Completed four lectures...

Now I am getting a more accurate look at the time involved in creating the LECTURES themselves. (It looks like this first year I am "only" going to be able to TRY to publish a working set of Video Lectures..... The interactive Flash files and Puzzlers will likely have to wait for NEXT year/Summer)

Here is what my lesson screen looks like so far:

Time spent since last blog entry:

15.5 hours on Lecture 3.3
20.5 hours on Lecture 3.4
8.66 hours on OTHER related stuff (such as online testing and adding some features to the lessons, after getting recommendations from people who are trying out the lessons)

Here is an example breakdown of where the time goes:

Lecture 3.3 is a 5-section, 22 minute lecture:
    (1) Writing the script - 74 minutes
    (2) Record and Edit Voice Over - 1hr 50 min
    (3) Screen Capture Rough Video (on Intewrite) - 6 hrs total
    (4) Video Edit in Premiere & After Effects - 5hrs 20 min
    (5) Flash programming, Web page update - 2hrs 20 min

I have been recording my work time with a stopwatch (cellphone) to get an accurate idea of just exactly how much time I am spending. I only record time that I am actually sitting in front of the computer and diligently working.... I do was not counting thinking time, discussing time, or time that I walk away from the computer while it is batch processing the video files.

It also took me 3 hrs and 30 minutes to create/transcribe notes for Unit 1 that I am going to start recording TODAY (hopefully).... Transcribing notes means making these two .pdf files from my hand-written notes. (1)  (2)

Total Time: 45 hrs

I must be INSANE!

It has been 18 days since I posted on here last. In short: I have been WORKING my tail off and, to be honest, I have considered QUITTING this whole project..... I went through a week where I thought, seriously, every day, I would just QUIT.

Here were the two main problems:

(1) Programming/software problems: (a) I came to a point where I was unable to video record my screen and get it into Adobe Premiere correctly. The format on my Interwrite Pad didn't exactly work directly... I had to feed it through Windows Moviemaker to get it into a .wmv format to THEN feed into Premiere.... but... suddenly... THAT format just STOPPED working... Adobe Premiere wouldn't take it..... also (b) I had my sister try to "log on" to my video with the password and, for some reason, THAT did NOT work for her..... (c) and, the video player I had created using Adobe Flash Professional.... had hic-ups.... Basically: it would often, and randomly, just STOP being able to play videos..... My first video has 7 mini-videos.... and the player would get to the 3rd or 4th one and then just STOP working.... And the "student" would have to RELOAD and TRY AGAIN from the beginning.. and, then, it often would happen AGAIN the next time! <--- very frustrating.

(2) TIME TO BUILD IT ALL: Even IF/WHEN I might happen to SOLVE these problems... it was going to take me a WHOLE LOT OF TIME to make EACH of these video lessons correctly. A RIDICULOUS amount of time..... My first video (about 22 minutes long) took something like 40 hours to complete, from script-writing, to sound recording/editing, video recording, and editing the whole thing together and getting it into the Flash video player .swf file..... (took more than 40 hrs to to the programming, but that was not all just the fist video).... So.... That ended up being about TWO HOURS of production time per 1 MINUTE of video lecture produced. (And that doesn't count the time required to create the NOTES in MS Word and LESSON DESIGN itself.... Just the details for the video.... just translating what I ALREADY HAVE in my classroom into a video format.)

Well.... Let's just say that I am NOT quitting.... Not yet....

More to come in the weeks to come (I think).... but the short version is that (a) I solved all of those problems, except the last one, but at least I got the FREQUENCY of the last problem to occur much less often.... and (b) I completed a complete SECOND video file (Lecture 3.2) and it took me "only" three work days, from beginning to end.... It was a 25 minute video, with CFK questions, and took me about 30 hours to do the entire thing. I am getting better at it all. (Plus I am trying out yet another piece of software which is making things a bit easier for me... more on that later

TIME SPENT: I really don't know...... I will put down something MUCH less than I am sure I spent... 50 hours.

Video Lecture Start Sequence

I have spent the past couple of days making the default start-up sequence for all of my videos (using Adobe Flash Professional CC... but also using Adobe Audition for the sound recording/editing, Adobe Premiere for the Video editing, Adobe After Effects for the "green screen" alpha channel effects, and Intewrite Video Capture to capture my pen/graphics in raw form to import into Premiere)

I am very happy with it all so far.

After logging on with the "colbysworld word of the day" there is a little "get ready" screen to remind the students to get out there supplies. Click "play" to preview/print notes.

The "get ready" screen that reminds students that
they need to have the notes/pencil in hand

After clicking <play> a screen appears that gives a preview of the notes that the student will be taking. The preview screen shows blue areas where the student will be adding notes. It also has a "download your notes" icon in the bottom/right corner that students can click on to open a new browser window that will display the correct .pdf file for the students to print.

Preview screen for the notes to be taken
(the notes are scrolling on the screen)

DOWNLOAD TIME: At first I thought that the ENTIRE set of videos would have to download BEFORE the Flash file would even open... which WOULD HAVE BEEN tough because that would mean that a student would be staring at a completely white square for up to a few minutes (time it takes for 20+ minute videos on a slow internet connection to download).... HOWEVER, that is not exactly the case.... The program will "play" up to the point where it needs to download a video... and THEN the screen will stop with whatever is on the screen while the video downloads...

This is actually pretty nice because NOW I can place an animated icon that gives the student the indication that SOMETHING (ie: a video download) is happening.... I created a mini-image of my colbysworld log with an animated satellite flying around it.

A little, animated icon that tells the student a video is loading

The first little video that will download is going to be the "colbysworld splash" video... This is a 24-second, animated snipped that shows me sketching the colbsworld logo in time-lapse, fast speed, and then other things are added and cheaply (meaning, I did it on the fly and not very professionally) animated... In the background my daughter is saying "colbysworld" in various ways.... I made a "sound mix" that gave it a sort of "rhythm".... I like it.

A scene from the 24-second, animated, "splash video"

The main program that is allowing me to do all of this is Adobe Flash Professional. It uses timelines in a similar way that Adobe Premier (video editor) does to control events on the screen. HOWEVER, it also uses ActionScript 3 for programming buttons and such. For example: I put VIDEO CUEs in the colbysworld splash video that tell the Flash program when to STOP the "video downloading" image and, later, when to START downloading the NEXT video to watch.

Adobe Flash Professional - Timeline for first part of interactive video play

Time used: 10 hours

PASSWORD PROTECTED! (nice)

Today I was able to figure out how to use Flash and ActionScript to make a simple password protection for my video lectures. (This was one reason I wanted to use Flash as a video player for my lectures.... because I can control who gets to view/use the videos.)

I can't explain ALL of the details. But here are the basics of how I am "forcing" students to follow certain steps to progress through the tutorials with "minimal cheating"

When a student opens up a video lecture they might get a screen like this:

Here the student is typing the word "football" as a password

Then they are asked to type in today's password. If they do this WRONG they will be given the following screen and the program will end.

Apparently "football" was not the correct choice.
(although, it COULD be someday)

Of course, if they have the current password (from their teacher) then they will have access to the lesson.




Here is an outline of how I am controlling access to all four types of programs:

(1) To log into a video lesson the student needs the current "daily password", which they can only, theoretically, get from their teacher. I am able to change this password as frequently as I wish and it will instantly affect every one of my video lessons. [REMEMBER - The video lesson gives the students the notes and initial learning to pass the quizzler.]

(2) To log into an interactive lesson the student then needs the four digits that they obtain by completing the video lessons for the specific unit. In other words, they need to do #1 above to gain access to the interactive lessons. [REMEMBER - The interactive lessons give students the guided practice to pass the quizzler.]

(3) In order to do the puzzler they need to obtain the two LETTERS that go with their log-in name. In other words, they need to complete #2 themselves (or, they can have someone log in with THEIR user name and have THEM complete the interactive lessons for them.... to give them their own two letters.) [REMEMBER - The puzzler gives the students the independent practice to pass the quizzler.]

(4) Finally, in order to do the quizzler the students will need to be able to do the same thing they do to log into the puzzler above PLUS they need a separate "daily password" that I type in for them as they are sitting down with me at a school computer terminal. [REMEMBER - The quizzler is where the student finally gets their GRADE.]


NOTE DIRECTLY RELATED: I also did a BUNCH of work on learning the basics of Adobe Premiere (video editing) and some After Effects tricks. I also figured out how I am going to save raw video captures of my screen and get them in the correct format into Adobe Premiere so that I can MAKE my video lectures.

I lost track of how much time I used in the past week... I'll just give a lowball guess.

Time: 10 hours