ConceptTutor
| Completion
Date: January 31, 2005 |
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Summary
ConceptTutors are small HTML windows that open from existing webpages
to teach concepts within
context and at the time of need. We like to think of ConceptTutors as glossaries
on steroids. They support various media types (images, audio, and animations). Their
design is based on best practices for teaching concepts, which is accomplished
by providing a concise definition followed by examples and non-examples,
contextual information, and quizzing.
Technical
The ConceptTutor authoring program is a desktop application
that uses XML, including the QTI specification from IMS, as an
internal data model. The application framework consists of
a Flash users interface and Java server (running on the local machine). SOAP
is used to communicate between the Flash client and the Java server. This
tool runs on Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.
Published ConceptTutors are generated using XSL to process the XML
data to produce HTML documents. Javascript allows for sophisticated
question/response feedback. Rich media support provides an
interactive learning experience.
