Report OL190 Smartwriter Plus
This report contains a review of the technical aspects of the development
of Smartwriter Plus, a project commissioned by the Learning Technologies Unit
of the Employment Department, to create an environment in which to develop
learning modules delivered on an IBM desktop computer. The authoring environment
was particularly tailored to provide tools to develop modules designed to
satisfy literacy needs.
The project was the outcome of an earlier Learning Technologies Unit funded
project entitled "An Intelligent Tutoring System for Adult Literacy Students",
which incorporated a word processor customised to the needs of literacy students
from which computer based learning modules, a dictionary, thesaurus and spelling
checker could be accessed. The innovative element of the original project
was the system's ability to highlight areas in students' text. This was possible
through the incorporation of natural language tools. A report on this project
was published by TEED.
The subsequent project to design authoring tools for the creation of literacy
modules was designed to enable literacy tutors to tailor material for the
wide range of literacy students across the nation, including those with special
needs, ESL needs and literacy needs, at a variety of levels. The aims of the
project were:
- To enhance and extend the existing tutoring system for adult literacy
students.
- To adapt the system for a larger number of specified target groups.
- To introduce the system into existing training and teaching programmes.
- To evaluate the issues and procedures of system development, implementation
and dissemination.
The objectives of the project were: 1. To design, develop and integrate a
system of user modelling, capable of guiding students to learning modules
appropriate to their needs; 2. To implement an authoring tool capable of being
used by non-programmers to develop a range of literacy teaching materials;
3. To design and develop a variety of literacy teaching modules to be delivered
on computer, coupled with appropriate workbooks for the use of the target
group specified within the proposal; 4. To design and produce a User Guide
to explain the functions of the system; 5. To port the complete system from
the Acorn Archimedes to the IBM AT and compatible computers; 6. To evaluate
the complete system among students from a number of sectors; 7. To disseminate
the results of the project to selected groups within the target sectors; and
8. To develop and carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the project.
Smartwriter Plus was an extremely challenging project technically, due to the need to balance the requirements of ease of use with complex and demanding tasks, all delivered on a desktop computer. This report set out to describe the technical challenges faced by the project team and the solutions that were found. The results of the project have been reproduced and there were 80 learning packages awaiting dissemination when the report was written.
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This page last updated 31 January 1999.