Tools: SoftChalk

What is SoftChalk?

SoftChalk is a powerful, award-winning e-Learning authoring solution that lets you easily create and share engaging, interactive content. If you can use a word processor, you can create interactive learning experiences with SoftChalk. Designed for educators and content experts, SoftChalk allows you to spend your time developing course content, not learning how to use complex software. And, content developed in SoftChalk is portable for use in virtually any learning management system or on any web server. Create. Engage. Share. "If it's not easy, it's not SoftChalk."

Getting Started with SoftChalk

Get up to speed with SoftChalk quickly by watching short video tutorials provided by SoftChalk(5 minutes or less!)

SoftChalk offers free hands-on, online training. Check out the SoftChalk training calendar & register for online training workshops.

Sign up for the SoftChalk E-Newsletter to receive info about upcoming webinars and other news.

Recommended workshops:

SoftChalk Basics

• Overview of SoftChalk (1 hour)
• Graphics, Links and TextPoppers (1 hour)
• Navigation Features and the Sidebar (1 hour)

Register for SoftChalk online workshops

Optional workshops:

SoftChalk Advanced Features

• Embedded Media (1 hour)
• Interactive Learning Activities The Presentation Group (1 hour)
• Interactive Learning Activities The Scoring Group (1 hour)

Register for SoftChalk online workshops

Online Help Resources

SoftChalk Support Center

Whether you’re looking for a quick way to learn more about SoftChalk or to get the answer to a question you have, SoftChalk’s online Support Center is the place for you.

From the Support Center, you can easily:

• Access User Guides and Learning Management System Integration
• Search for information in the FAQs/Knowledge Base
• Subscribe to a specific question to be notified by email if an update is made for the question
• Enter a help request
• Access the Student Guide to SoftChalk Lessons (SoftChalk PDF)

SoftChalk Ideas

Need ideas or interactive content for your SoftChalk Lessons? Check out these resources to see how instructors are using SoftChalk. Also, search instructional materials that are made available for instructors and/or learners to use for free.

• View sample lessons
• SoftChalk Lesson Challenge Winners
• View SoftChalk Innovators in Online Learning presentations (1 hour each)
• Check out brief SoftChalk Vignettes (5 - 10 minutes)
• Open Educational Resources

Where Can I Use SoftChalk?

Durham Tech Site License Info

Durham Technical Community College owns a site license for SoftChalk that allows the product to be installed on any college-owned computer. Under the terms of the license, full and part-time employees of the college may also install SoftChalk on their home computer(s) for their own use. SoftChalk installation info

On Campus

SoftChalk is installed & accessible to all full-time & part-time instructors in two campus locations:

• 321 Phillips (faculty/staff work center beside the TLC)
• 952 Tech Center (faculty/staff training center)

Durham Tech StyleBuilder Template

Give your lessons a consistent, professional branded look by using the Durham Tech style template.View the template. Follow these three easy steps to use the DTCC StyleBuilder template in your SoftChalk Lessons:

1. Save: Save the Softchalk-style-DTCC.zip file to your computer by right clicking on the link and choosing Save Link As...
2. Import: Open SoftChalk, go to the Tools menu and choose StyleBuilder, click Import, find the Softchalk-style-DTCC.zip file saved to your computer
3. Add the Template: Open SoftChalk, go to the Properties menu and choose Style Properties, choose the DTCC template

Watch this short video for more help with StyleBuilder.

Methods for Publishing SoftChalk Lessons

Publishing SoftChalk Lessons in Blackboard Courses

There are several ways to publish SoftChalk Lessons to Blackboard courses.

Recommended method for publishing SoftChalk Lessons to Blackboard

The most reliable and recommended method is packaging, zipping, and uploading the zip file into Blackboard step-by-step handout (instructions written by DTCC)

Advanced method for publishing SoftChalk Lessons to Blackboard

Note: Setup is required the first time you publish SoftChalk Lessons on your office and/or home computers and any time you use a public campus computer.

1. Instructions for setting up SoftChalk to publish Lessons to your Blackboard courses (instructions written by DTCC)
2. Once the required setup is complete, publish your SoftChalk Lessons to Blackboard.

Receiving SoftChalk Lesson Completion Results

Instructors can choose options that allow students to Print Certificates of Completion and/or Print Score Summary reports. Instructors can choose Email Completion Results to receive the student scores via email. Note: In order to produce completion results, instructors must insert quiz questions or graded activities into lessons step-by-step handout (instructions written by DTCC)

How YouTube Videos Can Enhance Your Teaching (from SoftChalk)

A recent study hosted by Babson Survey Research Group found that professors consider YouTube the most useful social media tool for both teaching and non-classroom professional use. Nearly a third of respondents said they instructed students to watch online videos as homework, and about 73 percent said they thought YouTube videos were either somewhat or very valuable for classroom use, regardless of whether they use them currently.

This isn't news to most SoftChalk users, as many of you are already utilizing YouTube videos in your lessons. Just in case you're not familiar, it's very easy to integrate YouTube videos directly into your content without leaving your desktop using SoftChalk's Media Search tool. Here's the simple process:

5 Easy Steps to Embed a YouTube Video:

1. In SoftChalk, use the Media Search tool (Tools/Media Search) to search YouTube for a video you want to use.
2. Select a video by clicking the text for the item under the Result column.
3. Click Insert to put the video into your lesson.
4. Click Close to return to your main editing window when you're finished with your searches.
5. When you insert an item from a site such as YouTube a Widget placeholder appears in your main editing window.

   Note: When you preview the lesson in your browser, your content will be coming from the originating site (e.g. YouTube).