Screen book maker

• US 7,568,157 B1
• Filed: 08/24/2000
• Issued: 07/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Joseph K. Orr
• Original Assignee: Joseph K. Orr
• Inventors: Orr, Joseph K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran; Quoc A
• Application Number:
  US09/645,922
• Time in Patent Office: 3,260 Days
• Field of Search: 715/500, 715/513, 715/530, 715/704, 715/526, 715/273, 715/234, 715/255, 345/708, 434/118, 434/350, 434/332, 436/86, 436/518, 704/3, 704/9, 705/27, 707/3, 707/10
• US Class Current: 715/273
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student

Abstract

A computer program and method for the creation of tutorials having screen snapshots and associated text as well as other content. A testing method is provided where content created can be used to prompt the user and the user can respond by creating a snapshot of the computer screen as a response. The program may use text from a previously created page to prompt for an image that matches the text, with the option to create an answer page that can then be compared with the previously created page. A system provides for online creation, storage and retrieval of books containing pages, and for online testing, where pages are stored on a network computer, and a program-generated program allows the user to submit a screen snapshot in response to the prompt.

Claims

1. A method for providing on-line testing comprising:

maintaining a database of test questions comprising at least one text item or at least one item comprising text and images;

providing on-line access to at least one of the test questions;

presenting to a user the at least one of the test questions describing a task to be performed using a computer application;

receiving from the user an answer to the at least one of the test questions comprising a captured image representing a computer screen prepared by the user based on the presented at least one of the test questions, representing the status of the computer screen after the user has performed the task using the computer application; and

automatically associating the answer with the respective test question, for each of the test questions, to create an answer set.

2. A method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing on-line access to said answer set; and

providing the ability to compare said answer from the user with a correct answer to the test questions.

3. A method of claim 2 further comprising:

maintaining a record of test results based on a comparison of the answer from the user with the correct answer to the test questions.

4. A method of claim 1 further comprising:

maintaining a database of authorized users; and

providing the ability to deny access to unauthorized users.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of answers are stored in a common database.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of selectively defining access privilege levels for the answer set;

and enforcing the access privilege levels to selectively limit access to the answer set.

7. A testing method, comprising:

presenting to a user a test question, said test question indicating a task to be performed using a computer application and prompting the user to perform the task using the computer application to create a computer graphic responsive to the test question displayed on a computer screen;

automatically taking a snapshot of at least a portion of the computer screen containing the computer graphic responsive to the test question, and combining this snapshot with received text to create a page comprising the received text and the snapshot represented in a common internet language; and

storing the page in an electronic database as an answer to the test question.

8. A method of claim 7 further comprising:

associating two or more of said pages through a stored link as a book.

9. A method of claim 7, wherein the test question comprises an original page having a plurality of portions, further comprising:

displaying only a portion of an original page to a user; and

automatically combining the portion of the original page and the page in a common internet language to create an answer page.

10. A method of claim 9 further comprising:

comparing the original page with said answer page.

11. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the step of transmitting the page through a computer network.

12. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the steps of defining a plurality of pages, each referenced by a respective hyperlink in a hypertext browser-interpretable page, and interpreting respective ones of the plurality of pages based on a reference from the respective hyperlink.

13. The method according to claim 7, wherein the page comprises a format selected from the group consisting of XML, HTML, PDF, and RTF.

14. The method according to claim 7, wherein the snapshot comprises a format selected from the group consisting of PNG, TIFF, and JPEG.

15. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the step of selectively limiting access to the page based on an authorization.

16. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the step of selectively limiting access to the page according to a plurality of access criteria.

17. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the step of providing different access rules for access and editing of a plurality of pages.

18. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

automatically changing a screen resolution of the computer screen to a predetermined capture screen resolution different from a user screen resolution employed by the user to formulate the image, the snapshot of the computer screen being acquired at the predetermined capture screen resolution at a selected point in time, and subsequently restoring the computer screen to the user screen resolution; and

providing an application control window, wherein the application control window is displayed before, and removed prior to capturing the snapshot.

19. The method according to claim 7, wherein said taking of a snapshot comprises capturing data from a display buffer.

20. A testing method comprising:

displaying at least a portion of a master page using a computer process, wherein the master page comprises a set of predetermined items comprising an image and associated text, the portion of the master page being adapted to serve as a task-based test question, at least one other portion of the master page representing with a correct answer to the task-based test question;

interacting with a user through a computer display to perform a task using a computer process distinct from the computer process which displays at least a portion of the master page, to generate an image on the computer display in response to the displayed portion of a master page, the image representing the user'"'"'s answer to the task-based test question;

capturing a representation of the image as a computer graphic file; and

creating an answer page by automatically combining at least the computer graphic file with at least one of a reference identifying the master page, and a portion of the master page.

21. A system of claim 20 further comprising:

concurrently displaying the at least one other portion of the master page and the answer page so that they can be compared.

22. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the step of:

automatically changing a screen resolution of the computer display to a predetermined capture screen resolution different from a user screen resolution employed by the user to formulate the image, said capturing comprising capturing a snapshot of the computer display at the capture screen resolution at a selected point in time as the image, and subsequently restoring the computer display to the user screen resolution.

23. The method according to claim 22, further comprising the steps of providing a control window for receiving at least one of a user command and the associated information, prior to the selected point in time, hiding the control window, capturing the snapshot of the visual interface display screen, and unhiding the control window.

24. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the step of presenting the answer page to instruct a user.

25. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of presenting the portion of the master page as a query having at least one correct response to the user, and comparing the answer page to the at least one correct response to provide a test grading system to provide an indication of user skill.

26. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the step of selectively interpreting the answer page to display or hide at least a portion of the answer page.

27. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the step of automatically comparing at least a portion of the image to a predetermined image.

28. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of:

grading the user based on a correspondence of the image to a reference image representing a correct answer to the test question.

29. The method according to claim 20, wherein said creating step comprises the substeps of:

retrieving a template;

modifying the template to insert a reference to at least the image; and

selectively inserting a hyperlink in the template referencing the master page.

30. The method according to claim 29, wherein said creating step comprises merging a set of computer graphic files with a predefined received template.

31. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of defining the answer page in XML and subsequently applying an XSL style sheet to the XML answer page.

32. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps concurrently presenting at least two answer pages for comparison.

33. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the step of extracting an answer page from a first presentation and embedding it in a second presentation.

34. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the step of automatically generating a book comprising respective hyperlinks targeting a plurality of answer pages.

35. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the step of automatically including metadata within the answer page.

36. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the step of selectively applying at least one selected from a plurality of transformations to the answer page for output in a respective common internet language.

37. A computer readable storage medium containing a computer program for carrying out the method according to claim 20.

38. A testing method, comprising:

presenting a test question to a user, said test question prompting the user to perform a computer-based task to create a computer graphic image dependent on a skill of the user and a computer application responsive to the test question through a graphic user interface, the computer graphic image comprising at least one user-defined portion and at least one computer-defined portion;

automatically acquiring the computer graphic image representing at least a portion of a the graphic user interface computer screen generated by the computer application containing the computer graphic image responsive to the test question, and modifying a common internet language page template to create a page referencing the computer graphic image and being associated with associated with at least one hyperlink dependent on the respective test question;

storing the page in an electronic database;

assessing a skill of the user by referencing the page and analyzing the computer graphic image;

storing the assessment in a database in association with an identification of the user.

39. The method according to claim 38, wherein the user has a first set of rights relating to access and modification of the page, and an assessor has a second set of rights relating to access and modification of the page, the first and second set of rights being different.

40. The method according to claim 38, wherein the automatically acquired computer graphic image has a predetermined resolution which is selected independently of a graphic user interface resolution used by the user to create the computer graphic image.