eTEACH No Longer Offered as a Service
eTEACH 4.0 will no longer be available for download, and we will no longer be accepting applications for accounts for eTEACH 3.0. Although we are not accepting new users for eTEACH 3.0, the eTEACH 3.0 authoring environment will be available until June 2011, so users can export their content. Although the authoring environments are no longer available, content published from either version of eTEACH (presentations) will continue to work in the short term.
As of July 20, 2010, eTEACH has been retired. After a long, successful service to instructors and students in the UW System, eTEACH has been retired. eTEACH was first developed by Greg Moses and Mike Litzkow, Nuclear Physics, UW-Madison, through an NSF grant, and was widely used to provide an innovative teaching/learning platform that did not exist at the time.
Published content relies heavily on many web technologies (JavaScript, Flash, HTML,etc), so there is the potential for a major update to break published content. If an update to any of these web technologies breaks published content, there will be no way to go back to the authoring tool to re-publish eTEACH presentations. This is why it is recommended that eTEACH users extract their content and convert it into an alternate online presentation tool.
Why is eTEACH development not continuing?
The heart of eTEACH is the conversion server hosted by AT. The server's configuration is not supported or recommended by Microsoft and cannot be replicated or copied. This makes deployment on UW-Madison and beyond difficult, if not impossible. The server environment is unstable due to the conversion process and how it interacts with the operating system. This instability is further compounded by the lack of redundancy. In addition, even if the conversion server environment could be replicated, it would not alleviate the current server dependency nor prepare for future changes in PowerPoint.
The eTEACH team did extensive research into what it would take to completely redo the conversion process in a Microsoft-supported way and concluded that the investment of time and funds would be too great. Additionally, the expertise for creating a new system is not readily available on campus and would require extensive training. In the long run, even a new conversion process would fail if Microsoft decided to change the structure of PowerPoint.
Can I convert my eTEACH presentation to a different tool?
Although no automatic migration path exists, eTEACH presentations are assembled and packaged in such a way that the user has complete access to the elements that make up an eTEACH presentation. These elements can be extracted from eTEACH and reassembled in another tool. For further information on this process and support, please visit and/or contact the Digital Media Center or Academic Technology.
What other tools can do what eTEACH did?
Adobe Captivate and Articulate Presenter are comparable tools that most closely mirror eTEACH's functionality. There is also a plethora of online presentation tools that have some of the same functionality as eTEACH. These include:
- Adobe Acrobat.com Presentations
- Adobe Connect
- Apple Keynote (Export to MOV)
- Camtasia Studio
- Google Presentations
- iShowU HD & HD Pro
- Jing
- Microsoft Office 2010 (Export to WMV)
- ScreenFlow
- SlideRocket
- SlideShare
- VuVox
- Zoho Show
- And more!
For support, please visit and/or contact Academic Technology or Digital Media Center.
How eTEACH Worked and Definitions
eTEACH's base functionality was to convert PowerPoint presentations and pair them with media to create a deliverable, online format. To convert PowerPoint presentations, the eTEACH Authoring Tool communicated with a server hosted by Academic Technology (AT) that manually ran PowerPoint and exported the needed elements. The authoring tool used these elements to create an eTEACH Presentation.
eTEACH Conversion Server
The eTEACH conversion server was responsible for converting PowerPoint presentations into individual elements that could be used within the eTEACH authoring environments of both versions 3.0 and 4.0.
eTEACH 3.0
Version 3.0 of the eTEACH authoring tool was a completely online tool inside of Moodle (a learning management system) that was hosted by Academic Technology.
eTEACH 4.0
Version 4.0 of the eTEACH authoring tool was a desktop tool for OS X and Windows XP. It used the eTEACH Conversion Server to convert PowerPoint presentations.
eTEACH Presentations
The output from the eTEACH Authoring Tool was an eTEACH Presentation. These presentations are completely separate packages that function independently from eTEACH 3.0, 4.0, and the eTEACH Conversion Server.
Can I keep using eTEACH and will my published presentations still work?
Already developed eTEACH presentations will continue to work into the near-term future until delivery technologies change (e.g., Adobe releases a new and non-compatible version of Flash). The conversion server is still functioning but will not be fixed if bugs arise and will be taken offline in June of 2011. The online authoring environment for eTEACH 3.0 is currently still functional, but will go offline in June of 2011. eTEACH 4.0 which was a desktop tool will no longer be developed but can still be used at your own risk. It is recommended that all eTEACH users transition to another, similar tool.
How long will the conversion server and eTEACH 3.0 continue to work?
As of this writing the conversion server and eTEACH 3.0 are still functioning and, barring any significant crashes or security issues, will continue to do so until June of 2011.
What should I do if I use a version of eTEACH earlier than 3.0?
Although Academic Technology and the Digital Media Center did not start supporting eTEACH until 3.0, we will try our best to provide you with the service, knowledge and support you need to move your content to another tool.
How will eTEACH live on?
eTEACH was a good idea and ground-breaking when it first came out. Much was learned in regards to pairing presentations and multimedia with completely accessible content. This knowledge will live on in future projects and will be shared with vendors and developers who continue down the path of multimedia online presentation authoring tools.
