Beyond the electronic textbook model: Software techniques to make on-line educational content dynamic

Objective: We describe a working software technology that enables educators to incorporate their expertise and teaching style into highly interactive and Socratic educational material for distribution on the world wide web. M aterials/Methods: A graphically oriented interactive authoring system was d eveloped to enable the computer novice to create and store within a databas e his or her domain expertise in the form of electronic knowledge. The auth oring system supports and facilitates the input and integration of several types of content, including free-form, stylized text, miniature and full-si zed images, audio, and interactive questions with immediate feedback. The s ystem enables the choreography and sequencing of these entities for display within a web page as well as the sequencing of entire web pages within a c ase-based or thematic presentation. Images or segments of text can be hyper linked with point-and-click to other entities such as adjunctive web pages, audio, or other images, cases, or electronic chapters. Miniature (thumbnai l) images are automatically linked to their full-sized counterparts. The au thoring system contains a graphically oriented word processor, an image edi tor, and capabilities to automatically invoke and use external image-editin g software such as Photo-shop. The system works in both local area network (LAN) and internet-centric environments. An internal metalanguage (invisibl e to the author but stored with the content) was invented to represent the choreographic directives that specify the interactive delivery of the conte nt on the world wide web. A database schema was developed to objectify and store both this electronic knowledge and its associated choreographic metal anguage. A database engine was combined with page-rendering algorithms in o rder to retrieve content from the database and deliver it on the web in a S ocratic style, assess the recipient's current fund of knowledge, and provid e immediate feedback, thus stimulating in-person interaction with a human e xpert. Results: This technology enables the educator to choreograph a styli zed, interactive delivery of his or her message using multimedia components assembled in virtually any order, spanning any number of web pages for a g iven case or theme. An educator can thus exercise precise influence on spec ific learning objectives, embody his or her personal teaching style within the content, and ultimately enhance its educational impact. Conclusion: The described technology amplifies the efforts of the educator and provides a more dynamic and enriching learning environment for web-based education. Co pyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company.