Tim Wang's eLearning Blog

Related to our Educause 2007 workshop, we successfully launched a new learning tool today, Pachyderm to VUE converter. This simple web application converts a Pachyderm presentation package into a .vue file, which then can be viewed in the open source concept map tool-VUE developed by Tufts University.

Remember the Pachyderm presentation I was working on a few days ago? So, this is what the Pachyderm Presentation looks like

And this is what the concept map of the Pachyderm presentation looks like:

How to get from the Pachyderm presentation to VUE? Really simple. Go to the tool page, copy and paste the presentation ID to the first screen of the tool and just follow the 3 easy steps, you will have a .vue file ready for download. Download it and then open it in VUE, you will have your concept map of the exact Pachyderm presentation you tried to convert in front of your eyes.

What’s next? We are working on version 2 of this tool which will “deep crawl” the Pachyderm packages and provide you a true concept map of each individual screens and lay out all of the assets used on that screen.

Why do we need this? Well, Pachyderm authoring is quite object oriented and random. When you have a Pachyderm presentation constructed in multiple screens (15+ in the Arts Metaverse one), it’s really easy to get lost in the process. And note this is only from a designer’s point of view. We realized that many students don’t even get the chance to see the entire presentation simply because they are lost between the screens:

Not to mention the tedious authoring process of each individual screen:

Therefore, we created this tool to help you visualize the Pachyderm package in a concept mapping tool, for now.

What’s possible in the future? Well, if we can ever get there, we will do a reverse authoring feature where utilize the newest functionalities from VUE 2.0 which allows you “swap” assets and media inside of VUE! Of course, this is a big IF at the moment. Maybe someone from the Pachyderm community can help to contribute towards the idea.

There is an interesting trend we learned from the development of this new tool. In the early days, learners drove us to convert linear, static, and purely text-based learning resources into rich media components. Over the years, you see more and more rich media based learning resources are being built and published online. Then the learners are demanding for a clear way to browse through these resources (very often in a traditional linear way). We have just taken a baby step to help Pachyderm users to take a grasp of outlining the media rich contents generated by this fascinating tool.