Lecture123
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Getting Started FAQs

In addition to the common questions answered on this web page, we suggest you read Faculty Jump Start or Student Jump Start.

Here's a quick tutorial to get you started with Lecture123. As with most computer solutions, there are a variety of ways to accomplish the same task. The topics covered below offer one method (there may be others).

Resources to Learn More About Lecture123

The following resources are available to help introduce you to Lecture123:

  1. Watch Mitch Germansky, Lecture123 CEO, in this 28 minute Real video stream to see Lecture123 in action. (visit real.com to get the RealPlayer)
  2. You may also enjoy exploring this Hands-On Tour
  3. A variety of materials are available on our Play page -- click on Play in the green "Free Use" area on the left on the main web site.
  4. Lecture123 User Manual
  5. Introduction and Use white paper presenting more background on Lecture123 along with a tour and motivating usage scenarios.
  6. One page fact sheet

Your Lecture123 Community

  1. Lecture123 sessions reside in communities.
  2. Each community has a name and a key.
  3. A Lecture123 Administrator needs to create the community you will use.
  4. You may request that a new community be created for your use by completing the new community request form and waiting for someone from Lecture123 to respond that the community is ready for use. You may play with Lecture123 until then by using the free Demo community (key is demo).
  5. Community content is protected via authenticated access.
  6. Each user creates an account within a community. You may only access sessions in your member communities.
  7. If you want to access content in another community or if you get an 403 error (which means access is forbidden), then you need to subscribe to the community where that session resides.
  8. More information about communities and logins can be found here.

Creating Your User Account

  1. In your web browser go to the main web site.
  2. Click "Login" in the red "Participants" box on the left.
  3. Click on "here" in this phrase on the login page: "Don't have an account? Create one here!".
  4. On the create account page select your community in the Community pulldown menu (select "Demo" for free use), enter the Community Key ("demo" for Demo community), and the rest of the fields and click "Create Account".

What Are Lecture123 Users Allowed to Do

  1. You can learn details on user roles, Lecture123 functions, and which functions different user types are allowed to perform here.

Logging In

  1. In your web browser go to the main web site.
  2. This assumes you have already created your account.
  3. Click "Login" in the red "Participants" box on the left.
  4. Cookies need to be enabled in your web browser.
  5. Enter your Username and Password.

Forgot Your Password

  1. In your web browser go to the main web site.
  2. This assumes you have already created your account.
  3. Click "Login" in the red "Participants" box on the left.
  4. Click "Reset Password".
  5. Enter your Username and click "Get New Password".
  6. Instructions will be emailed to the email address you entered when you created your account.

Installing Lecture123

  1. In your web browser go to the main web site.
  2. Click "Install" in the "Free Use" green box on the left
  3. Click on the appropriate link to download the installer, save it to the local disk, and then double click that saved file and step through the installation steps.
  4. Once the installation is complete be sure to run the Player or Presenter the first time while connected to a network in order to get any updates.

Setup Tips

  1. Windows Troubleshooting
  2. Important Information for Java on Windows
  3. Personal Firewalls
  4. Proxy and Firewall Access
  5. If Lecture123 is simply not working, then try uninstalling all Java versions and run the Lecture123 installation again.

Playing Back a Session

  1. Login.
  2. Click on "Play" in the blue toolbar up top -or- "Play Lectures" on the page.
  3. Click on the red lecture name to launch the Player.

PowerPoint Tips

  1. Here's some tips on using PowerPoint.

Audio Testing and Setup

  1. It is essential that you perform audio tests on your computer before using Lecture123
  2. Please review the suggestions and instructions here.

Network Needs

Let's review when you need a network connection to use Lecture123:

  1. Installation requires a network to download the installer program. Additionally, you must run either the Presenter or Player the first time when connected to a network.
  2. Recording requires a network in order to open a PowerPoint file the first time. If you need to record with a PowerPoint file off network, then please read more here.
  3. Playback is typically run while connected to a network so that you may access a session that is stored on a Lecture123 server on the Internet. It is possible to playback a session if the content is stored on a local disk.
  4. Asking a Question during playback requires a network connection.
  5. Podcasting requires a network in order to subscribe and download the desired sessions. Once the podcast content has been delivered to your computer, you may play those sessions off network. However in order to get new sessions you will need to update the podcast while connected to a network.
  6. Web browser based features, e.g. creating a user account, changing your password, viewing the play list for a community, searching, etc. require a network connection.

Recording a Session

More detailed instructions can be found here.

  1. Ensure your microphone and speakers are working with your computer with an audio test.
  2. Login.
  3. Click on "Record" in the blue toolbar up top -or- "Record Lectures" on the page.
  4. Click on "Presenter" to launch the recording tool.
  5. In the Presenter click "Start" and follow the instructions.
  6. Note: you may also start the Presenter by double clicking the Presenter icon on your Windows desktop. In this case you may be prompted for your Username and Password when you publish your recorded session.
  7. When you are done recording click on the "Stop" button and publish the lecture now or later.
  8. If you wish to record using a PowerPoint file without a network connection, then you must prepare in advance by running the Presenter on a network, open your PowerPoint file in the Presenter, and after the conversion (which runs on a server on the network) is complete click "Later". Then you may open the PowerPoint in the Presenter later off network and you may record. As long as you've converted the file in advance on a network (and the original PowerPoint contents or name have not changed), off network recording will work. If you are recording a whiteboard session, then no network is required to record.

Recording Audio from an Alternate Source

If you have audio already recorded, it is possible to pass this as input to the Lecture123 Presenter. You can play audio in another program on the PC (even PowerPoint) and redirect that to the recording input in Lecture123. Once this is set, then Lecture123 will record that audio instead of the microphone. You can simply click on Next in the Presenter when you want to go to the next slide.

These instructions are for Windows PCs:

  1. start > Accessories > Entertainment > Sound Recorder
    -or- start > Run > sndrec32
  2. Select Audio Properties in the Edit menu.
  3. In the Audio Properties window click the Volume... button in the Sound recording section.
  4. In the Recording Control window select Properties in the Options pull down menu.
  5. Click Wave Out Mix.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Click Select under the Wave Out Mic slidebar in the Recording Control window.
  8. Click X to exit the Recording Control, Audio Properties, and Sound Recorder windows.
  9. Start the Lecture123 Presenter recording session and start your audio player. The sound from the player will be directed into the Lecture123 recording.

Editing a Session

  1. You may edit recorded sessions with the Editor.
  2. Please review these instructions.

Publishing a Recorded Session

  1. When you are done recording your session click the "Stop" button.
  2. You enter the publishing phase.
  3. You may defer publishing by clicking on "Publish Later"
  4. Or continue to publish now by completing all the fields on the publish form and clicking on the "Publish" button.
  5. The recorded session resides on your local disk and will now be uploaded to the Lecture123 server.
  6. Click "Done" once the upload has completed.
  7. You may now exit the Presenter recording program.
  8. An email is sent to the AuthorEmail address you specified with all the session details once it is ready for playback.

Publish a Lecture Later (aka Publish Existing Lecture)

  1. When you stop recording a lecture you may publish the lecture now or later. If you choose to publish later, then simply start the Presenter again and select the "File > Publish Existing Lecture" pulldown menu.
  2. Select the Unpublished radio button.
  3. Navigate to the revised lecture in the right panel.
  4. Click the Choose Selected Lecture button.
  5. You may need to login.
  6. Select and enter all the details in the publish form and click the Publish button.
  7. Click the Done button.
  8. You may exit the Presenter or may perform other functions within the Presenter.

Managing lectures that you have been published:

  1. You may copy, move, or delete sessions you have published:
    1. Login.
    2. Select the desired community in the blue toolbar up top.
    3. Click "Manage Lectures" in the blue toolbar up top.
    4. Click the red Copy/Move/Delete Lectures.
    5. Follow the instructions in the beige region; it's multi step where you select the source and the destination.
  2. You may change lecture properties and enable/disable podcasts and printing for sessions you have published:
    1. Login.
    2. Select the desired community in the blue toolbar up top.
    3. Click "Manage Lectures" in the blue toolbar up top.
    4. Click the red "Manage Lecture Properties".
    5. Select the desired lecture from the Folder and Lecture pulldown menus.
    6. You may change the "Author Email" and enable or disable the "Audio" or "Video" podcast, and also enable or disable "Allow printing".
    7. Click "Update Lecture"

Linking to Published Sessions for Playback

  1. Every recorded and published session is accessible for playback via a unique URL (web link).
  2. Authors of published sessions are sent an email which includes this playback URL. (Note: some email programs may break the Lecture123 playback URL across 2 lines in the body of the email you receive. Be sure to remove any spaces from the URL you use, i.e. the correct URL does not contain any spaces).
  3. The other method to get the URL is as follows:
    1. Login.
    2. Click on "Play" in the blue toolbar up top -or- "Play Lectures" on the page for the community where the session resides.
    3. Right click on the red lecture name.
    4. Select "Copy Shortcut" (for Internet Explorer) or "Copy Link Location" (for Mozilla).
  4. Now that you have the URL you may paste it where you wish to place it for others to click to playback the session (e.g. in a course management system, an email, etc.).
  5. When that link is clicked the browser will go to the Login page if the user is not already logged in (note: this user must be a member of the community where the lecture resides).
  6. Finally, the Lecture123 Player will launch.

Engaging Participation

  1. Here's some suggestions on how to engage participants to playback your sessions.

Podcasting for Authors

  1. Authors may enable audio and/or video podcasts during the publishing step in the Presenter recording program. This may also be accomplished by clicking on "Manage Lectures" in the blue toolbar.
  2. Email is sent to the author once the podcast is ready for use
  3. More information is available in this Podcasting PDF.

Podcasting Playback

  1. Podcast subscriptions are separate for each community.
  2. To subscribe click on the podcast link on the playback page.
  3. You may then click on the iTunes button for audio or video podcasts or use the podcast RSS URL provided in your podcast software.
  4. This will launch your podcast software, e.g. iTunes. The rest of these steps are for your podcast software.
    1. Enter your Lecture123 user login name and password when prompted.
    2. Go to the Podcasts section (in iTunes click on "Podcasts" under the "Source" panel on the left).
    3. You should see an entry for the Lecture123 community you just subscribed to.
    4. Click to expand the list under that community line (in iTunes click on the little black triangle on the left).
    5. Depending on how your podcast software is configured you may need to click to download each session (in iTunes click on the "GET" button for each). You may want to change these settings to allow all new sessions to automatically download (in iTunes click on the "Edit" pulldown menu, select "Preferences...", and click on the "Podcasts" tab).
    6. Some iTunes users have reported that iTunes stops working when it starts up if you are subscribed to some podcasts. To avoid this click on "Podcast" in the "Source" panel on the left, click on the Lecture123 community line, and then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the bottom right of the iTunes window. To get new sessions into that community simply click on "SUBSCRIBE" next time iTunes starts. We find that having the Lecture123 community podcast unsubscribed when iTunes starts up stops this freezing problem. So, manually Subscribe and then Unsubscribe each time until Apple resolves this issue.
  5. More information is available in this Podcasting PDF.

Asking Questions

  1. Playback the session in the Player.
  2. In the Player simply right-click your mouse and select "Ask A Question..." from the popup menu. Type in your question, your email address, and submit it.
  3. Your question will be answered later. You may receive an email at that time.
  4. You can see all the QAs listed by selecting "View > Show QA Window" in the menu.

Answering Questions

  1. Session owners will receive notice of the question via email.
  2. Click on the URL in the email to see the slide and question in your web browser.
  3. Login.
  4. Type in the answer, select Approve and submit the answer.
  5. The QA is now automatically integrated into the session for all future playback.

Searching Slide Text and QA

  1. Login.
  2. Click on "Search" in the blue toolbar up top -or- "Search" on the page.
  3. Enter the search criteria.
  4. Click "Start Search..."
  5. You may now click to see the slides or QAs that match your search criteria

Subscribe to a New Community

  1. Login.
  2. Click on "Account" in the blue toolbar up top.
  3. Click on "additional communities" in this phrase on the bottom of the account page: "You may subscribe to additional communities, if authorized."
  4. On the "Add a New Community to Your Lecture123 Account" page select your new community in the Community pulldown menu, enter the Community Key, and click Submit.
  5. Now you will have this community available to you in the community pulldown menu in the blue toolbar.

Configuring MPEG-4 Players

  1. Some video players require some software configuration in order to play MPEG-4 videos.
  2. Please review the suggestions and instructions here.

Reporting Trouble

  1. If you are having trouble with Lecture123, then please contact Lecture123 Support.

  2. At times it does help if you email us the Lecture123 log file along with a description of the problem, the steps that lead up to the problem, and the date and approximate time of the incident. This may help us better diagnose your trouble.

    Please locate the log file and send a copy of it to the Lecture123 Support Team.