Adapting Authoring Methodologies to WWW Environments

At Leeds software has been developed which allows teacher (or student) authors to specify interactions and presentation formats and to provide materials which when placed within these formats are automatically converted and compiled to run as Asymetrix Multomedia Toolbook programs. The system (the Interactive Document Compiler - IDC) is based on SGML-compliant markup techniques which indicate the functional and display attributes required by the materials. Using IDC applications have been produced in a variety of subjects including English, Medicine, Textiles, Biology, Pharmacology and Teaching Competencies.

More recently work has focussed on the production of visual authoring tools which support the authors in the structuring and organisation pf their content. These tools enable the user to develop their materials and manage their resources (video, images, audio etc.) in a natural style whilst maintaining the resources in the form of markup for compilation (with IDC) and delivery as compiled Toolbook applications. Current work is concentrating on generalising these authoring tools and placing them within a WWW framework but more especially in developing the opportunities for delivering the materials within a WWW browser, initially utilising the Toolbook plug-in for Netscape Navigator but with the objective of supporting the user interactions with Java applets generated directly from the toolset's interaction styles. Delivery of materials within a WWW browser environment opens up ready access to, and integration with, other resources including WWW delivered documents, simulations and other learning environments implemented as plug-ins and can also provide consistent access to student records and many other services based on WWW technology.

This paper will describe the authoring methodologies and development tools which have been produced and used in Leeds (and elsewhere) using Asymetrix Toolbook as the delivery engine and demonstrate the advantages of the original strategic decision to generate deliverable materials from a common markup base.