6 min read
2020/08/18
With new visuals and a more intuitive user experience for managing resources as well as new functionalities, additional options and ground-breaking new Activity Types, Avallain Author Release 29 brings a series of highly exciting updates to our already powerful authoring tool.
Create and manage new Activities more easily, organise your Media Library and try out new ways to make full use of the integrated voice recognition technology. All of this serves to make the process of creating learning materials even smoother and increase your opportunities to provide your learners with highly individualised and engaging learning experiences.
Enhanced backend design and functionality
Avallain Author Release 29 greets content creators with several new features aimed at making the content creation experience even more intuitive than before:
- New user interface design: Avallain Author Release 29 features a redesigned main menu layout which makes it easier to perform global actions while remaining familiar to experienced Avallain Author users. At the same time, we have separated the project toolbar from the header, leaving all project editing functions available under the project name.
- New Media Library design: Managing media resources is now even smoother, with a more intuitive design that will be further enhanced in upcoming Avallain Author releases.
- Improved Product Builder: Avallain Author Release 29 makes working on complex builds and content packages much more convenient, with significantly enhanced performance across the board, resulting in a much more stable working experience. The enhanced Product Builder also comes with new Building Platforms for Android and iOS, ensuring full compatibility with all common operating systems.
New user interface design: Switching between projects, managing profile access and sessions, and separated Project toolbar from the header with all project editing functions.
New projects and asset management features and functionality
Our powerful online authoring tool has always excelled at incorporating a wide variety of media in learning materials while ensuring full compatibility between different versions of the software and the learning materials created with it. In Avallain Author Release 29, we further enhance this vision:
- Improved Learning Object import: To ensure compatibility when importing Learning Objects across multiple installations of Avallain Author, the new release provides content creators with a detailed report on the differences between the configuration of the Learning Object and the target project. If the differences are significant, Avallain Author Release 29 can be set to replace missing but indispensable properties and options with the closest available alternatives.
- Enhanced Header Media Option: In this newest release of Avallain Author, we have exchanged the Header Audio Option for a new Header Media Option that allows either audio or video assets to be displayed in the header of a Learning Object. This enhancement also assures that video files displayed in the header run smoothly and continuously, even when learners switch between Activities.
- HLS video support: To optimise video playback on unreliable internet connections, Avallain Author Release 29 can automatically adapt (or be manually set to adapt) video players to the bandwidth available. This ensures stable video playback even when connectivity is weak, provided that Design Pack support is available and certain changes have been made to the video conversion setting of Avallain Author.
- Enhanced Design Pack support: Design Packs can now customise the design of Learning Objects to a greater extent, offering new options for end-result syntax, button mark-up, placement and much more. At the same time, users gain more language support options, such as choosing a default language or setting a specific language as the default for a specific Learning Object.
Header Media LO Option
New authoring options and syntax
In addition to new features aimed at enhancing the workflow of content creators, Avallain Author Release 29 also offers several new settings for creating even more individualised Learning Objects:
- New Reveal Object functionality: On Present activities, that are currently using the Reveal Object functionality, content creators can now set Show Forward to “After all answers” or “After one answer”. This ensures greater control over when users can use the Forward button when engaging with Reveal Object tasks.
- Info text: New dialogue display: In any given Learning Object, info text can now be displayed as either a tool tip or a dialogue, provided the Design Pack used allows for it. The new “Dialog” value can be set in the Global Option “Show Info Text”.
- New option: End Results Button: Content creators can now use the Global Option “End Results Button” to decide on which screens the button will appear: “Every Screen” allows students to be able to switch to the End Results screen whenever they finished a screen or “Last screen” if you prefer learners to complete all screens before they are shown their results.
- New End Results – screen syntax: The new End Results screen can be customised to display results based on specific categories defined by metadata. Content creators can also use Design Packs to create visual representations of these scores, e.g. pie charts etc.
Brand-new Activity Types using voice recognition technology
We are excited to roll out new Activity Types that make full use of the groundbreaking voice recognition technology that is available through Avallain Author.
The first one is called Input:Match:Voice and enables you to create voice recording activities that evaluate the pronunciation of complete sentences by artificial intelligence. Thus, learners can get immediate feedback on specifically which words and expressions they have pronounced correctly or not.
Pronunciation evaluation with a new voice recognition Activity Type
The other new Activity Type which benefits from it is called Identify:Select:Radiobutton Voice. With this new Activity Type you can create Radiobutton Activities in which the selection is made orally. The learners record their selection and the voice recognition technology transcribes the recorded audio and gives instant feedback whether their recording matches the answer.
Workflow optimisation and more diverse content creation – with Avallain Author Release 29
The newest build of our leading authoring tool takes a big step in redesigning and improving existing content creation features while providing brand-new functions. As Max Bondi, Product Manager Avallain Author, puts it: “At Avallain, we seek to not only enhance our product with every new release but to expand its capabilities with proven, cutting-edge technology at the same time. Avallain Author’s new voice recognition Activity Types are proof that this concept works. We can’t wait to see how our customers will implement the new features in their learning materials in the future.”
The rollout of Avallain Author Release 29 has already begun, with the next regular update to be released in three months time.
