Cross-platform Computer-Based Training? 17
TeachingMachines asks: "They say that if you can't do, you teach, and if you can't teach, you teach P.E. Well, what happens when P.E. teachers become interested in programming? Wimpy educators like myself need very high-level Rapid Application Development or similar authoring environments for Computer-Based Training (CBT) so that we can call ourselves '3133t HackerZ'. Throughout my graduate training students typically used one of the two most popular authoring environments: Macromedia's popular Authorware (for Mac and MS) and Click2Learn's infinitely more powerful ToolBook (for MS only, ugh). Are there any really good authoring environments for CBT that are truly cross-platform compatible (i.e. support Linux/Solaris/Mac9/MacOSX/MS)? I ask that because a new kid showed up on the block called Norpath Elements Studio that looks to be highly integrated with Java and deploys multimedia applications cross platform. Is anyone aware of similar tools, proprietary or not?"
REALBasic (Score:2, Informative)
SkillSoft might work for you (Score:3, Interesting)
They have demos online you might want to check out. More info is at:
SkillSoft [smartforce.com]
Re:SkillSoft might work for you (Score:3, Interesting)
So then I tried it on Mozilla 0.9.8 and it puked again.
Finally, what the hell, I fired up my venerable Netscape 4.78 and, Viola!, it worked. I learned that MS Exchange server will cost lots more to implement than just using sendmail on a Linux box at each office. New administrators, new servers, new software... whew! No wonder there are so many MCSEs.
Nice java when it finally worked, though. Jave would likely be the best way to implement cross platform products for this application... but it's wise to make sure that it really works across platforms. This one doesn't.
Re:SkillSoft might work for you (Score:1)
Re:SkillSoft might work for you (Score:1)
Sheesh.
Check the Java install FAQ entry [sourceforge.net].
Sorry 'bout that.
Re:SkillSoft might work for you (Score:2, Funny)
What is this? (Score:2)
Google, gracefully as always, returned this to the sleepy reader: "The use of software and computer equipment to aid in teaching. Software used in CBT is typically given the name courseware." Oh. Training in general, doh
So, I can't help. But I hope this context might be useful for others. And uh, good morning Europe
p.e? (Score:2)
On the other hand, you might have some other meaning for P.E. than the first one that popped into my head. Might I be so bold as to ask you to define your abbreviations at least once?
Coursebuilder? (Score:3, Informative)
Toolbook produces strange HTML which doesn't translate that nicely to stuff other than Win/IE from what I recall. Authorware I've not noticed I've come across. Flash / Director require plugins (duh...), Director is a pain to integrate into a Learning Management System. Seminar4Web is another I've come across - again, only really works well with Win/IE and even then it's a little strange to put it tactfully. It's also rather expensive.
I'd look at what you're looking to do, though. For a lot of courses, thinking about how the content should work and it all fit together, it's not rocket science to do the HTML. Breaking the learning down properly into components is interesting, but you're trained educators, right?
My advice? Get the CS department to lay you out a template that you can drop content into and do simple, JavaScript testing. That's not complicated, it's all that's required and will make a nice project for a student.
This is assuming a reasonably small scope, though. If you're ultimately looking at moving this to a larger managed learning environment (which isn't necessarily appropriate) then you'll be better off pumping out stuff which is AICC (http://www.aicc.org/) and / or SCORM (http://www.adlnet.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=scorm
Squeak (Score:1)
SMIL - Real Player (Score:1)
Dear Slashdot (Score:3, Funny)
My CBTs (Score:2)
We just used HTML and a small web server that runs under both OSes (I want to say a perl-based one, but I didn't do the production). My authoring was in HTML, and video was in Real, but only because Divx wan't popular enough at the time, and MPEG created videos that were too big.