Screens, beats and forms
What a Vidext module is made of, from what a learner sees — its scenes, the screen each beat shows, and the forms those screens are drawn in.
This page is for the curious: what a module is made of, starting from what a learner sees. You do not need it to build a course, but it helps you ask for the module you have in mind.
What a learner sees
A module is not a video file. A learner moves through an ordered sequence of narrated screens, called scenes. The module's structure decides most of them: how it opens, where each chapter starts, where understanding is checked, and how it closes. Every screen in between that teaches one point is a beat.
Vidext's agents write a module's script, its words and screens, and a build turns that script into these scenes. See Build, review, and get ready to publish.
The scenes of a module
| Scene | What it does |
|---|---|
| Cover | Opens the module with its title, its promise and, when the script lists them, what the learner will be able to do by the end, over the module's pictures in motion, while the narration introduces the module and its chapters. |
| Chapter | Marks the start of a chapter with its number and title. |
| Beat | Teaches one step of a chapter: narration, and a screen shaped by what it teaches. |
| Check | Asks one to three questions on one screen: true or false, one answer, or every answer that applies, with feedback on the answer and an explanation. |
| Video | Plays a video file inside a chapter. It has no narration; the video plays its own sound. |
| Interactive scene | A small program the learner explores: a 3D model to turn or take apart, a simulation, a game. It has no narration. |
| Closing | Recaps what each chapter covered and invites questions. It shows how much of the course the learner has completed, or of the module when it is opened outside a course. |
Videos
A video plays only from the https address of a video file, one you gave for learners to watch or one a source document names. A page such as a YouTube or Vimeo watch page cannot play in a module: Vidext's agents ask you for the file's own address instead. A YouTube link still works as a source to learn from.
Interactive scenes
Vidext's agents make an interactive scene only when you ask for one. It plays only on a secure (https) page. See Interactive scenes in the studio.
A beat's screen
A beat's screen has a kind: the shape of what it teaches.
| Kind | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Title | The beat's title, while the voice carries it. |
| Keywords | A few key terms. |
| Claim | One statement to keep. |
| Set | Several things to tell apart. |
| Steps | Steps in a fixed order. |
| Timeline | Events at their own times. |
| Parts | The parts of one object. |
After the script is written, Vidext's agents pick each beat's kind from what the beat says. A screen's elements appear as the voice reaches them. When no kind fits, the beat shows its title.
A beat's narration is one to six paragraphs. It is spoken, never drawn on the screen.
Forms
Each kind is drawn in a form. For example, keywords and sets show as chips or cards, steps as an accordion or a checklist, a timeline as milestones along a strip, and a claim as a sentence revealed line by line. Some forms, such as cards, chips, and checklists, carry pictures; see Pictures.
The presenter is a form too: the module's presenter speaking the beat to camera, with nothing else on screen. See Voices and narration.
Vidext's agents choose the form, and the build varies it so that beats in a row do not look alike. The form is stored with the module's version, so a version looks the same wherever it plays.
Why this matters to you
- Editing is structural. Ask for a change in the chat, for example "make chapter two shorter", "add a check about refunds", or "show this beat as steps", and the next build lays the scenes out again. You can also type over any text of a module yourself in the studio. See The studio.
- Quality is consistent. Every module uses the same scenes and forms, so it looks designed rather than generated.
- Interactivity is built in. A check can require an answer before the learner moves on, and every answer is measured.
For developers
Scenes are typed, validated data. See The content model.
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