Tina Majchrzak

Abstract

As part of this initiative, students are first supplied with CD-ROMs containing courseware on HTML. With regard to instructional design, lessons are short narratives with visual and interactive components that allow students to experiment with content immediately. Providing students with CD-ROMs allows each student to progress through the material at his or her own pace. The courseware, created using HTML, JavaScript, and cascading style sheets, could easily be delivered online. However, large sound files and substantial differences in Internet access speeds from home make it more equitable to provide students with CD-ROMs at present. Software and hardware tools used to produce the courseware will be demonstrated upon request.

Instructional Design

All content is provided in the courseware, so that each student may access lessons at his or her own pace. A media player that allows the user to jump easily to different locations in a given narration is utilized. In addition, individual lessons are kept short (under 11 minutes) and interactive. Custom, online tools allow assignments to be submitted and graded efficiently.

Time

The initial courseware on HTML took approximately two months to develop. A second version with modifications based on feedback from students and custom online management tools for submitting and grading assignments took approximately two months to develop. This new version required new lessons and assignments to be developed, which contributed substantially to the time needed. Note that development time is based on work hours for a single individual working part time. The courseware currently consists of 2 ½ hours of narrations and is 100 Mg. (I am in the process of converting a course on C Programming that was taught with PowerPoint slides using the shell designed for the HTML course. At present, one-quarter of the course has been converted in 8 hours.)

Problems

The inclusion of sound (narrations) in the courseware and varying levels of home access speeds make it difficult to deliver the courseware online to all students in an equitable manner at this time. Therefore, each student is supplied with his or her own CD-ROM containing the courseware. In order to fit more sound files on the CD-ROM, they are stored in MP3 format rather than WAV format. The only plugin found to consistently play the MP3 format with an embedded control panel for manipulating the current location of the narration is Microsoft’s Media Player 2. Although this media player comes in different flavors, I have found it to work only with Internet Explorer 4 and 5. It did not work with Netscape 4.7, and I have not tested it on the Macintosh. This limits the target audience and is inconvenient for those who prefer another browser. Other media players considered include HotMedia, Real Player, WinAmp, and QuickTime.

Hardware

Currently, the courseware has only been tested extensively on a PC running Windows98 and using Internet Explorer 5 with Media Player 2. It has also been tested to a lesser extent and found to work well using Internet Explorer 4 with Media Player 2. Macintosh machines are not supported at this time.

Software

The HTML courseware was developed mainly using a simple text editor (Notepad, WordPad), an image tool (Adobe PhotoShop), a sound recorder/editor (GoldWave), and is written in HTML and JavaScript. Other tools used minimally include GIF Construction Set (to make animated gif), Microangelo Studio (to make CD-ROM icon), and Mapedit (to get image map coordinates). Instructions and a tool (http://www.avdf.com/oct98/art_ot005.html) provided by Mark Trescowthick and Ross Mack were used to make the CD-ROM start the student’s browser automatically and open the initial HTML file. Course management is accomplished by a server using CGI-scripts written in C (by Tina Majchrzak) and Perl (by Dan Majchrzak). The courseware requires the student to have Internet Explorer 4 or 5 with Media Player 2.