Interactive training application

• US 6,535,713 B1
• Filed: 05/09/1997
• Issued: 03/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Services Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Houlihan, Paunpimon A., Dennis, Trent L., Murphy, William V., Schwartz, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Harrison, Jessica
• Assistant Examiner(s): Enatsky, Aaron L.
• Application Number:
  US08/854,124
• Time in Patent Office: 2,139 Days
• Field of Search: 434/323, 434/322, 434/118, 434/350-351, 434/362-365, 434/307.R, 434/308, 463/40-42
• US Class Current: 434/350
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/06 with both visual and audible presentation of the material to be studied

Abstract

An interactive training application has three components: a lesson engine, a lesson delivery system, and a lesson authoring tool. The lesson engine runs an interactive, multimedia training exercise based on the contents of a lesson file, which comprises a plurality of pages. Each page includes a navigation item, associated with another page, and a reference to multimedia content. The lesson delivery system displays a menu of lessons to a student, fetches a lesson file corresponding to the student'"'"'s selection, and invokes the lesson engine upon the lesson file. The lesson authoring tool provides a graphical interface for inputting and editing storyboards, from which the lesson authoring tool is configured for generating a lesson file.

Claims

1. A method of instructing a student at a workstation, comprising the steps of:

automatically downloading a lesson engine to the workstation;

receiving a request from the student specifying a lesson file from among a plurality of available lesson files;

in response to said request, downloading said specified lesson file and a plurality of related multimedia content from among a plurality of available multimedia content to the workstation,

wherein the step of downloading said specified lesson file and a plurality of related multimedia content from among a plurality of available multimedia content to the workstation includes the steps of;

(a) determining a serial number based on the file name of said specified lesson file;

(b) downloading said specified lesson file to the workstation;

(c) establishing which of said plurality of available multimedia content as said plurality of related multimedia content based on said serial number and the file names of the available multimedia content; and

(b) downloading said plurality of related multimedia content to the workstation; and

executing said lesson engine, at the workstation, upon said specified lesson file and the plurality of related multimedia content to present the student with interactive training.

2. A method of instructing a student at a workstation, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from the student specifying a lesson file from among a plurality of available lesson files;

in response to said request, downloading said specified lesson file and a plurality of related multimedia content from among a plurality of available multimedia content to the workstation; and

executing a platform-independent lesson engine, at the workstation, upon said specified lesson file and the plurality of related multimedia content to present the student with interactive training.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

said specified lesson file includes a plurality of pages, wherein each page includes a reference to one of said plurality of related multimedia content and a navigational item associated with a destination page; and

the step of executing a platform-independent lesson engine upon said specified lesson file and said plurality of related multimedia content includes the steps of;

instructing said student based on a page of the plurality of pages of said specified lesson file;

displaying a navigational control associated with the navigational item included in the page;

detecting an activation of said navigational control; and

in response to said activation, instructing said student based on the destination page associated with said navigational item.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of instructing said student based on a page of the plurality of pages of said specified lesson file includes the steps of:

displaying a page of the plurality of pages of said specified lesson file; and

presenting one of the related multimedia content based on the reference included in said page.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of displaying a page of the plurality of pages of said specified lesson file includes the steps of:

reading a page number from a file; and

displaying a page of the plurality of pages of said specified lesson file having the page number.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of presenting one of the related multimedia content based on the reference included in said page includes the step of playing an audio file.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of presenting one of the related multimedia content based on the reference included in said page includes the step of playing a video file.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of presenting one of the multimedia content based on the reference included in said page includes the step of displaying animation.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of receiving a request from the student specifying a lesson file of a plurality of lesson files includes the steps of:

displaying a list of lessons based on the identity of the student, each lesson associated with a lesson file of said plurality of available lesson files;

receiving input from the student indicating a selected lesson of said list of lessons; and

establishing a lesson file associated with said selected lesson as said specified lesson file.

11. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of collecting information about the student'"'"'s interaction with said lesson engine.

9. A method of instructing a student at a workstation, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from the student specifying a lesson file from among a plurality of available lesson files;

in response to said request, downloading said specified lesson file and a plurality of related multimedia content from among a plurality of available multimedia content to the workstation,

wherein the step of downloading said specified lesson file and a plurality of related multimedia content from among a plurality of available multimedia content to the workstation includes the steps of;

(a) determining a serial number based on the file name of said specified lesson file;

(b) downloading said specified lesson file to the workstation;

(c) establishing which of said plurality of available multimedia content as said plurality of related multimedia content based on said serial number and the file names of the available multimedia content; and

(d) downloading said plurality of related multimedia content to the workstation; and

executing a platform-independent lesson engine, at the workstation, upon said specified lesson file and the plurality of related multimedia content to present the student with interactive training.

12. A computer readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions for instructing a student at a workstation, said sequences of instructions including sequences of instructions for causing said workstation to perform the steps of:

automatically downloading a lesson engine to the workstation;

receiving a request from the student specifying a lesson file from among a plurality of available lesson files;

in response to said request, downloading said specified lesson file and a plurality of related multimedia content from among a plurality of available multimedia content to the workstation,

wherein the step of downloading said specified lesson file and a plurality of related multimedia content from among a plurality of available multimedia content to the workstation includes the steps of;

(a) determining a serial number based on the file name of said specified lesson file;

(b) downloading said specified lesson file to the workstation;

(c) establishing which of said plurality of available multimedia content as said plurality of related multimedia content based on said serial number and the file names of the available multimedia content; and

(d) downloading said plurality of related multimedia content to the workstation; and

invoking said lesson engine upon said specified lesson file and the plurality of related multimedia content to present the student with interactive training.

13. A computer readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions for instructing a student at a workstation, said sequences of instructions including sequences of instructions for causing said workstation to perform the steps of:

receiving a request from the student specifying a lesson file of a plurality of lesson files;

in response to said request, downloading said specified lesson file and a plurality of related multimedia content from among a plurality of available multimedia content to the workstation; and

executing a platform-independent lesson engine upon said specified lesson file and the plurality of related multimedia content to present the student with interactive training.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the step of receiving a request from the student specifying a lesson file of a plurality of available lesson files includes the steps of:

displaying a list of lessons based on the identity of the student, each lesson associated with a lesson file of said plurality of available lesson files;

receiving input from the student indicating a selected lesson of said list of lessons; and

establishing a lesson file associated with said selected lesson as said specified lesson file.

14. A computer readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions for instructing a student at a workstation, said sequences of instructions including sequences of instructions for causing said workstation to perform the steps of:

receiving a request from the student specifying a lesson file of a plurality of lesson files;

in response to said request, downloading said specified lesson file and a plurality of related multimedia content from among a plurality of available multimedia content to the workstation,

wherein the step of downloading said specified lesson file and a plurality of related multimedia content from among a plurality of available multimedia content to the workstation includes the steps of;

(a) determining a serial number based on the file name of said specified lesson file;

(b) downloading said specified lesson file to the workstation;

(c) establishing which of said plurality of available multimedia content as said plurality of related multimedia content based on said serial number and the file names of the available multimedia content; and

(d) downloading said plurality of related multimedia content to the workstation; and

executing a platform-independent lesson engine upon said specified lesson file and the plurality of related multimedia content to present the student with interactive training.

16. An interactive training network, comprising:

a storage device for storing courseware, said courseware comprising a plurality of multimedia content and a plurality of lesson files, wherein each lesson file includes a plurality of references to multimedia content; and

a plurality of workstations, wherein a workstation is networked to said storage medium and includes;

a lesson delivery system for downloading a lesson file and the multimedia content referenced in the lesson file from said storage medium to storage in the workstation based on input from a student, wherein said lesson delivery system includes;

(a) a login mechanism for receiving a student identifier from a student;

(b) means for displaying a list of lessons based on said student identifier and information about students stored in a database, wherein each lesson is associated with a lesson file;

(c) means for receiving input from the student indicative of a selected lesson;

(d) means for determining a serial number embedded in the file name of the lesson file associated with the selected lesson; and

(e) means for downloading said specified lesson file and multimedia content having file names containing said serial number; and

a lesson engine for instructing said student based on said specified lesson file and presenting the multimedia content at the workstation to said student.

17. The interactive training network of claim 16, wherein said lesson engine includes a video player.

18. The interactive training network of claim 16, wherein said lesson engine includes an audio player.

19. The interactive training network of claim 16, wherein said lesson engine includes an animation player.

20. An apparatus for authoring courseware, comprising:

a database;

means for inputting a storyboard, wherein a storyboard includes a navigational item associated with a second storyboard and a reference to multimedia content;

means for assigning a default value as a storyboard number as each of said plurality of storyboards is input;

means for displaying a graphical representation of said storyboard;

means for storing said storyboard into said database;

means for retrieving a plurality of storyboards from said database; and

means for generating a lesson file from said plurality of storyboards, wherein said lesson file comprises a plurality of pages, wherein a page includes a navigational item associated with one of said plurality of pages and said reference to multimedia content.

21. A method of creating a lesson file, comprising a plurality of pages, wherein a page includes a navigational item associated with one of said plurality of pages and a reference to multimedia content, comprising the steps of:

inputting a plurality of storyboards, wherein a storyboard includes a navigational item associated with a second storyboard and a reference to multimedia content;

assigning a default value as a storyboard number when each of said plurality of storyboards is input;

displaying a graphical representation of said storyboard; and

generating, from said plurality of storyboards, a lesson file comprising a plurality of pages, wherein a page includes a navigational item associated with one of said plurality of pages and said reference to multimedia content.

22. A computer readable medium having sequences of instructions stored thereon for creating a lesson file, comprising a plurality of pages, wherein a page includes a navigational item associated with one of said plurality of pages and a reference to multimedia content, said sequences of instructions comprising sequences of instructions for performing the steps of:

inputting a plurality of storyboards, wherein a storyboard includes a navigational item associated with a second storyboard and a reference to multimedia content;

assigning a default value as a storyboard number when each of said plurality of storyboards is input;

displaying a graphical representation of said storyboard; and

generating, from said plurality of storyboards, a lesson file comprising a plurality of pages, wherein a page includes a navigational item associated with one of said plurality of pages and said reference to multimedia content.