SoftChalk Cloud

Provided by Academic Computing

What it does
SoftChalk Cloud is an eLearning content authoring tool in the cloud which allows you to develop learning modules and host your content. SoftChalk lets you take content you already have (Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and PDFs), combine it with resources from the web (such as video) and turn it into easy-to-navigate, professional, web-based modules for online learning. SoftChalk automatically generates mobile-friendly content so your eLearning content works anywhere.
How to create an account
  1. Request an activation key from Academic Computing

    2. Click to Email Academic Computing for Activation Key

  2. Go to softchalkcloud.com/join
  3. Enter your activation key
  4. Fill out your information

    • Email and Username – Use UTMB Email and Username
    • First and Last Name, Phone, and Institution (UTMB)
    • Agree to both the Terms of Use and the Developers Agreement
    • Join
How to share your cloud space with a course creator

To use the share feature on the Cloud, you and the people with whom you will collaborate must have a SoftChalk Cloud account. Simultaneous work in the same lesson is not supported; only one person at a time may work on a lesson.

  1. Log into your SoftChalk Cloud account.
  2. Click on the My Content tab at the top.
  3. Click the My Lessons & Courses link.
  4. At the right under the Actions area, click Create Folder. Type a name for your folder and click Create Folder.
  5. Scroll down to find your folder. Click the Share icon.
  6. Type in SoftChalk Cloud usernames and click Add Users.
  7. After adding valid SoftChalk Cloud users, their usernames will appear under the Shared Cloud User(s) list. Click Share Folder to save your changes. Refresh your web page.
Additional SoftChalk Support Topics

SoftChalk Support

SoftChalk Support

How to move a Word document to a learning module

  1. Log into your SoftChalk Cloud account.
  2. Click Create Lesson in SoftChalk Create.
  3. When the lesson window appears, copy the text (and images) from the Word document and paste in the SoftChalk Create lesson window.
  4. Save the lesson to SoftChalk Cloud.

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How to move a PowerPoint presentation to a learning module

  1. In PowerPoint, open your presentation. Choose File > Save and Send and click Create Handouts > Create Handouts.
  2. In the Send to Microsoft Word window, select Notes below slides and click OK. PowerPoint converts each slide to a jpg file and then automatically opens a Word document and places each of the slide image files into the Word document.
  3. In Word, copy all of the text.
  4. Log into your SoftChalk Cloud account.
  5. Click Create Lesson in SoftChalk Create.
  6. When the lesson window appears, paste in the SoftChalk Create lesson window. All of the slide images and notes will be pasted into your SoftChalk lesson for further editing and enhancement.
  7. Save the lesson to SoftChalk Cloud.

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How to insert a PDF into a learning module

  1. Ensure the PDF is saved to your computer in a location such as My Documents.
  2. In SoftChalk, type the text that your students will click to open the hyperlink (for instance, the name of the PDF article).
  3. Highlight the text that will become the hyperlink.
  4. Choose Insert > Hyperlink.
  5. The Insert a Hyperlink dialog box will open.
  6. Click Select File.
  7. Browse to the PDF on your computer and select it. Then, click Open.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Save the lesson to SoftChalk Cloud. Once the lesson is saved to SoftChalk Cloud, your PDF will be hyperlinked in the lesson, and a copy of the PDF will be placed in your lesson folder.

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How to create a new SoftChalk Cloud lesson

  1. Log into your SoftChalk Cloud account.
  2. Click My Content > Create Content.
  3. You may get a message about a file type (jnlp) that can harm your computer. Click Keep and then open the Oracle Java file.
  4. The SoftChalk Create window will open and you can type your lesson within the window.
  5. Use the menu and toolbar at the top of the window to format the text and insert images and activities.
  6. Save the lesson to SoftChalk Cloud.

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How to link your learning objects to Blackboard

You can update your content in SoftChalk Cloud and all of your link(s) will reflect your changes. (You can link to the same lesson in multiple sections or courses.) Before pasting a link to your lesson into Blackboard, you will want to decide if you want to collect scores from your students or if you want your lessons to be "practice" lessons and you don't need to collect scores. (For each lesson you can decide whether or not to collect scores. Many instructors use both "scored" and "practice" lessons within a course.)

  1. Log into your SoftChalk Cloud account.
  2. Click My Content > My Lessons & Courses.
  3. Click on the name of a lesson.
  4. Scroll down to Lesson Actions, and click Download Lesson. Click Save and select the location in which you want to save the zipped lesson (on the Desktop, for example).
  5. Once the download completes, click Close.
  6. Log into your Blackboard account. At the top of your screen, click the Courses tab.
  7. Within the Course List, click on your course to select it.
  8. In the pane at the left, select Files and then click the name of your course in the list of files.
  9. Create a folder into which you will place the SoftChalk lesson content. Click on the name of the folder, then click Upload > Upload Package.
  10. Browse to the location in which you saved the zipped lesson, select it, and click Open.
  11. Click Submit.
  12. In the pane at the left, select Content near the top of the pane and then click Build Content > File.
  13. Enter a Name for the file and then click Browse Course.
  14. Click on the name of your course and in the resulting list of files, select the one titled "index.html," and click Submit.
  15. Click Submit again to complete the process.

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SoftChalk video tutorials

SoftChalk Video Tutorials — Within minutes, you can master SoftChalk by viewing step-by-step video tutorials. These videos are short, sweet and focused so you can pick and choose just the ones you need to get your eLearning content online with SoftChalk.

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Contact Us
Academic Computing

Monday - Friday, 8 AM - 5 PM
Phone: (409) 772 - 4176
EMAIL