KeyNotes Blog

Wednesday Jul 13, 2011

3 Steps to creating your first course inside KOD

Congratulations! You have decided to support your organization by creating an online learning system or a helpdesk system so that training time and calls to your support desk can be reduced.

So where do you start?

At the beginning, no seriously, first you need to define what it is that you are creating only then can you go ahead and work out what to put in and also what to leave out.

Step 1: Defining the Course Purpose

What is your course trying to achieve? What should your learners go away being able to do now that they could not do before?

For example in Microsoft Word, you could say that you wanted to teach people how to use Word. But what does that really mean? Which parts of Word do they need to be able to use? Just some or everything? See the problem?

We need to be a little more specific here. How about

• “Our users will be able to format a document” – really is that it?
• Even more specific:
  • “Our users will be able to produce a professional report including headers and footers, a table and great formatting.”

Now you are talking, we now have a specific and task based course aim which will make creating the course much easier as we can now figure out which content we need.

Step 2: Creating your Course Objectives

Now that you have a proper Course Aim you can begin to set the Learning Objectives. The Learning Objectives are the means to achieving the aim. So Learning Objectives for the Report example might be:

• Set up page margins
• Format text
• Add and delete text
• Add Headers and Footers
• Create a Table

Once you have the Learning Objectives you can begin to work out what content needs to be included. In our Word example, we would need to include all the Word features that will allow us to format text, create a table, set up margins and add headers and footers.

Step 3: Adding your Course Outline to KeyStone OnDemand

Once you have your Learning Objectives you can see quite easily which of them go together to create a fluid section and which Learning Objectives are worthy of lessons of their own.

Once you have decided this, you can create a Course Outline to act as your guide through the process.

So my Learning Objectives for this course are:

• Structure your session
• Course Aim
• Objectives to reach the aim
• Construct an Outline
• Create Categories
• Add Content
• Create an Article
• Upload an Article
• Create a Screencast
• Upload a Ready made Video
• Create a Great Introduction
• Create a Quiz
• Create a Course in KeyStone OnDemand

Now you can create a list of all the features you wish to include and begin to flesh out your content.

That outline is the first thing you’ll add to your KeyStone OnDemand course. At this point, you’re ready to click the Add New button the Menu bar and choose Course from the list. Once the course is named and a category has been chosen, you can begin to add placeholders for your course outline that will eventually be filled with your course content.

Thursday Jun 30, 2011

Why you might not be able to print a certificate

When a user completes a course, they see the option to print a course completion certificate from the course’s Browse page. But, often, they are met with a note stating:

The option to print a certificate stays in this state until a user reaches a 75% completion status combined between viewed lessons and correct quiz answers.

That’s the default for the site.

But, it can be changed with a quick call or email to us. The required % complete is a site-wide setting. This means, when changed, it will affect all of your courses. But, it’s easy for us to do. So, if you decide it needs to be changed for your company, just let us know.

We want to make sure the KeyStone OnDemand portal works for you and not against you.

Friday Jun 17, 2011

Create links between your KeyStone OnDemand articles

Each piece of content is assigned a unique ID when it’s first created. That ID is displayed in your browser’s Address Bar when you view it.

It’s that ID that you place in the Related Content field when you’re editing an article or video.

But, what many KeyStone OnDemand Admins don’t consider is adding links directly within the context of the article. This is the most logical place to point users to related content since it’s how they are used to navigating through information in the first place.

So, rather than adding all related files to the Related Articles and Video panel, instead make a copy of the entire address bar link and use the Link option to paste the content address.

This way, users aren’t forced to view the info panel and sort through related content. You can target related content directly inside your article. You may even be able to hide the info panel altogether.

Wednesday Jun 15, 2011

Creating a quiz? Save some time just by using your ENTER key

When you’re editing a quiz inside your KeyStone OnDemand courses, having to use your mouse to add every question and every answer can really slow you down. When we’re building our quizzes, we find it much faster to keep our hands on the keyboard as much as possible.

Here’s a flow that we’ve found really works:

1. Click inside the first Question box and type your first question.
2. Once the question has been added, press Enter. This drops your cursor to the next Question field.
3. Continue this way until all questions have been added.

Once your questions have been added, go back to the top of your list:

1. Click inside the first answer field and type and answer.
2. Press Enter to move to the next answer field.
3. Continue this way until all answers for the 1st question have been added.

You’ll still need to pick up your mouse to move to each question’s set of answers. But to make up for it, you can mark any answer correct as you’re typing it by pressing TAB to move to the “Correct” field and pressing SPACE to enable the field.

Thursday May 05, 2011

Quick Search isn’t just for users; it’s for admins, too

You’ve seen Quick Search all over the KeyStone OnDemand site. At least, we hope you have. It’s the best thing to locate the exact content you need when you need it.

But, as an Admin, have you noticed that there is Quick Search sprinkled throughout your Admin Dashboard, too?

Sometimes it looks a little like this:

And, other times, it looks a little like this:

So, stop tiring out your eyes and let KeyStone OnDemand do the searching for you.