Automatic generation of simulation-based web courses and model documentation

This paper presents the procedures and tools that we are using to generate fully automatic multimedia Web courses based on simulations, These con,ses are composed of HTML pages with interactive simulations that help rite stud ents understand the subject of the course. This is accomplished by means of an object-oriented simulations language (OOCSMP) that allows rls to includ e information about the appearance of the HTML page where the simulation mo del is going to be included. The language incorporates constructions to syn chronize multimedia elements with the simulation execution, and to produce distributed simulations. The compiler for. this language (C-OOL) generates Java applets for the simulation problem, and call generate automatically th e documentation for the models, in the form of HTML pages, using informatio n ill the symbol table and special comments included ill the model. One exa mple of the construction of a multimedia simulation page with the simulatio n of an ecosystem is presented and its extension to a distributed simulatio n environment is explained.