<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<pre wrap="">I've started a chapter here.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://booki.flossmanuals.net/audacity/_edit/">http://booki.flossmanuals.net/audacity/_edit/</a>
Feel free to comment on the email list or in edits to the chapter. I'll be able to spend a bit more time on this next week.
nice one
Mick
</pre>
<h1>Notes for new version of Audacity Manual<br>
</h1>
<p><b>Overall notes.</b></p>
<p>My impression (mick speaking) is that we don't want to replicate
the completeness of the online manual at audacity - <a
href="http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/">http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/</a>
- 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 </p>
<p>* part of the narrative as an end of section recap <br>
</p>
<p>* appendices<br>
</p>
<p>* a separate activity workbook (separate manual)</p>
<p> 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. </p>
<p><b>Open Badges </b><br>
</p>
<p>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<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/tutorials.html">http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/tutorials.html</a></p>
<p>Let's take a simple one as an example. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/tutorial_editing_an_existing_file.html">http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/tutorial_editing_an_existing_file.html</a></p>
<p>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. </p>
<p> There are some aspects that could be stripped out to make the
activity more simple. </p>
<p>So first question. Is this one badge or is it 5 badges one for
each skill used. <br>
</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>Second question is how do you test the knowledge. Here are some
options</p>
<p><b>Quiz.</b> You take information from the previous chapters and
ask questions which can be answered as multiple choice. <br>
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 <b><i>uncompressed</i></b>
format. </p>
<p>a) because I don't care about the sound quality</p>
<p>b) because I want the file to be small enough to fit on a usb
drive</p>
<p>c) because I want to maintain as high sound quality for the file
as I can</p>
<p>Other examples could be What is a waveform, etc. <br>
</p>
<p><b>Honesty Check of skills based on activity:</b></p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>Example: </p>
<p>To have completed this activity you should have completed the
following tasks and demonstrated these skills. </p>
<ul>
<li>Did you successfully use the Open > File dialogue box to
import a file into Audacity? [tickbox]</li>
<li>Did you use the 'transport toolbar' <img class="" alt=""
src="cid:part1.01030205.07010208@clearerchannel.org"
align="middle" height="51" width="300"> to successfully Play,
pause, stop, skip to start and skip to end of the file. </li>
<li>Did you use the Zoom In and Zoom Out functions to get a closer
look at the waveform of the audio</li>
<li>Did you use the Select tools and the Trim function to choose
one part of the file and get rid of the rest?</li>
<li>Did you use the Export function to export the edited audio to
a compressed audio file (mp3 or ogg) <br>
</li>
</ul>
<p>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'</p>
<p> 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. </p>
<p>Ok so that is what I've come up with so far. Feedback would
definitely be appreciated. (mick speaking)<br>
</p>
<p><b>General Audacity Manual structure notes </b><br>
</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p> 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.</p>
<p>Maybe we could arrange the meat of the manual into three
sections. </p>
<p>* Getting Started</p>
<p>* Taking it further<br>
</p>
<p>* Advanced Use</p>
<p>There could be one or two activities at the end of each section
which test skills and could be badged. <br>
</p>
<p><b>Updating exisiting Audacity Manual chapters notes </b></p>
<p>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. <br>
</p>
<p>Here is a summary... <br>
</p>
<p><b>Install</b> The install screenshots could do with updating but
you could probably get away with a little tweak.
</p>
<p>The<b> Interface </b>also needs updating but I think could be
replaced with a summary and linking out to the online manual<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/menu_reference.html">http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/menu_reference.html</a></p>
<p>(this review needs completing) <br>
</p>
<p> <br>
</p>
<p> <br>
</p>
<br>
</body>
</html>