E-learning course editor

• US 20030151629A1
• Filed: 06/28/2002
• Published: 08/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Krebs, Andreas S., Leidig, Torsten, Altenhofen, Michael, Gerteis, Wolfgang, Schaper, Joachim
• Granted Patent: US 7,029,280 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/810
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F

Abstract

A course editor includes an input to accept author commands. An interface processes and displays the author commands to facilitate the creation of a course. The interface may include a workspace to display and assemble the structural elements into the course. The workspace may include a menu of structural elements that may be added to the course. The workspace is configured to display a structural element in response to an author command selecting the structural element from the menu. The structural elements may be a sub-course, a learning unit, and/or a knowledge item.

Claims

1. A course editor comprising:

an input to accept author commands; and

an interface to process and display the author commands to facilitate the creation of a course, the interface including,

a work space to display and assemble structural elements into the course.

2. The course editor of claim 1 wherein the workspace includes a menu of structural elements that may be added to the course.

3. The course editor of claim 2 wherein the workspace is configured to display a structural element in response to an author command selecting the structural element from the menu.

4. The course editor of claim 1 wherein the structural elements are one of a sub-course, a learning unit, and a knowledge item.

5. The course editor of claim 1 wherein the work space includes one or more tabs, each tab corresponding to a content aggregation level to display structural elements corresponding to the content aggregation level.

6. The course editor of claim 1 wherein the workspace is configured to create a relation between structural elements that is used to indicate a dependency between the structural elements.

7. The course editor of claim 1 wherein the workspace includes a menu of relations configured to enable an author to select a relation from the menu and to insert the relation between a first structural element and a second structural element displayed in the workspace.

8. The course editor of claim 7 wherein the interface is configured to insert the relation by receiving an author command selecting the first structural element and dragging the relation from the first structural element to the second structural element.

9. The course editor of claim 6 wherein the relation is true in one direction only.

10. The course editor of claim 6 wherein the relation is true in two directions.

11. The course editor of claim 6 wherein the relation is subject taxonomic.

12. The course editor of claim 11 wherein the subject taxonomic relation is hierarchical.

13. The course editor of claim 12 wherein the hierarchical relation is one of a part/whole relation and an abstraction relation.

14. The course editor of claim 11 wherein the subject taxonomic relation is associative.

15. The course editor of claim 14 wherein the associative relation is one of determines, side-by-side, alternative to, opposite to, precedes, context of, process of, values, means of, and affinity.

16. The course editor of claim 6 wherein the relation is non-subject taxonomic.

17. The course editor of claim 16 wherein the non-subject taxonomic relation is a relation that indicates a structural element should be completed before proceeding to a related structural element.

18. The course editor of claim 16 wherein the non-subject taxonomic relation is a relation that indicates that a structural element belongs to another structural element.

19. The course editor of claim 1 wherein the interface includes a dialog box displaying one or more fields corresponding to a structural element displayed in the workspace.

20. The course editor of claim 19 wherein the one or more fields include a name field.

21. The course editor of claim 19 wherein the one or more fields include a theme field.

22. The course editor of claim 19 wherein the one or more fields include a content field to assign content to a structural element.

23. The course editor of claim 19 wherein the one or more fields include a media type field.

24. The course editor of claim 19 wherein the one or more fields include a learning time field.

25. The course editor of claim 19 wherein the one or more fields include a thumbnail field.

26. The course editor of claim 19 wherein the one or more fields include an attribute field to assign a knowledge type.

27. The course editor of claim 19 wherein the dialog box includes one or more tabs to select different fields.

28. The course editor of claim 27 wherein the one or more tabs include a general tab includes fields to receive information about content associated with the structural elements.

29. The course editor of claim 27 wherein the one or more tabs include an annotation tab that includes a field to receive notes regarding content associated with the structural elements.

30. The course editor of claim 27 wherein the one or more tabs include keyword tab including a field to receive keywords to help search for a corresponding structural element.

31. The course editor of claim 27 wherein the one or more tabs include a competency tab including fields to receive competencies gained from content associated with the structural element.

32. The course editor of claim 1 wherein the interface includes a course overview to display structural elements and relations of the course.

33. The course editor of claim 32 wherein the interface is configured to receive an author command selecting a structural element from the course overview and to display the selected structural element in the workspace.

34. The course editor of claim 33 wherein the interface is configured to automatically display a dialog box corresponding to the selected structural element.

35. The course editor of claim 32 wherein the interface is configured to receive an author command selecting a relation from the course overview and to display the selected relation and associated structural elements in the workspace.

36. The course editor of claim 1 wherein the interface is configured to receive an author command selecting a learning strategy to generate a navigation path for display to the author based on the selected learning strategy.

37. A graphical user interface for a course editor comprising:

a workspace window to edit and display structural elements of a course;

an overview window to display and select a representation of the structural elements of the course; and

a dialog box window to display data fields corresponding to structural elements shown in the workspace window.

38. The graphical user interface of claim 37 further comprising a menu bar to display course editor menus including functions to control and interact with the course editor.

39. The graphical user interface of claim 37 further comprising a button bar including one or more buttons to invoke course editor functions to interact with the windows and their displayed contents.

40. The graphical user interface of claim 37 wherein a structural element is displayed as a rectangle in the workspace.

41. The graphical user interface of claim 40 wherein the rectangle is color-coded, each type of structural element having a different color.

42. The graphical user interface of claim 37 wherein the workspace includes a menu of structural elements that may be added to the course.

43. The graphical user interface of claim 42 wherein the workspace is configured to display a structural element selected from the workspace menu.

44. The graphical user interface of claim 37 wherein the structural elements are one of a sub-course, a learning unit, and a knowledge item.

45. The graphical user interface of claim 37 wherein the work space includes one or more tabs, each tab corresponding to a content aggregation level to display structural elements corresponding to the content aggregation level.

46. The graphical user interface of claim 37 wherein the workspace is configured to create a relation between structural elements that is used to indicate a dependency between the structural elements.

47. The graphical user interface of claim 37 wherein the workspace includes a menu of relations and the workspace is configured to display a relation selected from the menu.

48. The graphical user interface of claim 47 wherein the interface is configured to insert the relation by indicating a first structural element that is selected in the workspace window, displaying an indication of a relation extending from the first structural element, and connecting the extended relation to a second structural element displayed in the workspace.

49. The graphical user interface of claim 46 wherein the indication of a relation that is true in one direction only is an arrow.

50. The graphical user interface of claim 46 wherein the indication of a relation that is true in two directions is a line.

51. The graphical user interface of claim 46 wherein the dialog box may be used to specify the relation is subject taxonomic.

52. The graphical user interface of claim 51 wherein the dialog box may be used to specify relation is hierarchical.

53. The graphical user interface of claim 52 wherein the dialog box may be used to specify the relation is one of a part/whole relation and an abstraction relation.

54. The graphical user interface of claim 51 wherein the dialog box may be used to specify the relation is one of determines, side-by-side, alternative to, opposite to, precedes, context of, process of, values, means of, and affinity.

55. The graphical user interface of claim 46 wherein the dialog box may be used to specify the relation is non-subject taxonomic.

56. The graphical user interface of claim 55 wherein the dialog box may be used to specify the non-subject taxonomic relation is a relation that indicates a structural element should be completed before proceeding to a related structural element.

57. The graphical user interface of claim 55 wherein the dialog box may be used to specify the non-subject taxonomic relation is a relation that indicates that a structural element belongs to another structural element.

58. The graphical user interface of claim 37 wherein the dialog box is configured to display one or more fields corresponding to a structural element displayed in the workspace.

59. The graphical user interface of claim 58 wherein the one or more fields are configured to receive data characterizing a structural element.

60. The graphical user interface of claim 58 wherein the one or more fields include a name field.

61. The graphical user interface of claim 58 wherein the one or more fields include a theme field.

62. The graphical user interface of claim 58 wherein the one or more fields include a content field to assign content to a structural element.

63. The graphical user interface of claim 58 wherein the one or more fields include a media type field.

64. The graphical user interface of claim 58 wherein the one or more fields include a learning time field.

65. The graphical user interface of claim 58 wherein the one or more fields include a thumbnail field.

66. The graphical user interface of claim 58 wherein the one or more fields include an attribute field to assign a knowledge type.

67. The graphical user interface of claim 58 wherein the dialog box includes one or more tabs each populated with one or more fields.

68. The graphical user interface of claim 67 wherein the one or more tabs include a general tab including fields to receive information about content associated with the structural elements.

69. The graphical user interface of claim 67 wherein the one or more tabs include an annotation tab including a field to receive notes regarding content associated with the structural elements.

70. The graphical user interface of claim 67 wherein the one or more tabs include a keyword tab including a field to receive keywords to help search for a corresponding structural element.

71. The graphical user interface of claim 67 wherein the one or more tabs include a competency tab including a field to receive competencies gained from the content associated with the structural elements.

72. The graphical user interface of claim 37 wherein the overview window is configured to display an indication of a selected structural element and the workspace window is configured to display the indicated structural element.

73. The graphical user interface of claim 72 wherein the dialog box window is configured to automatically correspond to the selected structural element.

74. The graphical user interface of claim 37 wherein the interface is configured to display a learning strategy window to indicate a selected strategy and to generate a navigation path window to display a suggested sequence of structural elements based on the selected learning strategy.

75. The graphical user interface of claim 37 wherein the windows are automatically sized to fit on a corresponding display.

76. The graphical user interface of claim 75 wherein one or more of the windows include a vertical scroll bar to access and display portions of the window that are not displayed.

77. The graphical user interface of claim 75 wherein one or more of the windows include a horizontal scroll bar to access and display portions of the window that are not displayed.