Instruction system topic-interpreting method
AssigneeAT&T Bell Laboratories
InventorPaul G. Matthews
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A topic announcement routine is provided and is called by an announce flag included in a flag field of an author-selected topic title definition in a course material database. Each call of such a flagged topic causes the routine to display for a student an announcement that a new topic is about to begin, and to make available to the student an opportunity to select a command from a predetermined set of commands including at least one address-generic transfer command. Control flags, such as an announce flag or the presence of text in the title field of a topic definition, are employed for various purposes, such as marking the end of transfer under a transfer command for that topic, or disabling selected commands of the set.
Claims19
In a computer-based system, a topic-interpreting method for delivering instructional material from a database divided into segments to be accessed for display of said material on a screen of a computer-access terminal, said segments being grouped according to topics, said method comprising the steps of
- providing an announce routine for placing said terminal in a command mode for at least a predtermined set of commands,
- said routine displaying to a student both an announcement that a new topic is about to begin and a notice that the student has an opportunity to select for execution a command from among commands of said predetermined set, said set including at least one address-generic transfer command for transferring program execution to a different location in said database, and
- calling said routine at predetermined topic locations in said material.
In a computer-assisted instruction system in which textual courseware is delivered by the transfer of predetermined text segments from memory to a display at a user-interactive terminal, the courseware being divided into an outline hierarchy of topics in which a topic definition includes a title and one or more actions represented by various unit displays of course material, a method for user-controlled transfer of courseware execution among said topics, said method including the steps of
- storing in association with predetermined ones of the topic definitions a control flag to initiate a command option routine,
- announcing, by display to a user in accordance with said routine, that a new topic is the next topic to be exeucted, and
- making available to said user a predetermined set of user-selectable, address-generic command options for transfer through said courseware.
In a computer-assisted instructiion system in which textual courseware is delivered by the transfer of predetermined text segments from memory to a display at a user-interactive terminal, the courseware being divided into an outline hierarchy of defined topics, in which a topic definition includes a title and one or more actions, the method for controlling transfer of courseware execution among said topics and comprising the steps of
- announcing, to a user during execution of only predetermined ones of said topics, that execution of a new topic is about to begin,
- making available, in conjunction with said announcing step, a predetermined set of user-selectable, address-generic, command options for transfer through said courseware,
- storing, in association with predetermined ones of the topic definitions, at least one control flag designating a qualification on execution of predetermined commands of said set occurring during execution of that topic, and
- executing received user commands in accordance with any one or more control flags therefor.
In a computer-assisted instruction system for delivering from memory course material comprising a predetermined ordered sequence of topics for user perception and reaction, by entry of appropriate commands to the system, a method for interpreting said topics out of memory to said user under limited user control, and comprising the steps of
- constructing a predetermined array of topic definitions, each including at least one predetermined control flag field,
- placing in a control flag field of topic definitions of preselected ones of said topics an announce flag,
- announcing to said user, in response to said flag on execution of each of said preselected topics, the availability of said system to receive and execute a selectable command of a predetermined command set, and
- setting in a control flag field of a topic definition of preselected ones of said topics at least one control flag for initiating a predetermined command exeuction modification.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.