eTEACH 2.1 Release Notes

Welcome

Welcome to version 2.1 of the eTEACH Authoring tool. We've labored long and hard to make this version as good as it can be. We use this tool in production every day. However, no piece of software is ever perfect. Please take note of the items listed below and be sure to let us know about any problems you may discover.

Installation Notes

1. The installation package for eTEACH Author requires Windows Installer 2.0.
   If you are running:
   • Windows 2000 SP3 or Windows XP Home or Windows XP Pro - you already have this on your system.
   • Windows 95, 98, or Windows ME - install Windows Installer 2.0 from here.
   • Windows NT SP6 or Windows 2000 with a service pack less than 3 - install Windows Installer 2.0 from here.
   • Windows NT with a service pack less than 6 - install SP6, then install Window Installer 2.0 from here.
2. eTEACH Author is built on the latest development technology from Microsoft called .NET. Because of this it requires installation of the .NET Framework. Upcoming versions of the Windows operating system will come with the framework installed, but for current Windows platforms, you will need to install the framework if you haven't already done so. You can get the framework from here and the current service pack for the framework (SP2) from here. You must install the framework for eTEACH Author to work, and I recommend you install the service pack too.
3. eTEACH Author depends on a Windows Media component called AsfChop.ocx. The installation package checks for the presence of this component in your machine's registry and will abort with an error message if the component is not found. However, you may have an older version of the component installed which will satisfy the check made by the installation package, but will not work correctly when you try to use eTEACH Author later. Correct working of eTEACH Author depends on the installation of version 4 or later of this component. Version 4 of the component will be installed on your machine if you have Office XP, but you are likely to have version 3 if you are running Office 2000. You can solve this problem by installing the Windows Media Resource Kit 7 beta, which you can get from here. If eTEACH Author fails when attempting to add markers to your video files, you should install the resource kit, then reboot, then try eTEACH Author again.
4. eTEACH Author also depends on components that are installed on your machine as part of the Microsoft Office installation. Unfortunately, there are some critical differences between the components installed by the Office 2000 and Office XP. At this point in time we are unable to create a single installation package which will support both versions of the components. If you have Office 2000 installed on your machine, you should install EteachAuthor_2_1_19_O2K.msi, but if you have Office XP installed, then you should EteachAuthor_2_1_19_OXP.msi instead. The functionality of the two versions is the same, but if you install the wrong one, you will be unable to import PowerPoint files into your eTEACH project. We hope to find a way to support both versions of PowerPoint with a single installation package in later versions of eTEACH Author.

Additional Office XP Note

This version of the tool supports both the Office XP and Office 2000 versions of PowerPoint (see above). The Office XP version of PowerPoint uses a technology called "DHTML Behaviors" to implement animations in the web pages it produces. The code produced by this version of PowerPoint depends on a component called the "PowerPoint Animation ActiveX Control". Users who have Office XP installed on their machines will already have this component. However, some other users may not have it. In that case they will get a message from Internet Explorer asking if they want to download it from Microsoft. If the user is connected to the internet and has administrative control over their machine, the installation should work. It's quick, painless, and only needs to be done once. Unfortunately, if the user is not connected to the Internet, (they may be viewing an eTEACH Presentation on a CD), or they don't have sufficient privileges on their machine, the installation will fail. In this case the PowerPoint animations defined in your eTEACH Presentation will not work.

JavaScript Updates

All eTEACH Presentations depend on JavaScript code which runs in the student's browser. This code is automatically created by eTEACH Author. From time to time, we make improvements to this code to resolve bugs and problems that have been discovered by students. If you have created some eTEACH Presentations with earlier versions of the Author, you may want to update the JavaScript code in those earlier Presentations with the latest version of the code. eTEACH Author can update that code for you. You should open the presentation you want to update, put eTEACH Author into "debug" mode by clicking on the "View->Enter Debug Mode" menu item, and then click the "Update Scripts" button. eTEACH Author will ask you to confirm that you have a back-up copy in case something goes wrong, and will make the conversion once you click "OK". This procedure will work for Presentations created with earlier versions of eTEACH_II. We do not have a procedure for updating eTEACH_I Presentations at this time.

Known Bugs

Closed captioning (.SMI) files that have spaces in their names will not work. You will most likely run across this if you create an eTEACH project on your desktop, since on many Windows systems your desktop will be in a folder named "Documents and Settings". We realize that creating an eTEACH project on your desktop is a natural thing to do, and we apologize for this inconvenience. We will try to fix it in the next release.

Feedback

The eTEACH user community now numbers in the thousands. However, if you are installing this authoring tool, you are a member of the much smaller eTEACH Authoring community, which is growing, but still small. We would like your feedback on all aspects of this technology - installation, use, requested features, experience with students, etc. You may call me at 608-262-6122 or email me at mlitzkow@facstaff.wisc.edu.