Background music is Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Michael D. Walthius. All Rights Reserved.
turned
to page 123 which starts the section on creating course content. The
manual advises that certain steps should be followed when creating a
course with CourseWorks. First everything should be laid out on
paper. Next all media (text, graphics and video) should be properly
formatted prior to insertion into CourseWorks. 
Only then should the build icon be clicked to start course assembly.
A course is assembled from blocks of instruction and blocks are
created from segments. 
When
the build icon is clicked a dialog box opens that requests the user
to decide if a new course is to be created or if an existing course
is to be modified.
The new course selection launches the new course dialog box where the
user types in the course name and title and selects various video and
audio options. If the choice is made to modify an existing course
then the open course dialog box launches which provides the user with
a list of existing courses.After the course is selected and the OK
button clicked another startup options dialog box pops open that asks
if the user wants to create a new block of instruction or modify an
existing block. If a block is to be edited then a list of existing
blocks is provided. A new block selection launches the dialog box
requesting a name for the new block. The next few pages of the manual
discuss the preparation of video, graphics, audio and text for use in
CourseWorks. There is a brief discussion of 16 bit versus 8 bit audio
files at various frequencies. The video discussion deals with using a
waveform monitor. 
The graphics discussion requires the software package known as
Alchemy which was not provided. 
This software is used for optimizing a graphic image's palette so it
doesn't clash with the video palette. The manual states that images
must be indexed color with an adaptive palette. This means that the
images can not have more than 256 colors. I did not find this to be
true. I used 24 bit images without difficulty. I decided to start out
with some simple text stuff. Text material can be created within
CourseWorks or in a word processor. Once the course name is assigned
and everything is going the user should see something similar to the
above image. The block build window is on the left and the segment
build is on the right. 
The user may add various information to the existing segment or
create a new segment. The vsqt icon is clicked which launches the new
segment box. 
Since I am initially interested in text only, I clicked on the text
button. This launched the create options box where the choice is
between the text template and a word processor. I used the text
template first. CourseWorks has no spell checker or grammar checker
that I could find so I think a word processor might be a better
choice for most people. After choosing the text template the user is
faced with the choice of various text, bullet, headline, etc.
options. I just selected text then typed the text in the segment
build window. 
One .wav audio clip may be added by clicking on the audio button at
the bottom. The display time may also be set by clicking on the time.
The view button may be clicked at the bottom however all this does is
allow the user to view the text. After the user is satisfied with the
segment it must now be inserted into the block. This is accomplished
by simply clicking the left pointing arrow at the top left corner of
the segment window. By the way, all the icons and other points of
interest have their purpose specified with text at the bottom left of
the interface whenever the cursor is passed over them. The block may
now be played as it will appear in the course by clicking the green
arrow with the broken line at the upper right of the block window.
next decided to create some text in my word processor. CourseWorks
has a setup feature via the setup drop down menu at the top of the
build interface to allow direct access to the user's word processor
for editing purposes. 
This allows text formatting such as bold and italic to be used. I set
it up for Ami Pro then MS Word 6. It crashed Ami Pro every time I
tried to edit text and MS Word 6 occasionally crashed. 
The manual states that text created in a word processor should not be
any larger than 3.5 inches wide and 4 inches high. Hard returns
should be used to ensure this. 
I did not find this size limitation to be valid. Word processed files
may have the .rtf, .doc and .txt extensions. The text file can be
loaded into the segment build window by clicking on the text button
which will launch an explorer/file manager type interface. After the
text file is loaded it may be edited by clicking on the edit button.
This will launch the word processor and load the text file so that it
may be edited. As each text segment is created it can be loaded left
into the build window. The segment build window has several more
icons at the bottom when text is imported than it does when text is
created within CourseWorks. There are 3 search icons. The left most
icon can be clicked at which time a dialog box will open that the
user types in the word to be searched for. 
After the word is found the plus search button can be clicked to find
the next word. A click on the minus search button takes the search
backwards. Magnification is also available as is printing. Now I
decided to ask a few questions. I was not able to type questions in
the segment build window. The questions had to be created in the word
processor. The vsqt icon can be clicked or the segment/new drop down
menu can be accessed. The new question dialog box will pop open and
the user can select the type of question and format. When a text type
question is selected a default text string is loaded into the segment
build window. The load text button may now be clicked to load the
text file that contains the question. This will cause the default
text string to be replaced by the text that is loaded. The segment
build window gains 2 new icons at the bottom when dealing with
questions. When the button icon is clicked the user can edit the
button captions. Only 10 characters are allowed when the button
captions are edited. 
This means that the caption area is not the place for a lengthy
answer. This is not a problem however because the various answers of
a multiple choice question can be placed below the question and then
the appropriate letter selected for the correct response. When the
answer icon is clicked the user can select the correct answer. I
created true/false and multiple choice question without difficulty.
Multiple choice questions may have from 3 to 5 responses. Bitmap
images (.bmp) may be used as slides. I created an image in photoshop.
It was a 24 bit image that came through fine without indexing it.
Captions may be applied to the slides however captioned slides will
not be shown full screen.. CourseWorks can be configured to launch a
drawing tool via the setup/drawing tool drop down menu at the top of
the build interface.
All pages copyright© Roger A. Moncrief, Indepth Reviews, 1997
Thanks to Judy Gefter, !LuM! and Charles Blaquiere for their advice and counsel, some I heeded and some I didn't.