The Virtual Materials Toolset is an interactive remote tool that allows users to create flash card activities and launch local or remote sessions with clients.

You can also record data during your sessions using different kinds of Data Variables, and even connect some of them to widgets for Automatic Data Capture.

This guide will walk you through the different scenarios where this tool can be of help, including:

Users who want to launch activity sessions with their clients using premade activities (“Packs”) , created by third-parties (Subscribed Content).
Content Creators who want to create or customize their own set of activities (Packs), either for use in their own organization or to offer for subscription to other organizations.
Users who want to run live sessions (either local or remote) using premade or custom made activity packs.

│How to use activity packs with clients

(Prerequisite: created activity packs - your VM account can be preloaded with packs by subscription or you can create your own. To create your own activity packs, skip to the section For Content Creators)

Whether you have created your own activities or subscribed to a premade set, when you are ready to use them in a session with your clients, the VM Toolset in your UnitusTI account offers two different approaches:

Local session: when you are in the same space as your client.
Remote session: sessions conducted via an online meeting service.

The next module will explain how to launch Local and Remote Sessions

│Module I: Launch Local and Remote Sessions

Tags: local, remote, session, camera, pack, link to join, audio, video

Using activity packs that you have created in the “Packs” menu area or using the packs that have been pre-loaded into your account by subscription, users will use the Launch Session area of the Virtual Material toolset to conduct online instruction with clients. The tool allows you to run sessions locally or remotely depending if you are in the same or different location with the client. Follow the instructions below to get started.

│Local Session

If both user and client are in the same location using one shared device, start a local session. To start a local session with your client, please follow these steps:

In the main menu, navigate to Toolsets,
In the Virtual Material toolset, select Manage Toolset
In the welcome screen, select Launch Session
Select Local Session
Select the client (“client”) you wish to work with. (Note that clients are added by administrators to the account from the Center Clients list and assigned to the user conducting the remote session.) (See an example in the gif below)

In the menu bar, at the top of your remote session screen, select Packs, then Load, to explore the available packs.
Search using keywords in the Name or Tags fields. Select a pack that fits your criteria and then select the Load button at the bottom of the window.
Adjust the zoom level, as needed, using the zoom bar at the top of the window for the best view of the cards.

To end the session, select Session in the main menu, then select Finalize.

│Remote Session

If both user and client are in different locations, using separate devices, start a remote session. To start a remote session with your client, please follow these steps:

In the main menu, navigate to Toolsets
In the Virtual Material toolset, select Manage Toolset
In the welcome screen, select Launch Session
Select Remote, the type of videoconference you would like to use, then select Continue

Video and Audio
Only Audio
None: This option is recommended if you would like to use simultaneously Virtual Teaching Materials and another videoconferencing tool (e.g. Zoom)

Select the client (“client”) you wish to work with. (Note that clients are added by administrators to the account from the Center Clients list and assigned to the user conducting the remote session.)

A popup window will appear; copy the link and share it with the client (e.g. via email, text or another communication service).

Guide the client to select OK when they are ready to start the meeting.

In the menu bar, at the top of your remote session screen, select Packs, then Load, to explore the available packs.
Search using keywords in the Name or Tags fields. Select a pack that fits your criteria and then select the Load button at the bottom of the window.
Adjust the zoom level, as needed, using the zoom bar at the top of the window for the best view of the cards.

A row of available slides will display at the bottom of the window. Use the scroll bar to view slides that are hidden from view, depending on the size of the screen.

You can filter the available slides using the text box at the bottom of the screen.

The client will not be able to see the row of available slides. Choose a slide to present to the client by clicking on it. If the client one of the cards in the slide you are presenting, that slide will be highlighted on your screen.
To learn more about the other functionality available from this screen, keep reading below!
To end the meeting, select Session in the main menu, then select Disconnect.

│Start a test remote session

If you would like to test if your browser, camera, and microphone configuration is working well in the remote session, or explore the content of the packs available to your account, test the functionality within the remote session, you can launch a Test Remote Session, so any change made will not change the preferences of the actual clients.

│Test Local Session

│Test Remote Session with Video and Audio

│Test Remote Session only with audio

│Test Remote Session without Video or audio

│Taking Data

Once your session has started, load your pack. At the bottom of the screen, you will now see a data option. Click on Data before selecting a slide.

Because you have not selected a slide, you will only see the Session and Pack data appear. All data for both scopes will be presented in alphabetical order.

Next, click on Slides next to Data, select a slide, and then click on Data again. You should now see data in alphabetical order for all four scopes.

The listed Scope abbreviations are also filters. Deselect scopes to narrow the data. In the screenshot below, notice that the only scope that is selected is the Step scope. Therefore, the only data showing is the Step data. You can show as many or as few scopes as you would like at one time.

No matter what screen you are currently on within your master data pack, click on the Data tab and filter so only the Session scope data is showing. Go ahead and complete the data and save. Make some kind of session note so you can see where it shows up on the data summary.

Note: To access the description of any variable during a session, click on the question marks found on the data boxes and the description will pop up:

│”Save & Close” and “Save & Reload”

The Save & Close function allows you to navigate between different slides while the Save & Reload function allows you to present multiple trials of the same slide without leaving the data screen.

In both cases, a new “step” record will be added to the final report.

│Understanding the Session Summary Report

You will arrive at a Session Summary Report either when you finalize a Session, through the VM’s “Saved Session Data” option, or through the UnitusTI’s Virtual Materials Dashboard.

All of the data that was taken during a specific session will be summarized in this report. If you did not take data for a particular reason, it will not be added to the summary with two exceptions. First, any data type with a default field (i.e., Timer and Range) will, by default, display what was entered in that field on the report when no data is taken. Second, when a data type with the scope Step is made Mandatory, all steps will show up on the report regardless of whether or not you take data.

Below is a sample of the various components of the summary.

All Session Summaries present the time and duration at the top.

The overall session data is the first section to appear on the summary following the automated summary details.
Following the session data, you will find each pack presented in the order they were run. Each Pack contains the following information:

Automated Pack Details: The title, date, time the pack was started, and overall time spent on the pack are all automatically generated for you.
Pack Data: Next you will find the values of the variables recorded in the “Pack” scope.
Slide Data: Here you will find the values of the variables recorded in the “Slide” scope.
Step Data: Finally, you will be presented with a detailed list of each step during the session, including the slide visited, time spent in the slide, and the values for all the variables in scope “Step”.

│Consulting Session Summary Reports

There are different ways to obtain a Session Summary Report:

At the end of a session, you will be presented with the report for that specific session:

Through the “Saved Session Data” menu in the initial VM screen, you will be able to obtain a list of all the Sessions for a given Client.
Through the UnitusTI Dashboard, you can explore all the sessions for all the clients associated with your account.

It doesn’t matter the path followed, at the end you will be able to view the same detailed Session Summary Reports for each session.

│Using the “Saved Session Data” menu

In the main screen and the side menu of VM, you will find the icon “Saved Session Data”.

This option allows you to view and print reports from previous sessions for a selected client and specific time ranges. You can only see reports of sessions made by you, you cannot see other users’ saved session data even if they were made for the same client.

Follow these steps to export a report:

Select the option “Saved Session Data”
Select the client and select “Continue”. Important: You only can view the clients that are active and assigned to you.

In the following screen, you will see a calendar filter made of blue squares and a table with the information of all the saved session data. From there you can view and print any report.

│How to use the Calendar Filter:

Each square represents a date in the calendar, the x-axis is the year-month of the date and y-axis is the day:

The number inside the square is the number of sessions run that day for the selected client. Color shading from light blue to black is a visual indicator of the number of sessions; a darker color indicates a higher number of sessions:

By tapping/clicking on the square you can filter the table below to only show the summary reports of the sessions run that day:

By tapping/clicking on the x-axis label you can filter the table below to only show the summary reports of that month:

│Saved Session Data Table

After you have filtered the preferred dates, the table below displays all the sessions executed for the selected client, they are grouped by date and sorted from the least to the most recent. The time displayed is the time that the session ended.

Select Print to view the summary of that session and print the data recorded.

By clicking on the “Print” button you will be able to see the selected Session Summary, along with a button to download a PDF version.

│Using the UnitusTI’s Virtual Materials Dashboard

You can explore the saved Session Summaries for all of the clients associated with your account. First, visit the option “Dashboards” in the UnitusTI left menu, and then click on “Virtual Materials Dashboard”.

Note: this action will close the Virtual Materials Toolset!

Once the Dashboard is loaded, you will see the following information:

A list of your clients with horizontal bars that indicate the number of sessions executed.
A Calendar view, where you can see the number of sessions per day and month.
A table with the list of Sessions per Client, along with the date and time of the Session.

By clicking on the list of Clients and the Calendar View you can filter the records presented in the table.

For example, clicking on a month’s name will include or exclude all sessions for that particular month.

The “Print” button in each one of the table’s rows allows to retrieve and preview a particular Session Summary in PDF format:

│Chat

When running a remote session, users have access to a chat box to communicate with the remote part. To chat with the user or the client please follow these instructions:

Select Chat in the menu bar, at the top of your remote session screen.
Then select Show to see the chat window, write the text in the empty box above the button Send.
Select the Send button to send the text (see an example in the screenshot below).

If you would like to hide the chat window, select Chat in the menu bar, and tap Hide.
If your chat window is hidden and the remote user sends you a chat message, you will see an alert on top of the screen, you can reply by opening the chat window in the chat menu. (see gif below for an example)

│Change the pack during the remote session

tags: remote, session, pack, switch

Select Pack in the menu anytime to switch to another pack.

│View client preferences for a pack

tags: remote, session, client, client, switch, settings, preferences, custom

Pro Tip: Want to set your client preferences up ahead of time? Just start a remote session, choose your client and copy the link that pops up but don't send it to anyone, then follow the instructions below to set your client preferences, then end your session. They'll be ready to go the next time you start a remote session.

│Edit client preferences for a pack

tags: remote, session, switch, settings, preferences, custom

│Select preferred slides

You can select a subset of slides that a pack shows during the remote session

You can filter the slides using the text box in the right top corner, you can select them all at once

│Select preferred cards for a specific deck

Many slides use random cards that choose cards from a set of cards named decks, you can select which cards add to a deck and narrow the set of cards where a random card picks the cards.

You can filter the cards of a selected deck using the text box in the right top corner, you can select them all at once

│Edit the size of the camera screens

│Resize, move or rotate a card during the remote session

│Flip a card during the remote session

│ Hide or show a card during the remote session

│Shuffle the cards during the remote session

│Edit Network configuration

When running a remote session, this setting changes the internal protocol used by the system to connect to the participant and it can improve the connectivity in your specific network setup if you are having issues like remote session ending unexpectedly, or delays in transitioning between slides, and/or you need to refresh multiple times in order for slides to change.

To change the network settings, please follow the next instructions:

In the remote session, please select “Session” on the menu, then select “Network”.

You will see a new popup window with two options available. The default value is “Trickle ICE”

Please check both “Trickle ICE” and “Force TURN” (as shown in the screenshot below), reload your page

When the reload has been completed, and the popup to copy the link shows up, please ask the participant to reload their page as well.
Continue running the remote session with the client. Hopefully the network issues are resolved.

│For Content Creators

│Module I: Packs

The Virtual Materials toolset (VM) lets you create card-based activities organized as “Packs”. The primary component of a pack is a set of slides (one or many) upon which you organize cards (cards have pictures and/or text and can be arranged on a slide in a number of different layouts). Each pack may contain up to 450 Cards and 450 Slides, along with custom Variables used for Manual Data Capture. Cards are created to be used in slides and can include pictures and/or text. Cards are created and stored in the “Cards” section of a pack. While creating Slides, you will choose which cards to add to your slide and you may format your slide with a variety of layouts to display your cards.

Depending on the role of your user within the organization, you will be able to preview and launch Sessions, create and edit your own Packs or (for administrators) edit the Packs of other users in the same organization.

Your organization may have received access to Packs from other Organizations. Those packs will have read-only access, but you will be able to clone them and edit your own copy of the external Pack.

In the screenshot above, you can see all the packs available for your organization to the left of the search area. Scroll through the list or search for a specific pack by name or by its tags, using the search options on the left side of the screen. Each Pack will display three indicators below the pack name: the version, the ownership and the status of each Pack.

Version: This number indicates the current edit version of the pack.

Ownership is one of three values:“Mine” (packs created by you), “My Org” (packs created by other users in your organization), and “External” (packs created by other organizations that have been granted access to yours.

Status: “Draft” or “Published”. “Draft” packs can be edited (as long as you have permission) and “Published” packs can only be opened in read-only mode. Also, only published packs can be granted to other organizations.

│Create a pack

│Versioning & Publishing Packs

If you are the author of a Pack and you want to give access to other organizations, the first step is to Publish the pack. The “Information” menu offers access to both the status and the version of the pack.

Remember that once a Pack is marked as Published, no more changes are allowed. But if you have corrections to make or you want to add new content to your Pack, you can generate a new Draft version on top of the latest version and work over it even if the Published Pack is already being used by other organizations.

The external users will only see the latest published version of your pack, not the current draft.

Note: Publishing a pack is a prerequisite for allowing other organizations to access your Pack. Once you have marked your Packs as Published, you need to contact Mundopato for authorizing access to specific external organizations.

The following example will clarify the differences between status and versions in a Pack:

In the previous picture, there is a Pack called “Example 1” with three versions on its history: the v0.1 is the initial Draft Version, then a version 0.2 in Published status, and the latest one is the version 0.3 in Draft status again.

There is an External User subscribed to this pack, but he only can see version 0.2 because it is the latest Published Version. Version 0.3 is invisible to him despite being the latest one because it is in Draft status.

The Administrator and the Author in the Pack’s organization can see version 0.3, and as it is in Draft status, both can edit it, but not at the same time: while one user is working on the Pack and another user tries to edit the same Pack, a warning message saying that the Pack is locked will appear, but the Pack can be open in preview mode until the first user finishes working.

The Administrator can move the latest version to published status, making it visible for the External User.

The Author can create new Draft versions if new editions to the Pack are required.

│View the decks and cards available in a pack

│Clone an existing pack

│Slides

Slides are the way how content is organized to be presented to the client during a VM Session.

They are like pages or screens that are presented one at a time to the client with the goal of executing some interaction or gathering some data.

A slide can contain multiple resources like Cards, Random Cards, and Widgets. The screenshot presents a slide being edited that contains a Card in the top, a Random Card in the lower-left corner, and a widget (an Interactive Wheel) in the lower-right corner:

Slides can also be configured with Variables for data capture and effects like shuffling cards on load, and flipping or highlighting cards when clicked.

You can see the list of all the slides available in any Pack. Even if you can’t edit them (because the Pack is in “Published” state or you don’t have the grants) you always can Preview the slides to see how they would look during a real Session:

Slides can be created in different ways:

Importing slides from another Pack.
Cloning an existing Slide within the same Pack, to rename it and edit it later.
Using the “New Slide” wizard to create a new slide from scratch.

│Importing Slides

Slides can be imported from any other Pack.

Warning! Importing slides means that all the Widgets and Cards used by the Slide will be imported too! If the Slide uses Random Cards, special care should be taken as the Import Wizard will import ALL the cards referenced in the Decks associated with each Random Card (except for the “All Cards” deck).

By default, before importing a slide, the resources used by the slide (Widgets or Cards) are compared by name with those in the target Pack. If a resource with the same name exists in the target Pack, the resource won’t be imported and the existing resource will replace the original one in the cloned Pack.

If this is not the behavior you want, please be sure to rename your Cards, Decks, and Widgets before importing a new slide with repeated names.

	Step 1 Open the Pack where you want to import the slides and go to “Slides” then “Import”.
	Step 2 The Import Slides Wizard will start, presenting a Warning regarding the potential risk of importing associated assets. If you are sure that the Assets to be imported are not going to cause any problem in your target Pack, press OK.
	Step 3 Select the source Pack from where you want to import slides.
	Step 4 Select slides in the Source Pack searching them by name and check the checkbox. You can import multiple slides at the same time.
	Step 5 After the importing process finishes, the slide list will include the new imported slides (highlighted in the picture at the left).
	If you check the list of Cards, you will see that all the cards used in this slide were also imported.

│Clone a slide

│Create a slide

The maximum number of slides that can be added to a pack is 450 slides.

│Available layouts to create a slide

│Randomize cards positions

Sometimes it is necessary to change the positions of the cards in a slide, in order to prevent the client to memorize the location of the right answer. You can select an animation effect to be applied when the slide is loaded.

In the following example, we have a typical layout with a sample card on the top and three comparisons cards in the bottom. We want to randomize the order of the comparison cards, but kept the sample card fixed.

Step 1: Select the sample card and check the “Anchored” in the card properties:

Step 2: Select the background of the slide, and then select one of the available effects: “Shuffle” or “Scatter”:

Now, every time you launch your slide (using the preview mode or during a session) the selected effect will be applied to all the non-anchored cards.

The shuffle effect

“Shuffle” will interchange the position of the unanchored cards, preserving the same layout.

The Scatter effect

“Scatter” will disperse the cards all over the slide, applying a slightly change to rotations. This effect don’t preserve the layout:

│Update a slide

│Add a Random Card to a slide

│Add a card to a slide

│Delete a slide

│Cards

Cards are used as the content for slides. You can reuse cards and organize them into decks (check out the Slides section for more help on how to add content to decks).

Tip: You can add up to 450 cards to a pack.

│Create a card

In order to create a new Card, select the “New” button in the Cards screen. This button will launch a wizard that will offer you a set of predefined common layouts. These layouts are very useful, but keep in mind that you are not limited to them. Once the card is created, you can continue adding additional pictures and labels to the front or the back of the Card.

│Edit a card

A card is composed of a front and a back side. You can add multiple images and labels to any side of the card, and also move, resize and rotate the images and labels within the card:

To Move:

Use the red square

To Resize:

Use the green square

To Rotate:

Use the blue square

By selecting the menu “Card - Information” you will access some general properties of the Card. This panel can also be accessed by clicking the background of the Card:

Properties of a Card

Aspect: changes the proportions of the background of the Card. It could be either vertical (portrait), horizontal (landscape) or square.

Background color: Changes the background color of the card.

Value: This is an optional field used for compute dynamic values for the “Macros” functionality and/or for the Integration with Assessments.

When a card is inserted into a slide, her value can be overridden.

Side: Use these buttons to select the side of the card that you want to see or edit.

│Editing the two sides of a card

By using the “Front” and “Back” buttons you can add content to any side of the card:

│Decks

Decks are groups of Cards. They are very useful in combination with Random Cards.

All the cards in a Pack belong to the “All Cards” deck by default, but they can also be part of any other deck.

In the top of the following screenshot, the default “All Cards” deck is selected, displaying a total of eight cards.

In the bottom of the same screenshot, the “Animal Names” deck is selected, displaying only seven of the eight cards (the card with a picture of a cat was not assigned to this particular deck):

│Create a deck

│View cards available in each deck

│Update a deck

│Add a card to a deck

│Copy cards to a deck (Copy to…)

│Move cards to a deck (Move to…)

│Remove cards from a deck

│Add a tag to a pack

│Multiple/Single Selection

This feature allows you to determine whether you want a client to select a single card or multiple cards on a particular slide during a remote session. You can toggle this setting in the Selection Mode in the slide editor.

NOTE: The default response for this feature is Single.

Single Selection Mode

Clients are able to select only one card/response at a time.

For example, when having clients match, there is only one option to match to. Therefore, you would want this activity to be in single select mode.

Multiple Selection Mode

This new feature allows clients to select more than one card/response at a time. This is particularly helpful for activities in which you want to select multiple cards at once.

│Selectable Feature

This feature allows you to select which Cards or Random Cards can be selected during the remote session. In the slide editor, when you select a card, the option will be available in the left menu (see the gif below for a demonstration)

│Auto Flip

If a card has the Auto Flip option checked, then it will flip automatically when touched during a session.

│Manual Data Capture

You are able to collect data directly on your computer screen during local and remote sessions. You can track overall session data, data for an entire pack, data per slide, and data per step. Once your session is complete, a full data summary is automatically generated. You can easily print or save it as a PDF document. Add Variables to a pack to enable this feature.

│Variables

Add Variables to a pack to enable the ability to capture data (e.g. correct or incorrect responses, or frequency of response) during the execution of a session. With Variables, session data will be displayed at the end of a session in a summary report for the host to save to their device, print or download.

There are different types of variables (“data types”), like “simple choice” or “true/false”, each one with its particular configuration.

While editing a Pack, you can create as many variables as you need; therefore, these variables will be available for manual data recording during the execution of a session.

At the end of the session, a report is made available to you, with a detailed summary of the session’s activity: packs loaded, slides opened, time spent in each one, and the values recorded for each variable.

When you open a Pack, you will find an additional option called Variables added to the top on the blue bar. This is where you will create, import, and manage data.

Once you set up variables within a pack, you will be able to copy them by importing from one pack to another. This is explained in detail under Importing Variables.

By creating various combinations of data types with different scopes, you will be able to take data on just about anything you can imagine. However, in order to effectively learn how to create new data variables, you must first develop a clear understanding of all of the components and options available to you.

│Create variables

To create a new variable, select and open your Master Data pack.

Click on Variables then Manage.

Select New, and enter the name “Test” or “Example Variable” in the name field.

You should now see the default variable screen which looks like this:

You can name your variables anything you want, but you cannot use the same name twice within a pack.

│Common variables properties

Based on its type, each variable has specific properties. But all they share the following standard set of properties:

Property	Description
Name	The name of the variable.
Description	Short description of the variable expected usage.
Data Type	The following types of data are available: True/False Timer Counter Simple Choice Multiple Choice Range Note For more details, please see the section Types of Variables.
Scope	This property changes how the variables remember values during the session and how the data is displayed in the report. There are four scopes: Session: The session scope has the most general data range. This scope will track data for an entire local or remote session. Pack: Use the pack scope to track data relevant to the entire pack as a whole. Slide: The slide scope is meant to track data per slide or trial. Step: The step scope is the most specific. It allows you to track data per step taken within a pack and within each slide. For more details, please see section scopes.
Show on all slides	A checkbox (available for “Slide” and “Step” scopes) that determines if a variable is displayed by default on all slides. Disabled (default setting): If disabled, the variable will have to be added manually to each slide (in the slide editor) where you want to use it. Enabled: If enabled, the variable will appear in all slides automatically.

│Types of variables (Data Types)

│Data Type “True/False” Example:

Sample Configuration:
What it looks like in Execution:

│Data Type “Timer” Example:

Sample Configuration:

Default: Time in minutes and seconds that will set the starting value of the timer

By default, it is 00:00

Direction: Indicates if the timer counts the time upwards or downwards.

It may be “increase” or “decrease”.