The content item type is the most basic item. It simply shows the text or media content specified by the activity author and a next button. Use this content type to prepare students for subsequent items or to include educational content.
Other item types all feature a similar content section, differing in that they also feature a response section to which the student must respond and receive a score.
At the top of each lesson item it is possible to add content (text, audio, video, images). For the content page item type the media contents will display vertically one above the other. For the other item types that require a student response, the content will appear above or beside the item type specific content. The layout can be configured.
The Media Prompts Dropdown Box
The options for adding content are available via a dropdown box called "Media Prompts". Each of the options when selected will display its setting form below the dropdown. It is possible to select multiple options, eg Image and TTS Audio
Image / audio or video
The Image / audio / video option allows you to upload audio, video or image files to be displayed to the student. MiniLesson will do its best to display the uploaded media in a responsive and sensible way to the student.
iFrame / custom HTML
The Add iFrame content option allows you to embed iframe content in your lesson item. MiniLesson will do its best to display the content in a responsive way that displays well on large and small screen devices. It may be necessary to tweak the iframe embed code received from a provider if it does not display correctly.
Add TTS Audio
The Add TTS Audio option allows the teacher to include text to speech powered audio to a lesson. Type or paste the text to be read into the TTS prompt text area and choose a TTS prompt speaker that matches the language of the text. Pressing the green audio icon will play a sample of the speakers voice to help you choose the correct voice. The TTS Prompt option makes it possible to choose the speed at which the text is read.
Text Block
The Text block option allows you to add a passage of text to be shown to the student. It supports rich text but images and media may not work as expected. You are encouraged to use the Add Media options for those.
YouTube Clip
The YouTube Clip option allows you to add a Youtube (or Vimeo) video to your lesson. You can optionally specify a start and end time (in seconds) for the video .
TTS Dialog
The TTS Dialog allows you to create a simple audio conversation between 2 or parties. You can choose the different voices and add sound effects (some). You can also choose to show the transcript of the conversation to students or not.
The text for a simple conversation between 2 speakers and a sound effect might look like this:
>>seagulls A) Well, it is a nice day here at the beach. B) Yes, I think so. Say, are you free tomorrow? A) Yes. Why? B) I need some help |
The sound effects that you can use are:
airplane, alarm, alien, announce, announce2, baby,cymbals, doorclose, doorknock, funky, landline, mansneeze, mobilephone, restaurant, seagulls, steamwhistle, train, whistle, womansneeze
You can listen to them all by making a TTS dialog with the following text.
>>airplane >>alarm >>alien >>announce >>announce2 >>baby >>cymbals >>doorclose >>doorknock >>funky >>landline >>mansneeze >>mobilephone >>restaurant >>seagulls >>steamwhistle >>train >>whistle >>womansneeze |
TTS Passage
The TTS passage allows you to put a passage of text on the page that will be read aloud by a TTS voice. The text is highlighted as it is read (karaoke style).
Audio Story
The Audio Story media prompt is an audio + image slide show combination, which looks a bit like a video to students. It looks like this:
It is created by uploading image and audio files (or using TTS audio). More detailed instructions can be found here: