[Edu-sig] An engine to navigate between lessons

[Andre Roberge]

On 5/24/06, Andrew Harrington <aharrin at luc.edu> wrote:[snip]
As usual, Andrew has expressed much too many different (and excellent!)
ideas for me to be able to address them all.  I'll focus on a few of them.

...
> I see data embedded in meta data, your custom vlam attributes, and
> classes identifying types of content:
>
> The meta construction in the heading is a fine basic descriptive format
> for use by Crunchy Frog.  It is important that the format is clear:
> agreeing on what name attributes are used and the meaning of the content
> attribute that goes with a name.
>
> We could make skills binary as in
>
> <META name="prereqs" content="ifElseRead, comparisonNumeric, assignment">
> <META name="outcomes" content="ifElseUse">
>
> or as I prefer, with a numeric rating, maybe with the number left out
> meaning 100 (mastery) and 0 meaning exposure.  The following might be in
> a testing module on understanding the flow of control in an if-else
> construction, assuming an earlier expository introduction:
>
> <META name="prereqs" content="ifElseRead:0, comparisonNumeric,
> assignment">
> <META name="outcomes" content="ifElseRead">
>
> There is much meta data about a lesson that I think is useful, even when
> our total number of lessons is small.  A lot of the data is most
> obviously considered while creating a lesson, when I find it easiest to
> add classifications, and to edit them from a copy of a similar template
> lesson.
>
> If we are piecing together snippets of tutorial, I think it is important
> to be conscious of what the prerequisites are and what is being taught.
> I would be happy to give a first pass on a consistent pattern for naming
> basic and composite skills for introductory programming in Python.    I
> still like the idea of short names for composite skills, so a persistent
> structure is needed to store components of compound skills.  One simple
> approach would be to use a text file with Python dictionary syntax and
> list value
> "loops":["forLoop", "whileLoop"]
> "booleanExpression":["booleanExpressionAtomic", "andOp", "orOp", "notOp"]


Using <meta ...> is a great way to embed information.  It is not something
that would create any syntax problem when viewed in a normal html browser;
even better, it would be ok'ed by htmlTidy!

In terms of "content": rather than creating a new syntax (e.g. andOp, orOp),
why not simply use Python keywords, syntax, or built-in functions as is
whenever possible.  For example:

<META name="prereqs",  content="if, <, >, ==, !=, and, or, not">
<META name="outcomes",  content="else, elif">

[snip]


I have looked through many narrative tutorial introductions, and I still
> like the idea of being able to extract a reference on what has been
> introduced so far.  I like the idea of marking new syntax and summaries
> in the expository text, maybe with a
> <div class="syntax">, and <div class="summary">, making them easy to
> extract with Elementtree, and consistent in their display.   It would be
> nice for these summaries to pop up in a separate window or tab if
> requested.


Classes for content/display mode are a good idea.

I do not know if that fits in with the Python localhost
> interface.  If there had been any of these elements in lessons so far, I
> would put Syntax and Summary buttons somewhere, at the bottom of the
> lesson page or on a separate reference web page, or in a separate frame.


I don't like frames... but there are ways with dynamic html to hide and show
content. And, I agree that the interface should be consistent - at the very
least, within a single tutorial, spanning many pages.  Eventually (version
1.0), it would be nice to have a standardisation convenient yet complete
enough to be adopted by everyone.

There is an embedded style in Crunchy from pages.  Styles for syntax and
> summary could be added.


Agreed.

Again, some agreement on a starting scheme is useful.


I think this is going to evolve quasi-organically.

Other people's suggestions/agreements much appreciated.


Indeed!!!

André


> --
>   Andrew N. Harrington
>
>
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