Preview and checks

Preview

Preview, top right of the course window, plays the course in its own window, as in an LMS: Elabora runs it in a simulated LMS, so that you see it as learners will once it is delivered. The preview rebuilds itself as the course changes. Restart starts over, as a new learner.

Simulating some learners

Simulate, in the preview window, plays the course as some learners experience it:

• Screen reader: a panel, What the screen reader says, writes each sentence read aloud, with the key that triggered it. Press Tab to go from one element to the next, or ↓ to read on;
• Keyboard only: the mouse does nothing (Tab, Shift+Tab, Space, Enter and the arrows);
• Zoom 200%;
• Reduced motion;
• Colour vision: Without telling red from green, or Without colours.

Stop simulating goes back to normal. A simulation does not replace a test with a real screen reader (NVDA, VoiceOver).

Reading order

A screen reader reads blocks in the order they are arranged, not the order in which you see them. In Slide, the zoom menu offers Reading order (on a Mac, also in the View menu): each block gets its number on the canvas. A layer on display is read on its own. The label in the canvas corner removes the numbers.

The screen’s Properties list this order too, with the name the screen reader reads; a missing alternative text shows in red there, and decorative media are set apart. In a block’s Properties, Accessibility gives the name it is Read as and its alternatives (alternative text, decorative, captions, transcript).

Checks

Elabora checks the course continuously: the format, how it follows the course plan, how questions and their feedback are written, accessibility, events, package size for the LMS… A card on the home page already says “2 issues to fix” when something is red.

Open Publish, then Checks. Everything is in words, sorted by severity:

• Must fix: publishing stops;
• Needs attention;
• For information.

The filters at the top (All, Needs fixing, Needs attention, For information, Accessibility) narrow the list.

Choose an item: the right panel says what it is, where, and what to do.

• Open screen takes you to the block concerned (for an accessibility item, Show on the screen, with the reading order).
• Fix sends the item to your AI, with what Elabora tells it about it (What Elabora tells the agent).
• Ignore dismisses a warning that does not apply here (a negation in a quotation, for instance). It comes back if the content changes. Ignored items stay at the bottom of the list, under Ignored by you, with Bring back.

You can also hand everything to your AI at once:

Fix every red item in the checks, then tell me what you changed.

The Publish page repeats the first items to fix and to look at under Before publishing, with Open checks for the rest. Red items stop the SCORM package and the web publication, not sending to your reviewers: see publishing and online reviews.