WELCOME TO THE FASTERCOURSE LECTORA TEMPLATE PACKAGE “BASIC” GUIDE!
To open and use this template package you need to have Lectora 11 or a newer version of Lectora authoring tool.
This Guide consists of two parts: how to edit information in the pages and – what types of template pages you can find in this template package.
How to edit information in templates
The main idea behind this guide and templates is that by using our templates and this guide you will be able to create your own Lectora courses. We will show you how you can quickly create new chapters and pages, by using already pre-designed and pre-programmed templates.
Add new chapters and sections
To add new parts to your course, you need to use the highlighted area (see below) on the Home tab. For example, at first, you add a chapter and then you can add pages and sections to it. You can add as many chapters and pages as you want.
Here we have added a new chapter by pressing “Chapter” on the Home tab ribbon. Every chapter is created with a single page in it. You can later delete this page, if you will not use it.
Add pages from the list of the available templates
Now we want to add one of the sample pages to the Chapter 2. To add, for example, “Text and Image” template page, you need to select it (already done) and choose “Copy” option from the right-click menu or press Ctrl+C. Then select Chapter 2 and Paste the page in it by using the right-click menu or pressing Ctrl+V. The page will be added to the chapter and you will only need to edit the information.
Reorganise pages or chapters
In order to reorganise the pages or chapters you need to select the section(s) you want to move and drag it to the desired place. For example, below you can see that the “Text and Image” page will be moved to the place after the “Assessment” page.
If you drag and drop one page, only that page will be moved along with the objects embedded in it. If you drag and drop whole section or chapter, it comes together with all the pages beneath it.
Delete an object, page, section or chapter
To delete an item, you need to select and delete it by pressing Delete or Backspace on the keyboard or you can do it by choosing the relevant option from the right-click menu.
Change a text field
Here you can see a “Course intro” page with all of the objects in it. To edit, for example “Content” you need to double-click the field on the preview page or choose “Edit” option from the right-click menu on the Title Explorer. To make it easier for you, all text objects are marked as a “T” symbol.
Change an image or background
If you want to change an image, you need to select the relevant object on the Title Explorer (in this case, it’s “case_sample_image1”) and then on the Ribbon under the Properties tab you can load a different image from your computer (see the highlighted area).
The images and background are changed much the same in Lectora – to change a background, you need to select the background image and under the Properties tab you can find the corresponding field where to either browse from your computer or choose an image that is already stored in Lectora files.
Change a video
To change a video you also need to select the object you want to change and then under the Properties tab in the Video group (see highlighted) browse for a new video or use an existing one.
Change an audio file
Similarly as for image and video files for changing an audio you need to select the object and then change it from the Properties tab.
Add your logo
To change the logo, you need to find the “ButtonLogo” group in the File Explorer (the upper of the menu). Open the group by clicking on the plus sign and then select “gui_logo”. Then under the Properties tab browse or select a new logo file. A logo is, of course, just a regular image; the only difference is that it is placed in the upper section of the File Explorer – it then will be visible in all of the course pages.
Change course title
To change the course title you need to select the {Course title} and click once more on it. Then you will be able to write your course’s title.
After you have changed the course title, it will be automatically updated on every page (you will see it once you have published the course).
Changing titles for a chapter, page or any other element
To change a chapter’s title (currently the titles are named sequentially as Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and so on) you need to select the right object on the File Explorer and then under the Properties tab change it. The same applies for pages, sections and all the other content.
Add or remove a hotspot
To add a new hotspot to your page, you need to add a new hotspot group where you will select and copy one of the existing hotspot’s objects and then paste them in that new group. In this case we want to copy the Hotspot_3, so we have selected the “Audio_3”, “Hotspot_3”, and “HotspotPopup_3”.
To properly copy the hotspot so it functions afterwards, you need to go to the “reset_stage” and copy the ”Hide_HotspotPopup_3” and “Hide_hotspot3_click” to place them after existing ones. That hotspot should work properly without a name change, but it is better to rename new objects so that there is a unique name for each of them.
To remove the hotspot, you need to select elements as you would do to make a new hotspot. After you have selected the related object groups, delete them.
You can also change the location of the hotspot to a more appropriate one by selecting the right object on the preview page and moving it around the page.
Change the settings of a question
To change the settings (for example, if you want to change which of answers is the right one), you need to select the “Question 1” object on the File Explorer and then go to the Properties tab ribbon and select “Edit Question”.
In the screenshot below, you can see that you can edit the question text as well as the answer choices in the “Question Creator” window. Here you can choose which of the choices will be added as the correct one (the “Correct” column).
If you have a drag and drop question, you can also select the “Question 1” from the File Explorer and go to the Properties tab to access the question’s properties. For Drag and Drop questions the “Question Creator” looks a bit different (see below).
What types of templates are included in this package?
Basically you have two types of templates – info pages and test pages. To give example of how chapters work, we have arranged all info pages into 6 chapters plus added a separate chapter for test pages.
Info pages usually consist of guided information about the course, theory and other information. You can have info page with a simple text block or a more complex info page which is interactive – it can contain hotspots and other interactive elements. We also have added an info page which contains a video.
Test pages are usually meant to check user’s knowledge and understanding. You can have as many test pages as you like.
Chapter intro template
This template is a simple text page. You have a title (besides the logo) and intro text. You can use this type of page for course intro, chapter intro and also for the conclusion pages. You can change the text, displayed in the page as well as background.
Text and Image template
This page contains page title, large section of text and image. This is not an interactive page. You can change image, text and title for the text on this page.
Assessment template
This is an interactive text page. By clicking on each circle, user gets a different feedback text on the right side of the page. If you want to edit the feedback content, you need to edit the “feedback_Choice_X”, but, if you want to change the text which appears above circles, you need to edit “Choice X Text” (as you remember, you can always just double-click the right field on the Preview page).
Hotspot template
This is also an interactive page. User gets a pop up message by moving mouse over the circle and a black text field on the bottom left side of the page appears if he clicks on the circle.
If you want to edit the text which appears above circles, you need to go to “hotspot_info_x” and if you want to edit the big black text field on the bottom of page, you go to “popup_x”.
Case study template
At the first sight, this page looks very similar to Text and Image template we just looked at as you see text and image. But this page is interactive because by clicking on the image, a pop up window appears in the left area of the screen. To change the image on the right, you need to go to “0-0-case_image”, but to change the text which appears as you’ve clicked on image, you go to “Case” object group.
Case study with 2 Images
The idea of this template is the same as for the Case Study template. It is also an interactive page, but unlike the Case Study template, this template contains two images instead of one. When user clicks on each picture, he gets a different feedback. To change images you need to go to “case_1” or “case_2”, but to edit the feedbacks, you need to go to the “Case_right” or “Case_left”.
Info Menu template
This is an interactive template page for situations when you need to describe a great amount of text. With this template you can make several different menu titles and each can contain as much text as regular Text and Image page. To edit the titles for each menu, you need to select the “Case_x_link”, but to edit the text which comes up on the right side of screen for each menu, you need to select the “popup_case_x”.
One Question, Two Answers
This interactive template is great to use when you need to choose one of two answers. Each answer has a different feedback. To edit the answers, you go to “alternative1” or “alternative2”, but to edit the feedbacks, you need to select “feedback_1” or “feedback_2”.
Video template
This is a simple page containing only video screen. Earlier you learned how to change video. You also see pictures for play button, but you don’t need to do anything with these.
Test pages
These pages consist of several elements and you can have different ways how to test user’s knowledge. Test pages create a whole new chapter in course. You can see the chapter structure here.
Each test page is an interactive one – when you choose one of the answers, you can see the feedback message on the right side of the screen. To change the text which appears on each feedback, you select “feedback_right” or “feedback_wrong” object groups on the File Explorer. Then you choose “feedback_content” to edit the message. To change questions, you need to select the “Question 1” object group and under that you have a text object for every choice.
Test Introduction template
This page is the same as the introduction page mentioned before, but this one has a different background image which is more suitable for test introduction.
Single Choice and Multiple Choice templates
These are two most often used test templates and both are very similar to each other. The only difference is in looks – single choice answer options has round radio buttons next to them and a black point in the middle of circle when the answer is selected. For multiple choice there is a square radio button with a check mark when the answer is selected.
Question can be edited under “Question 1”, but feedbacks under “feedback_right” or “feedback_wrong”.
True or False template
This test template lets user choose if the given statement is true or false. If there is only one statement, you can choose One Question, Two Answers template, but if you want answers to be scored or have more than one statement, this template suits better. Each statement can be edited by selecting the “Question X”. You can also add or remove statements.
Test end template
This is a simple text page with a heading, content and background image informing that user has successfully passed the test or has failed it.
