ORCA Education Limited, Copyright 2008.

General

• What does the price include? The price includes a full site licence, post and packing, flash tutorials, free samples, support and practical instruction booklet. The VT plus products also include a version especially designed for your school network or learning platform. Your school will need to add VAT which is reclaimable.
• What does the licence include? We provide a full site licence that allows you to install the product on any computer in the school. For further information see our licence details. The licence also allows the supplied network learning platform version to be installed if confirmation of the security of this system is supplied.
• What is ORCA VT plus? ORCA VT plus is the trade name for our PowerPoint based presentations. The VT stands for virtual teacher which is the avatar character who you can call upon (if you wish and when appropriate) to add more detail, answer and ask questions so generating class discussion. The input is entirely appropriate to the level of the students. You can even change the script so changing what the animated talking character does and says. The VT presentations have other additional features like spoken key questions, pop up key words and activities.
• What is the Revise & Test product? The Revise and Test product is designed to compliment the main VT presentations. It follows the same structure and content as the main presentations but with formative questions and links to suggested answers. This is a valuable time saving resource to assess and reinforce learning at the end of a unit of work or for revision. The licence allows you to use this product on a school accessed virtual learning environment or school intranet.
• What is included in the ORCA VT plus product? This product extension is now used on all our subjects to give extra teaching functions and options helping you deliver a full structured lesson based around the presentations. Included you will find customisable starter tasks, recap points, discussion topics, key word definitions and activities as well as spoken key questions. They have the added function in that they can be amended during the presentation to suit the needs of the lesson.
• Do I need to use the VT characters? No they are very helpful in generating class discussion and the students like them but like all our resources they are for you to review and then use according to your professional judgement.
• Why do you use PowerPoint for the presentations? PowerPoint is a familiar and very flexible presentation format that is standard throughout the world. Teachers can easily adapt them to suit the needs of individual students and classes. We provide a free using PowerPoint in teaching booklet and a flash tutorial to help you if you are new to PowerPoint.
• What features do the VT plus presentations include? Each VT presentations covers a broad area of the subject curriculum allowing the teacher to break the topic down into lesson sized units. The presentations are lively in both their language and bold graphics which include full colour photographs and animations designed to reinforce visual learning and give the teacher opportunities to generate discussion. VT talking animated characters give extra information, detail, questions and answers. Follow this up with our revise and test presentations to reinforce learning and assess progress.
• How do I use these products in the classroom? You will need to install the product onto a computer for example a laptop linked to a projector. Interactive whiteboards can be used you can also link your computer to a large screen TV which can be used as a monitor.
• Can I change the products to suit my students? Yes you can change the text, what the VT characters say and do, add photos video or sound files of your own and split presentations into smaller lesson units to suit your teaching style and lesson structure.
• What skills do I need to adapt the presentations? Very few; a basic knowledge of how to add text, perhaps an extra picture or video clip to PowerPoint and how to save your changes is  all you need. We provide a flash tutorial and for those who prefer their information on paper a very useful using PowerPoint in teaching booklet.
• Can students use the presentations by themselves? Yes most teachers install the products on their computer and then perhaps add them to a free standing computer in a classroom or library for catch up or revision. The VT products are however designed primarily as teacher resources and so they only have interactive elements where they are appropriate to teaching. However supplied with your teacher resources you will find a special set of presentations ready for a network in PowerPoint show format that cannot be altered by the student.
• How do students react to the presentations? Students respond extremely well. They like the input of the VT characters and the presentations improve attention spans. The presentations are designed specifically to encourage visual and aural learning while generating active class discussion . Less able students benefit particularly but improvements in learning can be seen across the ability range.
• What benefits will I gain from using the VT and VT plus presentations? The presentations help teachers teach. They give you a powerful visual vehicle when explaining an aspect of your subject. They include animation text and graphics to present the key content. They help you structure your lesson into appropriate activities. They can reinforce learning and help you assess student progress by use of starter and plenary tasks, key questions, tests and revision presentations. The network / learning platform version supplied with all products can allow students to revisit the content of the lessons or catch up on missed work.
• How quickly will my order be dispatched? We keep all our products constantly in stock and would look to turn around an order in 48 hours. 
• Do you have a sample disk? We have a sample disk that shows you how the key features of the product operate as well as part presentations for each subject in our range.
• Do you have customer support? We pride ourselves on our friendly customer support to help you not just with the product but also helping you with practical ideas for using the product in the classroom. In addition each product now comes with flash tutorials to help you make the most of your teaching with ORCA presentations.
• Can I print out the slides as handouts? Yes one of the benefits of using a PowerPoint basis for our presentations is that  every element can be printed form a test or single slide through to a full presentation with all its images.
• Can my students use the products at home? Your licence is for use in your school only. Some elements can be added to a vle if password protected. We have special arrangements for PRU's so that children that cannot attend school can use our presentations at home. In special circumstances we are happy to consider extending this to a student at a main stream school. Please phone and ask: we are educators and we want to help your students learn.

Technical

• Can I install onto a school network?  Yes the licence allows this as long as the network or learning platform is confined to the licensed school premises. We will need written confirmation of protection measures if the content can be accessed beyond the school. You should consider that the main presentations are designed and licenced as a teaching tool in the classroom but you are also supplied with a special version in PowerPoint show format designed and licensed for your network or learning platform. Technically installation depends on the system but the disk has an msi installer to help simplify this process. It can be found by right clicking on your cd/dvd drive in explorer  or mycomputer and then choosing explore.
• Can I Install on a Virtual Learning Environment? Yes you can, under the licence, install the Network versions that come with every product. It is a simple perfect resource for all learning platforms as it uses PowerPoint without extra macros or add ons. The vle must only be accessible in your school or to your students via password. We will supply a simple form for you to complete to allow this. The Revise and Test product and the resources pack materials are also perfect for a vle learning platform. The VT Teacher presentations are not appropriate for a vle. They are designed and licensed as a teacher resource and have large file sizes and extra files that are installed to allow the talking characters to operate.
• What operating system can be used? All MS operating systems are compatible to our products including Vista. They will operate on Mac if you use a PC adaptation like bootcamp or Microsoft Office for Mac. 
• Does it work on Vista and Windows 7 ? Yes our products are fully compatible with Vista and Windows 7.
• Can I use PowerPoint 2007? Yes we have made changes to allow our products to operate on PowerPoint 2007 although  you may have to change a macro security setting.
• Do I need to change my macro settings? Yes when you first open the presentation you may be asked if you trust macros form ORCA Education and Microsoft, you should say yes and also set the security setting at medium or low depending on how your computer is set up. We are licenced distributors and of Microsoft Agent technology and this requires macros by ourselves and Microsoft to enable the talking animated characters and other additional features to operate. You have the assurance that our macros are digitally signed before dispatch and you can phone to find out the annual up to date status of this digital signature.
• How do I hear and see the characters? At the end of installation seven small Microsoft files are installed these allow script written for the VT character to be turned into actions, a speech bubble and spoken words. When you view the slideshow if there is the option of the input of a Vt character you will see a icon in the bar at the bottom of the slide, click on this and the character will appear. Our tutorial shows you how to suspend hide or resume the script. For help if the character does not appear or speak see our technical page and the flash tutorials supplied with the product.
• How do I install the product? Just put the disk in your drive and it will normally self install. This also allows you to select the presentations you want installed at any time on your computer. At the end of the installation, as the read me file opens, seven small VT files will install, these Microsoft files are being installed in folders which are part of the Windows operating system, some of which come pre installed on your computer but are just being added in case your computer has been changed. You should let these install or the animated characters will not operate. For more details see our technical section and the flash tutorials supplied with the product.
• Can I save my own class adapted version? Yes your licence allows this and we would encourage you to review each presentation in advance to decide how you would use the presentation with particular classes. Our Using PowerPoint in supplied product booklet provides help.
• How do I change the VT characters script? The script is deliberately placed on the notes page so you can simply type in changes to what the character says. Fine tuning of pronunciation is very easy as are changes to what the character does. This element in itself is a powerful teaching tool. Our free booklet and supplied flash tutorials explain how to do this.
• How do I change the text? Just simple choose normal view and then type into the text boxes. When finished go to file / save as and choose a location and name for your saved version. Your licence allows you to do this but just check the licence details for restrictions on how the original product and saved versions can be used.
• Can I change pictures and video? Yes you can change some pictures or add a picture of your own and then save the presentation with a new name. You can also add video that you have on your computer. Video files are big so they are not embedded into PowerPoint so you will need to have a folder where you keep your video files so that PowerPoint can find them. Our free booklet and flash tutorial Using PowerPoint in Teaching again explains how to do this.
• Can I change or add sound files? Yes you can change transition sounds and embed sound files of up to 1.5mb into our presentations. Be aware though the bigger the size of your PowerPoint the slower it will be when you start it up or call on the VT character. You can reduce the size of sound files if you do not mind loosing some sound quality. Our free booklet and supplied flash tutorials give more guidance.