collecting user information

[lorraine]

Hello. We have powerpoint slides that we use for face-to-face training,
but now we want to allow users to download the slides in case they
can't make the training sessions.

The issue is that we need to be able to collect data on how long
they've actually been viewing the presention in order to give them
credit for "taking the course."

I realize there are third party products that do this, but we don't
want to go down that path. Based on some preliminary research it seems
like I should be able to use event handlers to connect to our database
to see who is viewing what and when. But is this the best way to go? I
don't want to expose our database connections in the vba code or make
it cumbersome for the user by launching an IE window to run an asp with
sql queries (is that actually doable anyhow? I'm just brainstorming...)

I guess my question is two fold: what is the best solution suited for
tracking how long a person is viewing a presentation, and any tips how
to get that done.

Thanks
Lorraine

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hello. We have powerpoint slides that we use for face-to-face training,
but now we want to allow users to download the slides in case they
can't make the training sessions.

The issue is that we need to be able to collect data on how long
they've actually been viewing the presention in order to give them
credit for "taking the course."

How much control do you have over the users' computers?
VBA code won't work at all if they have security set above Medium or choose not
to allow your macros to run if set to anything above Low. And assuming you
don't have fools for users, it won't be set to low. <g>

VBA in a presentation can be password protected, but it's not especially
secure. Perhaps some other method of sending the data would be better; for
example, have the user log in, start writing the data you want to collect to a
file in their temp folder, then when they quit, close the file and FTP it to
your server.

Of course, if they quit prematurely, the file wouldn't be sent. I suppose
you'd have to warn them that they won't get "credit" if they quit early.



Event handlers aren't especially practical unless you can install an add-in on
the user's computer.

 

[lorraine]

When you mention "when they quit" do you mean when they log out? What
exactly would drive the data collection to the file and the FTP after
quiting?

My original solution was to save the presentations as web pages or
archive (*.mht i believe) and when the user selects it from our
website, open the presentation in a pop-up window and basically poll
that child window to generally track how long the user is "viewing" the
presentation. There really isn't much we can do to be sure they are
actually paying attention to the presentation or if they close the
parent window...

But I've heard of people running executables to do similar training and
those executables hold the means of tracking the users back in the
server. So I've been thinking about ways of making our training
presentations more "portable" through background events and downloading
the slides to their own computer.

Our presentations already have macros that users must allow in order to
view associated video content so it is not huge limiting factor --
we'll warn them.

But again is it possible to do something similar to this without
revealing our connection information -- perhaps not through VBA as you
said password protection is faulting, but maybe an executable or
opening IE to an asp page? Should I just stick with the child-window
polling idea? Or are there other free technologies better suited for
this type of task? Macromedia presenation solution instead of
Powerpoint? (Not too familiar with macromedia though although whatever
it is that google video uses is rather interesting...)

Thanks
Lorraine

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

When you mention "when they quit" do you mean when they log out? What
exactly would drive the data collection to the file and the FTP after
quiting?

I meant when they quit the presentation or reach the end, possibly triggered by
a macro; the same macro could write a file and send it to your server.

My original solution was to save the presentations as web pages or
archive (*.mht i believe) and when the user selects it from our
website, open the presentation in a pop-up window and basically poll
that child window to generally track how long the user is "viewing" the
presentation. There really isn't much we can do to be sure they are
actually paying attention to the presentation or if they close the
parent window...

Perhaps there is. PowerPoint's own HTML probably won't help, since it'd appear
to be a constant named window, I expect (all the changes occur within frames).
But what if each slide were a different HTML page with a different title? We
have an addin that lets you convert the presentation like that (have a look at
http://ppt2html.pptools.com)

But I've heard of people running executables to do similar training and
those executables hold the means of tracking the users back in the
server. So I've been thinking about ways of making our training
presentations more "portable" through background events and downloading
the slides to their own computer.

Visit http://skp.mvps.org - Shyam's posted some example code that demonstrates
how you can "host" a presentation on a VB form. That might give you a great
deal more control over what the users do.

Our presentations already have macros that users must allow in order to
view associated video content so it is not huge limiting factor --
we'll warn them.

But again is it possible to do something similar to this without
revealing our connection information -- perhaps not through VBA as you
said password protection is faulting,

Just to be clear ... *ALL* password protection is faulty. I haven't heard of a
method that isn't susceptible to enough time and computing resources. It's
more a question of how fully you need to protect this.

 

[lorraine]

Thank you for the link and suggestions! I think a vba executable to
launch and monitor the presentation is exactly the direction I should
be heading in. I have more experience with vbscript and automation than
vba, but I think I'll be able to get a handle on it. Thank you once
more.