[FM Discuss] Book Sprint Badges

Wed Apr 25 03:42:09 PDT 2012

so i tested other manuals and they gen PDFS

when I look at CSound I see that there is an image in the h1 of the 
first chapter.

That will cause issues

so I think it might be the format of the manuals that are causing issues

can you check that:
1. all chapters have ONE h1
2. that h1 is at the top
3. there are no odd html elements nested in others

then i can test again

adam

On 04/25/2012 12:25 PM, John Curwood wrote:
> I'm a bit late joining this conversation, but it is really exciting
> stuff. So I wanted to add my two cents.
>
> On 16/04/12 22:00, adam wrote:
>> ah Mick, you are so rockn...
>>
>>>
>>> Notes for new version of Audacity Manual
>>>
>>> *Overall notes.*
>>>
>>> My impression (mick speaking) is that we don't want to replicate the
>>> completeness of the online manual at audacity -
>>> http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/ - rather we want a linear
>>> book like summary of the most vital parts of this to fit into a 100 -200
>>> page book, which can be the base for a course, and can be supplemented
>>> with activities. How do these activities fit in? They could be
>>>
>>> * part of the narrative as an end of section recap
>>>
>>> * appendices
>>>
>>> * a separate activity workbook (separate manual)
>>>
>>> I like the idea of having the activities as end of section recaps. Again
>>> it sets us apart as offering something different, something that you can
>>> print off, read as an ebook, and work through.
> I agree with this point, at work we run a number of seminars and
> webinars. The workbooks for these have exercises and informal quizzes
> after each section and the participants always respond well to these.
>
>>
>> ok, so immediately I start to think about how cohesive this will look
>> over the entire FM and what it is we are trying to achieve. Firstly,
>> anyone can structure a book as they like. We cant change that (and
>> dont want to) so, if we make the badges part of the general philosophy
>> and structure of fm manuals i think :
>> 1. its not the general philosophy of fm to explicitly (as would be
>> needed with activities at the end of sections) dictate a structure for
>> manuals
>> 2. Fm is not P2PU and we should not try to be. We are Fm. We make free
>> manuals for free software. The badges are added value and not the core
>> point.
>>
>> So to me it would make sense if we did not require a structure for
>> manuals but added activities in some other way. For example:
>> 1. as another site
>> 2. as an extra page in fm (like read/write/remix)
>> 3. as a tab in the html version of manuals ('badge activities')
>> 4. as a collection of badge workbooks which potentially even replicate
>> the contents of existing manuals but have extra badge activities
> I agree with this, The basic manual is on FM and then if people want to
> develop the badges, that material or page can be added to the manual.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> *Open Badges *
>>>
>>> With reference to Open Badges how best would this fit in to the manual?
>>> The activities are probably going to be very similar in content (but
>>> simplified) versions of these tutorials
>>> http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/tutorials.html
>>>
>>> Let's take a simple one as an example.
>>> http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/tutorial_editing_an_existing_file.html
>>>
>>>
>>> This covers the following task; open an audio file, trim it add a fade
>>> as save it again. It need the following skills, use open file dialogue
>>> and navigate to audio file, use zoom tool, use selection tool to cut a
>>> section of audio, use fade effect, export file to mp3.
>>>
>>> There are some aspects that could be stripped out to make the activity
>>> more simple.
>>>
>>> So first question. Is this one badge or is it 5 badges one for each
>>> skill used.
>>
>> This is an extremely good question and goes directly to the heart of
>> the issue. I would say we could break this down to stages as general
>> guiding principles for FM badges. Something like:
>> A. Understanding of this software
>> B. Basic core functionality use
>> C. Advanced use
>> D. Wizard
>>
>> We could also have a special badge :
>> 5. Workshop Leader
>>
>> or some such...but make that last one hard to get
>>
>>
>> Its not going to work for all softwares but neither does a generic
>> structure for manuals work for all softwares. We can bend as needed.
>>
>> Then perhaps look at audacity and ask ourselves what skills constitute
>> each level. It is very generic I know but if we can get it more or
>> less right we have a structure we can use for other manuals and hack
>> as necessary.
>>
>> I know you are very experienced in workshops Mick and others on this
>> list are too. It would be good to get some more discussion on this
>> idea. I am by no means playing the benevolent dictator card here ;) so
>> im happy if this idea does not work but lets discuss this and other
>> approaches
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> If this group of skills is one badge, then I could imagine 3-6 other
>>> similar badges for Audacity; configuring your set up, multi track
>>> working, recording an audio report / narration over music, one to three
>>> 'advanced' topics.
>>>
>>> Second question is how do you test the knowledge. Here are some options
>>>
>>> *Quiz.* You take information from the previous chapters and ask
>>> questions which can be answered as multiple choice.
>>> Example: When you export your audacity project to a file you can save in
>>> different formats. Some are compressed and some are uncompressed. Why
>>> would you choose an */uncompressed/* format.
>>>
>>> a) because I don't care about the sound quality
>>>
>>> b) because I want the file to be small enough to fit on a usb drive
>>>
>>> c) because I want to maintain as high sound quality for the file as I
>>> can
>>>
>>> Other examples could be What is a waveform, etc.
>>>
>>> *Honesty Check of skills based on activity:*
>>>
>>> This check would be based on or an integral part of the activity. It is
>>> a question that checks if the reader has completed the task and has
>>> therefore demontrated the skills that are being tested / badged. These
>>> questions could be asked as a checklist at the end of the activity.
>>>
>>> Example:
>>>
>>> To have completed this activity you should have completed the following
>>> tasks and demonstrated these skills.
>>>
>>> * Did you successfully use the Open > File dialogue box to import a
>>> file into Audacity? [tickbox]
>>> * Did you use the 'transport toolbar' to successfully Play, pause,
>>> stop, skip to start and skip to end of the file.
>>> * Did you use the Zoom In and Zoom Out functions to get a closer look
>>> at the waveform of the audio
>>> * Did you use the Select tools and the Trim function to choose one
>>> part of the file and get rid of the rest?
>>> * Did you use the Export function to export the edited audio to a
>>> compressed audio file (mp3 or ogg)
>>>
>>> I think that by each box there should also be a link which says
>>> something like 'No - I couldn't do that, Click here to go back to help
>>> on how to 'Use the Transport Toolbar'
>>>
>>> In this way the user works through the activity, can go back to the
>>> original help chapters, and then when completed tick the boxes, in order
>>> to get their badge.
>>>
>>> Ok so that is what I've come up with so far. Feedback would definitely
>>> be appreciated. (mick speaking)
>>
>> not sure of the process because we must ask ourselves is the
>> accreditation is auto or if it is reviewed in some way.
>>
>> We could even have two levels of accreditation:
>> 1. honestly earned
>> 2. verified
>>
>> Same badge for each but slightly different 'accreditation'
>>
> Maybe have the basic skills earned by mostly honestly check activities
> and some multi choice questions, then require that activities for the
> advanced/wizard skills need to be verified. Of course this will mean
> that for such a course there is a person that does the verifying.
>> 1. is for those that go through the stages and get the badge by
>> themselves
>> 2. is for those that go through a peer reviewed or tutor reviewed
>> verification
>>
>> thoughts?
>>
>> (one last comment below on structure of audacity manual)
>>
>>
>>>
>>> *General Audacity Manual structure notes *
>>>
>>> For me it would also be good to rework the structure of the book. The
>>> key difference of the FM over the online manual is its linear nature.
>>> Let's work with that to make sure that the book is engaging.
>>>
>>> The What is Audio section is great but after that you have 40 pages of
>>> quite dry Install and Interface notes before getting to opening a file.
>>> Can we rework this order somehow to draw the reader in more? Maybe
>>> including full screenshots as part of the appendix.
>>>
>>> Maybe we could arrange the meat of the manual into three sections.
>>>
>>> * Getting Started
>>>
>>> * Taking it further
>>>
>>> * Advanced Use
>>>
>>> There could be one or two activities at the end of each section which
>>> test skills and could be badged.
>>>
>>> *Updating exisiting Audacity Manual chapters notes *
>>>
>>> I made some notes about changes that need to be made moving from version
>>> 1.2 to version 2 and the priorities. These are in the notes tab but I
>>> can't get to them right now.
>>>
>>> Here is a summary...
>>>
>>> *Install* The install screenshots could do with updating but you could
>>> probably get away with a little tweak.
>>>
>>> The*Interface *also needs updating but I think could be replaced with a
>>> summary and linking out to the online manual
>>> http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/menu_reference.html
>>>
>>> (this review needs completing)
>>
>>
>> I think install should go at the end. Its boring stuff if you know it,
>> and if you dont you can find it
> I also think the Interface section could go in the appendix, I often
> find the interface chapters pretty dry as well. Plus with most programs.
> the layout is fairly generic (or thought there are exceptions to this),
> so an interface chapter really only needs to be used as a reference.
>
> Cheers,
>
> John
>>
>>
>> adam
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>
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