When we rolled out Avallain Author version 4.12 three months ago, we included new gamification features to make learning more individualised and more fun. Now, it’s time to make sure learners of all ages and educational levels can use your learning content the way it was meant to be used: Avallain Author 4.13 introduces additional accessibility options as well as new ways in which content creators can individualise their materials to account for slower or very young learners.
New Gapfill Behaviour: “Tap Swap”
Do your learners use touchscreen devices? The new Tap Swap Gapfill behaviour for the Sequence Activity Type makes sure they can work efficiently by introducing the ability to quickly move items in the sequence in either direction. Tapping or clicking on an item makes two arrows appear which can then be used to move the activated object to the left or to the right without bringing the entire sequence into disarray.
This new behaviour is also ideal for very young learners without much experience navigating digital user interfaces: just tap on the item you want to move and then move it through the sequence, one step at a time. Then tap anywhere on the screen to hide the arrow buttons again: It’s as easy as A-B-C.
New Options for the Exams Timer
When it comes to preparing for exams, teachers may want to limit the time which learners are allowed to spend on solving the task at hand. After all, providing all students with exactly the same amount of time to solve a Learning Object makes exam preparations much more realistic and effective. With Avallain Author 4.13, content creators can now set either a hard time limit or a soft time limit:
- A hard time limit prevents learners from taking more than the allotted amount of time, automatically submitting the current state of a Learning Object once time has run out.
- A soft time limit notifies learners once they have reached the time limit. They can then choose to either submit their work or use additional time. Naturally, Avallain Author also keeps track of how much additional time learners have taken.
Content creators can fully customise the popup window which appears once the time limit has been reached. In addition, the format of the countdown clock can be customised and the allotted time for a Learning Object is reported in the End Result Screen.
Audio support when submitting a Learning Object
“Remember to check whether you have completed all tasks before submitting” – simple messages like this can now be recorded and stored as an audio file attached to a Learning Object. Once a learner clicks to submit, they are given the option to listen to the audio file before finalising their decision.
This is a great way of giving additional support to students, remind them of important things they may have forgotten, or simply make digital learning more fun, especially for very young learners. The audio message also helps learners who might not yet be able to read well enough to understand the written confirmation message.
More efficient content creation: Bulk apply
Content creators sometimes have to change option values for a specific subset of existing Learning Objects. Thus far, Avallain Author has allowed such changes to be applied to either a single Learning Object or all Learning Objects within a project. With Avallain Author 4.13, this is a thing of the past, as a new apply option popup now allows project managers to choose individually which Learning Objects to change. Several new options such as filtering by Work Packages or searching by ID or name ensure that content creators quickly find the Learning Objects which they want to select for changes. This speeds up the content production process significantly.
New shortcut: Republishing Learning Objects
Using the Auto Republish button in the Project Settings now opens up a popup window which allows republishing large numbers of Learning Objects simultaneously. Simply select the target environment and the Learning Objects you wish to republish. Click “republish” and once the background task has been completed, all of the Learning Objects will have been republished. You then receive an e-mail which lists all Learning Objects and their respective statuses.
New workflow enhancement: eBook hotspot: Learning dependency
When deleting a Learning Object that is connected to an external hotspot in an eBook, there is now a new dialogue popup which warns the user that the external hotspot will be removed, along with the Learning Object. When using the export button, the user receives an e-mail with the Learning Object dependency list, along with the eBook name, ID and title, the Learning Object’s name and the page number.
Enhancing education, one step at a time
Once again, the new version of Avallain Author includes lots of new options to further individualise learning while also making education more accessible for learners and easier to handle for content creators as well as teachers. “We’re continuously working on all aspects of Avallain Author, from technical improvements to additional individualised learning options,” says Max Bondi, Product Manager Avallain Author. “This time, we have focussed on providing accessibility options and giving content creators more flexibility and more efficient workflows. Let’s see how they use these new features to make their learning materials even better. As always, Avallain will take an active interest in our customers’ feedback and use it to develop new features for Avallain Author, due to be released in three months.”
