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I have created a "Virtual Campus" to help train novice web designers on using CSS and making custom themes/templates for the phpWebSite Content Management System.
http://www.itwebsolution.com/catalog/vcampus.php
I have two questions:
1) Is this an effective way of teaching over the Internet?
2) Do you think advertisers would be willing to pay for 15 - 30 second commercials dropped somewhere in the course?
Thanks,
Ian
I've used many only vid tutorials my favorites being http://lynda.com and http://vtc.com Both of these I like a great deal and often times find it a much faster method of learning than text. I've used both extensively. However they all use a pay model not an advertising model. Honestly I wish they would provide an advertising model simply because $20-$26 a month can get quite expensive. Also Lynda.com uses the source files kind of hanging over your head meaning send us more money or buy the discs or no source. Whereas on VTC the source files are available on the download pages.
EDIT: I should also note that I've never seen them done in flash. I've only seen them in Quicktime. I've checked yours out and I dont see any real quality degredation from Quicktime. I think you need a slider/scroller to move back and forth throughout the movie though
Those are interesting sites... I just don't know how much patience I would have to order a CDROM and then have to wait.
I am thinking of making my movies downloadable with an interactive link to an advertiser built in. Displaying the movies on my web site is creating amazing "stickness" as folks stay for 10 - 20 minutes to watch a film. During that time, I could flash all sorts of ads at them, or even better, just "pause for a commercial break" during the presentation - like just after I say, "so let's take a look at what this does..." <Shop now at yadda yadda for great deals> "and now back to our show.."
I think that would make for pretty compelling advertising. It follows the tried and true TV format with the added bonus of getting the shopper to actually make the buy decision right there on the spot. I have had over 100 people a day come to my site to watch these videos, but I don't have an effective mechanism to measure their satisfaction with the learning material...
These sites do provide an online subscription based model meaning NO CD!
Far as the advertising goes. If you've got too much you're going to scare away the people you really want there. Where I work the game of fighting with the ad reps over where they can place positions on our site can be very dog eat dog simply because we have an uderstanding that too much is just going to run people off.
As far as a rating system goes you could always just provide a section at the end of your flash movie using components that asks the user to rate their experience on the tutorial they just completed. And collect that data in a database. That you can use to address user issues.
> 1) Is this an effective way of teaching over the Internet?
Let me answer from my personal experience. I watch webcasts (audio/video programs) on the internet all the time. You can learn a lot. With that, if something like discussion forum is available and you can ask and answer questions; you can learn a lot there.
> 2) Do you think advertisers would be willing to pay for 15 - 30 second commercials dropped somewhere in the course?
I think so; webcasts that ZDNet hosts (http://itpapers.zdnet.com/webcasts/) are like lectures. They do exactly what you suggest; they play commercials every 10 - 15 minutes or so. The question here is not "Advertisers will be willing to pay?" but "How much does it cost to create and provide kind of online lectures that you plan and how much do you need to get from advertisers to generate revenue?"
Well I took a class on Cisco (CCNA) and the entire two years curriculum is built on Flash 5 technology.
from what i've seen of online tutorials, if they are long they have that "buffering" thing a couple of times. maybe you could divide your movies up into segments, and after one finishes and the next is loading, have the preloader displayed with an advertising banner above it. b/c thats just wasted time anyway, might as well use it to make money
Bill Erickson
New Media Entrepreneur
I agree with you. The preloading time shold be utilized this way...Originally Posted by MG315
We've made a few Flash-based tutorials here at work to train salespeople on the CRM software they are supposed to use. The response was very good, almost all of the salespeople and sales support people enjoyed it. We chose it because it was the fastest way to develop a tutorial, we can keep them archived online for the salespeople's reference (i.e. if a new salesperson comes on board we just have to point them to the URL now, rather than train someone new every few weeks), and loading time for Flash files was minimal compared to video. It can be done very well (and to rave reviews) if you do it right. Just be sure your presentation gets to the heart of the matter and isn't too "glitzy".
Here's a link to the software we used in creating our Flash-based tutorials. It used to be called FlashCam but now it's called RoboDemo.
http://www.ehelp.com/products/robodemo/
is flash hard to get to grips with or is it just me?!
All the other macromedia tools i would say i know -WELL- apart from FLASH !! i have had no teachin in any of them or any other program and eventually i get to grips with them all after some messing but i just cant seam to do anything with flash. Just me or IS it actually a much harder program to master then things like DW, Fireworks and photoshop -Thanks
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