for saving student files.

· Netscape (version 6.2 or later) or Internet Explorer (version 6.0 or later) Macromedia Flash 7 Plug in (available from http://www.macromedia.com)

· Adobe Acrobat 5 plug in or later

· JavaScript enabled

· CD-ROM

· Internet Access 28.8 Kbps or above (To follow links)

· Microsoft Word 97, 2000 or 2003

To Customize

The following are the recommended requirements to customise the toolbox resources. Where global changes are required it is recommended that Macromedia Dreamweaver be used as it can modify the templates on which the HTML files are based.

· 600 MHz or Pentium III or equivalent processor

· Macromedia Dreamweaver (or equivalent HTML editor)

· Flash MX2004 development software

· XML SPY or equivalent XML editing tool

· Photoshop/Fireworks (or equivalent) for editing still images

· SoundEdit16 (or equivalent) for editing sound content

· Premiere (or equivalent) for editing video content

To Serve

· Internet Information Server 5.0 or
Apache Web Server

· SCORM compatible Learning Management System (For LOs)

· 300 MB Available hard disk space

· High bandwidth internet connection

Customizing Toolbox Content

In most cases Toolboxes are able to be modified and redistributed with minimal licensing or copyright encumbrance. However, before commencing any modifications we recommend that you check the license details of the Toolbox, to ensure that any customisation undertaken does not contravene the conditions of that license.

For licensing conditions visit: http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/toolbox/license.htm

Remember to retain the original files in their CD-ROM format so that you always have an original copy of the Toolbox as a backup.

What features can be customized?

Toolboxes can be customized by users under the flexible licensing arrangements, as long as they are not on-sold. You are therefore encouraged to customize the Toolboxes. However, before embarking on any modifications or customization, we suggest that you:

· Check the licensing details of the Toolboxes to ensure that any customization does not contravene the conditions of the licence.

· You have the required trained personnel.

· Remember to retain the original files in the CD-ROM format as a backup (should you require them at a later stage).

Some design aspects of the Toolboxes can be easily customizable. However, there are other aspects of the Toolboxes that are more difficult. For this complex customization we recommend that you proceed only if you have the relevant trained technical personnel.

Table 1: Customizable Elements

Element / To Customize
Description / Location
Introduction Screen / This is constructed in Flash and the contents drawn from XML pages. The information presented can be changed by simply altering the content of the XML file / index.htm
front_end\index.xml
front_end\fit009_scenarios.xml
Student Guide Text / Most text in is standard HTML, browse to the location in the Toolbox, take note of the URL, and use that to find the appropriate file in the generic directory.
Open the file in Dreamweaver (or a text editor) and make the changes. / generic\student_guide.htm
Multiple Choice and text input Interactions / The questions and answers have been created using the CourseBuilder extension to Macromedia Dreamweaver. To change the text of a question or answer locate the appropriate HTML page as above and modify the parameters.
If you want to change how the multiple choice interactions work, you will need to use Coursebuilder as it codes the responses. See below for Steps required.
The .js include files are located in \scripts directory in each content directory / \fit007_1\*.htm
\scripts\ behActions.js
Flash Interactions / Most of these interactions can be customised by anyone with basic Macromedia Flash design skills. However some are more complex, and require actionscript knowledge.
Most Flash interactions in this Toolbox are self contained, but some may pull in external data from an XML file. See below for methods of customising using XML
To customise open the page in Dreamweaver and select the Flash object that you wish to change. Under the properties of the object, you will see a filename such as fit007_1_1.swf. You cannot change this directly, but must rebuild it from the source code.
Using Flash MX or MX2004 authoring software, browse to the source directory and locate a .fla file with the same name as the .swf.
This is the file you need to edit. Open it up inside Flash and look for comments in the actionscript attached to the first frame. These comments will point you in the right direction. / \fit007_1_res\*.swf
fit007\source\*.fla
fit007\res\*.xml
fit007\res\*.jpg

Editing Coursebuilder Interactions

Follow these steps;

1. Open the html file in Dreamweaver and, in Design View, click on one of the elements in the Interaction.

2. Click on Code View

3. A few lines above the cursor, you will find a line that starts <!--<interaction name=

4. Note the contents of the ‘object’ attribute on that line.

5. Scroll down through the Interaction until you find a line like this  where the contents of the ‘object’ attribute (G22 in the above example) are the same as those noted in Step 4.

6. Delete all instances of  on that line.

7. Click back to Design View.

8. Make sure your cursor is still within the Interaction.

9. Now go to Modify | Coursebuilder | Edit Interaction.

10. A popup window now appears titled ‘Copy Support Files’. Leave both checkboxes the way they are and click ‘OK’. The support files will now be loaded. Ignore any error messages.

11. You can now edit the interaction as required, ignoring any error messages.

12. When all the changes have been made to the Interaction, go back to Code View and fine the line above the Interaction starting <interaction name= . This is the line you found in Step 3.

13. Insert  to the end of the line.

14. Scroll down to the line you found in Step 5 and add  to the end of the line.

15. Now scroll up to near the top of the page and look for some lines starting like <script language=”JavaScript”. There will be some lines with the ‘type’ attribute defined as “text/javascript” and some lines without the ‘type’ attribute defined. Delete those lines that do not have the ‘type’ attribute defined.

16. Editing is now complete

The Teacher Guide includes a ‘high-level’ overview of customization. That guide refers to this one for further information.

Basic Editing

There are numerous ways of editing the content of this Toolbox. The approach is similar to editing pages that might be found on any website.

The two simplest ways are:

Using a Web development package (MS FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver)
Using a straight text editor (MS Notepad or your favourite text editor)

A basic understanding of HTML and the software package is useful.

Web Development Software Package

· Download the complete Toolbox contents onto your machine.

· Identify the pages you would like to edit (these are displayed in the address bar at the top of the browser page when viewing).

· Locate these files in the downloaded files, following the paths displayed in the browser.

· Open each file in your Web Editing Software Package (i.e. MS FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver) and make appropriate changes.

· Save each file.

· Check your edits in a web browser to see if it displays properly.

Text Editor (i.e. MS Notepad)

· Download complete Toolbox Contents onto your machine.

· Locate the file you wish to edit, following the paths displayed in the browser.

· Open the file using a text editor (i.e. MS Notepad)

· Make appropriate changes, following the CSS styles, some of which are:

o <h1> (Main Headings) larger blue font in caps,

o <h2> (Sub headings) green fonts,

o <p> (main content i.e. paragraphs) black text.

· Save each file.

· Check your edits in a web browser to see if it displays properly.

Replacing images with customised

· All images are named in relation to the page on which they are displayed eg fit007_2_2.jpg in the associated res directory.

· Create and name the replacement image file the same as the one you are replacing

· Copy the file into the res directory and overwrite the file you want to replace.

· Alternatively you can remove the file from the res directory and place the new one in the directory. This allows you to keep the removed file for future use.

Modifying flash interactions that use XML as dynamic source

· Open the xml file in a text editor or Dreamweaver

· Change the content of the particular nodes in the XML file

For example in the flash resources in fit007_2_18 which provides video in the form of .swf files, mp3 audio files and text subtitles as well as parameters for different exercises

<menu>

<sub name="1: Bar Bell Bench Press" reps="8-12" sets="2" heartrate="82" image="image.jpg" audio="audio1.mp3" subtitle="Subtitle text as declared in XML document"</sub>

<sub name="1: Assisted Chin-ups" reps="12" sets="3" heartrate="86" image="XMLexerciseImgTemp.swf" audio="audio2.mp3" subtitle="Second subtitle"</sub>

The contents of the audio files and images or video can be changed by replacing the file name with the one that is required. Make sure the file is located in the directory with the XML file. Change the values of the parameters by altering the text in the areas such as heartrate ="86" to heartrate ="72"

Customising a Toolbox for single unit delivery

You may only want to offer one or two units from the Toolbox, or limit access to certain units and/or streams.

To disable access to units, open the competencies.xml file in the front_end folder in Dreamweaver, and remove the reference to the unit you wish to disable. The unit will no longer appear.

To alter what is being shown in the introduction to the competency or scenario open the XML file and edit the content between the appropriate tags

For example changing the content between the <competencyBlurb> </competencyBlurb> tags will alter what the learner sees as an introduction to the competency

<competencyTitle>SRFFIT007B - Undertake relevant exercise planning and programming</competencyTitle>

<competencyBlurb>In this competency the learner uses the principles of planning to develop exercise plans for clients. This involves the learner undertaking client screening, the writing of plans to meet specific client needs and then evaluating and modifying the plan once it has been implemented.</competencyBlurb>

If you want to distribute a smaller version by pruning the unnecessary content, you will need to follow the above process, and in addition delete the appropriate folders in the specific scenario or learning resource directory eg fit007_1 directory.

The directories are labelled using the following convention

XXXYYY_# where XXXYYY is the competency code (eg fit007) and # is the number of the scenario in the competency. A learning resource directory has "lr" after the scenario number eg fit007_1_lr2 is the second learning resource in scenario 1 of competency fit007.