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6.2 Plan – Updates to XML and Recording

the video tag was removed.

The course tag which defines the course in XML has the attributes namespace, course id andcourse title. The course id attribute is automatically generated by the authoring tool and the course title is entered by the user when creating a course.

Units are represented using unit tag with the attributesunit title and unit id. The structure of the course is illustrated by the diagram in Figure 6.1.

Similar to the XML version 2, lessons are still represented usinglesson tag. The name and id attributes in XML version 2 are changed to lesson title and lesson id respectively. Added to the attribute list is thelesson type that is populated from a drop down list. The final XML structure was as follows:

Course...

Unit

.

Lesson

.

Screen

.

Unit .

Lesson .

Lesson .

Unit .

Lesson .

Lesson

Figure 6.1: The new XML structure of the course.

Screen...

screenID

.

video

.

vid caption .

image

Figure 6.2: The new XML structure of the screen.

6.3.2 Changes to Lesson Preview

The facilitator identified the lesson preview needed improvement (see Section 4.4.2).

We added plugins to support playback of videos encoded in using the H.264 codec.

This was to avoid installation of additional plugins separate to the authoring tool.

The lesson preview appears as a window on top of the main authoring tool window

with navigation buttons to move forward and backward through the authored lesson (see Figure 6.3). SASL videos included in the authored lesson were by default made to autoplay in the lesson preview window.

Figure 6.3: The lesson preview functionality of the authoring tool. The preview appears as a dialog box on top of the main authoring tool window.

6.3.3 Recording of new SASL videos

Based on the results we obtained from the evaluation of the mobile prototype and the instructional inconsistencies identified in the Diagnose phase above, we discuss our solutions here. We first had to choose a new lesson and generate a conversation script from which to sign the instructions. The procedure we followed to record the new lesson was as follows:

1. Select a lesson from the e-Learner manual.

2. Create a conversation script for the lesson.

3. Hire a SASL interpreter.

4. Record the SASL videos with the help of the SASL interpreter.

5. Edit and split the videos.

The lesson chosen was a supplementary lesson from the e-Learner manual called

”S3: Our organisation” where the Deaf learners would create an organisation chart.

A conversation script was generated following the similar procedure in Section 4.3.3, but tailoring the content to suit the Deaf learners. In this case, the Deaf learners will be required to create an organisation chart for their own company. In this cycle, we hired a new interpreter who had previously interpreted and worked with DCCT and was well-known by the community. This ensured that dialectal differences that were identified in the previous cycle were avoided.

Recording of the SASL videos was done at the DCCT premises during office hours. Present at the recording were the interpreter, facilitator and an advanced Deaf learner. The role of the learner was to clarify the signs used to define computer terminology used in the e-Learner classes that did not have familiar signs in SASL.

The setup of the recording was as follows: Two cameras on two tripods were used for recording. This was done to ensure redundancy incase any camera failed during the recording. The interpreter stood in-front of the camera. The facilitator and Deaf learner stood off camera watching the interpreter. In addition, off camera on a table was a laptop with Microsoft Word running.

The facilitator voiced the instructions on the conversation script to the inter-preter and the Deaf learner watched the interinter-preter’s signing to check if the signs used to define the computer terminology was correct. If the correct sign for the com-puter terminology was not used, the signing was re-recorded. Once the interpreter finished signing an instruction, she put her hands down. This pause in-between instructions was a marker that we used when splitting and editing the video clip.

Instructions that needed more clarification in terms of the position of some Microsoft Word tools, meant that all three parties would pause recording of the instruction, refer to Microsoft word and re-record the instruction. These steps, not all, were repeated until all instructions on the conversation script were recorded. In addition to content recording we recorded short clips that were discourse markers which in-structed the Deaf learner to progress forward or go back to the previous instruction.

The recording of the videos was in 1920 by 1080 pixel resolution at 25 frames per second (fps). After recording, the videos were edited using Adobe Premiere Pro CS

6. The captured video was first split into the shorter clips, then the audio channels were removed. To further reduce the size of the video clips, the colour channels were changed to gray scale channel in the video editing process reduced the file size [72].

The resulting video clips were short with the longest clip being 48 seconds long. The SASL video clips were renamed using the description of the instruction according to the conversation script.