Feature Tour
On this page
- Basic Text Editing
- Add Images
- Add Audio/Video/Media
- Add a Style
- Preview a Lesson
- Annotate Text
- Interactive Self-Check Questions
- Learning Games and Activities
- Print Friendly HTML
- Package a Lesson
Basic Text Editing
LessonBuilder opens with a blank document displayed. Simply click your cursor in the editing window and begin typing – just as if you were using your favorite word processing program.
You may also copy and paste formatted text from Microsoft® Word, html documents, or web pages into LessonBuilder, and the formatting is preserved!
You will find most of the standard text editing features in LessonBuilder, including font and type size selection, as well as support for styling, color, bullets and tables. You can also easily create hyperlinks to web pages, documents, or other lessons.
Add Images
Adding images to a LessonBuilder lesson is easy. Click the “Insert Image” icon on the toolbar to display the dialog window. Then, navigate to and select any “web-ready” image (jpg, gif, png) on your computer.
You may preview the image while making your selections. The dialog window allows you to modify image settings such as alignment, height/width, and to add descriptive information to accompany the image.
Add Audio/Video/Media
You may embed audio, video, and other media, or create media links within your lesson. LessonBuilder supports many media types, including mpg, avi, wmv, mov, wav, mp3, ram, aiff, as well as Flash and Shockwave files.
Add a Style
To enhance your lesson with a professional-looking “style”, simply select from more than sixty different lesson styles. LessonBuilder also supports “custom styles”, developed specifically for the institution that wants a “branded look” for their lesson content.
If you have created a multi-page lesson with LessonBuilder, applying a style to your lesson enables LessonBuilder to automatically create page navigation between lesson pages. In addition, you may choose from a variety of navigation, layout, and Table-of-Contents options.
Preview a Lesson
At any time while you are editing a lesson, you may use the “Preview” feature to see how the lesson will look to students in their web browser. Simply click the Preview Button, and LessonBuilder displays the lesson in your default web browser.
If you have applied a “style” to your lesson, you can use Preview to see the results of your Style selections in a web browser.
The lesson displayed above is an example of a LessonBuilder lesson to which a “Style” has been added.
Annotate Text
Pop-up text annotations in your document can be used to define terms, provide related information to the student, or as an interactive question and response activity.
Creating pop-up text annotations anywhere in your document is quick and easy with LessonBuilder. Simply highlight the text you wish to annotate, then select “Insert Textpopper” from the Insert Menu. Fill in the dialog wi
Interactive Self-Check Questions
Use LessonBuilder’s QuizPopper to add in-line comprehension questions to your lesson.
QuizPopper questions can be added anywhere in your lesson. For example, include a quiz question after a content section to allow the student to test their understanding of the lesson material.
There are six types of questions: true/false, multiple choice, multiple answer, short answer, ordering, and matching.
Students receive immediate feedback after answering questions, and quiz results may be sent directly into your Learning Management System’s gradebook if your LMS supports SCORM.
Learning Games and Activities
Use the ActivityBuilder to add interactive games and other learning activities to your lesson.
Activities include customizable image maps, matching, sorting and ordering activities, cross-words and flashcards.
Creating an activity that is customized with your content takes only minutes. Simply choose “Insert Activity” from LessonBuilder’s Insert Menu. Then, fill in the dialog window with the information you wish to include in the activity.
Activities make learning fun and help to increase information retention.
Print Friendly HTML
LessonBuilder automatically creates a "print friendly" Lesson style for your document. This allows students to easily print LessonBuilder lessons from their web browser.
When students view your lesson in their web browser, they can use the browser's print function to print the lesson. The "Print Friendly" style ensures that the page will print correctly and that text will not run off the edge of the printed page.
Package a Lesson
After completing a lesson, use LessonBuilder’s Package feature to package the lesson into a “zip” file or a SCORM package for easy portability to a web site, or import into most Learning Management Systems.
A packaged lesson can be easily put into a course management system such as Blackboard or WebCT. And you can easily share the packaged lesson with colleagues.
Images in this lesson were used courtesy of the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health. http://www.nei.nih.gov
