🚀 go-pugleaf

The subtitle for this new newsgroup at my school suggests that this
group was intended for discussion of one commercial authorware
product.  I assume, however, that general discussion of authorware is
expected by those of us who sign up based on a short title.  I myself
would like to learn more, and get access to some authoring tools, but
I don't know what software I want to invest in.

Authorware is, I suppose, software which assists teachers or other
"content experts" to "author" interactive programs for learning.  Good
authorware, I suppose, must do well on three dimensions:

1	ease of use for the content expert, who should not have to 
	learn arcane coding rules in creating a product.  I've seen
	authorware demonstrated which only requires a word-processed
	input file utilizing a few keywords from the "author".

2	quality of use for product "reader", in part through inclusion of
	reasonable features.  A help system should be a standard
	feature for example.  The authorware should support
	interesting interactive features:  for example, quiz questions
	can be programmed more easily with multiple-choice answers,
	but fill-in-the-blank questions are more
	interesting for the reader if they are tied to smart
	programming that analyzes the responses.

3	adaptiveness:  it should be easy or automatic for feedback to
	get from users to author, who should be able to easily update
	the content for future users.  For example, a program on-line
	might capture the fill-in-the-blank answers, and the author
	could expand the corresponding responses when unanticipated
	answers appear.  If the program is on-line, then the very next
	user should benefit from the update.

I wonder if this is in the ballpark of what others think.


-- 

Don Cram (415) w723-3988 pcram@yen.stanford.edu / doncram@leland.stanford.edu