Abstract

The papers are listed below in reverse chronological order, i.e., starting with the most recent publications. Given the rate of progress in this area, it should be noted that the early papers in this collection describe what can now be regarded as antique systems (i.e., the first HyperCourseware Management Systems from 1989). However, many of the ideas in these early papers are still valid, and the history of progress from early HyperCourseware towards modern courseware management systems is hopefully still informative.

Currently, the most recent papers are reports from an inter-university collaborative working group, working within the UK Government's Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP). The group EPOC (Enabling the Provision of Open Courseware) is currently (and slowly) pursuing the specification of a Framework for Open Courseware.

Keywords

HyperCourseware is a registered trademark of Simagine Ltd, Brighton, UK.

Selected Publications

Abstract
This is Report No.3. in a series of reports issued by the EPOC Working Group on aspects of "Enabling the Provision of Open Courseware". The primary aim of this report is to provide further discussion of some of the more technical issues which in the first report were merely summarised.

The target audience for this report includes:-

• Anyone with a technical interest in the interoperability of courseware; i.e., all those who are prepared to delve into the technicalities of open courseware and courseware management. A willingness to explore these technical issues is the only pre-requisite; no prior technical knowledge is required. It will help to have previously read EPOC's first report as an appropriate context for this report.
• All those who require a deeper understanding of what open courseware is and why the TLTP community needs it (e.g., courseware developers, learning resource managers).

Abstract
A problem facing both developers and academic users of courseware is how to cost effectively adapt existing courseware products for distributed operation over the World Wide Web when the products were originally designed for distribution on CDs and operation on stand alone machines. This on line report discusses the problem (referred to as legacy courseware) and includes demonstrations of some practical experimental solutions.

The report is intended to be of use to courseware developers and also to academic staff wishing to set up courseware for use on the web. Readers will hopefully benefit by gaining insights into which web techniques are likely to be worth pursuing and which are dead ends.

Part 1 of the report presents deliberately simplified descriptions of the issues in order to be accessible to people without a technical background in distributed systems. Web gurus will find nothing new in here, but people with less technical backgrounds may gain an insight into why ‘getting courseware to work on the web’ is not yet as straightforward as one would like it to be.

Part 2 of the report describes a short project which explored a variety of techniques for getting courseware to work on the web while minimising the need to re-engineer the courseware. This was deliberately an investigation of ‘cheap, short-term fixes’ and was specifically not an investigation of the ideal longer-term solutions involving inter-operable courseware built from distributed componentware.

Abstract (Executive Summary from the Report)

1. Courseware materials produced under the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) exhibit a wide variety of innovative technical and educational approaches to the use of computers in teaching and learning. The ground breaking nature of TLTP projects and lack of any existing standards in the area made this diversity of solutions both desirable and inevitable.
2. The technical diversity and richness of approaches across TLTP resulted in a number of projects developing value added software to assist in the management of the main courseware deliverables. These original and specialised courseware management systems have emerged as a powerful concept capable of application beyond single products, courses and disciplines.
3. Generic courseware management systems would be capable of managing courseware across a course, a department, a faculty and, eventually, an institution. Such management systems have the potential to offer educational, operational and administrative benefits to students, technicians, lecturers, courseware developers and institutions. However, the very same variety of architectures which gave rise to the concept of generic courseware management also mitigates against its development.
4. There are no standards or systems currently available which achieve genuine inter-mixing, or even just inter-operability, of all courseware. In order to achieve these qualities courseware will need to be 'open courseware' which adheres to a set of standards evolved from and accepted by the courseware development community.
5. An immediate, overnight migration for all existing courseware is quite simply not possible. Hence, this report recommends the adoption of short-term partial solutions, which can ease some of the immediate difficulties, and longer-term solutions which can progress towards genuinely open courseware.
6. Recommendations for short-term partial solutions include the publication of advice and guidelines on requirements to just successfully install and operate different courseware products on the same machine and, in preparation for longer-term standards, what developers should do now to anticipate migration towards open courseware.
7. A longer-term recommendation is for a project to Enable the Provision of Open Courseware (EPOC) with the following objectives.
   • To define a technical specification for a Framework for Open Courseware (FRAMEWOC) and to place this specification in the public domain. FRAMEWOC will provide standards for the development of Open Courseware.
   • To develop and disseminate a software infrastructure for FRAMEWOC on PC and Macintosh platforms.
   • To write and publish methodology support documents which enable others to develop courseware resources and courseware management tools which are FRAMEWOC compliant.
   • To include, in the support documents, case studies of adapting existing courseware resources and existing courseware management systems to become FRAMEWOC compliant.

Abstract
This paper describes work in progress in one aspect of a programme of research into the design, implementation and management of computer based courseware. We place this paper in the context of this research programme, and of courseware development efforts within the UK and abroad. It is our belief that the current generation of courseware may not be exploited as widely as is hoped, due to inherent limitations in its design and implementation. We examine these limitations and their causes, and claim that the courseware development community desperately needs to adopt an open courseware framework for future developments. We use a scenario of a lecturer creating a tutorial from disparate sources of courseware to illustrate the benefits which open courseware would bring, and to derive some requirements for an open courseware framework. A foundation of such a framework is outlined at an architectural level, and some of the high level protocols required by the framework are presented. We also present a vocabulary and a logical structure, derived from the HyperCourseware reference model, which courseware objects can map their internal structures to, to become framework compliant. Finally we briefly describe some tools which facilitate creation, maintenance and management of open courseware objects, and outline areas for future research.

Abstract
Part 1. of the paper, 'Issues in making courseware exploitable', is about dealing with the legacy of large volumes of incompatible non-integrated courseware which are currently being generated within initiatives such as the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP). We suggest strategies for allowing end-users to apply courseware management techniques belatedly to current courseware developments, thereby offering ways of making the emerging courseware more exploitable than it otherwise would be.

Part 2. of the paper, 'Issues in making exploitable courseware', takes a forward-looking approach which recognises that future courseware development efforts must pre-empt these problems of incompatibility and non-integration. Courseware development must mature to the stage where it makes use of courseware design standards, embraces a host of essential lessons from conventional software development, and recognises the importance of courseware management issues.

Abstract
In this presentation we will practically describe the issues related to the evolutionary development and delivery of flexible large-scale courseware and the integration of material produced using a diverse collection of authoring tools. We will demonstrate how HyperCourseware provides viable approaches and pragmatic solutions to many of these issues.

HyperCourseware is a conceptual framework, supported by various techniques, tools and templates, which attempts to address the issues mentioned above. HyperCourseware is a relatively mature framework (Macintosh versions date back to 1989) and the framework continues to evolve to meet new requirements. The current version of HyperCourseware for the PC makes extensive use of ToolBook.

Given that this is a ToolBook User conference, the presentation will describe in detail the various roles which ToolBook plays in supporting the HyperCourseware system. i.e., how ToolBook's software development capabilities support the development of HyperCourseware Tools and Templates, and how ToolBook can be used as a main courseware authoring tool within the HyperCourseware framework.

Abstract
This paper describes some of the experiences and technical issues which arise in large-scale courseware development projects, sometimes involving consortia of collaborating academic institutions. The paper provides several perspectives on approaches to large-scale courseware development including impressions from project managers, authors, courseware developers, and tools developers.

Abstract
This paper is concerned with tools and techniques which support the practical craft of courseware development. Our aim in writing this paper is to encourage courseware authors/developers to realise the potential productivity gains which can be achieved by exploiting HyperCourseware for courseware development. To pursue this aim we provide brief descriptions of what HyperCourseware is and what our HyperCourseware Starter Pack offers to authors in terms of courseware development facilities. As an example of courseware development we describe simulations of computer networks which were developed as part of a course on distributed computer systems.

Abstract
HyperCourseware is a conceptual framework for developing computer-based flexible-learning material. This paper summarises the main principles on which HyperCourseware is based and discusses software tools which have been developed for authors and end-users to manage and manipulate HyperCourseware. The main motivation which underpins the work is a desire to see the educational potential of hyper systems further exploited by the widespread availability of powerful yet easy-to-use tools for HyperCourseware management.