Generating instructional hypermedia with APHID

Abstract

ABSTRACT We propose a method (APHID) that assists an instructional designer to define format, structure and sequence within an instructional hypermedia application. Our method uses concept maps and instructional patterns, as well as data, navigation, and presentation models to support partial automation for creating instructional hypermedia. KEYWORDS: instructional hypermedia, XML, concept maps, instructional patterns INTRODUCTION The goal of instruction is to communicate the concepts of a certain domain to learners. There are instructional strategies that help an instructor decide when to introduce, when to review, or when to teach for detail. Hypermedia applications that are intended for instruction must reflect these different instructional strategies, as well as the concepts to be learned, in their design and presentation. This paper presents a process for creating instructional hypermedia applications called Applied Patterns for Hypermedia Instructional Design (APHID). APHID is a structured approach to hypermedia design that uses several models. It uses a set of models similar to the three presented in OOHDM [3]. One difference from OOHDM is that APHID explicitly represents instructional components and sequences as a fourth model. A prototype environment has been developed that uses the APHID approach to assist instructional designers to create hypermedia applications. Instructors create an explicit, detailed, model of the domain of instruction that includes a description of the relationships between domain concepts. Instructors also identify the instructional content to be used and meta-information about that content, and then add these to the model of the domain. The APHID software automatically generates the navigation model and applies presentation rules to it to produce a hypermedia application. Support for flexible instructional design is provided by allowing instructors to adjust design attributes of the finished application to match the specific needs of the students. Novice designers of instructional material are supported by the definition (and implementation) of several instructional patterns, which are presented to the designer as instructional strategies. These patterns provide descriptions of teaching strategies known to be successful in particular situations. The patterns also give suggestions of how to incorporate those teaching strategies into the design of a hypermedia application. For example, one instructional pattern (spiral teaching) suggests that novice learners benefit from a teaching approach that presents material in small steps and that students revisit previously taught material before covering new material. In this particular case, APHID would generate an application in which concepts would naturally be reviewed at least twice. Introductory pages about a concept would present simpler material than subsequent pages and the amount of information presented to the learner at once would be kept small. All of these settings can be customized by the designer to refine the spiral curriculum strategy, but APHID suggests guidelines and default values for all of the required attributes.