IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 39, NO. 3, AUGUST 1996 423

Implementation Issues in SIMPLE Learning Environments William M. Marcy, Member, IEEE, and Marion 0. Hagler, Fellow, IEEE

AbstructSIMPLE makes it easier to construct and implement intensely interactive computer simulated learning environments. For construction of the environments, the primary strategy is to combine existing software components rather than to write new ones. Because SIMPLE is built on a powerful relational database engine, authors can structure and modify SIMPLE learning environments without writing programs or control scripts. The feature set of SIMPLE is not fixed, however, but is readily extensible. SIMPLE includes provisions for the construction and implementation of context sensitive help for learners. Automatic answer checking and configuration management make practical implementation of interactive learning environments easier for instructors. SIMPLE includes tools for automatically logging learners’ activities and for processing the recorded information to make it useful to the instructor. SIMPLE runs on Microsoft Windows machines and is available at no cost for educational use.

I. THE SIMPLE SOFTWARE SYSTEM HE goal of the SIMPLE software system [1]-[3] is to T make it easy for instructors, by using mainly a point-

and-click approach, to construct computer simulated learning environments that immerse learners in intensely interactive environments related to the subject matter they wish to learn. In the simulation, the learners may encounter, at the pleasure of the instructor, informative notes and explanations, project assignments, software tools (simulators, compilers, spread- sheets, . . .), multimedia material, and even material on the World Wide Web (WWW). By exploring and interacting with the simulated environment, the learners can acquire knowl- edge, accomplish tasks, acquire new tools, and demonstrate competence.

The primary strategy in constructing interactive instruc- tional environments with SIMPLE is to combine existing software components. For example, the word processor built into Microsoft Windows can be integrated to display notes with graphics, equations, and other OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) 2.0 objects, such as audio and video files. Fig. 1 shows that the Quick menu item in SIMPLE permits quick access to a number of applications from within SIMPLE. Fig. 2 illustrates that by choosing the Edit Tools item from the Quick menu, an author can customize the Quick menu to include whatever software is convenient for authoring a particular interactive learning environment. At the author’s discretion, each different learning environment can display a

Manuscript received September 18, 1995; revised June 10, 1996. This work was supported in part by the NSF Undergraduate Curriculum and Course Development Program.

The authors are with the College of Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-3103 USA.

Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9359(96)06738-6.

different list of appropriate software for easy access. WWW browsers, such as Netscape or Mosaic, can be integrated to give access to educational materials on the WWW. Readily available helper applications, or viewers, for WWW browsers can be incorporated directly in SIMPLE to view graphics and video (in many file formats) and to hear audio (in many file formats). This eclectic strategy achieves high leverage for the software effort. The SIMPLE software serves mainly as “glue” to join disparate existing software packages.

The strong visual component possible in interactive learning environments created with SIMPLE can give each screen in the environment a very definite mental context. When the learner is concentrating on a particular screen, the instructor can know with some certainty what the learner is thinking about and doing at that moment. The sequence of screens chosen by the learner therefore tells much about the strategy and process that the learner is using. At the instructor’s discretion, the learner’s activity can be logged automatically in an event-in- context (EIC) log down to the level of individual keystrokes. All of the EIC information can be collected by the instructor for use in evaluating student progress.

Implementation of the SIMPLE software utilizes virtual graphical learner interfaces supported by a powerful database engine. This approach facilitates two improvements to the process of creating a learning environment. One improvement is that the author can use the built-in features of SIMPLE to structure and modify the SIMPLE learning environment and its graphical user interface without writing any code, doing any computer programming, or writing any control scripts. SIMPLE falls into the class of data driven applications. Being data driven, the SIMPLE software application itself requires no maintenance programming to update a learning environment. The second improvement is that everything that comprises the structure of the learning environment is contained in a relational database. Relational database queries are used to create virtual graphical learner interfaces on the fly. SIMPLE’S database structure also permits straightforward construction, by authors, of context-sensitive help for each screen. To our knowledge the use of relational database technology to imple- ment a multimedia learning environment in which the visual user interface elements are part of the database is unique.

An important feature of SIMPLE is its extensibility. Al- though SIMPLE’S main purpose is to make the basic oper- ations needed to structure interactive learning environments available to an author through a point and click approach, an author is not trapped in SIMPLE. If the point and click features built into SIMPLE prove inadequate or inconvenient

0018-9359/96$05.00 0 1996 IEEE

424 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 39, NO. 3, AUGUST 1996

Eirst Screen Ctrl+F Edit Tools

- Analyze EIC Logs

- Clipboard

Excel

- Memory

Fig. 1. the various screens in a learning environment, appears in the background.

SIMPLE gives access to software applications through its Quick menu item. The SIMPLE Navigator screen, which shows the relationship among

files &date &indows Misc Quick Pick H e l p

All loo! names must include an ampersand accelerator charactor fw playback of menu items.

To01 Name a ~ x c d

Tool File Browse I ~ ~ C E L E S

D Close I Min I New I Delete]

I

Fig. 2. The software applications in the Quick menu can be changed by choosing the Edit Tools item from the menu.

for some purpose and no existing software is suitable to “glue” into SIMPLE to accomplish the task, Microsoft Visual Basic Professional can be used to extend SIMPLE’S feature

set, at the expense of some programming, to include in the SIMPLE feature set anything that can be accomplished in Visual Basic. Visual Basic’s highly structured programming

MARCY AND HAGLER IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES IN SIMPLE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS 425

Eiles jyindows U s c Quick pick Belp

Eile Edit Bookmark Sptions Help &ntentsl Search I Back I print I i c I L> I Other Fix Database Strings

Performs string search and replace on SIMPLE databases. When moving a simple database from one local configuration to another, paths in a database may need to be updated. This feature makes it easy to change any string in an existing database to match the strings needed for local environment. Note that the demo databases assume that the location of SIMPLE is C:\SIMPLE. if you installed SIMPLE in the directory Q:VvlYSIMPLE you could use this feature to change all occurrences of C:\SIMPLE to Q:\MYSIMPLE and thus make the database compatible with the new location of SIMPLE.

I The Other menu IS available only to registered users logged in as Superuser.

See Also SuDerUser

Fig. 3. A SIMPLE Helo screen that exolains how to search for and reolace any string in a SIMPLE database, including the location of the file components - used to build the learning environment.

environment, its object orientation, and its ability to make Windows Application Programming Interface (API) calls (the direct commands to Windows that make it work), for example, make Visual Basic and hence SIMPLE a powerful, as well as convenient, authoring tool for producing complex intensely interactive learning environments.

11. CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT The basic steps [l] involved in authoring a SIMPLE leam-

ing environment include collecting subject matter materials, preparing a story board, structuring a SIMPLE learning en- vironment, and organizing context sensitive help. Although these tasks can be tedious for authors, they seldom prove as frustrating as the formidable practical problem of configuration management.

The most demanding aspect of configuration management is controlling and updating the learning materials that are refer- enced by the SIMPLE database. One of the better approaches to configuration management is to take advantage of mod- ern peer-to-peer and clienthemer-based computer networks. Networking is the key technology, and operating systems such as Microsoft’s Windows for Work Groups, Windows 95, and Windows NT provide low-cost peer-to-peer networks that can use “thin” Ethernet cable. The advantage that SIMPLE provides is that all references to source materials as well as the visual user interface elements are contained in a database. Note that the databases do not contain the actual source materials but rather references to the locations of the source materials whether these are text, multimedia, or programs that can be

invoked. By keeping these materials separate from the database they can be used in their original form and updated easily. By placing the databases on the author’s computer or a network file server that provides shared access to the database and the source materials, only a single copy of the database and the source materials must be maintained. Any change that is made to the database is immediately seen by all clients on the network. Every computer on the network that has a copy of SIMPLE loaded can access the learning environment via the network.

If students need to install the software on their personal computers for work off-site, a workable approach is to provide disk images of the SIMPLE installation diskettes on the network so that students can make copies for installation at their convenience. If students have portable computers, it is quite easy to provide a “parallel port” Ethernet connection so that students can bring their computers to a laboratory and install the SIMPLE software and databases directly.

A potential configuration management problem results from placing the source materials on a network. SIMPLE permits authors to choose the resources (files), by browsing and pointing and clicking, without the distraction of paying too much attention to whether the files are on a local drive or a network drive or in exactly which subdirectory they reside. The locations (path) to the files is stored in the database. Unfortunately, when the SIMPLE database is used in a different environment, the drive names, and hence the paths stored in the databases, may be completely different.

SIMPLE includes special features for dealing with this configuration management problem. First, a search and replace

426 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 39, NO. 3, AUGUST 1996

Eiies a i n d o w s M s c Quick Pick Yelp

I Status is LOGGED OUT. Use continue to keep current bgin status. otherwise enter User Name. then tab and enter Session ID. Tab and click Login.

UPerName I 1 S e s u i o n ~ ~ [[

Fig. 4. When this screen appears and someone logs in to SIMPLE, an EIC log file is automatically created.

feature permits the author to search and replace specific path names with meaningful identifiers. For example, a path such as “c:\winword\winword.exe” might become simply “Word” and “~:\excel\excel.exe” might become simply “Ex- cel.” Second, SIMPLE permits the author to store a ta- ble, as part of the database, that associates these identi- fiers with path names appropriate to the network environ- ment. For example, “Word” might be associated in the table with “y:\msoffice\winword\winword.exe” and “Excel” with “y:\msoffice\excel\excel.exe.” These two features afford au- thors considerable convenience in that 1) the specific location of resources is not a concern during the authoring process and 2) the locations can be assigned generalized identifiers whose locations are specified just once in a single table that automatically provides the path appropriate for the particular environment. A SIMPLE Help file screen that deals with these features is shown in Fig. 3.

SIMPLE includes other special features that address worr- some implementation details. For instance, SIMPLE remem- bers the location of objects on a screen in terms of resolution- independent Visual Basic “twips.” Consequently, the location of an image control that acts as a transparent button on a bitmap does not change position on the bitmap when the software authored with SIMPLE is used with a different screen resolution than that with which it was developed. SIMPLE even adjusts the font sizes of text displayed in labels or memo boxes according to screen resolution.

111. COLLECTING AND MANAGING EIC DATA

To implement a SIMPLE leaniing environment for a group of students, the instructor assigns a unique user ID to each

student. The user ID’S can be any combination of up to eight letters and numbers. When the student logs into the SIMPLE program using this ID, an EIC log is automatically created. The log-in screen is shown in Fig. 4. The EIC log file name is derived from the user ID. If the students are using computers that are on a network, the destination for the EIC logs can be a directory on the instructor’s computer or else on a file server that the both the instructor and the students can access. Students who work on stand-alone computers can save their log files to a floppy disk for submission to the instructor, either directly or though a network server. Since SIMPLE appends new ElC log entries to any existing student log, over the course of a semester the EIC log can accumulate the entire history of student interactions with the interactive learning environment.

Iv. EXPLOITING THE INFORMATION IN STUDENT EIC LOGS

The EIC logs are more than just a passive record of student interactions. They are designed in such a way that the instructor can use SIMPLE to play back the logs and recreate what the student was doing in exploring the subject matter. SIMPLE contains a playback utility that allows the instructor to search the EIC log for a specific area of interest to review student progress. Upon finding the desired part of the log the instructor can play back the student’s interaction step by step or fast-forward to review the work in faster than real time. Responses and interactions with SIMPLE are recreated just as though the student was present.

Replaying EIC logs can be extremely useful in reconstruct- ing a portion of an interacting learning session to understand in detail, for example, at what points the learner has particular difficulty in proceeding. However, it requires too much of

MARCY AND HAGLER IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES IN SIMPLE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS 421

Files Qptions Help I

Fig. 5. The ANALYZE utility built in to SIMPLE can aid the instructor in checking and compiling information from the student EIC log files

the instructor’s time to serve as the primary tool for making use of the information in the EIC logs. Development of tools that process and summarize the information in the EIC logs continues.

The SIMPLE daemon, still under development, is a po- tentially powerful tool for exploiting the information in the student EIC logs. The daemon, at the discretion of the instruc- tor, can send messages to the instructor and/or the learner, can transport the learner to a different part of the learning envi- ronment if the learner seems to need additional background to learn some part of the environment expeditiously, and can even modify the learning environment depending on the learner’s demonstrated background and proficiency. In short, the daemon is intended to make prompt and intelligent use of the information in the log files in a way that requires much less time on the part of the instructor than replaying the log files or working with them directly.

The daemon is a rule-based artificial intelligence engine implemented as a decision table processor. Such an imple- mentation, originally developed as a means of controlling complex distributed commercial systems in the semiconductor processor industry, not only proves to make very efficient use of CPU resources, it also affords a convenient graphical user interface to the rule base. As a consequence, the rules can be entered and edited with a point and click approach that requires no conventional programming. Recent research shows that a prototypical rule set is computable in practice on currently available inexpensive desktop PC’s.

Pending full development of the daemon, SIMPLE 2.0 includes the ANALYZE utility that provides assistance in analyzing EIC log files. ANALYZE is described in more detail

in the SIMPLE Help file. Some of the available tools are suggested by Fig. 5.

V. ANSWER CHECKING

The answer checking features of SIMPLE allow authors of learning environments to embed a variety of questions and answers to assess students’ progress and to control the learning environment. Coupled with the EIC Log, features of SIMPLE, and the associated ANALYZE program, authors can assess student interaction with the learning environment outside the class room environment. Answer checking capability built into SIMPLE includes 1) displaying a different string of characters to the learner depending upon whether or not an answer entered is correct or incorrect, 2) providing feedback to the learner by executing a built-in or custom software procedure depending on an entered answer, 3) displaying different strings of characters to the learner depending on the learner’s choice of answers from a list provided, 4) providing feedback to the learner by executing a built-in or custom procedure depending on the learner’s choice of answers from a list provided, 5) displaying different strings of characters to the learner depending on whether or not the learner enters a substring of characters contained in an answer string provided by the instructor, and 6) providing feedback to the learner by executing a custom procedure depending on whether or not the learner enters a substring of characters contained in an answer string provided by the instructor. The ANSWER.MDB database, provided with the SIMPLE software as an example, illustrates the answer checking features of SIMPLE as well as EIC logging and the ANALYZE utility. The first screen of ANSWER.MDB, shown in Fig. 6, shows several types

428

Files llpdate windows Misc Quick pick yelp

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 39, NO. 3, AUGUST 1996

1 .O) N1 answer in a range (1 5.0 to 30.0.) Strings as responses

2.01 N2 same as N1 but calls custom or

t I

buit in procedures as responses

3.0) S1 match one of a list of answers separated by commas. Not case sensitive. Example expects Ansl, AnsP, Ans3,Anssl orAns5. Gives strings as responses.

I P I I - I L I -, 5.0) S2 same as S1 except calls custom subroutines.

6.0) 5 3 matches any substring. Example uses "Qwerty is Quirky." Gives strings as responses. 7.0) 54 Same as S3 but calls custom subroutines

C E J l - Enter y o u antww

9.0) Crick on the correct image. An incorrect choice cause diagonal tics, a mrrect choice will box it. When you have finished. d i d here to score your work then print this for for your instructor.

I

Logout I Print Screen I 02 I 03 I U4 I Fig. 6. SIMPLE permits straightforward answer checking, and automatic logging of the answers, of the kinds depicted.

of answer checking that are possible in SIMPLE. Unless the answers require custom procedures for checking, the answers can be automatically checked and logged without programming or scripting.

VI. COMPARISON WITH OTHER AUTHORING TOOLS

SIMPLE makes it easy for authors to incorporate software applications of their choice, such as simulators, mathematical software, and multimedia tools for audio, video, and graphics into interactive multimedia learning environments. Authors can therefore integrate their favorite tools into the SIMPLE software environment to realize most of the features and authoring capabilities of authoring tools such as Hypercard and Asymetrix ToolBook. Although the integration among the component applications used with SIMPLE will not be as tight as among the built-in tools of Hypercard and ToolBook, SIMPLE allows authors great flexibility in assembling and upgrading the collection of tools they prefer. SIMPLE, written in Microsoft Visual Basic, provides access to all of the capa- bility of Visual Basic. Much of the'capability of Visual Basic is made available through a point-and-click interface. Several other features built into SIMPLE are not readily available in Hypercard, ToolBook, or Visual Basic. These features include EIC logging and playback of learner activities, configuration management, and answer checking and analysis. In addition, SIMPLE is available at no charge for educational use.

VII. HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENTS REQUIRED

SIMPLE software, itself, is not particularly demanding as far as hardware requirements are concemed. Most databases

(learning environments) run on Windows 3.1 machines with as little as 4 MB of RAM. Learning environments that contain audio and video files require appropriate sound and video boards for best operation. SIMPLE, like most other software, runs best with at least 8MB RAM on machines that run Windows for Workgroups or Windows 95.

The choice of the Windows environment, as opposed to the cross-platform WWW environment, deserves comment. The WWW, with its flexible cross-platform de facto file standards, offers great promise as an environment for authoring and distributing interactive multimedia learning environments. Plans for converting SIMPLE to this environment have already begun. Java and JavaScript notwithstanding, however, the tools available for building interactive learning environments for the WWW are still primitive. Java is based on C/C + +, yet there is no analog to Visual C/C + +, much less anything that provides the convenience and power of Visual Basic. Visual Basic includes built-in features that make it much faster and easier than Visual C/C + + for constructing complex applications, such as SIMPLE, that rely on, for example, sophisticated manipulation of databases to gain many of their powerful features. Consequently, the days of platform specific software are not yet past. Given the current state of software development, the Windows environment is not a bad choice if the software is platform specific.

VIII. DEMONSTRATIONS ON THE CD-ROM

The CD-ROM contains a set of installation files that auto- matically installs SIMPLE on a Windows PC. It also contains a set of installation files for ELECSIM (Electronics made

MARCY AND HAGLER IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES IN SIMPLE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS 429

SIMPLE), an example in which SIMPLE has been extended, with Visual Basic Professional, to permit SIMPLE to construct several interactive learning modules that relate to the first analog electronics course taken by many electrical engineering undergraduate students. The HTML file, marcy.htm, provides links to the files simple.htm, which gives a quick start to constructing interactive learning environments with SIMPLE and ‘illustrates some features of SIMPLE, and to elecsim.htm, which gives similar quick start information about ELECSIM and demonstrates some extensions to SIMPLE that are possible by writing custom procedures in Visual Basic and including custom screens from Visual Basic. The SIMPLE database file, www.mdb, illustrates how SIMPLE functionality can be extended by integrating existing software. In a specific example, a single button click on a SIMPLE screen launches a WWW browser and accesses a specified WWW page. In particular, it permits access to the latest version of the SIMPLE that can be downloaded to a local hard disk drive and installed.

IX. CONCLUSION

Authoring any learning environment can be a daunting task. Once the learning environment is created, a formidable task of delivering the material to the students still remains. It is one thing to demonstrate a learning environment on a single computer and quite another to deliver it to 300 students using a computer laboratory. The SIMPLE approach using database technology and networks makes configuration management a problem that an instructor can handle without the need for a large amount of staff support.

REFERENCES

M. Hagler and W. M. Marcy, “Authentic and group learning technology using computer networks and intelligent tutors,” in Proc. 1993 Frontiers in Education CO&, L. P. Grayson Ed., Nov. 10-13, 1993, pp. 467-470. __, “A new software environment for efficient production and use of interactive courseware,” in Ann. Con$ Proceedings, Amer. Society for Engineering Education, Edmonton Alberta, Canada, June 26-29, 1994,

__, “Implementation issues using the SIMPLE learning environ- ment,” in Proc. 1994 Frontiers in Education Con$ , Lawrence P. Grayson, Ed., Nov. 2-6, 1994.

pp. 2611-2622.

William M. Marcy (M’67) is Professor of Computer Science and Asso- ciate Dean of Engineering for Research and Administration at Texas Tech University, Lubbock. He has extensive experience in developing commercial software and hardware. Recently, he has been exploiting the powerful linking and embedding capabilities offered by the new visual software development environments to build complex interactive learning environments. As Asso- ciate Dean of Engineering, he acts as Director of Continuing Engineering Education for the College of Engineering.

Marion 0. Hagler (S’61-M’72-SM’79-F’80) is P. W. Horn Professor of Electrical Engineering at Texas Tech University, Lubbock. During 1995-96, he took leave from Texas Tech and served as Kyushu Electric Power Company Visiting Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Kumamoto University in Kumamoto Japan.

Dr. Hagler serves on the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Education Society and has served as Chairman of the Finance Committee for the IEEE Educational Activities Board, Chairman of the IEEE Awards Board, Presi- dent of the National Electrical Engineering Department Heads Association and Chairman of the Steering Committee for the Frontiers in Education Conference. He served as Guest Editor for the special issue of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION that deals with the application of information technologies to engineering and science education.