Developing Reusable Multimedia Tutorials by
MAJ Curtis A. Carver Jr., LTC George Stone III and LTC Charles Powell National Simulation Center, Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
[email protected]
Abstract:1 This paper addresses the development of a reusable multimedia tutorial. Like all large organizations, the United States Army is constantly developing new software. One such project, the Warfighter’s Simulation 2000 (WARSIM 2000) project is being developed to replace existing legacy constructive simulation packages with a single integrated command and control constructive simulation package. This will fundamentally change how the Army conducts constructive simulation training and as such, the National Simulation Center and Simulation and Instrumentation Command developed a multimedia tutorial to highlight the differences between existing constructive military simulations and the emerging WARSIM 2000 software package. Similar packages such as the Standard Army Training System Training Exercise Development System Multimedia Tutorial and Combined Arms Tactical Trainer Multimedia Trainer had been previously developed. But instead of developing another multimedia tutorial for a single application, a multimedia tutorial was developed that could be easily adapted for other multimedia tutorials and provided for user adaptation, knowledge assessment, and information presentation using commonly available software tools. This ability to reuse software components and easily substitute source materials provides an attractive and cost-effective alternative to the typical, time-extensive development cycle of multimedia software development.
Background The Problem The United States Army is constantly developing multimedia tutorials to enhance the organization’s ability to conduct operations and train its soldiers. One such 1
The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily represent the official position of the United States Military Academy, the National Simulation Center, the US Army or the Department of Defense. All insights are the authors' own.
tutorial was necessary to introduce the Warfighter’s Simulation 2000 (WARSIM 2000) package. WARSIM 2000 is an emerging command and control constructive simulation that will replace several legacy simulation packages. It allows commanders and staffs to train without soldiers by using the computer to simulate the actions of units. It is a revolutionary rather than evolutionary change. To inform Army decision-makers and others working in the field, a multimedia tutorial was necessary. While a World-Wide Web (WWW) site was considered as a primary solution and previous research provided several authoring tools that would be appropriate for developing educational software [1, 2, 10, 11], the size of the data elements (some movies are 50 MBs in size) precluded the use of the WWW as a primary informational source. A CD-ROM multimedia tutorial would have to be the primary focus. The two Army organizations primarily involved in the development of WARSIM 2000, the National Simulation Center and Simulation and Instrumentation Command, have developed several previous multimedia tutorials. Each of these tutorials was a specifically developed product that could not easily be adapted to other uses. This made each tutorial developed an expensive and timeconsuming project. What was needed was a multimedia tutorial that could easily be adapted for other projects and yet provided user adaptation and information assessment and presentation. The Solution To address these issues, the WARSIM 2000 multimedia tutorial was specifically developed so that it could easily be adapted for use as a multimedia tutorial for other topics. The remainder of this paper will provide a brief overview of the multimedia tutorial, the design principles used, and attempts to make the software reusable.
Figure 1. (a) WARSIM 2000 Multimedia Tutorial Main Interface and (b) Sample Slideshow from Functional Description of the Battlefield
The WARSIM 2000 Multimedia Tutorial
Design Principles
The WARSIM 2000 multimedia tutorial features a tabbed interface with major functionality accessible through buttons, menu items and hot-keys (see Figure 1). Each of the major components of the WARSIM 2000 simulation suite is represented in a single row of tabs while the major components of legacy systems are represented in the second row of tabs. Informational and assessment resources associated with each tab is available through the buttons aligned on the right side of the user interface. Users can access: a 1-5 minute audio overview of the topic, a 1-5 minute digital video, a Microsoft Word for Windows document, and a Microsoft PowerPoint or Harvard Graphics slideshow. In addition to these primary resources, numerous secondary resources such movies, slideshows, documents, graphics, and audio overviews are available through the additional resources button. The program is completely self-contained and requires no preinstalled software. Finally, users can assess their knowledge of a particular topic through a multimedia assessment engine and their progress through the tutorial is tracked through a grades summary (see Figure 2).
In designing this multimedia tutorial, the programs paid particular attention to Schneiderman’s Golden Rules of Interface Design. Of the eight principles articulated, three were particularly important given the diverse audience of a generic multimedia tutorial: keeping the interface simple, addressing the needs of novice and expert users, and putting the user in charge.
There are also a wide variety of other user options within the program. The user can provide feedback to the programmer, change user registration, change or stop the background music, jump to any tab directly, access the application’s help file or view one of eight tutorial movies on how to use the program, or even create a user tab with the user’s own informational resources (see Figure 3).
Keep It Simple The WARSIM 2000 Multimedia Tutorial user interface was designed to be simple, easy to use, and yet powerful. The user never needs to designate the CD-ROM drive letter as the program will find it automatically and if the user moves the CD-ROM to another drive half-way through the program, the program will find the CD-ROM automatically. All of the program’s functionality can be accessed through the main program interface. Instead of building a new document or embedded slideshow viewer, public domain versions of Microsoft and Harvard Graphic viewers are used because users are already familiar with these tools and the updating of documents is trivial. Finally, the interface remains consistent although the functionality of the tabs and buttons may change as the user makes selections. Button functionality is automatically color-coded red or green based on the availability of a resource so that while the interface remains consistent, the user is aware of what tools are available in each tab. If the user persists in selecting an option that is not available, the user receives audio feedback that the resource is not available. This simple
Figure 2. (a) Multiple Choice Question from the JANUS module and (b) A Grade Summary After Completing the Tutorial and consistent interface is fundamental to providing a program that is easy to use. Address the Needs of the Novice and Expert The WARSIM 2000 Tutorial addresses the needs of both the novice and expert. A graphically oriented help file shows the user how to execute common tasks and troubleshoot the program. Eight digital videos, which provide over 30 minutes of video tutorials, is available from both the menu and through the program through embedded help buttons show the user exactly how to perform common tasks. Audio feedback as well as the color-coding of unavailable options also help the user navigate and use the program effectively. For the expert, shortcut keys are available for almost every function allowing the expert to rapidly execute a tutorial functionality or jump to a location within the tutorial. Put the User In Charge The WARSIM 2000 Multimedia Tutorial puts the user in charge. The user can configure a variety of user options and the program tracks all of these selections so that the user need only make a selection once. For example, the user can configure whether or not to see the program splash screen, what type of background music the user likes, what information is to be displayed on the user’s tab, and the user’s performance on previous assessments. The program records all of these selections and user need not make the selection again the next time the program is started. Furthermore, all of these settings are available through the main menu and it is easy to change a setting.
The users also receive positive feedback on their actions and as the user moves the mouse around the screen, the functionality highlighted but not yet selected is displayed in a feedback box at the bottom of the screen.
Making the Tutorial Reusable Use of Common Informational Resources and Stubs Instead of building unique procedures to display documents, the WARSIM 2000 tutorial launches public domain viewers such as Microsoft Word Viewer, Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer, and Harvard Graphics Slideshow Player to display documents. This has three primary effects that enhance program reusability. First, the program code is simpler and more maintainable as oneline shell commands are easier to write and decode as compared to the plethora of complex coding required to implement the same functionality in programming languages such as Visual Basic or C++. Second, the viewer interfaces and file types used are well-known to our users and as such easy for them to use and more importantly, to change. If the user wants to modify an additional resource, he or she need only change the underlying data file. If the user wants to extract a particular document for use outside the tutorial, it is painlessly simple. The use of common informational resources make the software reusable. To generate another tutorial, the programmer need only change the number and titles of the tabs, change some control structures to reflect the new titles and then generate new informational resources to be
Figure 3. (a) The Interface to Build a Tab and (b) The Resultant User Tab Build added to the tutorial. In terms of programming, only 2-3 days is required to generate a completely new tutorial. Programming the new tutorial becomes relatively inconsequential while gathering the proper informational resources becomes the primary time constraint for building the tutorial. The importance of this reusability of code is obvious in an academic department or a corporation training center. A single programmer could support the conversion of numerous courses from paper handouts and slideshows to multimedia tutorials. As long as the instructors used consistent file naming, updating of course material would be a simple file copy and require no reprogramming. Because the program is self-contained, students could run the program from any multimedia-capable IBM PC computer. Finally, every button and every tab has an associated data file. If the data file is not present, the program will play a sound file to inform the user that the requested resource is not available. This allows the instructor the capability to incrementally add additional resources to the program as they become available and to incrementally test the effectiveness of the software without having to develop a complete solution before releasing the software. It has been the author’s experience that this ability to incrementally design and test software is fundamental to developing educational software. Generic Assessment Engine Finally, the WARSIM 2000 Multimedia Tutorial also uses a generic assessment engine so that assessment questions can easily be added or removed. All of the questions, answers, and associated correct answers are read from a simple text file which is stored on the user’s hard drive
when the program is installed. There is no user state information maintained in this file and as such, updating the assessment questions is as easy as copying a text file. The user answers a series of multiple-choice questions and receives audio feedback as he or she answers each question as well as audio feedback as the user completes each tab’s assessment (see Figure 2). The user can view their cumulative performance displayed as a bar graph from the main interface. Additionally, the user will progress in rank from a “Private of Simulations” to a “General of Simulations” based on their performance on the assessments.
Conclusion and Future Research Future research is aimed at incorporating adaptive assessment engine and interface that adapts to the learning style of the individual user. Adaptive assessment adjusts the difficulty of the questions presented to the demonstrated knowledge level of the student. If the student answers correctly, they receive more difficult questions whereas if the student answers incorrectly, they receive easier questions. After some initial research in incorporating such a system into World Wide Web-based assessment engines (see references 3-4), it is the authors’ belief that adaptive assessment should be a component of multimedia tutorials. Adaptive interfaces based on learning styles is likewise considered a desirable feature based on WWW-based experiences with similar systems [5]. Although numerous learning style models exist, the Felder-Silverman model will be explored for inclusion into the reusable multimedia tutorial [6-9]. The ability to reuse software components and easily substitute source materials provides an attractive and costeffective alternative to the typical, time-extensive development cycle of multimedia software development.
The WARSIM 2000 Multimedia Tutorial provides a working model of reusable software. This reusability will be put to the test as additional tutorials are developed in the next six months using the same base multimedia shell. If successful, this rapid development of multimedia tutorial will reduces development costs dramatically and speed the production of multimedia tutorials.
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