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Frequently Asked Questions

About the online Checklist test
Before introducing this requirement, we had to spend quite a bit of time in approving any script. We would point out some shortcomings in the script. While correcting, the script writer would some more mistakes, which we would correct and so on. There were times when it took many months to approve just one script because of these difficulties.

To address this, we came up with a detailed set of instructions. Unfortunately, even our staff members did not read them or follow them. So we had to come up with something better.

So, we introduced the idea of a Checklist of Guidelines that contains the following three things:
(1) A set of guidelines
(2) Why each of it is required
(3) What can go wrong if this guideline is not followed.

Even after this, people did not read all the guidelines. So we enforced an online test on the guidelines, with a very high passing mark of 80%.

We noticed that many did not take the online test on the Checklist of Guidelines seriously. So, they appeared in the test without preparing for it. If they failed, they would appear again and again until they passed somehow or other. Passing the test in this manner would defeat the very purpose for which the testing procedure on the Checklist of Guidelines was established: some could pass the test even without knowing the guidelines well. To prevent this misuse, we enforced a two week cooling period. Anyone who fails in this test has to wait for two weeks before appearing in the test again. This is a normal practice in the driving license issuing office in many states of the US.

Fortunately, after enforcing this strict requirement, the spoken tutorial production rate has improved dramatically. All who pass the online test produce almost perfect scripts in the first attempt itself. This results in reduced load for those who do the admin check. Previously, our team was saddled with a huge lot of scripts that would go back and forth for correction and review. Our new procedure has made the script writers more responsible and has substantially reduced the backlog on admin check.

Thus, even though our strict requirement on compliance of the Checklist of Guidelines may appear to be rather stringent, it is THE MOST EFFICIENT way to produce Spoken Tutorials.

Because of the above reasons, we enforce the online test on Checklist of Guidelines very strictly. We do not permit anyone who has not passed the online test to create Spoken Tutorials. We know the Checklist test works and so we follow it diligently.

Why do we insist on the Spoken Tutorials to be created in a particular way? This is because we have found that this methodology works. This allows us to conduct workshops in a massive way, without any domain experts being present. We also have a very good success rate of 75% of those who take the online test passing it. In most pilots of SELF workshops conducted using dubbed tutorials, the students who are weak in English also found the spoken tutorials easy to follow.

To summarise, we cannot hope to train tens of thousands of students in every tutorial of ours, if the tutorials are not of good quality. If the tutorials are not of good quality, dubbing them into 22 languages also is a waste. While a good tutorial may be seen by ten thousand students, a poorly made one will be seen by two to three orders of magnitude less number of students only.

By the way, once anyone passes the online test, one can easily follow our requirements. Most people who pass the online test take the same time to create a "good" spoken tutorial as that required to make a "bad" tutorial. Our method only does the job of disciplining the creators, so as to make good tutorial in the same minimum time that is required to make a tutorial of any other quality as well.

We try to help others create spoken tutorials as this is a scalable method: we pass on this know how to several people, which is as important as the creation of a large number of tutorials itself. In the long run, we hope to produce a large number of tutorials, while simultaneously training a large number of creators as well. This will do justice to our claim that we "collaborate" in the Spoken Tutorial project. This is an important and unique selling point of our approach: excellent quality, created through volunteers, training tens of thousands of students. In all three counts, we are sure that our project scores over many others.

How to view a spoken tutorial? On the Home page, choose the software from <Select FOSS Category>.  Next, click on <Select Language> and select the language in which you want to view.  Then click on <Locate Tutorial> button.

How to view a spoken tutorial in fullscreen -- It is possible to view a spoken tutorial in fullscreen mode. To do this one must click the icon which has four arrows pointing in two different directions. This icon is found on the video player itself next to volume icon.

How to download the videos from this site -- To download the videos from our site, you have to be on a video page.  Here, click on the link <Video>.  After clicking on this link, a message box will appear, prompting you to download the video.

How to upload a video onto this site?

How to check the status of your uploaded script or video?

How to suggest alternate study plans?

How to be a contributor or reviewer? 
Please click in the <Collaborate with Us> block and choose the relevant item.  You will be guided to a form.  Kindly fill in the form.  Someone from our team will contact you shortly.

These FAQs have not solved my problem. What do I do?

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Terminologies on this website

Study Plan - A study plan is a paedagogical sequence of studying a particular software series.   On our site we have recommended some study plans. These will help you to better understand the softwares that are available here. These study plans have been recommended by experts in that particular software. Apart from these there are study plans recommended by our users, too.

Open Source Sofware - An open source software is a computer software which is available free-of-cost. It is a software for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders has been provided under a software license that meets the Open Source Definition or that is in the public domain. Users are free to change, improve, redistribute and use the software in its original or modified form. Users may run, copy, modify and distribute the software, but are forbidden from imposing further restrictions on any copies they distribute. The documentation and support for open source software comes from the user community.