SDN eLearning Process needs to change

[Former Member]

Ok I'm going to rant a little bit about the SDN eLearning content creation and hosting process. Some of this is behind the scenes stuff, but it ultimately effects every user of SDN.

I've always wanted to do more video based content. I feel that it is an excellent way to demonstrate the useage of coding tools and the product itself. However the process for submitting an eLearning to SDN takes at best weeks and somethings months before it gets posted to the public. This makes it completely unusable for any type of regular video blogging. For the most recent Video Blog series that NetWeaver PM did we had to upload our videos to SAP's Temporary Download Service (100 days max) while we wait for the permanent hosting on SDN.

This is why I was happy to try out the Kyte.tv service last year. It make instant posting possible. Unfortunetely the size and resolution limitations aren't really sufficient to showing coding and complex screens in details.

So SDN can support the larger size needed, but the process seems broken. To make matters worse, all the older videos used to be produced in an SDN provided tool called knowledge composer. This provided a unified look and feel, but now causes the technical problem that all the older vidoes can't be viewed in IE7. The content authors now get the questions as to why the content can't be viewed. I don't know who is going to do the work of converting all these old videos?

To fix the problem of the Knowledge Composer, we now don't have any tool to format the output. Our team in US PM uses Camtasia 4 while other groups use Captiva or different versions of Camtasia. This creates different looks for the eLearnings. There also aren't good guidelines as to the video format, size, compression options, etc.

So in the end I have a wish list of things I would love to see around eLearning:

1. We need a faster way to get videos available

2. We need to address the older videos that can't viewed in newer browsers

3. The videos need a download option for people with low bandwidth to be able to view them offline.

4. The resolution of the video itself needs to stay at 1024x768 minimum otherwise the level of detail is not good enough for eLearning- also must support the lenght of an hour+ (also speaks to download ability).

5. We need guidelines on formatting or a common tool

I welcome other suggestions from frequent users of the eLearning area of SDN.

[Jelena]

Just want to point out the dire state of eLearning materials in the Web Service section:

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/webservices-elearning

There are only about two dozen items, but look at the list of the required players: SAP Tutor, WebEx and Interwise. The web services themselves are all about easy access and standartizaton, but if I want to learn about them, I have to install 3 different players - what irony!

Also in the 'Introduction to SAP Web Services' demo the sound quality is just awful! It's literally painful, I ended up turning the sound off.

[marilyn_pratt]

Your feedback is noted. In the era of "anyone can be a content creator" some have come to expect somewhat less than polished or professional results from recordings made by community contributors. But I totally get you. Our rich media team does too and they are working hard and long to create more consistent content and delivery methods. Looking at the various "elearning" assets here is like taking a tour through the brief history of our media enriched methods and it definitely is a journey. I, like you, have little tolerance for poor sound quality and I will even go as far as to say that "elearning" is not the proper terminology to use for it, as learning usually is associated with assessment and iterative interactions. Our rich media contents are passive, do not assess or test the users knowledge, do not gauge if the learning has occurred. On the other hand, the use of podcasts or video casts can be an effective way to tell a story, represent something that would generally take much text in the telling or simply document a live event, meetup, workshop, or lecture.

As to delivery: It all comes down to learning preferences.

Not everyone is skilled in the use of the screencam tools or video editing but not everyone learns from the same content delivery either.

In short, we will continue to provide contents in multiple formats and with the help of our media folks (like Jason Lax) work to improve the quality of their delivery. Understand though that these contents will constantly be "under construction" as technologies improve and change.

Perhaps we should start "retiring" content that is not meeting expectations, but then again, we would need a real rating system to do that.

[JasonLax]

Following this post and many eMails from the community, the SCN production team realized that it had several issues with eLearning content. In response, we did the following:

<ul><li> Upgraded to Camtasia 5 so that we can receive Camtasia projects and publish them with optimized settings and the SCN template

<li> Started converting problematic eLearning content to streaming WMV or flash, depending on the size of the eLearning </ul>

The conversion will take some time but we've prioritized the eLearnings according to popularity.

Please remember: SCN eLearning content is best viewed with Internet Explorer and a high speed internet connection. I've also published a page this week with [eLearning Submission Guidelines and Settings| [original link is broken]].

Thanks for your patience and please don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions or suggestions for eLearning.

- Jason

[thomas_jung]

Thanks for the update and all the work that is being done to update the SCN eLearning Process.

[Nigel_James]

Thomas,

I am not a frequent user of the eLearning section of the site but I can fully understand your frustration and you raise some very valid points.

YouTube size videos aren't going to cut it. As you rightly point out you need good resolution of the screen to be able to see the code and understand what is going on. Even on some high res content on redmonk.tv I viewed earlier this month the code in the eclipse editor was fuzzy and hard to distingush.

I like Camtasia as a tool. I have seen it used effectively for this purpose on a number of sites. Perhaps if everyone is so insistent about have a common look and feel then they should determine mandate a version to use and develop some guidelines for use.

Also the content should be available in certain formats from voice only to large video and be available on to be consumed on portable content devises that a certain fruit company has made a great deal of money from.

If there are cost implications of what you suggest then find a sponsor in a similar way to the TED videos are underwritten by BMW.

Finally thank you Thomas for creating such great content and being passionate enough to make a case for making it work better.

Cheers,

Nigel