We are very close to the end of the project. Here is where it all comes together. But to do it well, you must be deliberate in how you go about it. We have the video, the audio, the captions, the markers, the quiz, now, all we have left is to put it all together and watch a movie. Click the "Produce Video As.." link to open that menu.
We already know that we are going to use the "Custom Settings", and that we are targeting a Flash output, so select MP4/SWF. On the "Flash Templates" screen I'll choose "One video with TOC" but then I'll jump into the "Flash Options" too. I recommend at least looking at the Flash Options to consider the range of choices.
The first sub-menu in the Flash Options is key for me. It's going to default to MP4, and I really want to get the better compression by targeting Shockwave.
Next, in the audio sub-menu, remember how much trouble we went through to generate a higher quality audio track? Don't mess it up now by selecting "mono". I recommend a "stereo" setting that provides the compression you want.
Next, we spent some time up-front to put our Markers in order. And when we ran through that I mentioned that you would have another opportunity to improve them. Now is the time. Check out the image below. You can make some markers subordinate to others. You can de-select some markers so that they won't be displayed. I typically don't repeat the markers for "Continuation" slides. Finally, and this really annoys me, Camtasia will create a marker called "Answers Summary". It will always display that unless you de-select it. Keep that in mind every time you render. You won't believe how many times I've rendered a presentation and checked it out only to find this dumb Answers Summary in my TOC.
Finally on this sub-menu, under "Controls" you want to create a "Loading Image" and specify it there. If you don't specify your own image you will get a Camtasia loading image, which looks very cheesy. Below is the image I created. When someone clicks the link to open the video, this is the first thing he or she will see while the browser pulls the content. It will likely be visible for about 3-6 seconds depending on the pipe and the traffic.
As you can see my loading image is generic to the overall WBT series and not tailored to any particular module within the series. I could have created a unique loading image for each module, but I think the generic one addresses the need pretty well.
Going back to the main, "Produce Video As..." menu, you are heading next to the "Video Options". Go into the Video Info section and fill that up, it is self explanatory. More interestingly though, under "Quiz and Reporting", here is where you have the opportunity to identify the email address for the quiz feedback. You can see in this instance, that I had a specific email account created for collecting the quiz output, FDPIR-Training@fns.usda.gov. This will allow someone who completed the quiz to send their answers to us.
On the government side, we can monitor that in-box and, if we want, we could send certificates of completion to the people who achieve the right number of correct answers. We can also record which content was quizzed and when (since we have a date-stamp on the email). This can be used to help map usage over time.
One last look-through on the markers and then choose a name for the production, like "Module 1" and hit finish. This will take some time to render. The longer the video the greater the amount of time necessary to render.
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