When you are developing some sort of slideshows such as Articulate or Captivate presentations with voice-over and you want it to be more formal but you still want to keep it conversational and easy listening, there are some ways to prepare the scripts that like. For example, you can:

• have an instructional design to work with the subject matter expert to draft out the scripts according to the learning objectives and the actual information on the slide;
• let other people to review the scripts;
• or even hire a professional writer to revise the scripts…

But I find a way to improve the scripts even faster: let the subject matter experts read out loud and document the changes they make naturally! Here are some real life examples:

Original written version: … common complex genetic disorders are common disorders occurring in the population that tend to “run in families” which is the first  line of evidence that these disorders may have genetic factors contributing to their etiology. Despite an increased risk of disease in the relatives of those affected, there is no clear pattern of inheritance implying that these disorders are not controlled by single gene or oligogenic (few genes) disorders…

Read out loud version:… common complex genetic disorders are common disorders occurring in the population that tend to “run in families” which is the first  line of evidence that these disorders may have genetic factors contributing to their etiology. Despite the fact that these disorders run in families, there is no clear pattern of inheritance implying that these disorders are not controlled by single gene…

Original written version:… it is more difficult to think about heritability of a binary – yes affected, no not affected – disease trait. To estimate heritability we assume that there is an unobserved liability to disease…

Read out loud version:… it is more difficult to think about heritability of a binary disease trait. By binary, I mean that we classify as being yes affected or no not affected. To estimate heritability we assume that there is an unobserved liability to disease…

Original written version:… to estimate heritability we assume that there is an unobserved liability to disease. For example, the medical condition hypertension is given to people with high blood pressure…

Read out loud version:… to estimate heritability we assume that there is an unobserved liability to disease. Let me try to explain what I mean by liability. For example, the medical condition hypertension is given to people with high blood pressure…

Original written version:… it seems reasonable to assume a normal distribution, because experience tells us that most things we measure have a normal distribution, and a normal distribution – with key features of being uni-modal and symmetric – is consistent with multiple underlying risk factors…

Read out loud version: … it seems reasonable to assume a normal distribution, because experience tells us that most things we measure do have a normal distribution, and a normal distribution. And the key feature of this distribution is uni-modal and symmetric. And this is consistent with many underlying risk factors…

Original written version: … just to be clear the analogy isn’t saying that schizophrenia and height have genetic risk variants in common…

Read out loud version: … just to be clear the analogy isn’t saying that schizophrenia and height have the same genetic risk factors…

You may have noticed that the text in red in the original written version has been naturally changed to be of a more conversational style when it is spoken out by the subject matter experts. They tend to modify the text when they are trying to convey the meaning of the content. They are different from voice-over artists because they know more about the subject matter and can easily pick up the right language to articulate in the natural way.

So do you think the text in blue is more learner friendly than that in red? I’d like to hear your opinion.

I will be presenting a self-paced online CPD program I recently developed in the MEDFAC E-Learning Showcase 2011. In my ten minute presentation, I will talk about:

• The background of the CCRE Anxiety Education Project
• The design methods, including how to work with a large SME team of 23 members to design peer-reviewed course content under the same framework
• The development process, using Articulate Studio, Text Aloud, Moodle, Adobe CS5, etc.
• The main features of the e-learning program including screenshots and a quick live pre-view of the actual program
• The future directions, including how to improve the process of CPD program development on a continuing basis

If you are interested in medical-related e-learning projects, you are welcome to attend this free event at New Law 026, University of Sydney, Camperdown Campus, at 12:30 on the 23rd of November 2011. This free event will be showcasing e-learning (broadly defined to include LMSs, multimedia, use of social media etc.) within Sydney Medical School – not just innovations but also work in progress, planned etc. The topics will include:

• Introducing LMS skills: a staged approach
• Using Adobe Connect for research consultations and troubleshooting
• Compass: Sydney Medical Program LMS
• Integrating e-portfolios, Blackboard and Compass
• E-learning modules for physiotherapists and junior clinicians for international (resource-poor) and local settings
• Internationalising your online course
• Using the i-pad to create dynamic lecture materials
• E-learning in Opthalmology using Ocean Browser
• Online OSCARS in Dentistry
• A self-paced program in psychiatry using Moodle and Articulate
• Using social media and webinars in student recruitment
• Computer‐based support for psychiatry
• Teaching/Learning Evidence Based Practice WITHOUT – PowerPoint, Quarbon, ‘Clickers’ and Blackboard
• E-learning strategic projects
• Mobile learning
• Researching e-learning in the Faculty

The full program can be downloaded here.

上个月，我拿了2周的年假，与家人一起去渡假。临放假之前，我交代一位日常负责行政管理的同事帮忙给我办公室里的花草浇水，因为她有每个人的办公室的钥匙。她问具体要求是什么，我就说大概两天浇一次就可以了。 渡假完毕回来上班的那天早上，我在办公室里发现一张小纸片。它让我十分感动，也让我对那位同事留下了非常良好的印象。帮忙浇花的这么一件小事，她可以管得非常妥当。 在那纸片上，她预先列出了每一次浇花的具体日期，每次她进我办公室浇花完毕后，就在相应的日期上打个勾。其中有一天本来是需要浇花的，是星期四（9月8日），但那天她请病假了，于是当她星期五（9月9日）回来的时候就把日期改了，马上补浇。 就是这么一件小事，它能透露出行政管理中的三个重要事项：

第一，有任务，但没有具体要求，就要把具体要求搞清楚，再行动；

第二，执行任务时，要有计划，有安排，有提醒，有监控，有记录；

第三，出现问题时，要灵活处理，尽可能作补救，努力继续按原计划执行任务。

做到这三点，进一步来说，还能意味着什么呢？——假如虽然按照要求浇花了，但是花死了，那么责任就不在于执行者身上，而在于决策者。这果然是拥有多年行政管理经验的人员的行事作风！与这样的同事一起工作，办事起来，我会感到很放心。 我们在日常的工作上和生活上做的各种小事都在给别人一种什么印象呢？这个小故事，值得大家借鉴！在此附上那张小纸片：

I was invited to give a presentation at the Informa E-Learning Summit in Melbourne last week. My talk covered the best practices for managing e-learning projects across multiple institutions, the instructional rationale behind the e-learning development, and the implications for enterprise architecture design. Below are the on-site voice recording and the PowerPoint slides. I look forward to a further discussion with those who are interested in this topic.

Click here if you prefer a full page view version

E-Learning Weekly近日发表了一篇文章，讲述适应2011年E-Learning发展趋势的E-Learning从业者所必需具备的5大技能。这5大技能分别是：

• 视频制作：使用基本的录制设备和视频编缉软件制作视频文件。
• 社交媒体：灵活运用各种社交网络媒体。
• 移动开发：开发适合移动设备（如手机、平板电脑）使用的版本，并进一步发展到移动学习活动的设计。
• 平面设计：搜索并购买恰当的图片（或使用带共同创作授权的图片），并使用平面设计软件作修改处理。
• 快速开发：使用快速快速开发工具，开发E-Learning课程；但这并不意味着“快速设计”可以被省略，快速开发需要体现教学理论和学习规律。

此外，还有4项高级技能，能进一步提升你在这个行业里的价值：

• 项目管理：一个E-Learning项目从最初的构思，到设计，到开发，到测试、到市场推广，再到升级换代…… 你需要控制和优化真个流程，降低成本，提高效率！
• 写作能力：一个E-Learning项目里设计的各种文字性材料的书写能力——项目报告、课程文本、多媒体制作的脚本等。
• 分镜脚本：使用分镜脚本规划整个E-Learning课程，帮助开发人员与内容专家的沟通，以它为蓝图开发整个E-Learning课件。
• 快速样品：把一个构思或初始计划快速地转化为样品，及时与内容专家以及客户沟通确认，使产品与整个团队不同角色的人员之间的期望和理解保持一致。

总而言之，E-Learning这个行业，需要其从业人员掌握多项跨领域、跨层次的职业技能。仅仅有教学设计的技能已经远远不足以应付E-Learning的发展，教学设计不等于E-Learning设计。E-Learning产业仍在高速发展，它对从业人员的要求也在不断变化。紧跟时代步伐，提升自我，是成功的关键！

If you are using Articulate Studio to develop your interactive e-learning course and using an LMS to host the courseware, you may want to do a poll and survey on relevant topics within the course in order to promote the students’ participation and interests. If you would like to embed a poll or a survey within an Articulate presentation, you may firstly think of using Articulate Quizmaker to develop the survey questions.

However, many people are concerned about the reporting function of Articulate Quizmaker. With Articulate Quizmaker, you can develop graded quizzes or non-graded surveys. If you set the questions types as survey, you would find it difficult to deal with the reporting process. Firstly, you will not able to track the survey report unless you have an Articulate Online subscription; secondly, you are not able to let the students view the status immediately after they submit their answers; and thirdly, your mail box will be bombed if you set to receive e-mails of individual survey submission and you will find it time-consuming to transfer the data from the e-mails to the spreadsheet.

After several tries, my conclusion is that Articulate Quizmaker 09 is not suitable for developing survey or poll. if you are using an LMS to host your Articulate courseware, why not embed the poll and survey function of the LMS into your presentations? Here is any example:

I’m using Moodle to host the Articulate presentations that I’m developing. In Moodle, there is an activity called “Choice” which enable the students to select one item from a list and to view the report showing the ratio of choices of the whole class. There is also a plugin called “Feedback” which has more question types for you to choose from. On the other hand, Articulate Presenter 09 can embed “Web Object” into presentations. I’m using this function to embed the Choice and Feedback in the presentations. It works well! Here is the procedure:

1. You will need to set up the Choice or Feedback first in the course.
2. Once the poll or survey is set up, you should have a link of the poll or survey page within your Moodle system.
3. Copy the link.
4. Switch to your Articulate presentation, click “Web Object”.
5. Paste the link on the Web Object dialogue, and click “OK”.
6. Publish your Articulate presentation and upload to Moodle as a SCORM package.

The above example is an introduction to a unit of 4 modules. We asked the students to watch a video clip and do a poll to make them think whether a person’s anxiety can be judged by his/her appearance. Once the students make their choice, they will be prompted the poll result.  Then the lecturer will continue to give further explanation afterward.

一中邮协能 给我带来什么？

江门一中集 邮协会第11届理事会秘书长兼网管    何文超

一中邮协能给我带来什么？相信这个问题，是很多同学初次接触邮协正想加入的时候会问的问题。有一些好处，是比较明显的，比如可以丰富课余生活、增长 见识、培养集邮兴趣、与志趣相投的会员们交朋友等等。然而，在我离开江门一中七年后的今天再回想当时我参加邮协工作的事情的时候，我就忽然想到，邮协给我 带来的，岂止这些？邮协还给我带来许许多多具有深远意义的能受用一生东西！而这些东西，却恰恰只留给想着“我能给邮协带来什么？”的人。我相信一中邮协这 个大家庭里，有许许多多这样的人。正因为有了这么多得力的会员、理事干部和校友的支持，邮协才得以不断地成长和壮大。值江门一中集邮协会成立二十周年之 际，我想对我至今所领悟到和体会到的我参与邮协工作的经历所带给我的受用一生的东西进行一次总结：

1、责任感

一般来说，每个人的责任感应该是随着年龄的增长而越发明显的，这是因为年龄的增长意味着我们从校园走到社会，从被父母呵护走到对父母照料，从被社会 教育走到被社会洗礼。然而，当你还是学生的时候，就在一个与社会有紧密联系的学生社团里，承担责任，完成任务，你的责任感会比同龄人提前地提升。

七年前我曾经尝试回避一个问题，就是参与学生社团是否会影响学习。当时的我会说，社团活动可以促进学习，因为我们得到了休息，从而提高学习效率；或 者说，知识面的增大，有利于学习的某些方面。但是，如果现在要我再次回答这个问题，我可以负责任地说，参加社团活动，至少从时间占用上，一定会影响学习。 在中学阶段，只要参与课外活动，都必须占用你的时间和精力，这一定会与正常的学习有冲突的。然而，一个人的责任感，就是在这种冲突里慢慢培养而成的，如果 错过了，就很难再找回在中学阶段培养责任感的环境。

诚然，责任感可以通过语文课、政治课、历史课渗透，但这始终不及自己的亲身经历深刻。当我成为邮协理事会成员并需要承担特定工作任务时，我知道我要 对这个协会负责；当我意识到我正在占用学习时间来参加邮协工作的时候，我知道我需要对我的学业负责；当班主任找我谈话说担心社团工作影响学习时，我知道我 要对班级和学校的升学率负责；当我在周末和假期出外参加邮协会议和活动而父母却担心我的人身安全和交友状况时，我知道我要对家庭负责；当我组织邮协出外到广州中大进行交流活动时，我知道我要对会员们的安全负责；当我在现场主持活动时，我知道我 要对整个场面的控制负责；当我设计和维护邮协网站时，我知道我要对网站的内容、声誉、安全等方面负责；甚至当我安排邮协换届并提出从我们第十一届开始，换届要签合同时，我知道我正在做的事情，是对邮协的未来负 责！一中邮协是一个具有比较完整的体系的中学生社团组织，在中学时代的大背景下，你在其中参与的程度越高，你的责任感就被提升得越多。一旦离开了这个土 壤，哪怕是到了大学，你也很难再找到这种天时地利人和来配合你的责任感的提升。

2、意志力

我们的意志力不是与生俱来的，它是需要在社会实践活动中逐渐培养锻炼出来的。意志力对于一个人的一生的成功，起到非常重要的作用！我们的中学教育， 为我们设下许许多多的学习和升学目标，我们的意志力可以在这种情况下得到锻炼。当我们为了实现一个又一个目标而克服困难和排除干扰，并最终获得成功的时 候，我们会相信，我们的付出没有白费。你下次会继续以强大的意志力作为后盾，实现你的短期、中期和长期的目标。

那么，我为什么说一中邮协磨练了我的意志力呢？我们要知道，在中学阶段里，我们有很多目标是一个大环境给定下来的，比如我们需要尽一切努力完成学习 任务，考取好成绩。这些目标，不一定完全是我们作为学生从心底处愿意去为之奋斗的，但是我们必须把它作为主要目标去奋斗。而参与社团活动，则是完全自愿 的，并且是根据个人兴趣而决定参与的程度。在一中邮协里，我们可以自主决定是作为普通会员参加，还是竞选成为理事会成员并为会员服务。可以说，在中学环境 里，社团活动里的目标，永远是属于次要的目标。当我们为了发自内心的兴趣，权衡利弊，采取行动，我们需要有强大的意志力去支撑这个次要目标。特别是当我们 成为邮协理事会成员，要承担这个江门一中最大的学生社团的管理工作时，我们需要迫使自己提高学习效率，在为主要目标奋斗之余，安排时间完成社团工作。次要 目标的生存，需要我们承受和抵挡来自班主任、来自家长、来自同学（特别是成绩超过自己的同学）、以及来自自身的压力，坚持自己的兴趣爱好。当时我也看到， 有些同学曾经接触过和参与过邮协的活动，但后来权衡了利弊，最终还是选择放弃了很多进一步参与的机会；我同时也看到，有些会员，积极地投身到协会事务上， 并争取加入理事会。无论最终结果如何，作为学生，我们的意志力都在这个过程中，得到进一步的磨练，因为我们在思想斗争之下，认清自己该走的路，并继续走下 去了。

3、团队精神

中学教育的整体格局，是培养拔尖人才的。每一个学生，都只对其自己的成绩负责。中学的评价体系里，不存在为了共同的成绩，而开展小组的合作。到了最 后，是千军万马过独木桥，每个学生都在为自己争取获得更好的升学机会。在这种环境下，能培养团队精神的机会，非常少。不可否认，我们的大学教育，已经通过 在正式课程里利用各种小组合作项目，来为我们补课，希望我们能够在经过中学教育的洗礼之后，还能重新把团队精神培养起来。但是，如果有一种情况，使我们在 中学里，就把这种对我们将来的事业发展非常重要的品质培养起来，我们一定可以赢在起跑线上！

一中邮协是一个非常讲究团队精神的组织。我们当时之所以能够有条不紊地把多个活动办下来，例如2008申奥之夜守望晚会、中大邮协交流活动、在美国罗夫高中访问期间举办的“江山如此多娇”邮展并出售加盖纪念戳的邮品活动、江门集邮会员之星大赛等，从构思策划、任务分配、任务执行、现场管理、事后总结宣传，一环扣一环，都离不开同 学们和老师们的通力合作，我们还得到前任理事会成员的顾问支持。可以说，一中邮协不是一个小打小闹的临时聚在一起的人群，它是能够让你切身感受到，只有团 队精神才能支撑起来的一个具有强大生命力的系统。当我们能够在中学阶段里就已经培养了团队精神，或者至少已经有了这方面的启蒙，这对我们将来整个人生，特 别是事业的发展，都具有非常重要的意义！

除了责任感、意志力和团队精神，邮协还给我带来了经营意识——如何为邮协创收，保障收支平衡；风险意识——如何保证活动的顺利进行，防止不利因素的 发生；市场意识——如何让邮协成为学生社团里的佼佼者，吸引更多同学的参与……可以说，这些素质，对我中学以后的学习、工作和生活都非常有利。我也相信， 这也是邮协可以给用心参与和真诚投入到邮协工作中的每一位成员，带来的受用一生的财富！在这里，值江门一中集邮协会成立二十周年之际，我衷心祝愿邮协蒸蒸 日上，继续为江门一中的学生，提供一个发展个人兴趣爱好、培养和调高自身素质的大好舞台！

On 1 April 2010, I was invited to go back to University of Wollongong, where I earned my Master Degree in ICT, to give a speech to the IT students who are doing the “Enterprise Architecture Design” course. I used my personal experiences as examples to convey a peice of very important message: the skill of enterprise architecture design can be ultised in various aspects at work and it is pretty useful for an IT graduate’s career development. Below is the slides that I used for the talk. You are welcome to download it.

Click here to download the PowerPoint file

On 1st May,2006, 23 members of Philatelist Association of Jiangmen No.1 High School went on a tour of Zhuhai, with Mr. Cai Ruosong’s & Chen Yingqi,their senior fellow apprentice’s piloting. They mainly visited Sun Yet-sen University Zhuhai Campus, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai and a famous statuary named “Zhuhai Fisher Girl”. As a former member of the association and now studying in Zhuhai, I’m so glad to receive my guests and to be their guide. Having seen my old friend Yingqi, my former Physics teacher Mr. Cai and the recent sessions of leaders, I felt excited, joyful, freindly and genial. Their short stay brought me to a world of secondary-school-times memory, in which I saw my teachers and classmates in secondary school, and remembered various circumstances there…

the Library of Sun Yet-sen University Zhuhai Campus

Yingqi and I

the statue of Sun Yet-sen

The longest teaching building in Asia

Mr. Cai and me in front of “Zhuhai Fisher Girl”

The hall of the library of Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai

The school motto of BNU—Learn to teach,Behave to guide!

Name Stones of BNUZ

At the night of Mid-autumn Day, other colleges held their own prosperous activities. But our college was just founded this year, and at the moment we don’t have any senior collegemate who may prepare for the festival better. So we these new students held small parties by class. However, we still enjoyed ourselves! Instead of just keeping seeing the performances quietly, most of our class participated in the the performances and the games. I think such a small lively party is better than those with big stages held by other colleges. Now please enjoy the photos taken in our party.

Lin Xiaofeng and Tan Zhenxian sang “Friend” together with “bottle microphones”.

It’s a game named Passing Happiness. From one to another, they used body language to express a word given to the first one by the host and the last one should guest what the word exactly was.

Passing Happiness too! We invited our teacher to our game. Do you know what she was expressing?—-”Chang Er flying

to the moon”, a Chinese expression.

A little foreign child came across our party. He Zhenzheng allured him by a piece of candy, but failed.

Wang Zhen made up a dance of Dai Nation with other 2 girls within 1 day. After they finished it, they picked some of us to dance following them. Mr Robert Smith, our foreign teacher, saw they were teaching us to dance and felt interest, so he joined us too.

Oh! Mr Smith`s desire of performing was so strong that he kept dancing while others had stopped.

The party was over. Take a photo of the whole class as a souvenir! Tell you a secret: our class was just founded 4 days ago.