Noticeboard

The Noticeboard Activity provides a simple way of providing information and content to the learners.
The activity can display text, images, links and other HTML content.

The Noticeboard in LAMS 2.0 supersedes both the Noticeboard and HTML Noticeboard tools from LAMS 1.0.


		Animated Tutorial Teaching and Learning with the Noticeboard Activity.

Noticeboard Authoring

All properties sheets contain three tabs:

Basic: Which controls the Content of the Activity.
Advanced: Which controls the Behaviour of the Activity.
Instructions: Provides information on the structure of the activity.

Basic Tab

View of the Basic tab for Noticeboard Authoring.

The Basic Tab for the Noticeboard Activity allows you to specify a title for the activity, and specify what content is displayed to Learners:

Title: All Activities have a web page title which is presented at the top of the activity page when displayed in the Learning Environment. This is NOT the same title as the Title that can be set using the Properties Inspector.

*Content:*All Activities have a text area that is presented beneath the title. This is where the main activity text to be displayed to learners is entered. The text can be formatted using the Rich-Text Editor. Image, Video, Audio and URL content can also be displayed in the Instructions area.

Embedding Content

You can use HTML code to display embedded HTML content such as Flash Files, Videos, Audio, or Inline Frames.

Alternatively, a free flvPlayer plugin is available for LAMS. View the instructions here.

Advanced Tab

View of the Advanced tab for Noticeboard Authoring.

Add Notebook... : This option is available on all Activities. Enabling this option creates a Notebook as part of the Activity, which Learner's can use to reflect on the activity just completed. The reflections are personal (ie: not shared with other learners).

Instructions

View of the Instructions tab. This is the same for all activities.

The Instructions tab contains the same features for all Activities.

It allows the Author to create specific instructions for the activity, as well as upload files that may be useful for running the activity (ie: support documents, etc.). It is a resource that can be used by teachers who are running the sequence for their learners. (In the Monitoring Environment, the Instructions for an Activity can be viewed by double clicking the activity on the Sequence tab and then selecting the Instructions tab.

There are two types of Instruction possible, Offline and Online, depending on the mode that the teacher wishes to run the activity. The feature is useful for teachers who are sharing sequences with their colleagues as it provides an area where the Author can describe any learning objectives and/or the specific purpose of the activity.

Noticeboard Monitoring

Summary Screen

View of the Noticeboard Monitoring Summary tab.

Double Clicking a Noticeboard activity on the Sequence or Learners tab opens the Summary Screen for the Activity.

This screen displays the Noticeboard content (ie: the text displayed to learners in the sequence) as well as the number of learners that have started the sequence (ie: Total number of learners) and how many learners have viewed the Noticeboard (ie: number of learners in group).

Instructions

View of the Monitoring Instructions tab.

In the Authoring Environment, Authors can use the Instructions Space to attach support files for a specific activity, or leave comments for other Monitors about how a given activity should be run.

When adding instructions to Noticeboard activities, Authors may like to include supplemental information that teachers can use in an offline setting environment (eg: Blackboard points, worksheets, etc.)

Edit Activity

Clicking the Edit Activity button opens a new screen identical to the _'Basic'_tab in the authoring environment. In the current version of LAMS (2.0.4), Editing can only be performed on activities that students have not yet reached.

Unlike Live Edit, this form of Editing can only modify the content of an activity, as opposed to the structure of a sequence.

Statistics

The Noticeboard Summary tab repeats the statistics on Learner numbers found on the Summary tab.