Creating Flashcards on H5P

The previous blog entry showed how to make a basic accordion style review tool on H5P. This entry will teach you how to use H5P to create online flashcards. The online flashcard tool is a great way to present a large amount of study material, as long as the material requires only a brief explanation or rationale. The process is a bit more complex than the accordion style list, but the outcome is much more customizable. Below is an example flashcard set to study commonly used medical abbreviations. Most of these cards are simply text on both sides. Cards 3 and 4 give examples of how to use audio and image clues on a flashcard set.

To create a flashcard set, start at the H5P content screen (you will need to create a free account) and select “dialog cards” from the drop down menu.

These first dialogue boxes will set the title for your project, the title that appears at the top of the card pile, and the general instructions for the card pile.

The first dialogue box for your card will determine what shows on the front of the card. The second dialogue box shows what will appear on the back of your card. Initially, you will only have one blank card. To add more cards, you must click the blue “add dialog” button on the left menu.

Card 3 is unique in that I added an audio clue to the card. To do this, scroll down until you see the section for “audio files” then click on the grey rectangle to upload your audio file. You can upload audio files with a URL or from uploading a saved MP3 from your computer. It’s also possible to record your own audio files to upload. It’s important to be aware of any copyrights your file may have, and to cite them properly. Citations will appear in the “Rights of Use” button on your flashcard set.

Card 4 is unique because it has a visual clue that appears on the card (images will appear on the front and back of the card). Images are uploaded just like audio files, except you will upload images under the “image” section. Just like audio files, be aware of the copyrights your image may have and cite them properly.

At the bottom of the page you will have the option to further edit actions and behaviors of the card deck. For this tutorial I left those options as default, but I encourage you to play with them and contact CON IT for any additional assistance you may need. You will also have the option of editing what buttons will appear on the final flash card deck. Once you are satisfied with your flashcard deck, click the pink “save” button. If you followed the directions posted here, you should end up with a deck identical to the one at the top of this blog post. For help configuring your deck, or assistance in implementing flashcards in your classes or study groups, please contact CON IT for additional assistance.

 

 

MobileYou Columbus – An App for All

How we came up with the idea

As grad entry students, we are required to take a community health course beginning in the summer of our second year in the program.  The class content is meant to cover the basics of community health nursing including public health, poverty and vulnerable populations, epidemiology and more nursing considerations for community care.  The content itself wasn’t particularly new or foreign to our class, but we were tasked with an open-ended, inquiry-based project that encouraged introspection and creativity…little did we know where such flexibility would take us.

Originally our team (Sarah-Jane Baserman772976de3c50d21babede5ba8e294cfd, Stephanie Bunker, Megan Miller-Lloyd, Hayley Townsend, and me) began the project with the intention of studying disease transmission through indirect contact with technology devices, but realized along the way that health management through mobile technology (or mHealth) was a new and exciting field of healthcare delivery that, as of yet, had not been extended to vulnerable populations.  We had to ask, though, is there even an arena to extend mHealth delivery to lower-income and vulnerable populations?  As it turns out, through evidence-based inquiry, not only is there an arena, but there is also a glaring need.  We found through our research that the use of smartphones is not only consistent throughout all socioeconomic statuses, but that lower-income individuals are more dependent on smartphones for internet access than others.

At this point, we thought, how can we demonstrate the possibilities for mHealth dissemination for vulnerable populations as part of our project?  It would be easy enough to put together a presentation explaining the need, but what would mHealth for the underprivileged look like?  Collaboratively we decided that a free, confidential mobile application detailing available services offered throughout the city could begin to fulfill this, as yet, unaddressed need.

How we generated it

Creating an app seems a simple-enough idea, but how could we – without technical expertise or experience – start to put together an app in just the few weeks allowed by the project?  Fortunately, asking the question with a realistic intention to follow through was just what we needed to begin.  After doing some very simple research on available options for constructing an app (and there are plenty out there!) we came across Buildfire.com – an app-building website that has pre-constructed templates with navigational tools.  The website was free to use, so we could create, dismantle, and refine as much as we wanted until the app took a form we were satisfied with.

Using resources gathered from our community health clinical experiences, we incorporated multiple menus that included food options (food pantries, free meals), healthcare options (free clinics, mental health resources etc.), shelters, clothing options, and much more.  The tools included in the app let users find resources either through a list or on a map, access the corresponding websites, email or call the resources directly, and even navigate to these destinations using Google Maps technology.  Once we saw the product we had created, using only our curiosities, our stubbornness to see the app through to fruition, and the resources we had gathered from our time in clinicals, we recognized that this could be much more than just a class project.  At this point, and based on the reception we had received from our instructor (Judy Donegan), our classmates, and the College of Nursing, we decided to publish the app.

Sample screenshot

Where we plan to go with it

We named our app MobileYou, and we see it as, hopefully, a beginning to something great that can extend to public health projects and communities throughout the country.  Recently we were featured on a local news broadcast which greatly improved our visibility within the Columbus community, and almost instantly we were contacted by multiple agencies in the city who wanted to know how they could appear on the app, or how we might work with them moving forward.

Our plan is to network with as many agencies and services as we can within the city to make the app as robust as possible.  Once there, we plan on conducting field testing in Columbus to determine the efficacy of the app and how it can be better refined for the ease of users.  If use of the app shows the promising results we anticipate, we plan on communicating with public health agencies and government organizations in other cities and states to broaden the reach of MobileYou and provide ease of access to resources for other users across Ohio and the country.

MobileYou is available for both Apple and Android platforms and can be downloaded directly from our website at:

http://www.mobileyoucolumbus.com/mobileyou-app-download.html

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Why you should take a (second) look at SoftChalk now

SoftChalk Cloud

SoftChalk Cloud is probably a better choice over the desktop version (Create). Wondering why? Read on . . .

There have been some exciting developments recently around the potential for using SoftChalk at Ohio State. Even if you’ve considered SoftChalk in the past, now is a good time to take a fresh look at what this lesson-authoring tool has to offer and how you can get the most out of it by collaborating with your colleagues on campus.

Integration with Carmen

Valerie Rake and her eLearning Support team are planning to complete integration between Carmen and SoftChalk Cloud. (This integration is specific to the Cloud version of SoftChalk.) This means that students who open your SoftChalk lessons in Carmen will not need to log in again to Cloud, and their scores on assessments within your lessons will go directly to the Carmen gradebook.

Out-of-the-box Accessibility

Ken Petri in OSU’s Web Accessibility Center said, “I know there is a lot of use of competing products, such as Articulate, Captivate, and Lectora. But none of these has the level of accessibility out of the box that SoftChalk does, and even with lots of work (and work-arounds) those products can’t be made to be as thoroughly accessible as SoftChalk. Right now, SoftChalk is simply a better option with regard to accessibility.”

Ease-of-use and Convenience in the Cloud

I have used the desktop version of SoftChalk (SoftChalk Create) for years, and after using SoftChalk Cloud, I will never go back. With Cloud, you can create your lessons in a web-based application that does everything the desktop version does, save it to the Cloud, edit it from any computer connected to the internet, share it with a collaborator who can also edit it, and publish it for your audience. You can provide students with a hyperlink, or you can embed the lesson in a web page or in Carmen. Need to edit an existing lesson? If it’s in the Cloud, you make the edits and save. No more zipping the lesson package, uploading to Carmen, unzipping, relinking, etc. Read more about SoftChalk Cloud.

New eBook Builder

This is a really impressive new feature in SoftChalk that I’ve not had a chance to explore in depth, but I want to! You can publish your lessons in ePUB3 format to be accessed by your audience online or offline in iBooks for iPads or other ePUB3-compliant eReaders. Adobe Digital Editions has worked well for me. Learn more and download a sample SoftChalk eBook.

Strength in Numbers

Because of the recent changes described above, more departments on campus are considering adopting SoftChalk as a lesson authoring tool. In fact, a group of campus partners would like to collaborate to get the volume discount on SoftChalk licenses and form a users’ group to share lesson authoring ideas and examples. The price we all pay per license for SoftChalk will depend on the number of licenses we collectively want and on the number of existing licenses we already own.

If you currently own SoftChalk licenses (either Create or Cloud), or if you would like to join your colleagues on campus in a group purchase of new licenses, please respond to our survey. Even if you already own SoftChalk licenses and don’t plan to purchase additional licenses at this time, it may be to your advantage to respond to the survey because the information we collect may affect your renewal price. We also want to include you in the collaborations that occur in the users’ group that will form around the SoftChalk creators on campus.

Need more information?

Try SoftChalk Cloud free for 30 days.  Check out the Lesson Challenge winners for examples of SoftChalk lessons, or download one of the example lessons from SoftChalk.  View their video tutorials, or download their guides (including one for students!).  Or, just send me an email (tornwall.2@osu.edu), and I’ll be happy to talk with you!

SoftChalk Lesson Challenge Winner