Linked Active Content for Digital Libraries for Education

Authors

  • David Yaron Department of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University
  • D. Jeff Milton Department of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Rea Freeland Department of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract

The goal of the CreateStudio development environment is to catalyze the creation of interactive learning experiences for digital libraries. CreateStudio supports creation of linked active content, which builds on the hypertext paradigm by extending it to support active content. This is done by allowing content to specify a dynamically loaded software viewer and by supporting links that pass messages between different viewers. By promoting separation of content from software, linked active content provides a powerful strategy for creating and organizing collections of active online learning experiences. For example, separating simulations and visualizations from other components enables them to be more easily repurposed to meet the needs of a diverse audience of educators and students. In addition, this strategy leads to an authoring paradigm that supports contributions from a more diverse audience, including especially those who have substantial classroom and pedagogical expertise but lack programming expertise. This is done by building on instructors' familiarity with simple Web design.

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Published

2006-02-01