Can we have more text documents rather than videos?  It takes too long to go through them...

thanks!

Hello,

I'm afraid I am not going to create full documents to accompany the videos as this would just take too much time. I only just manage to create the videos in time each month. If the videos have code then we do provide code and quick tips pdfs, but that is as much information as I can find the time to provide.

Thanks,

I have to add a vote to the request to include more text.  This is promoted as a magazine and often I only want to view one bullet point from a video.  Without text I can't keep a reference/cheat sheet handy for points made in the video.  I'm in the training industry and one workaround w/b to chunk up the modules to match the bullet points and then link to each mini video next to the bullet points.

Each video tutorial page on the site has a contents listing with bullet points of what is covered in the video, so if you have a read of the bullets you should be able to quickly find which video covers the details you need. That is why we break down a 60min tutorial into 6 10min vids, so that you can look at the contents list and quickly find which video contains the info you need.

Also, if you download the main issue zip files from each issue page, inside those zips we include a pdf print out page of each tutorial page so that you have a pdf reference for the contents of the videos.

Have a look at issue 44

Thanks,

For me, and I suspect others, it's a real PIA to download a large zip file, extract it, find the right topic, go back to the page to find which video may be the right video, play the video, pull up a homegrown "Notes" page and then make notes of the video content, or view the PDF. Just had a situation where I forgotten the path to batch install skins, I *remembered* it was in a couple videos that I'd seen, didn't remember topics. How nice it would have been to have the info be text based and searchable (I remember something about the path being install/install/something). It's impossible to search within a video for text, and CTRL-F is similarly useless.

It seems like each video comes from some type of script and you already are making PDFs, why not have that script be the overview page with bullet points and links to videos AND PDFs? I'll go even a step more radical and request no videos, just pages like http://www.snowball.be/Howto+DotNet...tion.aspx. It's so much easier to follow along.

My ultimate preference w/b to have something like below with hide/reveal of details, or link to PDF
Video 1 - Introduction, How to Create a Region, Template and Query

* A quick recap of part 1
* Knowledge Base Manager Module Administration Details View Video
* Viewing the actions created by the QuickBuilder Details View Video
* How to delete an action Details View Video

Speaking of Issue 44 - I'm wondering why half of it covers fee based modules, is this some type of cross sell situation?

Hello,

The videos are not scripted, they just have an outline doc, whch basically is what the bullets are, so it would take quite a bit of work to convert them into text documents.

So from your example, video 1 would be broken down into mini videos? Is that what you mean, or do you mean links from the bullets to certain points within the video.

Do you know how to do this? Or have an example from another site you could show?
If I can understand it clearly then I can look into better methods.

No there is no cross selling. There has recently been requests for some third party module tutorials, so that's what we have covered, the next issue will be focusing back at the DNN core.

Thanks,

I'm sorry but the only examples I know of are in corporate training departments, which have started to move away from all video all the time.  That's why I'm getting deeper into DNN because CMS approach is starting to become recognized as a better structure for a learning system than a LMS with Flash/Video.

Glad to hear you'll be going back to adding more about DNN core.  It seems that the most useful series for me, so far, are from 2007 with some in 2008.   By all means go ahead and create third party tutorials but don't lead with that content.  Plus, I can't shake a grinchy thought that it w/b better to have those tutorials appear as links from the third party vendor, esp if it's a fee based module and that vendor s/b supplying the tutorial themselves, or paying you to create it for them.  I noticed one scenario where I noticed the tutorial was for a fee based module and thought "if I would have bought that module, then serendipitously (because the vendor didn't have a link to the tutorial)  found out that DNNCreative had a tutorial for that module but would have to pay $80 to see that tutorial, I would be very unhappy."

I began by going to most recent issues but found nothing useful so just started clicking around.  Skinning info was good but there was definitely an evolution of techniques apparent and I have yet to experience how much of it is currently applicable.   Then there instances like the HouseMenu token appearing with some vague comment about it being explained before.  Where?  How much easier it would have been to have a clickable link to find that info.

The FCKEditor series was extremely useful.  But it took hours to find the most valuable information, the one question I had that I hoped w/b answered and it was, and then I had to create manual notes.  I've learned to embed the path to the series in my notes because I can't search/quickly refind references, also can't copy/paste when I do find them.  It would have been so much quicker to find, understand, notate if it would have been in a PDF/page/form without starting/stoping a video, take note, start/stop, take note, start/stop, take note, often had to stop/start just to notate the path.  Oh how I longed for CTRL-C/CTRL-V.  Trying to do, while following along in the video, while creating manual notes was greatly frustrating.

Then there's the issue of comments.  Yes I could post in the forum but I couldn't figure out which series to post a question I had because it involved 2 different series/articles.  "Why not just remove <!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 unctuationKerning/> false false false oNotPromoteQF/> EN-US X-NONE X-NONE ontGrowAutofit/> ontVertAlignCellWithSp/> ontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> ontVertAlignInTxbx/> MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; layout-grid-mode:line;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family:Arial; mso-hansi-font-family:Arial;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> FontName and FontSize (not mentioned but hinted at in one of the FCKEditor series, maybe I noticed it because I was looking for how to do that) from the toolbar instead of going through the PIA of creating a "Content Administrator Alert Style" (don't remember where I came across that)? "  Also, I doubt that many try to go to the forum to find followup comments/questions, perhaps because the search is ... inexact.  I searched for FCK, got no results even though there was a recent posting with FCKEditor displaying in the title when I entered the search.

What if the approach were 180' switched?  What value do videos add?  What I always tell my eLearning clients is start simple (text/graphics) and then add complexity (video/Flash) only when it's needed.  It fits very well to a CMS approach. Off the top of my head I can't think of any video, looks like I've gone through over 40 of them, where video was necessary to understanding the content.  To me, it would seem to be much faster/easier  to create the How To's in the CMS with screen shots and numbered presentation points than record, edit, transform videos.

While it's still fresh in mind I'd also like to suggest that you cross link Part 1 to Part 2 etc in a series.  At one point I also saw, I think it was about CSS but can't refind it, a series of links as a footer to a presentation.  With those footer links I noticed that I'd started in the middle of a series of articles that had a very nice progression.

Thank for allowing me to send you my concerns and suggestions.  I'm putting together a plan to create a test site using DNN to show how CMS approach, using DNN because it has to be a MS SQL based CMS even though PHP/mySQL CMSs are easier, would work as a learning structure.  Then I was going to direct them to subscribing to DNNCreative tutorials because trainers aren't technical, but I'm struggling with the mixed message of trying to wean them off of video only to put them in a situation where it's all videos.  Or, it might be that having them have to use videos to learn w/b a reinforcement of why videos shouldn't be used so that still may be a good plan.

Hello,

Thanks for the feedback, I've got some ideas and I'm currently in the stages of testing. I need to find a method for ensuring that producing the additional content will be as productive as possible without adding large amounts of time.

One thing I would mention, is that for new subscribers, we recommend beginning with issue one and working your way through the issues. Each issue builds on the knowledge from previous issues, so you will find that in the later issues we are assuming that you already have a working knowledge of DotNetNuke.

Even though the earlier issues are older, the content still applies. When DotNetNuke releases a new version they tend to just add new features rather than completely change how things work, so you may find that you have an additional tick box that is not there in the tutorial, but that will be the only difference.

If there are any major changes with a DotNetNuke release, we update the videos accordingly.

I have an idea on how to add additional documentation which should make searching through the videos and finding the content you need much easier, but please give me a bit of time to work this out as this is going to be a big job with currently 430 video tutorials.

Many thanks for the feedback,

Lee

I doubt if there's a person on this planet who has time to go through 430 tutorials, not you and not your subscribers. Perhaps a better idea w/b to start implementing the new approach from this point forward and simply notate on past videos which are ones are relevant to current versions and which have been deprecated with a reference to current information. Sometimes you include a version reference, sometimes not. I'm not suggesting that you re-edit the videos, big problem with Flash/video is effort it requires to update.

It looks like you made some effort to group tutorials by topic ("DNN Tutorials for Beginners") and I'd suggest that you continue that approach, even lead with that approach. My first area of learning was "CSS/Skins and then Containers", then I explored the FCK Editor (probably because I've installed them before and basically wanted to learn how to turn off some icons on the toolbar), then it was on to "Roles and Permissions", then "Pages" and now I'm tippy toeing into "Modules". That's not quite true, I first subscribed for the "Install" info, which didn't work very well for me. Then, since I'd paid the $, I decided to explore further.

Most of time I had to Google to find the tutorials because DNN search is horrible. So many times I wanted to search by date range, or at least be able to sort the results by date, or at a bare minimum scan the date in the results. Grouping the topics by a category would remove some of the need to search. If you grouped/categorized tutorials by topic, including one for "Third Party Modules" the content would be more valuable because it would be easier to find.

Asking people to start at issue 1 is the Achilles heal of training, and blogging. People approach content with a question in their head, something along the lines of "I need the most recent info on how to X". The quicker they can find answers to their internal questions, the happier they'll be with the resources offered. Learning is not linear.

THIS http://www.dnncreative.com/tabid/25...fault.aspx is the type of text based presentation that I really, really found useful. Particularly enjoyed the links at the top of the content. Was that created using a DNN Module, if so which one?

The module is bonosoft multpage module

thanks,

Just want to mention that I find the video tutorials very effective. I've done some training materials in the past on different topics. I've found that it tends to follow the 33% rule - 33% love it, 33% prefer text & images, and 33% have no preferences.
I wonder if a product like Dragon Naturally Speaking would fit the bill? I don't have it, but have heard excellent reviews on the current version.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a really good tool and I have been using it for the past couple of years as I get RSI and this really saves the little fingers!

I have discovered that I can transcribe the audio files from the videos using the tool as it is already setup to recognise my voice.

Of course it still requires a lots of editing and words cutting out, but it gives us a head start!

Thanks,