Convert a PowerPoint Presentation to a WBT Course

You can convert a PowerPoint presentation to a WBT training course. You can also launch a PowerPoint presentation from Frontline LMS module, but converting a PowerPoint presentation to a WBT offers these advantages:

Standard course navigation buttons

  • Bookmarking
  • Questions / remediation pages within the course
  • Requires a learner to go through all slides to get credit. For a WBT, a training record is written only after the last slide (assuming the optional Free Navigation feature is not enabled). If the WBT has a test attached, a record is written only upon passing the test.
Before you Begin

Two procedures are available for converting PowerPoint presentation to a course (WBT):

  1. Upload a PowerPoint presentation (default) – This procedure physically uploads your PowerPoint presentation to Frontline server. Once uploaded, each PowerPoint slide is converted to a PNG (default)  image file asynchronously on the Frontline server. Author is notified by e-mail when the conversion is complete. The benefit of this procedure is that your learners can complete the course from outside the office or it can be made available to your other divisions not connected to your intranet. As the PowerPoint file is physically uploaded, there is a restriction on the file size of 16 MB.

  2. Upload PowerPoint slides as Images – This procedure stores the PowerPoint Slides as image files (PNG, GIF, or JPG file types) on the Frontline server. A WBT created using this method will be visible to learners outside your network. This procedure should be used if your PowerPoint file is larger than 16 MB in size.

In either procedure, you can insert questions and remediation, and also have a final test if needed. The minimum permission needed to perform this task is Division Author.

How to Upload a PowerPoint presentation

Procedure 1, Part 1 - Create a Upload Folder name

Each company and division must create a upload folder name the first time a PowerPoint is uploaded for that division. Go to system menu Settings > Divisions > Click on your division name > Enter upload folder name. You may choose to enter a name that matches your division name shown in the form. Remember, this needs to be done only one time; future PowerPoint uploads will use the same folder with different course name for each uploaded file.

Procedure 1, Part 2 - Create a new Lesson and Training Item

Step

Action

1

Select Author > Lessons > (Organization level, if shown) from the system menu.

2

If you have access to multiple divisions or companies, select the division or company where you want to create the lesson.

3

Select .

A blank form is displayed with the lesson section on the left side and the training item section on the right side.

4

Enter the Lesson Title and Lesson Code.

Note: You can use the same title and code for both lesson and training item.

5

Enter the Copyright/Footer text, if desired.

6

Click the   next to the Navigation style box and click on a style for the lesson.

Note: If you are uncertain about the style to use, leave it at "_none_" to use the system default style. This is a professionally designed style applicable in many cases. It can be changed later, following the preview step discussed below.

7

Change the default selection of Linear Navigation (recommended) to Free Navigation, if desired.

8

Select an audio feedback from the drop down boxes for Correct Answer and Incorrect Answer for the question cells. To hear your selection, click .

Note: This step is not necessary if you do not plan to insert questions/answers in your WBT course.

9

In the section Publish PowerPoint Content, click Upload a PowerPoint Presentation.

Result: Fields File URL, No. of Slides and Publish as Flash or PNG option are displayed.

10

Browse to and click on the PowerPoint presentation either on your C: drive or a network drive. The PowerPoint presentation file path will now be displayed in the File URL field.

Enter the total Number of Slides in this presentation.

11

Review the image options offered. Generally PNG (default) is a more reliable image type and works for all types of PowerPoint presentations. Flash produces a better image quality, but depends strongly on the PowerPoint content and may not convert all content properly.

12

If you are at company level and creating a course for a division, select the Division from the drop down list.

13

Does the training item for this lesson already exist?

If Yes, select Existing, enter the search criteria, using % as a wildcard, if necessary. Click Search and select the training item from the list.

If No, enter the Training Item Title and Item Code.

Note: You can use the same title and code for both lesson and training item.

14

Select .

Result: The PowerPoint presentation will be uploaded to Frontline server and each slide will be converted to PNG or Flash file format. You will be notified by e-mail after the conversion is complete (process takes about 15 minutes).

15

Select .

Result: The course, with each PowerPoint image file saved as a course page, is displayed. This is how your learners will see this course.

16

If you need to re-upload PowerPoint file, in the section Republish using PowerPoint, click on the link Upload a PowerPoint Presentation (repeat steps 10 - 11). Select 

17

If you want to insert questions within the newly created lesson, select  on the lesson form. You will see all the pages created with PowerPoint slides as display cells within topic 1.

18

If you want to create a test for this lesson.

 

How to Upload PowerPoint slides as Images

Procedure 2, Part 1 - Convert the PowerPoint to a  PNG, GIF or JPG Image format

Step

Action

1

Launch the PowerPoint presentation to be converted to WBT in PowerPoint.

2

Select Save As... from the PowerPoint menu.

3

In the Save As type box, select the file type as PNG, GIF or JPG.

Note: These are compressed file formats designed to play in a browser. PNG results in the smallest file size, followed by GIF, and then JPG being the largest. As a rule of thumb, larger the file size, better the resolution and the image quality, but it is slower to load. Image quality also depends on the content of the PowerPoint (text, graphics, theme used, etc.), so you should experiment with all three formats to get the best quality image.

4

Browse to the folder where you want to save your slides. The folder must be on a network drive and accessible to all learners.

By default, the folder is named same as the PowerPoint file and is saved in the same path as the original PowerPoint. So if the original PowerPoint file is on your C drive, you will need to be careful about the path selected for the folder.

5

Select Save and then Every Slide.

Result: A message that every slide has been saved as a separate file in the folder name you specified. Each file is named sequentially. 

6

Select OK. 

 

Procedure 2, Part 2 - Create a new Lesson and Training Item

Step

Action

1

Select Author > Lessons > (Organization level, if shown) from the system menu.

2

If you have access to multiple divisions or companies, select the division or company where you want to create the lesson.

3

Select .

Result: A blank form is displayed with the lesson section on the left side and the training item section on the right side.

4

Enter the Lesson Title and Lesson Code.

Note: You can use the same title and code for both lesson and training item.

5

Enter the Copyright/Footer text, if desired.

6

Select the   next to the Navigation style box and click on a style for the lesson.

Note: If you are uncertain about the style to use, leave it at "_none_" to use the system default style. This is a professionally designed style applicable in many cases. It can be changed later, following the preview step discussed below.

7

Change the default selection of Linear Navigation (recommended) to Free Navigation, if desired.

8

Select an audio feedback from the drop down boxes for Correct Answer and Incorrect Answer for the question cells. To hear your selection, select .

Note: This step is not necessary if you do not plan to insert questions/answers in your WBT course.

9

In the section Publish PowerPoint Content, click Upload PowerPoint Slides.

10

Browseto the PowerPoint image file and select the images in sequential order (e.g., Slide1, Slide2, Slide3).

Result: All slides in the folder should be selected and the number of images will be displayed once you click open.

11

Select .

Result: The path and number of slides is returned to the lesson form.

12

If you are at company level and creating a course for a division, select the Division from the drop down list.

13

Does the training item for this lesson already exist?

If Yes, click Existing, enter the search criteria, using % as a wildcard, if necessary. Click Search and select the training item from the list.

If No, enter the Training Item Title, Item Code, Item Type, and Hours Credit.

Note: You can use the same title and code for both lesson and training item.

14

Select .

Result: The lesson form is displayed.

15

Select .

Result: The course, with each PowerPoint image file saved as a course page, is displayed. This is how your learners will see this course.

16

If you need to re-import PowerPoint slides, in the section Republish using PowerPoint, click on the link Import PowerPoint Slides (repeat steps 9 - 10). Select .

17

If you want to insert questions within the newly created lesson, select  on the lesson form. You will see all the pages created with PowerPoint slides as display cells within topic 1.