Help movie creating a SWOT dropzone using gliffy

In this second help movie on creating dropzone images, the free on-line image editing system gliffy is used to create a SWOT matrix.  Hopefully this demonstrates how easy it is to create great dropzone images for your Dragster activities using gliffy.
(view movie)

Dragster 3 update now available

We are pleased to announce that the new features demonstrated earlier this month are now available via the Dragster 3 authoring system.  This means that activities published from today onwards can incorporate:

• Pop-up text feedback and links
• Roll-over button labels
• Randomised draggable element ordering
• Keyboard controls
• Automated element scrolling
• and the new look activity design

We have conducted extensive testing of this upgrade, but please do contact support if you encounter any problems.

Full screen feedback authoring

The eagle eyed among you will spot a new button on the activity feedback authoring interface. This button allows you to toggle to a full screen view of the flash authoring movie which allows much greater accuracy when authoring target areas etc.
I know I am going to find this feature very useful and I hope you do too!

Unfortunately it only works if you are using an up to date Flash Player (version 9 or later). I have also experienced problems using this feature when using Firefox which I can’t explain! So update your flash players and use Internet Explorer to use this feature…

One percent donations

As announced in December Webducate is a member of One percent for the planet, an international community of businesses that demonstrate their commitment to the global environment by pledging to donate 1% of sales turnover each year to environmental causes.
Its our first year as a member and as it is the end of the financial year, so with some excitement we have just made our first donations (see below). These two causes represent concerns close to our heart and we would encourage anyone interested to find out more:

The John Muir Trust – is one of the UK’s leading guardians of wild land and wildlife which owns and manages some of the last remaining areas of wilderness in the UK.

The Marine Conservation Society – is a UK charity dedicated to caring for our seas, shores and wildlife.

Reflect e-portfolio help movies

Working to a tight deadline Webducate recently completed a set of nine help movies that provide an overview of using the Reflect e-portfolio system developed by Pebblepad. This system was developed to meet the specific needs of the 300,000 teachers, trainers, tutors and student teachers that form the membership of the Institute for Learning (IfL). These help movies focus on the portfolio tasks most relevant to this group of users e.g.

• Creating an action plan
• Creating and editing a portfolio entry
• Creating and using a blog
• Tagging a portfolio entry
• Creating a record for submission to the IfL

View an example Reflect help movie.

New Dragster 3 features – demo

Here at Webducate we have been working hard to make Dragster 3 even better. Based on input from our users and also from some ideas of our own, we have put together a set of new features listed below. Before we integrate these into the Dragster 3 authoring system we would really like to get some  feedback.  So please do try the example volcano labelling activity, explore the new features and get in touch!

Pop-up text feedback and links – text feedback can be assigned to each draggable element.  This pop-up text is displayed when the mouse is rolled over the element during the display of an activity’s feedback. The text can be defined differently for an element positioned correctly, close or missed. In addition corresponding web addresses for more information can be provided. These links are opened by clicking on the pop-up text feedback box.

Button roll-over labels – pop up text can be defined to appear when a participant’s mouse is rolled over the activity buttons (e.g. the print and submit buttons in the activity toolbar).

Keyboard controls -  participants can complete dragster activities using only keyboard keys. This is particularly important for users unable to use a mouse. E.g. label pointers can be flipped during the activity by using the space bar. (more information on the keyboard controls).

Randomising element presentation – the order in which the draggable elements are displayed can be randomised.

Automatic element scrolling – to prevent an activity participant missing draggable elements which need to be scrolled into view, this scrolling will occur automatically when the drag the last visible element on to the dropzone image.

Updated activity design – we have made some minor aesthetic changes to the look and feel of the activity skin. We think they look better… what do you think?

(this example activity uses an image from Wikimedia Commons and information from the U.S. Geological Survey and  Volcano World)