Frequently Asked Questions

Please look through our most frequently asked questions below to view their answers. If you cannot find your question, e-mail us at support@digitalchalk.com or call us toll free at 1-877-321-2451.

• Does the course delivery fee apply per course or for each student that enrolls in a course?
  It is charged for each student that is enrolled in a course.
• What other costs will we have, such as storage, hosting or bandwidth charges?
  The course delivery fee includes everything. There are no other charges except the one-time administrative fee you pay at the time you setup the account.
• Can I charge the student tuition fees for the whole course on DigitalChalk?
  Yes, if you charge more than the course delivery fee for courses sold by credit card, we will refund the difference to you each month. DigitalChalk can provide a full-service online payment collection service.
• Can I collect the fees from students or do I have to use the DigitalChalk payment system?
  You can collect the fees directly from students and either pre-purchase deliveries on DigitalChalk or purchase the delivery fees from us at the time you receive the order from your customer or student.
• Why is there an additional 2.5% handling fee for credit card purchases?
  The credit card companies charge us this fee for your entire course price when we collect for you. Because it is a variable cost, depending on the price you charge for your courses, it has to be assessed at the time of the sale.
• What kinds of video and audio formats can I use?
  We currently support Windows media (.wmv), Apple quicktime (.mov), Realmedia (.rm), and many uncompressed formats such as AVI and MPEG.
• Do I have to compress my videos before I upload them?
  No, you can upload uncompressed video, we automatically compress the video after upload. For large videos it may be a faster upload to compress them before uploading. We recommend a compression rate of 300kbps.
• Is DigitalChalk a Learning management system (LMS)?
  No, DigitalChalk is a lesson editing suite for building and publishing video based lessons. We compliment a traditional LMS by offering multimedia based lessons online.
• Is my content secure?
  Yes, we store all media in a secure encrypted repository that can only be accessed through a valid DigitalChalk login with the appropriate authority to view the content.
• Can I use DigitalChalk with a university semester based course?
  Yes, we have professors who assign course material on DigitalChalk. It can be made available each week as the semester progresses.
• Is DigitalChalk available 24 x 7?
  Yes, however we do have scheduled maintenance downtime periodically during off-peak hours. We will notify you at least one week before scheduled maintenance.
• Can international students enroll on DigitalChalk?
  Yes, all student subscription fees are collected in US Dollars.
• Which internet browsers are supported for use with DigitalChalk?
  We have gone to great lengths to ensure complete compatibility of our learning system with certain internet browsers therefore, DigitalChalk currently supports product functionality within Internet Explorer(version 6+), Firefox and Safari. Other browsers may or may not have full functionality.
• How do I become an education developer and publish courses on DigitalChalk?
  It's easy, DigitalChalk lets you create online courses quickly. You are able to create multimedia rich courses on the Internet with your pro account. There is absolutely no software to buy and no monthly charge.
  

  Offer Courses Internally to Your Employees
  DigitalChalk has many companies delivering online training to their employees. We offer a simple and cost effective way to publish your own online multimedia rich courses for your employees.
  
  Offer Courses Online for a Fee
  DigitalChalk lets you publish courses for public enrollment. Best of all, we collect the fee from the students online and send you a check.
  
  Get Started Today
  To get the process started, contact us Monday - Friday 8AM to 6PM Eastern time at 877-321-2451 or email sales@digitalchalk.com. You can also click here to submit your information online and someone will contact you within one business day. Please provide a good time to call in the comments field.

• When I click the play button the lesson will not start, is my computer compatable with DigitalChalk?
  DigitalChalk requires the Flash plugin version 9 or higher to be installed on the users computer for proper lesson functionality. If you would like to download the latest version of the Flash plugin please visit http://www.adobe.com and download the appropriate flash player for your computer. Additionally, we have gone to great lengths to ensure complete compatibility of our learning system with certain internet browsers therefore, DigitalChalk currently supports product functionality within Internet Explorer(version 6 & greater) and Firefox only. We are working to expand product support for additional browsers in future releases.
  
  DigitalChalk requires the Flash plugin version 9 or higher to be installed on the users computer for proper lesson functionality. If you would like to download the latest version of the Flash plugin please visit http://www.adobe.com and download the appropriate flash player for your computer. Additionally, we have gone to great lengths to ensure complete compatibility of our learning system with certain internet browsers therefore, DigitalChalk currently supports product functionality within Internet Explorer(version 6 & greater) and Firefox only. We are working to expand product support for additional browsers in future releases.

  For Firefox
  1. open your browser
  2. type about:plugins in the URL window and press enter
  3. search the screen for: Adobe Flash or Shockwave Flash
  4. Record the version and return it to me via reply to this email
      the version will look look similar to the following;
      File name: Flash Player.plugin
      Shockwave Flash 9.0 r47
  
  For Internet Explorer
  1. open your browser
  2. go to Internet Options
  3. go to programs
  4. go to Manage Add-Ons
  5. search the screen for: Adobe Flash or Shockwave Flash
  6. Record the version and return it to me via reply to this email
      the version will look look similar to the following;
      Shockwave Flash Object - Adobe Systems Incorporated - Enabled - ActiveX Control - Flash9c.ocx

• Which video formats are supported for upload?
  DigitalChalk currently supports the following video formats; .WMV, .MOV, .AVI, .MPG and .RM video files.
• What settings should I apply when saving a video that I want to use on DigitalChalk?
  DigitalChalk will deliver the video that you upload via streaming media using a Flash format over the student's internet connection. Since the internet is our key method of delivery we must concern ourselves with each students available bandwidth. In order to achieve optimum video performance we recommend use of the following guidelines when exporting or saving your finalized video file:
  

  Optimum Video Screen Size = 4x3 aspect ratio
  Optimum Video Compression = 29.97 frames per second
  Optimum Video Streaming Rate = 300 Kb per second
  
  The maximum file size supported for upload is 200MB.

• Which audio formats are supported for upload?
  DigitalChalk currently supports the following audio formats; .RA, .RM, .MP3, .WAV, .AU and .WMA audio files.
• What settings should I apply when saving an audio file that I want to use on DigitalChalk?
  DigitalChalk will deliver the audio that you upload via streaming media using a Flash format over the student's internet connection. In order to achieve optimum audio clarity and performance we recommend that you encode your audio file using a medium level sample rate. The maximum supported file size is 200MB.
• Is DigitalChalk SCORM compliant?
  The Shareable Content Object Model (SCORM) is designed to govern how learning content is imported, exported and tracked between various (commercial and privately built) Learning Management Systems (LMS).  DigitalChalk is a hosted learning delivery service, not a software product so SCORM compliance does not directly apply.  All of the content is stored on our servers and streamed to the student online.  Student progress is tracked and managed from our service and detailed reports can be integrated into a commercial LMS system if needed to update a SCORM compliant LMS database.  DigitalChalk does not export a SCORM compliant content manifest file because none of the learning content is transfered to an LMS system outside of DigitalChalk.