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Pharmacy in Boston and a major part of my job is to create self-paced, online
learning/reference modules.
This I find is not a task for one person. My previous position was with
Digital Equipment Corporation where I was an Instructional Designer working for
the last two years exclusively to produce computer-based reference/learning
modules from Windows applications. Each project was staffed with a team of at
least 4 people, often more. Someone needs to be versed in the standards for
designing good user-interfaces, in project management, in shaping or adapting
text or lecture content into non-linear interactive content for online
presentation, in determining where material is better presented in graphic form
and in the selection and design of graphics (and the use of graphics
applications to create, edit, and export/import graphics into the development
application you are using to create the learning/testing module). The project
also needs a good editor and a "tester" to review and test and debug the module
during and after development. Someone, usually the project manager, needs to
know the requirements for the computers on which the completed module will be
displayed: questions about memory, speed, fonts, screen-display size, color
palettes all have to be addressed upfront, before planning, storyboarding and
otherpreliminary steps begin. The average inexperienced user of interactive,
multimedia development applications is not versed in the many aspects of the
development process, nor in the use of whatever development tools are chosen to
create modules.
If the end product you wish to create is basically simple in scope, using
HyperCard can produce some very useful "stacks" that support learning in
various subject areas. And at this level, HyperCard can be easy and even fun
to use for a novice. But if you are looking for a lot of interactivity
between learner and the computer-based learning module as well as features that
support the creation of interactive, recordable, trackable tests, and a wide
range of multimedia options --- unless you are or can quickly become a strong
HyperCard programmer, this is not a reasonable goal (and even despite a skilled
programmer, HyperCard has its limits).
Here at the college I have been working with Macintosh applications,
HyperCard and SuperCard. Although we do not have the staff here who have
technical background in creating online modules, we formed a "team" out of the
staff we had available. I work full-time; the others are one 30-hr person who
also works as a reference librarian and who is basically our "subject matter
expert" on the current projects, and one very smart graduate student with some
programming background who works approximately 10-15 hours/week, but who also
has other duties. We contracted on two occasions with a consultant who is an
expert in the use of SuperCard, the tool we have used most. These two
occasions consisted of two 3-hour sessions.
SuperCard is not easy to learn. It is helpful if the user has experience with
HyperCard as SuperCard's language and structure is an expansion of HyperCard.
We find the documentation for SuperCard extremely lacking as a useful resource
for a new user. It lacks step by step procedures and full explanations for the
coding language, has very few examples, and many procedures seem either to
be undocumented or very difficult to locate in the documentation. There is a
recent upgrade to SuperCard (version 2.5) which has improved some of the
performance and squashed some of the bugs, but the documentation is still the
same with no plans I know of for revisions. The documentation from the company
(Allegiant) seems to be more of a reference set for experienced SuperCard
programmers. Unfortunately, there are no 3rd party books available in
bookstores on SuperCard. Those that did exist for an older version of the
software are now out of print.
SuperCard is very powerful in the hands of an experienced, technically savvy
programmer. It's programming seems unlimited. Interactive tests that can be
graded, recorded, tracked, secured, and routed to appropriate instructors can
be created. We are about to start our first such test, but we have contracted
with our SuperCard consultant to do most of the programming.
I've observed demos of Macromedia's Authorware and talked to a few instructors
who are using it at the college level. It seems to be geared toward online,
interactive instruction as it's focus (rather than trying to be all things to
all multimedia-needy solutions). I'm told it's strong point is the features
available for creating online tests; that there are many types of tests that
can be created and that the process is not difficult. I've also been told that
Macromedia provides excellent documentation for basic users as well as help and
support over the phone.
Macromedia also puts out Director, which is a very powerful multimedia tool for
animation, video, and sound. Might be worth exploring how Director elements
may be incorporated into Authorware applications to enhance Authorware's strong
suit in learning-oriented features with Director's powerful multimedia
elements. I'd be interested if you find out anything positive in this regard,
as we may be looking at both products early next year.
Hope this is helpful.
Regards,
Kate
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David Bourne (david@boomer.org)