Index for SimBuilder Tips
Drawing Learners Into a New Topic
Offering Different Learner Interactions
Providing Feedback
Use of Drag & Drop Activity
Uploading Audio
Use of Virtual Role Play™ for Leadership
Available Tutorials
Organizing Text and Images
Creating Learning Paths
Aligning, Spacing and Sizing Objects
Copying Images to Folders
Using Templates

Index for SimCast Tips
Removing a Course From a Learner's "Assigned Courses" List
Exporting a Report
Assigning Courses to Individuals or Groups
Resetting a Learner's Password
Changing Passwords
Searching for Learners
Accessing Teams
Sorting Report Data
Moving Learners to Groups

SimBuilder User Tips

Drawing Learners Into a New Topic
Begin a page on a new topic by asking learners for their thoughts and having them answer a question. Follow this with the correct answer and further instruction. This technique draws learners in because they want to know if their answers were correct.

Offering Different Learner Interactions
Use different methods for leaner interaction in each course: have them answer questions by clicking text, a button, or an image, checking a checkbox, typing a short answer in an edit box, recofding and playing back their answer, or dragging and dropping text
or images.

Providing Feedback
To provide feedback to learners after they answer a question, add a branch to the sequence line and play appropriate audio feedback based on the answer they clicked. Consider making the text of the correct answer bold, changing the font color, or adding additional explanatory text or images during the audio feedback.

Use of Drag & Drop Activity
Use a drag and drop activity to have learners match vocabulary with definitions, identify labels with parts on a photo or diagram, or place steps of a process in order.

Uploading Audio
Upload audio with the appropriate compression by changing the Audio upload options in the Content Manager. Use Save .wav as .wma for the best sound quality and fastest download in courses published as HTML. Use Save .wav as .wav for speech (8k) in courses published as HTML if your network does not allow .wma file downloads. Use Save .wav as .wav for flash (11k) if the course will be published as Flash.

Use of Virtual Role Play for Leadership
Use Virtual Role Play to provide supervisors with practice in performing sensitive tasks, such as addressing inadequate job performance. Just create the scenario, add the Record and Playback objects to the sequence line and publish.

Available Tutorials
Did you know that SimBuilder has built-in tutorials, as well as a complete online Help system? From the Help menu, access step-by-step tutorials. Click the Help toolbar button to open the complete online Help system.

Organizing Text and Images
Use the Layer Navigator to organize text and images on complex pages. Click the Layer Navigator toolbar button, then click the Add Layer button to add a new layer. For more details, take Tutorial 8: Clickable Text Activity.

Creating Learning Paths
Create your teaching page by first presenting the information that all learners need, then displaying a More button that the learner can click to learn more. In the audio and on-screen, tell learners that they may click Next to continue or click the More button for more information. On the sequence line, place an event that includes an Activate Next action (this activates the Next button in the navigation bar). The place a WaitFor control that is waiting for the More button to be clicked. After the WaitFor control, build the portion of the page that contains the optional information.

Aligning, Spacing and Sizing Objects
Align, space and size objects, such as text boxes and images, horizontally or vertically by using the Alignment Panel. Click the Open Alignment Panel toolbar button. Holding down the Ctrl button on your keyboard, click each object that you want to align. Click the object that has the placement or size you want to match, then click the appropriate button in the Alignment Panel.

Copying Images to Folders
Copy an image or other asset from one folder to another in the Content Manager. In the Content Manager, click on folders to display the folder to which you want to copy the image. Browse to the image. Click the image name and drag it to the new folder; drop (release the mouse button) when the correct folder name appears underlined. The image appears in both the new folder and the original folder.

Using Templates
Use templates to streamline development when you want many pages to have the same look. Create a page, laying out the background, text and image objects along with anything else you want to appear on each page. Then Save As and choose file type Page Template. To create a new page from the template, from the File menu select New and select From Template. You can edit all objects on the new page without affecting the template.

SimCast User Tips

Removing a Course From a Learner's "Assigned Courses" List
In the Learner (top right) pane, select the learner. On the Assignments tab, in the Assigned Courses list, select the course. Click the <- arrow. Click Submit. Note: you cannot remove a course once a learner has started it.

Exporting a Report
Exporting a report as a spreadsheet. On the Reports tab for a group or individual, navigate to the report you want to export. On the Reports toolbar, click the [image of button] CSV format button. In the File Download dialog box, choose to Open or Save the file.
A .CSV file can be opened in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel.

Assigning Courses to Individuals or Groups
To assign a course to an individual learner, select the learner in the Learner (top right) pane. To assign a course to an entire group, select the group in the left pane. With the appropriate learner or group selected, on the Assignments tab, select the course to assign from the Available Courses list, click the purple arrow, the click Submit. Note: if you are assigning the course to a group, a dialog box will appear asking you to verify that you want to assign the course to the entire group.

Resetting a Learner's Password
In the Learner (top right) pane, select the learner. On the Profile tab, delete the dots in the Password and Confirm Password fields and replace them with a new password. Passwords must include at least 6 characters, at least 1 number and at least 1 letter. To force the learner to change the password the next time he/she logs in, select the checkbox. If necessary, change the State from Disabled to Enabled.
Click Submit.

Changing Passwords
Force all the learners in a team to create a new password periodically. In the Groups (left) pane, select the team. On the Profile tab, select the User password expiration: Passwords expire every ___ days radio button. In the edit box, type the number of days between password resets. Click Submit.

Searching for Learners
Search for learners to find any learner by name or username. Make sure the top level team is selected in the list in the left pane, then click the Search for User toolbar button. On the toolbar above the upper right pane, select the Include Sub-teams toolbar button. Type the name or user name in the edit box on the toolbar, then click the Start Search! toolbar button.

Accessing Teams
Allow coaches or administrators access to any team, regardless of which team they are members of. Select the team you want the coach or administrator to see. On the Profile tab, below the Share this Team Folder With box, click Add. Browse to the coach or administrator to whom you want to give access.

Sorting Report Data
Sort report data by clicking the header for any column. Click once to sort in ascending order; click again to sort in descending order.

Moving Learners to Groups
Move a learner from one group to another. Click the + to the left of the group to display the group to which you want to move the learner. Then browse to the learner. Click on the learner name and drag it to the new group; drop (release the mouse button) when the correct group name appears underlined. The learner disappears from the original group and appears in the new group.