Linking a document, such as your class sylabus to Moodle is relatively painless process that can be done in a few simple steps.
1.Turn on Editing on your class page
2. Use the drop-down menu "Add a Resource" to select the "Link to a File or Website" option
3. Create a Title for your document
4. Scroll down to the bottom of your page and click upload a file
5. Select the folder in Moodle where you wish to store the file
6. Browse and select the file you wish to upload from your computer
7. Click Upload this file
After a few moments, that file should appear within Moodle
8. Now, select the option that says "Choose" under the "actions" column on the right side of your screen
9. Click "save and return to course"
The Document has now been uploaded to Moodle
****IMPORTANT NOTE****
It is important to remember that when you load a document to Moodle, Moodle retains a frozen copy of the document, much like an email attachment. If you make changes to the document, for example your sylabus, you will need to reload it to Moodle if you want it to reflect those changes.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Basic Steps-Adding a Quiz to Moodle
The First step to creating a quiz on Moodle comes before questions are even written; setting your quiz preferences.
1. Turn on the editing preferences on your class page
2. Then select "Quiz" from the drop-down menu "Add an Activity"
3. The first thing you should do is Add a name to your quiz in the first blank provided
(you can add a brief description of the quiz in the box below it if you like)
Moodle provides you with lots of choices to format your quiz, you can...
1. Turn on the editing preferences on your class page
2. Then select "Quiz" from the drop-down menu "Add an Activity"
3. The first thing you should do is Add a name to your quiz in the first blank provided
(you can add a brief description of the quiz in the box below it if you like)
Moodle provides you with lots of choices to format your quiz, you can...
- Use the sets of date and time to create a start-time and deadline for students to take your quiz. If you don't wish to do this, simply check the disable box.
- You can set a time limit for the quiz, or specify how long a student must wait to retake your quiz.
- Specify how many questions will appear on a page at one time
- Shuffle the questions or shuffle the possible answers
- Allow students to make more than one attempt
- Specify how the Moodle will grade the students' quiz attempt(s)
- Apply penalties or deduct points for an incorrect response
- Select the number of decimal points that will appear in a student' end grade
And finally, perhaps most significantly...
Allows you to provide instant feedback to your students depending upon their grade on the quiz you have created.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Basic Steps-Writing a Multiple Choice Question for Moodle
- go to www.moodle.stmartin.edu/
- Find your course and switch to editing mode
- select quizzes from the sidebar tab on the left
- Click "Create new Question"
- Select "Multiple choice" from the drop-down menu
- Name your question
- select whether the question has one or more correct answers
- fill in the banks with possible responses
- select the grade a student would recieve for selecting that response
- You can use the bank below to write in an automatic response to students who chose that answer
- Click "Save Changes"
- The question should now appear in your question bank, you can now add it to the quiz you previously programed the settings for.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Jing audio script mini-series: Writing quiz questions (multiple choice)
[The following is a the script of a Jing tutorial video available on Saint Martin University's Instructional Design Moodle. It is intended to supplement the video should you have any trouble interpreting the audio file and is in no way intended to replace the actual video tutorials. Click on the link to watch the videos that this resource accompanies.]
Hi this is a video tutorial series about how to add content to your classes on Moodle.
Today we are going to show you part two of how to add a quiz to your class page.
So in the first part of this series we showed you how to set your quiz preferences.
Today we are going to begin a mini-series about how to write questions for your quiz.
The first type of question we are going to learn how to write is one of the easiest, multiple choice.
So first you access Saint Martin's Moodle page which again is at moodle.stmartin.edu/ and log in with your user name and password.
Find the class that you want to work on and select it.
When it pulls up the page, click on the button that says turn editing on in the upper right hand corner of your screen.
Next, select quizzes from the border to the left of your screen.
A heading that says Question bank should be on the right, scroll down to "Create New Question", and chose the type of question you wish to create. Let's try a multiple choice question together, shall we?
Next give the question a name, and you can add a description in the box below it if you like. Then scroll down.
You can chose whether there are one or multiple correct responses to this question, and set the preferences so that the quiz answers will be shuffled each time it is taken.
Lastly you can select the nature of the choices, whether your responses are numbered or noted by letters.
Just below that you will enter one possible response in the blank.
Next we select the grade the student will receive for that response.negative percentages will indicate a deduction or penalty for that response, positive percentages will indicate that the student is to be awarded points for that answer. You can chose the percent for partically correct responses to give the student some credit for effort.
The boxes below the answers are the places to write responses to the student's individual answers. You can also automatically respond to any correct or incorrect responses, but we'll get back to that in a minute.
You may provide as many choices as you like, Moodle will provide a standeard of five boxes, but you can click on the link that says "Blanks for three more choices" as needed.
The bottom of the page has boxes for you to write in the automatic response to any correct, partcially correct, or incorrect response. Remember this will supplement the individual comments you have already added to each question if you chose to do so. The response will appear below every desiganted answer as dictated by their score on the question.
Now click save changes.
Your question will now appear below the "Question Bank" heading.
So that's how you write a multiple choice question for your quiz on Moodle.
Stay tuned for how to write other types of questions to your quiz, adding questions to your quiz, and a practice run-through of your quiz as your students will see it.
Thanks for watching!
[Again that was a script for a Jing tutorial video available on the Instructional Design site on Saint Martin's moodle, feel free to click on the title of this blog, or the link at the beginning of this piece to check out the videos in their entirety. Also stayed tuned for further updates, the mini-series will continue with writing other types of questions, and part 2 of adding quizzes will follow soon, we'll show you how to add questions to your quiz, and have a practice test.]
Hi this is a video tutorial series about how to add content to your classes on Moodle.
Today we are going to show you part two of how to add a quiz to your class page.
So in the first part of this series we showed you how to set your quiz preferences.
Today we are going to begin a mini-series about how to write questions for your quiz.
The first type of question we are going to learn how to write is one of the easiest, multiple choice.
So first you access Saint Martin's Moodle page which again is at moodle.stmartin.edu/ and log in with your user name and password.
Find the class that you want to work on and select it.
When it pulls up the page, click on the button that says turn editing on in the upper right hand corner of your screen.
Next, select quizzes from the border to the left of your screen.
A heading that says Question bank should be on the right, scroll down to "Create New Question", and chose the type of question you wish to create. Let's try a multiple choice question together, shall we?
Next give the question a name, and you can add a description in the box below it if you like. Then scroll down.
You can chose whether there are one or multiple correct responses to this question, and set the preferences so that the quiz answers will be shuffled each time it is taken.
Lastly you can select the nature of the choices, whether your responses are numbered or noted by letters.
Just below that you will enter one possible response in the blank.
Next we select the grade the student will receive for that response.negative percentages will indicate a deduction or penalty for that response, positive percentages will indicate that the student is to be awarded points for that answer. You can chose the percent for partically correct responses to give the student some credit for effort.
The boxes below the answers are the places to write responses to the student's individual answers. You can also automatically respond to any correct or incorrect responses, but we'll get back to that in a minute.
You may provide as many choices as you like, Moodle will provide a standeard of five boxes, but you can click on the link that says "Blanks for three more choices" as needed.
The bottom of the page has boxes for you to write in the automatic response to any correct, partcially correct, or incorrect response. Remember this will supplement the individual comments you have already added to each question if you chose to do so. The response will appear below every desiganted answer as dictated by their score on the question.
Now click save changes.
Your question will now appear below the "Question Bank" heading.
So that's how you write a multiple choice question for your quiz on Moodle.
Stay tuned for how to write other types of questions to your quiz, adding questions to your quiz, and a practice run-through of your quiz as your students will see it.
Thanks for watching!
[Again that was a script for a Jing tutorial video available on the Instructional Design site on Saint Martin's moodle, feel free to click on the title of this blog, or the link at the beginning of this piece to check out the videos in their entirety. Also stayed tuned for further updates, the mini-series will continue with writing other types of questions, and part 2 of adding quizzes will follow soon, we'll show you how to add questions to your quiz, and have a practice test.]
Jing audio script 3: Adding a quiz-part 1
[The following is a the script of a Jing tutorial video available on Saint Martin University's Instructional Design Moodle. It is intended to supplement the video should you have any trouble interpreting the audio file and is in no way intended to replace the actual video tutorials. Click on the link to watch the videos that this resource accompanies.]
Hi this is a video tutorial series about how to add content to your classes on Moodle.
Today we are going to show you part one of how to add a quiz to your page.
The first step to making a quiz is to set the preferences.
After you have accessed your page on Moodle (by logging in at moodle.stmartin.edu/) and turned on the editing preference,
Select add an activity from the drop down menu, and the quiz option.
Be sure to give your quiz a name, and in the box below you can add a brief discription of what the test will be about.
If you scroll down you will see two sets of date and time, this will allow you to control when the test can be taken by your students. If you do not wish to set these limits you can check the disable boxes.
You can also set time limits to take the test, and time limits between the first and second attempts.
Display options allows you to chose how many questions will be displayed on a page,
Shuffle the questions,
Or in the case of multiple choices, shuffle the answers.
Attempts allows you to decide whether or not students will be given an opportunity to retake the quiz once they have taken it.
Grades, allows you to decide whether or not the students final grade will be the average, first, second or highest score they have received on this quiz.
It also allows you to apply penalties or deduct points for incorrect responses if you wish to do so.
You can also select the number of decimal points that will appear in the students final grades.
Review options allows you to chose what your students will see when they finish their quiz.
Finally, overall feedback is the last and perhaps most important,
In this category, you can program the computer to automatically offer specific comments to certain grade percentage scores.
Next click save and return to course.
So there it is on your page, you've now set your preferences for that particular quiz
Don't miss part two, we will show you how to add questions to your quiz.
Thanks for watching!
[Again that was a script for a Jing tutorial video available on the Instructional Design site on Saint Martin's moodle, feel free to click on the title of this blog, or the link at the beginning of this piece to check out the videos in their entirety. Also stayed tuned for further updates, part 2 of adding quizzes will follow soon, we'll show you how to add questions to your quiz, and have a practice test.]
Hi this is a video tutorial series about how to add content to your classes on Moodle.
Today we are going to show you part one of how to add a quiz to your page.
The first step to making a quiz is to set the preferences.
After you have accessed your page on Moodle (by logging in at moodle.stmartin.edu/) and turned on the editing preference,
Select add an activity from the drop down menu, and the quiz option.
Be sure to give your quiz a name, and in the box below you can add a brief discription of what the test will be about.
If you scroll down you will see two sets of date and time, this will allow you to control when the test can be taken by your students. If you do not wish to set these limits you can check the disable boxes.
You can also set time limits to take the test, and time limits between the first and second attempts.
Display options allows you to chose how many questions will be displayed on a page,
Shuffle the questions,
Or in the case of multiple choices, shuffle the answers.
Attempts allows you to decide whether or not students will be given an opportunity to retake the quiz once they have taken it.
Grades, allows you to decide whether or not the students final grade will be the average, first, second or highest score they have received on this quiz.
It also allows you to apply penalties or deduct points for incorrect responses if you wish to do so.
You can also select the number of decimal points that will appear in the students final grades.
Review options allows you to chose what your students will see when they finish their quiz.
Finally, overall feedback is the last and perhaps most important,
In this category, you can program the computer to automatically offer specific comments to certain grade percentage scores.
Next click save and return to course.
So there it is on your page, you've now set your preferences for that particular quiz
Don't miss part two, we will show you how to add questions to your quiz.
Thanks for watching!
[Again that was a script for a Jing tutorial video available on the Instructional Design site on Saint Martin's moodle, feel free to click on the title of this blog, or the link at the beginning of this piece to check out the videos in their entirety. Also stayed tuned for further updates, part 2 of adding quizzes will follow soon, we'll show you how to add questions to your quiz, and have a practice test.]
Friday, October 17, 2008
Jing audio script 2: Linking a document
[The following is a script from the Jing tutorial videos on Saint Martin's Instructional Design Moodle, it is designed to supplement the videos should anyone have any trouble interpreting the audio of the files. To visit the videos themselves, click on the title of this blog to navigate there and click on the respective title you wish to view.]
Hi this is a video tutorial series about how to add content to your classes on Moodle.
Today we are going to go over how to add a text file to Moodle. Again the first step is to navigate to moodle.stmartin.edu/ and login with your user name and password
First go to your class page and make sure that editing is turned on.
Select the drop down menu that says add a resource.
Then select link to a file or website.
Make sure that you have a title at the top, this is what students will see as a link to this document.
Then scroll down and select chose or upload a file.
Next select the folder you wish to put the file in, now click browse.
Find the file that you want to upload to your Moosle and click upload this file
That file should now appear on Moodle in your files.
Select the option that says choose under the action column on the right
Now click save and return to course, and there is the docment on the page.
You can change its location on the page by selecting the two black arrows icon to the right of the link when editing features are turned on.
Next you can select any of the spaces marked with empty outlined boxes to move your item to, click on one to move the document to it's new location.
It is important to understand that what you have just made today is a link to a document. The document on your Moodle, is similar to an email attachment; if you make any changes to the original document, that you want to make to your Moodle link, you will need to reload the document.
So that's how you link a text file on to your Moodle.
Thanks for watching!
[Please stay tuned in for more Jing scripts and Moodle and Jing related posts coming soon.]
Hi this is a video tutorial series about how to add content to your classes on Moodle.
Today we are going to go over how to add a text file to Moodle. Again the first step is to navigate to moodle.stmartin.edu/ and login with your user name and password
First go to your class page and make sure that editing is turned on.
Select the drop down menu that says add a resource.
Then select link to a file or website.
Make sure that you have a title at the top, this is what students will see as a link to this document.
Then scroll down and select chose or upload a file.
Next select the folder you wish to put the file in, now click browse.
Find the file that you want to upload to your Moosle and click upload this file
That file should now appear on Moodle in your files.
Select the option that says choose under the action column on the right
Now click save and return to course, and there is the docment on the page.
You can change its location on the page by selecting the two black arrows icon to the right of the link when editing features are turned on.
Next you can select any of the spaces marked with empty outlined boxes to move your item to, click on one to move the document to it's new location.
It is important to understand that what you have just made today is a link to a document. The document on your Moodle, is similar to an email attachment; if you make any changes to the original document, that you want to make to your Moodle link, you will need to reload the document.
So that's how you link a text file on to your Moodle.
Thanks for watching!
[Please stay tuned in for more Jing scripts and Moodle and Jing related posts coming soon.]
Jing audio script 1: Adding a label
[The following is the scripts from the jing tutorial videos which are posted on Moodle intended to supplement the videos should anyone have any difficulty interpreting the audio. Please feel free to click on the title of this blog to navigate to Saint Martin's Instructional Design Moodle page to watch the videos.]
Hi this is a video-tutorial series about how to add content to your classes on Moodle.
First of all you go the Saint Martin's Moodle page, which is moodle.stmartin.edu/
And log in with your user name and password from your email account
Your main page should pull up a list of your classes. Your active classes will be orange, classes that are turned off will be gray links.
So when you select a non-active class page it will probably look something like this.
So let's start out with adding a label first. Since we are borrowing a Biology page, how about, "Welcome to Biology"
Select the menu that says add a resource, and click on insert a label.
Type a message, so in this case, "Welcome to Biology"
You can change the font, size or color if you want to suit your needs
Now scroll down and click on save and return to course.
If you want to see the page as your students will see it, return to the upper right-hand side of your screen and switch your role to "student"
And there it is, "Welcome to Biology".
So that's how you add a label to your class page on Moodle.
Thanks for watching!
[Keep watching for other scripts, and more posts about Jing and Moodle to be updated soon!]
Hi this is a video-tutorial series about how to add content to your classes on Moodle.
First of all you go the Saint Martin's Moodle page, which is moodle.stmartin.edu/
And log in with your user name and password from your email account
Your main page should pull up a list of your classes. Your active classes will be orange, classes that are turned off will be gray links.
So when you select a non-active class page it will probably look something like this.
So let's start out with adding a label first. Since we are borrowing a Biology page, how about, "Welcome to Biology"
Select the menu that says add a resource, and click on insert a label.
Type a message, so in this case, "Welcome to Biology"
You can change the font, size or color if you want to suit your needs
Now scroll down and click on save and return to course.
If you want to see the page as your students will see it, return to the upper right-hand side of your screen and switch your role to "student"
And there it is, "Welcome to Biology".
So that's how you add a label to your class page on Moodle.
Thanks for watching!
[Keep watching for other scripts, and more posts about Jing and Moodle to be updated soon!]
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Moodle and Jing
Welcome back! Delighted to see that you have once again navigated through the wide world of cyber-space back to my page. It has been awhile since I last posted something, now I have several posts for you I am going to be putting up in quick succession. The basic gist of them is that they will all have to do with the two new programs I am familiarizing myself with, those programs being Moodle and Jing.
Moodle, for those of you who are not familar with the program is, is an online course management system. Instructors can use Moodle to set up a web page for their class, that can supplement their traditional classroom teaching with features such as quizzes with instant grades and responses (excepting essay and short answer responses), upload documents, such as their course sylabus, etc. Be sure to visit Irina Gendelman's blog page "Curious" for more information about Moodle, or visit Saint Martin's Moodle and explore.
I also mentioned Jing. Jing is, for the time being, free for download, and a wonderful resource available for both Macs and PCs. Jing simplifies the process of explaining to someone that you cannot be in psychical contact with how to accomplish any given task on the computer. Where once we would have relied on emails full of step-by-step directions and pray the recipients understood our terminology, or perhaps the more technical may have included several screen-shots, Jing alows you to send videos. Jing is easy to use, and the site you upload it from offers help and tutorials on how to use it. You can easily record any actions that you do on your own computer screen, and use a microphone to record your instructions verbally. You can save your videos as a file, upload them to the site provided by Jing, or email them directly to your colleagues.
These past two weeks I have diligently writing scripts and recording Jing videos about how to add content to class pages on Moodle in an effort to help those who are not familiar with the program. To view some of the videos use the link to orient to SMU's Instructional Design page on Moodle where you can watch the videos or just browse the page for other resources to help you learn more about using Moodle. You can log in as a guest if you do not have a Saint Martin's log in. I will very soon be adding the full scripts as individual blogs to supplement the Jing videos.
More to follow, so stay tuned!
Moodle, for those of you who are not familar with the program is, is an online course management system. Instructors can use Moodle to set up a web page for their class, that can supplement their traditional classroom teaching with features such as quizzes with instant grades and responses (excepting essay and short answer responses), upload documents, such as their course sylabus, etc. Be sure to visit Irina Gendelman's blog page "Curious" for more information about Moodle, or visit Saint Martin's Moodle and explore.
I also mentioned Jing. Jing is, for the time being, free for download, and a wonderful resource available for both Macs and PCs. Jing simplifies the process of explaining to someone that you cannot be in psychical contact with how to accomplish any given task on the computer. Where once we would have relied on emails full of step-by-step directions and pray the recipients understood our terminology, or perhaps the more technical may have included several screen-shots, Jing alows you to send videos. Jing is easy to use, and the site you upload it from offers help and tutorials on how to use it. You can easily record any actions that you do on your own computer screen, and use a microphone to record your instructions verbally. You can save your videos as a file, upload them to the site provided by Jing, or email them directly to your colleagues.
These past two weeks I have diligently writing scripts and recording Jing videos about how to add content to class pages on Moodle in an effort to help those who are not familiar with the program. To view some of the videos use the link to orient to SMU's Instructional Design page on Moodle where you can watch the videos or just browse the page for other resources to help you learn more about using Moodle. You can log in as a guest if you do not have a Saint Martin's log in. I will very soon be adding the full scripts as individual blogs to supplement the Jing videos.
More to follow, so stay tuned!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Making a Video with iMovie
Making a Video with iMovie
Tools and Programs:
-Video Camera
-Macbook
-iMovie
-Internet Explorer
-Computer Mic.
-iTunes
Summary of Process:
To keep it simple, I did not change any of the settings or use any of the video camera’s special features, and decided to wait to enhance any video I shot once I got it uploaded to the computer. I only used only the record and zoom features of the camera. I spent the first part of two days recording various video around the Library. It is always better to shoot more video than you need to be sure you have enough, it can always be edited later.
To upload video to the program iMovie is fairly simple. Your video Camera, regardless of which brand or model should have a cable that plugs into your computer. Plug in your camera to the computer and turn it on. iMovie will recognize that a camera has been plugged in and bring up an upload screen. At this point, you can tell the computer to automatically upload, meaning it will rewind the tape and load all your video to iMovie, or manually upload, which allows you to rewind or forward to the clips or footage you want to upload rather than load the whole video tape.
(see image below)The latest iMovie (‘08, version 7.1.4) will place all of your video clips in whole segments in your library and allow you to place them in your video and edit them without altering your originally loaded clips. To edit a clip in iMovie, drag your mouse over the beginning of the video clip you wish to alter, several icons should appear in white on the clip. The sun icon, allows you to adjust the brightness of your footage. The frame icon, allows you to crop your clips to focus on a particular portion in the field of view of your clips. The speaker icon, allows you to adjust the volume of your clip. This is a particularly important feature for most iMovie users. When you are filming it is not only possible, but entirely probable you will pick up outside noises that will distract from your video. Since this video would eventually have a voice-over for much of the film, I muted all the volume from my video clips. The icon which consists of two arrows in opposite directions allows you to fine tune when your video clip begins and ends, and enables you to increase the time lapse between each of your clips. Finally, the stop-watch icon, this allows you to edit the clip length, and cut out any of the footage you do not wish to keep. You determine when in the clip you would like to begin and end the footage. If perhaps you want several intermittent splices in one particular clip, you may place another copy of the original clip from your library and edit to the desired section, and the next, etc.
On the far right of the tool bar in the middle of your screen there are several other important tools. The music note of course, allows you to add music to your video from your iTunes library, or sound effects from your computer. The camera allows you to add still photos from your iPhoto library, any still images you add to your project iMovie will automatically assign a certain duration of time in the video. To edit this, click on the stop-watch icon. The frame icon has a lot more flexibility with still images. Still photos have three options in terms of cropping. They can be made to fit the entire image ( the ‘Fit’ button), they can be cut down to your specified dimensions (‘Crop’), or they can be made to make any number of movements to draw focus from one point of the image to another (‘Ken Burns’). iMovie will often use the Ken Burns option automatically if the image is larger than a certain size. It is important to check your newly added images to ensure the computer has placed the focus on the parts of the image you wish to draw the viewers’ attention to. The picture can also be rotated, and you may preview the changes you have made before pressing ‘done’. With this new method of editing iMovie has made, no changes you make in editing are permanent, you can go back and change them anytime you wish.
The ‘T’ button, brings up Titles. This allows you to add text to your video or still images for a certain duration. When you find the type of title you like simply drag it over top of the clip or still you wish to use and drop it. iMovie will frequently assign its own duration for it, but you can adjust this, by clicking and dragging the blue ballon that appears above the clip to the desired length of time and choose when it appears in the clip or image.
The last icon, the rectangle with two shaded in triangles, is the transitions button. iMovie automatically puts a very brief pause between each photo or video clip, but this allows you to choose how to fluidly change between clips and stills. When you find the transition you like, drag it over to your video, and hold it between the two clips where you want it to appear, a thick lime green line should appear between the clips or stills, you can now drop the transition. Again, iMovie will generally assign its own duration to transitions (standard is .4 seconds, unless you change your preferences). This too can be changed, click on the transition, when it is highlighted yellow hold the command key and ‘r’ and it will bring up a window to alter the length. Keep in mind however, iMovie will not allow you to make your transition longer than half the time length of either of the clips it rests between.
To create a voice-over, click on the microphone icon in the middle of our tool bar above your library. Many computers now have built-in microphones, but you can just as easily hook up a microphone if you would prefer. Next click on the clip you wish to create a voice-over for. iMovie will automatically backtrack a three seconds from the point you wish to record and indicate when it begins recording with a series of beeps. You can click and drag on either end of the bubble that appear below the clip to cut you voice-over to the desired length.
Tools and Programs:
-Video Camera
-Macbook
-iMovie
-Internet Explorer
-Computer Mic.
-iTunes
Summary of Process:
To keep it simple, I did not change any of the settings or use any of the video camera’s special features, and decided to wait to enhance any video I shot once I got it uploaded to the computer. I only used only the record and zoom features of the camera. I spent the first part of two days recording various video around the Library. It is always better to shoot more video than you need to be sure you have enough, it can always be edited later.
To upload video to the program iMovie is fairly simple. Your video Camera, regardless of which brand or model should have a cable that plugs into your computer. Plug in your camera to the computer and turn it on. iMovie will recognize that a camera has been plugged in and bring up an upload screen. At this point, you can tell the computer to automatically upload, meaning it will rewind the tape and load all your video to iMovie, or manually upload, which allows you to rewind or forward to the clips or footage you want to upload rather than load the whole video tape.
(see image below)The latest iMovie (‘08, version 7.1.4) will place all of your video clips in whole segments in your library and allow you to place them in your video and edit them without altering your originally loaded clips. To edit a clip in iMovie, drag your mouse over the beginning of the video clip you wish to alter, several icons should appear in white on the clip. The sun icon, allows you to adjust the brightness of your footage. The frame icon, allows you to crop your clips to focus on a particular portion in the field of view of your clips. The speaker icon, allows you to adjust the volume of your clip. This is a particularly important feature for most iMovie users. When you are filming it is not only possible, but entirely probable you will pick up outside noises that will distract from your video. Since this video would eventually have a voice-over for much of the film, I muted all the volume from my video clips. The icon which consists of two arrows in opposite directions allows you to fine tune when your video clip begins and ends, and enables you to increase the time lapse between each of your clips. Finally, the stop-watch icon, this allows you to edit the clip length, and cut out any of the footage you do not wish to keep. You determine when in the clip you would like to begin and end the footage. If perhaps you want several intermittent splices in one particular clip, you may place another copy of the original clip from your library and edit to the desired section, and the next, etc.
On the far right of the tool bar in the middle of your screen there are several other important tools. The music note of course, allows you to add music to your video from your iTunes library, or sound effects from your computer. The camera allows you to add still photos from your iPhoto library, any still images you add to your project iMovie will automatically assign a certain duration of time in the video. To edit this, click on the stop-watch icon. The frame icon has a lot more flexibility with still images. Still photos have three options in terms of cropping. They can be made to fit the entire image ( the ‘Fit’ button), they can be cut down to your specified dimensions (‘Crop’), or they can be made to make any number of movements to draw focus from one point of the image to another (‘Ken Burns’). iMovie will often use the Ken Burns option automatically if the image is larger than a certain size. It is important to check your newly added images to ensure the computer has placed the focus on the parts of the image you wish to draw the viewers’ attention to. The picture can also be rotated, and you may preview the changes you have made before pressing ‘done’. With this new method of editing iMovie has made, no changes you make in editing are permanent, you can go back and change them anytime you wish.
The ‘T’ button, brings up Titles. This allows you to add text to your video or still images for a certain duration. When you find the type of title you like simply drag it over top of the clip or still you wish to use and drop it. iMovie will frequently assign its own duration for it, but you can adjust this, by clicking and dragging the blue ballon that appears above the clip to the desired length of time and choose when it appears in the clip or image.
The last icon, the rectangle with two shaded in triangles, is the transitions button. iMovie automatically puts a very brief pause between each photo or video clip, but this allows you to choose how to fluidly change between clips and stills. When you find the transition you like, drag it over to your video, and hold it between the two clips where you want it to appear, a thick lime green line should appear between the clips or stills, you can now drop the transition. Again, iMovie will generally assign its own duration to transitions (standard is .4 seconds, unless you change your preferences). This too can be changed, click on the transition, when it is highlighted yellow hold the command key and ‘r’ and it will bring up a window to alter the length. Keep in mind however, iMovie will not allow you to make your transition longer than half the time length of either of the clips it rests between.
To create a voice-over, click on the microphone icon in the middle of our tool bar above your library. Many computers now have built-in microphones, but you can just as easily hook up a microphone if you would prefer. Next click on the clip you wish to create a voice-over for. iMovie will automatically backtrack a three seconds from the point you wish to record and indicate when it begins recording with a series of beeps. You can click and drag on either end of the bubble that appear below the clip to cut you voice-over to the desired length.
iMovie automatically saves any changes you make to drafted movies/videos, but in order to access it outside of the program iMovie, you will need to publish it. Select the drop-down menu at the top of your screen which says 'share' and select 'export movie...' or press control and 'e' this will allow you to save your video to the desktop or another specified folder on your computer.
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