I.P.F. de Diana

Adaptable educational courseware : an antidote to several portability problems

The concepts of adaptability and portability of educational software and courseware seem to be interwoven in several respects. This article explores these interrelationships in some detail, based upon the presumption that adaptable educational products are also more portable. A conceptual framework is offered for discussing adaptability of tutorial software products. Relationships between this framework and several portability-limiting factors are discussed and aspects of a methodology for the development and use of adaptable (tutorial) products are formulated. As an illustration, the research approach of the USE project is described.

Knowledge for courseware engineering: a framework for inductive knowledge acquisition based upon evaluation of adaptable courseware products

Authors or adaptors of courseware products preferably should receive support in the process of development and adaptation of courseware products. A predictive agent is defined as a system that is able to predict the expected effectiveness of various composable products from current product attributes. The described research addresses the questions of how to acquire the necessary knowledge for a predictive agent, how to organize this knowledge, and how to link it with methods and tools for courseware authoring and adaptation. We propose to use a methodology, derived from the field of machine learning, and present a framework for applying inductive knowledge acquisition based upon the empirical evaluation of adaptable courseware products.

Flexible authoring systems

Starting from the perspective that significant contradictions exist between currently available authoring tools and authoring needs with respect to the effectiveness and quality of products, the paper poses the concept of flexible authoring systems. Important dimensions of authoring flexibility that are likely to be possessed by such systems are discussed and related to the notion of hybrid authoring tools.