Using Open-Source Blogs (and other Low-Cost Tools) to Create Video-Based eLearning Modules. Stephen Mau Website & eNewsletter Communications The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario Download this presentation at:

Workshop Description H ave you got some video from a conference or workshop that you'd like to turn into online learning modules? Have you got little or no budget to accomplish this? In this workshop you will see how easy it is to install Wordpress and/or Simple PHP Blog with a low-cost hosting provider, and then use these to create interactive online learning modules. This session also demonstrates the use of low-cost tools for creating and displaying web-standard FLV videos on your blog site.

Workshop Agenda 1.About ETFO & Me 2.ETFO Microsites – examples 3.Tools Used 4.Installing Wordpress 5.Favourite WP plug- ins & software 6.Simple PHP Blog 7.Converting & posting FLV videos 8.Questions

About ETFO  The professional and protective organization representing 73,000 public elementary teachers and education workers (K -8) in the province of Ontario  Provides the following services: Collective Bargaining Professional Counselling Equity & Women’s Services Professional Development

About Me  Professional teacher  Began teaching online 10 years ago  Learned some web design  Love wizards & WYSIWYG interfaces Why code if you don’t have to?  Eclectic use of simple tools to create nice products  Became an e-Learning consultant, then web content person  Not a developer, a content person with power-user skills.

Past Limiters  Moving beyond HTML-based sites Complicated install process for CMS No knowledge of setting up a MySQL database with tables, etc.  Wordpress Limited knowledge of CSS and PHP Made it difficult to find the right theme for a site.  The planets have aligned!

ETFO Microsites  Main website:  Have begun releasing microsites on Wordpress platform:  Plan to release more.

CMS Tools  Wordpress: Highly extensible blog and publishing platform Many plugins Requires MySQL database  Artisteer for Wordpress Approx. $150 Create custom themes without knowing PHP or CSS!!!

CMS Tools (2)  Simple PHP Blog Fewer plugins MySQL not required – flat file database  WS-FTP LE download FTP software to move files to server

Inexpensive Hosting   1&1 Business Package $9.99 per month 250 GB space Monthly transfer volume: 2500 GB Unlimited domains (3 included) 50 MySQL databases with admin panel  Deploy multiple sites with unique domain names on 1 hosting package!

Video Applications  Adobe Premiere Elements About $100  JW Player Free for non-profits Includes a setup wizard for flashvars – outputs to swfobject 1.5 or embed code Need to use another app to create FLVs

Video Applications (2)  CoffeeCup Web Video Player $39, updates for life Converts videos to FLVs Player displays directory of different FLVs Different skins included  Easy FFmpeg: ‘Swiss army knife of video converters’ Open-source Not GUI-based

Wordpress Install  Steps: Create MySQL database in 1&1 admin panel Purchase domain name, attach to folder on site, or create sub-domain Download WP, modify one file with db info FTP WP files to website folder Configure admin settings Add plug-ins, create custom template Slide 23

WordPress Famous 5 Minute Install 1.Unzip the package in an empty directory. 2.Open up wp-config-sample.php with a text editor like WordPad or similar and fill in your database connection details. 3.Save the file as wp-config.php 4.Upload everything. 5.Open /wp-admin/install.php in your browser. This should setup the tables needed for your blog. If there is an error, double check your wp-config.php file, and try again. If it fails again, please go to the support forums with as much data as you can gather./wp-admin/install.phpsupport forums 6.Note the password given to you. 7.The install script should then send you to the login page. Sign in with the username admin and the password generated during the installation. You can then click on 'Profile' to change the password.login page

1&1 MySQL Set Up Information  Database name: db  Hostname: db1907.perfora.net  Port: 3306  Username: dbo  Password: *******  Description: Devcon  Version: MySQL 5.0  Status: setup started

wp-config-sample.php File // ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** // /** The name of the database for WordPress */ define('DB_NAME', 'putyourdbnamehere'); /** MySQL database username */ define('DB_USER', 'usernamehere'); /** MySQL database password */ define('DB_PASSWORD', 'yourpasswordhere'); /** MySQL hostname */ define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); /** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */ define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8'); /** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */ define('DB_COLLATE', ''); SAVE AS: wp-config.php

Favourite Plug-ins Plug-inDescription Events CalendarDynamic calendar Cforms IIForm to mail builder NextGen GalleryFlash photo albums Si CaptchaCaptcha codes to avoid spam WP-dTreeMulti-level collapsible menuing StatPressWebsite statistics

Plug-in Installation 1.Download plug-in from WP site 2.Unzip file to create plug-in folder 3.Upload folder to /wp-content/plugins/ 4.Login to admin panel, turn on under Plugins 5.Configure Slide 28

Changing Themes  Download themes, modify  Contract out  Artisteer software ***

Artisteer Themes - Steps 1.Generate theme in Artisteer 2.Export theme in WordPress format 3.Upload to /wp-content/themes/ 4.Select theme in admin panel Slide 33

Simple PHP Blog - Install 1.Download and unzip the.zip file 2.FTP files to your web server 3.Visit the index.php page 4.Follow on screen instructions Example: Slide 37

FLV Video - Method 1  Export MPEG, AVI, WMV, MOV to FLV using: Adobe Premiere Elements (if editing required) Easy FFmpeg CoffeeCup Web Video Player  Use JW Player to display FLV in page or blog post Uses a SWF file to display player for FLV file Online wizard to generate flashvars & embed HTML code

FLV Video - Demo  Convert an AVI using CoffeeCup  Upload FLV to  JW Player Wizard: t/jw-player-setup-wizard t/jw-player-setup-wizard  Embed code in blog page/post

FLV Video – Method 2  Use CoffeeCup Web Video Player Converts video formats to FLV Creates a SWF package to display in page  Includes SWF, FLV, images, HTML file in output  Use inline tag to display html file in a blog page or post  Or use FLV file with JW Player to display Can create an index with many videos

Questions/Comments?  Thanks for attending!  Contact me if you have questions: > Contact