Accessing the Player

To access the Player:

• Double click on the lesson's title in the main menu.
  A lesson is preceded in the main menu by the icon

You can also

• Click on a lesson item in the main menu to select it.
• Once the lesson is selected (highlighted dark blue), click on the Player button

The image below illustrates a lesson in the main menu. Mouse over the image to see this lesson in the Player.

NOTES

• If the item selected is a submenu or a command instead of a lesson item, the Player's button is greyed out. These types of items cannot be opened in the Player.
• To close the player, click on the exit button located at the far-right end of the tab bar. (mouse over the illustration above)
• If you have several Players opened at once, the exit button will close the one that is displayed on your screen.

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You may need to open simultaneously the Player, the Planner and the Tracker of the same lesson. To go back to the main menu and select the other function, select the menu icon

Although the Player's interface will no longer be visible, it is still active and can be accessed by clicking on the Player tab. It will open exactly where it was last left.

Depending on the instructor's settings at registration, up to 7 such tabs can be concurrently opened. The instructor can toggle from one Player to another, or to a Planner/Tracker, by selecting the corresponding tab.

Player Interface Description.

The Player is divided in 3 sections:

• The lesson's menu
• The work area
• The button bar

The Player's Menu

As mentioned in the preceding chapter, there are two types of menus to consider:

• The main menu, or interface menu. From this menu, the student will navigate and select the lesson assigned by the instructor. This menu is not always identical for all students, as the instructors can customize it on a per person basis.
• The Player's menu or lesson's menu. Once the students select a lesson, the main menu is replaced by the lesson's menu. Lessons' menus present only items (or exercises) that the students must answer.

In a lesson's default practice mode, the lesson's menu is present throughout the entire lesson. Students can choose the item they want to display by clicking on it.

The lesson can however be set in sequence or random mode in which case the menu is no longer displayed. The lesson is stretched over the entire interface. To select the next items in queue, the user must use the Next button.

The illustration below shows a lesson with and without the menu:

Click on one of the buttons below to view the same lesson in the different modes:

Menu Icons (Item Types)

The type of the menu displayed (main menu or lesson menu) can easily be differentiated by the icons associated to the menu entries. In a lesson menu, each icon represents an exercise type. These icons are never present in the main menu.

Icon	Exercise type
	Introduction Item
	Ask/Answer Item
	Example Item
	Fill in the blanks Item
	Multiple-Choice Item
	Read Item
	Simultaneous Item
	Teach Item
	Verify Item
	Write Item

Lesson Menu navigation

To navigate through the Player's menu:

• With the mouse; the first click selects the entry (the menu entry background is highlighted blue), the second click gives access to the item.
• with the Next buttons; The user has the choice of using the Next button located in the button bar, or the one located in the item bar
• with the F8 key of the keyboard which will display the next item.

NOTES

• You cannot navigate through the lesson's menu using the arrow keys.
• if the lesson is set with timers, the next item will automatically appear.
• If the Player does not show a lesson menu (the lesson is set to Sequence or random), the user can only progress through the lesson using either one of the 2 Next buttons, or the F8 function key.

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The Player's Work Area

The work area is where the content of the lesson's exercises is displayed, including text, images, and audio. It is also divided in 4 main areas as underlined in the illustration below:

• The Item Bar gives direction to the students related to the item type.
• The text area, where written instructions are displayed.
• The graphic area, next to the text area, where images or videos are displayed. If no graphic is included in this area, the text area will expand to use this space.
• The sound graph area, located at the bottom of the work area. Depending on the type of item, either one or two volume displays will be displayed.

The Item Bar

It is located in the upper part of the work area.

It provides:

• generic information specific to the type of exercise displayed on the screen and indicates what input is required from the student ( Fill in the Blank, Listen then Record amongst others).
  These directions are always present.
• The Next or the Verify Buttons which are located to the right of these instructions.
  As soon as the student has provided an answer, the Verify button replaces the Next button.
  • If the item required an oral answer, pressing the Verify button will present the next screen.
  • If the item was a Fill in the Blanks or a Multiple-Choice item, pressing the Verify button will display feedback to its right. The type of feedback depends on the lesson's settings and is generic. It will only specify if the exercise is correct or incorrect.
  • Some exercises are designed to be automated, and the students' controls are locked. In this case, the Next and Verify buttons are greyed out to prevent the student from exiting the item before the end of the specified time. No feedback will be displayed.
• A Timer if the lesson is automated. If the exercise includes timers, the main timer will appear at the extreme right of this item bar.

The Text Area

Any text the instructor has added to the item is displayed in this area. It may include item specific instructions and/or a text for the student to read

If the item does not include any graphic, this area expands to cover the full work area.

If the lesson's menu is hidden, the text area will also expand over the menu area.

NOTE

Text that is part of an exercise cannot be copied or exported from the Player.

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The Graphics Area.

This is where the image or the graphic part of a video included in the exercise is displayed. In items that include 2 volume graphs and some text, like in Example items, the image may be truncated to allow display room for all the content.

The Sound Graph Area

Depending on the type of item displayed, this area may include one, two, or no sound graph at all.



The Sound graph is a graphical display of the sound volume over time.

The height of the green bars in the graph represents the loudness of the sounds in the recording. Typically, words or sentences will appear closer to the upper part of the display while silences will be represented near the lower part. This provides an easy visual way to find the starting points of a word. The student can select a particular location to play from by clicking the mouse on the volume display. The system will play the sound from that point forward.

The sound graph also includes the audio controls used to record and play sound.

NOTES ABOUT SLIDERS

• If you click on the icons at either side of the slider, the slider thumb will move directly to that icon.
• To gradually increment or slow down the speed of the sounds, move the slider thumb to the desired area of the slider.
• The instructor can disable this function. (see Planner options in the Authoring section)

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NOTES ABOUT VOLUME GRAPHS

• Items requiring Written input only display one sound graph, the instructor's. Other items may only show the student's sound graph or show both.
• If 2 sound graphs are present in an item, the top graph represents the instructor's voice sample; the lower graph represents the student's recording. The user may click on either one of these graphs to alternate both audios.

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The Button Bar and Controls

The button bar is located above the Player and is part of the main interface.

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NOTE

Only the buttons that are pertinent to the displayed item are activated. All others are greyed out:

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The buttons present in that bar are linked to the buttons in the audio graph, to the top menu links and to the keyboard's function keys. Students can use either of or a combination of these links.

Button	Keyboard shortcut	Menu bar access	Function
*	F2	Controls > Play > Yourself	This button plays the recording the student had made in the item from the beginning.
*	F3	Controls > Record > New Recording or Continue Recording.	This button starts recording the student's voice. Any previous recording is replaced by the new recording. However, when accessing this function from the menu bar, the student has the choice to redo the recording, or continue a recording.
*	F4	Controls > Pause	Pressing this button in the middle of playing or recording suspends the play or record. Pressing the button again resumes.
The buttons above marked with an * are also present on the sound graph and have the same functions
	F5	Controls > Play > Example	Pressing this button plays the sound recorded for the item in the lesson. In example items this plays the example sound that the student is to emulate.
	F6	Controls > Play > Introduction	This button plays the sound recorded for the instructions that apply to a section of a lesson (1st "I item" before the exercise). If special instructions have been given to the student for an item (in a "C item" for example) these are played instead.
	N / A	N / A	Lists the number of messages left by the instructor for this item. If greyed out, no message was left. If active, clicking on this icon will bring the links to the messages.
	F8	File > Next	Pressing this button terminates an item and displays the next item. When the item menu is already displayed, this button selects the next item in sequence.
	N/A	File > Back	Pressing this button terminates an item and displays the preceding completed item.
	F9	File > Exit	This button is present on the top right corner of the interface drag bar. This will log the user off CAN-8, even if the student is in a lesson at that time. It cannot be used to exit a lesson or an item only. To exit a lesson or an item, the exit button in the tab bar should be used instead
	N/A	N/A	This button is at the extreme right side of the tab bar. This ends the student's session in this lesson. Control returns to the course menu selection system or another tab if one is available.

Each one of the buttons described above have 5 possible states, depending on the functions available in the item, and of the rights given to the student to access them. The table below represents each state for one button only, as they are similar for each button:

Button	Status	Description
	Normal	Indicates the function is available and can be started by clicking on the button.
	Hot	Indicates the mouse is over the button
	Pressed	The button remains in this state while its function is running. It will return to its normal state as soon as it's done, the pause button is pressed or the next item is presented.
	Greyed	If a button function is not available for a certain screen, it will be displayed greyed out.
	Pressed & Greyed	Indicates that this function is currently running, but the control of this button is not available. This is usually encountered in an item with a timer and where students' controls have been locked.
	If the mouse cursor is held over the button for a few seconds, a tooltip showing the function of that button will appear below the button.

Item descriptions:

The following description and visual renditions of the different items apply to items placed in the default Practice mode without a timer. The behaviour of each of these items may differ when the lesson is placed in test or review modes.

The Introduction Item

May include: audio or graphic
Does not present an interface to the student.
Users cannot input any data

Introduction items are represented in the menu as open or closed folders, depending if they are expanded or not. The behaviour of this type of items differs depending on the content they include:

• No content. If the Introduction item is empty, it will divide the lesson plan into sections. Selecting it in the menu will either show or hide the exercises it groups.
• Audio. If some audio is added to the Instruction item, it is used as a section marker in the menu, and the audio will be played as soon as the user enters the lesson.
  While navigating though the items below the Introduction item, the student can retrieve the Introduction's audio using the Play Introduction button.
• Image. When an image is added, the instruction remains a section marker and the image included becomes the background image for the items that follow.
  • If there is no image included in the next Introduction items, the background image will remain though the entire lesson.
  • If the next Introduction item includes an image as well, the image included in the first Introduction becomes the background image for that section, the image included in the next Introduction will be the background for the next section.
• Audio and image: The Introduction item is now used as a section marker in the menu, the audio plays when the student starts the first item in the section and the image is used as the background for the section.
• Text: Because the Introduction item does not display an interface in the Player. any text entered in this item will be ignored.

The Teach Item

May include: audio, text, graphic or video
Requires no recordable input from students

The Example Item

May include: audio, text, graphic or video
Requires student to: Record a verbal answer

When the student has achieved a satisfactory recording, pressing Next will submit his/her answer and display the next item.

The Simultaneous Item

May include: audio, text, graphic, video
Requires student to: Record a verbal answer

The student's recording is saved when the student selects Next.

The Verify Item

May include: text, graphic, video
Requires student to: Record a verbal answer

The student's recording is stored when the student selects Next.

The Read and Record Item

May include: text, graphic, video
Requires student to: Record a verbal answer

When the students have achieved a satisfactory recording, they can press Next to submit their recording to the instructor and move to the next item.

The Ask Item

May include: audio, text, graphic, video
Requires student to: Record a verbal answer

When the students have achieved a satisfactory recording, they can press Next to submit their recording to the instructor and move to the next item.

The Multiple-Choice Item

May include: audio text, graphic, video
Requires student to: Select an answer

As soon as the students select an answer, the NEXT button is replaced by the CHECK button in the item bar.



The students then click on the CHECK icon to submit their answer and proceed to the next item. In the default practice mode, unless the instructor changed the Planner's settings, the system will provide feedback on the answer. The students will have to select the next button to advance to the next item.

Full feedback

The student can review the feedback and select the Next button to proceed with the next item.

Partial feedback

The students can review their answer and select the Next button to proceed with the next item.

No feedback

When the instructor sets a lesson in test mode, the feedback is automatically removed if a numeric mark is assigned to the item. The next button is active in the item bar, but no information regarding the correctness of the answer is given.

The student proceeds to the next item as soon as the Next button is selected.

The Fill in the Blanks Item

May include: audio text, graphic, video
Requires student to: type an answer in the blank spaces provided.

When the student is satisfied with the answer and presses the Check button, the answer becomes available to the instructor. If the lesson is set to its default settings, feedback is provided in the in the item bar.

Full feedback

The correct answer(s) are shown in a green field under the incorrect or missing answers, as shown below:

NOTES

• The above example shows 2 blanks, 1 of which was answered incorrectly.
• The Correction is shown in green, underneath the blanks containing an error only.

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Partial feedback

The students can review their answer and select the Next button to proceed with the next item.

No feedback

When the instructor sets a lesson in test mode, the feedback is automatically removed if a numeric mark is assigned to the item. The next button is active in the item bar, but no information regarding the correctness of the answer is given.

The student proceeds to the next item as soon as the Next button is selected.

The Writing or Dictation Item

May include: audio, graphic, video
Requires student to: Type a written answer

The system does not provide feedback for write items.
The answer will be available to the instructor for evaluation as soon as the student selects the Next button and the next item will appear.

The Conversation Item

The conversation item is not visible at all from the Player's menu as it does not present an interface to the student. Only the item that follows it and is paired with shows in the menu. This item can only be paired with and Example or a Verify item and is meant to provide the instructor with an additional voice input for these items.

If for example the lesson was created with a Conversation item named C ITEM followed by a Verify item titled V ITEM, the lesson's menu will only display V ITEM. As the student selects V ITEM in the menu, the Player displays the interface for V ITEM, however the first audio that is played is the audio included in C ITEM.

More details on Conversation items can be found in the Planner section.

Keyboards and Characters

In items that require typed input, students in most cases will use the regular keys on the keyboard.
In some lessons however, the text required might include characters that are not on the keyboard.

In many cases, the answer must be composed in a language that does not have standard keys available on the keyboard. Character variants can still be typed using the following 2 options:

Character variants using the regular keyboard

Certain languages require accentuated characters or a few character variants.

Alternatively, the student can select a character variant by first typing the root character and then pressing the CTRL and A keys. The typed character will change for a variant. By repeatedly pressing CTRL A, the student can cycle through all the possible accents or variants for that character.

Virtual Keyboards

Sometimes the instructor will have to include a virtual keyboard in the lesson, either because of its specific layout or because the characters required to answer the question are too different from the computer's keyboard characters.

In cases where the defined (on-screen) keyboard is non-optional, any character typed with the computer's keyboard will come out as the corresponding character on the on-screen keyboard. The student can also click on each key of the on-screen keyboard to enter the character.

The SV Phone

Students cannot use the Phone function to call another student, nor can they directly initiate a phone conversation with the instructor; they can however send a request for assistance at any time during the lesson.

Call request

Sending a request for assistance can be done using any of the following:

• 

  select Help -> Call Instructor from the menu bar;

• press the F12 function key;

The instructor will receive a visual request in the Tracker of the lesson the student sent it from and will have to initiate the call to begin the conversation.

Receiving a Call

Messages from Instructor

Sometimes, the instructor when correcting an item will want to leave some oral feedback to the student. It might be a general comment on the recording done, or a request for the exercise to be redone. The steps to leave a message to a student are described in the Tracker chapter of this manual.

Each item in every lessons of the system can keep up to 99 messages for the user. The number of messages in an item are indicated in the message button: To retrieve previous messages, the student can click on this button.

When leaving a message, the instructor has the option to force the student to re-do the item by preventing the student from proceeding to another item. If the student attempts to proceed to the next item by clicking the NEXT button, the following message will appear in the item bar.

Timers

Each item in a lesson can be timed, independently if they require an input of the students or not.
You may also encounter timed items where all the controls are locked (greyed out). Playing, recording audio, and exiting an item to move to the next one is entirely controlled by the system, at the time defined by the instructor who created the lesson.

NOTE

When preparing a lesson with timers that lock the controls or limits the time to submit an answer, the instructor should always add a Teach item at the beginning to advise the student of the upcoming limits.

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Preparation Timer

The first timer activated when the item is entered is the Preparation (Time) clock.

Presentation time allows extra time for the student to read text, listen to the recorded sound, or think of the answer. It is located on the item bar.

When the presentation time limit is up, the student recording timer automatically begins if the item requires an audio answer and will terminate the item when the time limit has been reached. For dictation, multiple choice or fill-in items the item is terminated as if the Next key had been pressed.

NOTE

If the controls have not been locked, the students can re-do their recordings as many times as they wish during that period or terminate the answer before the end of the count down. But if the controls are locked, the system will control the buttons and will terminate the item when the counter reaches 00:00.

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Recording Timer

NOTES

• Some items with timers are partially automated. Either one, or both of the timers might be present, but some of the function buttons, like Record or next are active.
• In other cases, the item will be fully automated. All buttons are greyed out and the students must wait to record or leave the item. In that case, the presentation timer includes both the preparation time and the recording time. Instructors are advised to leave a prompt in their own recording advising the students their recording time is about to start.
• The Timers' behaviour is different depending on the type of item it is placed in. Further details related to item specific timers can be found in the Item description section.

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Practice and Tests

The mode of the lesson will impact how the lesson behaves in the Player and which information is made available to the student.
The lesson can be set in :

• Practice mode:

  

  Unless otherwise specified, the lesson is treated as a drill and practice.
  In this mode, the menus indicate items that have been previously answered by showing them in green.
  Multiple-Choice and Fill-in questions may give the correct answer as the student moves on to the next item. If such is the case, the item's title in the tree menu is displayed in green if correct and in red if not.
  Items that are in black are items for which no answer has been recorded yet.
  If marks have been assigned to the items, the marks will show in the menu.

  
  
  

• Pre-Test mode:

  
  
  

  In that mode, the students are prevented from entering the activity. They must remain with this message until the test starts.

  
  

  NOTES

  • The student should not attempt to exit this window or the lesson. As soon as the instructor changes the lesson mode to Start Test, the message box will disappear and the test will start.
  • Students who exit this window might delay the start of the test or be locked out of the test when the instructor starts it, depending on the start option selected.

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• Test mode:

  There are several tests settings. Depending on which one the instructor chose, the display will vary, and so will the information:

  • The instructor may have chosen to leave the item menu visible and accessible.
    

    • The student can select any item from the menu in any order.
    • Questions where an answer has been submitted are in green font. Unanswered questions are in black font.
    • No visual clue is given that would indicate if the answer is correct or incorrect.
    • The available score for each question is also shown in the menu. This may help the students decide which item to answer first.
  • The instructor may have set the test so that the student must answer each item in sequence and move to the next one without the possibility to go back to a previous item.
    

    When in sequence mode, the tree menu is hidden. Only the work area and control buttons are visible. answered items cannot be redone.

  • The instructor may have set the test in random mode, which is similar in appearance to the sequence mode, yet items are presented in a different order each time.

    The student must answer each item and move to the next one without the possibility to go back to a previous item.
    The questions are randomized within a section (between 2 introduction items). If the student selects to skip a question, the item will be presented again until all the questions from that section are answered. The test will then continue to the next section.

    NOTES

    • With these settings, the treeview is hidden and the Back button disabled. The students have to take the test in the order given.
    • If the students exit then re-enter the test they are presented with the first non-answered item.
    • Answers previously recorded cannot be re-recorded.
    • Available marks are not shown.

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  • The instructor may have decided to automate the test using timers and disabling the students' controls.
    

    When a test is fully automated, all buttons are disabled; the student will be brought from item to item without possible interaction with the system. The recording will start automatically, and the student will be prevented from either going forward, backwards or listening to instructions a second time.

    NOTES

    • When re-entering this test, the student is presented with the first NON ANSWERED item.
    • Answers previously recorded cannot be redone.

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• Review mode:

  The Review Mode Is the last step in the test sequence. This mode prevents students from answering any more question, or from changing a previously submitted answer. It allows them to see their answers and the marks for each answered question.

  
  
  

  When the student selects an item, the answer that was entered during the test is displayed. However, the student cannot change the answer (or answer one that was skipped). If attempting to do so, they will be advised that it is no longer possible.

  

  The review mode always displays the menu, even if the test was in sequence or random mode. The students can see the marks per items. The menu also indicates incorrect items in red, correct in green.

  
  
  

• Final Mark:

  The instructor has the option to send the results of the test to the students after marking it, or in the case of a Multiple-Choice test, right away.
  

  Final marks are displayed while the students are in review mode, or when the students enter the lesson next.
  Final marks are not displayed when the activity is in test mode.
  The score alert indicates the student's personal score, rank in the class for that test, the class average, and highest mark in that class. They do not see the other student's score.

  
  

  If the instructor chooses not to send the test results, the students can still access their own score from the top menu
  
  The information displayed only shows their personal score for that test.