Abstract:
A system and method for creating a cognitive learning course over a network is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of presenting to a user connected to a network a plurality of options for assembling course content, the plurality of options related to an existing course and a new course, receiving, at a managing location remote from the user, a user&#39;s selection of one of the plurality of options, and, accepting, from the user, input for adding, modifying, or deleting course content for assembly, the presenting, receiving, and accepting steps being executed over the network. The options may include editing an existing course and creating a new course.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention generally relates to a system and method for authoring a computer-based cognitive learning course over a network supporting Internet protocols.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    In the digital age, society&#39;s dependency on computers has become increasingly omnipresent. As their complexity and power progress, computers have been put to new business and recreational uses. Increases in bandwidth coupled with decreasing costs have presented the opportunity to offer distributed software applications with rich content over a network.  
           [0003]    These advances have shown that computers and computer networks can produce substantial benefits when applied to certain tasks. Computers and networks aid in completing tasks more efficiently without sacrificing the quality of the results. And in many cases, results may be improved. One such example is in the area of cognitive training. Interactive, computer-based cognitive learning courses are often substantially less expensive then their human-taught counterpart, while maintaining the quality associated with the latter.  
           [0004]    Computer-based courses are used to teach a variety of topics ranging from elementary education subject matter to cutting-edge technology subject matter. While there are numerous systems and methods for the delivery of such cognitive learning courses, there are few systems and methods for managing their content. Known systems generally require a user to load proprietary software onto a personal computer and server.  
           [0005]    Frequently, management content tools are designed for technical individuals, such as computer programmers. These content management tools require the course author to have experience in one or more computer programming languages, such as Perl, HTML, Java, PHP, etc., thereby severely limiting the number of individuals who can create or edit course structure or instructive content. Using these tools, the course is authored in a software development environment, which is often complex and not suitable for authoring a cognitive learning course. This complexity may add significant development time to the cognitive learning course.  
           [0006]    U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,060, Richard et al., discloses a system and method for delivery, authoring, and management of courseware over a computer network wherein a proprietary course authoring software module residing on a workstation is operable to transfer a course from the workstation to a course repository remote from the workstation once the course has been authored. This distributed architecture presents several disadvantages. The proprietary authoring system module must be distributed to each user, adding undesirable installation costs. Furthermore, it becomes difficult to maintain the authoring system, because it is not at a centralized location, adding undesirable maintenance costs.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0007]    A system and method for authoring a cognitive learning course and which overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages is disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the system comprises a course authoring engine for dynamically generating a plurality of display screens deliverable over a network, wherein the plurality of display screens are adapted for receiving an addition, modification, or deletion of course content from an author for either creating a new course or modifying an existing course. The course content includes course structure content, which describes the structure of the course, and course instructive content, which is organized within the course structure and forms the subject matter that is taught by the course.  
           [0008]    The system of the present invention further comprises a first personal data repository for storing a personal course library, a second master data repository for storing a master course library, and a third data repository for storing templates and graphics used in authoring a course. The personal course library comprises courses that the author may have created during a previous authoring session, whereas the master library comprises a plurality of “generic” courses on a variety of topics. The author may fully modify the content of these master courses by copying one of these courses into the personal library. Generally, these master courses comprise content authored by “experts.” The author may add new content, modify existing content, or delete content of a copy of a master course added to the personal course library using the display screens generated by the course authoring engine. Upon submission of the content, the authoring engine stores the content in the personal data repository.  
           [0009]    Once authoring is completed, a student has access to the course over a network and at a location which may be remote from the author. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]    The following detailed description, given by way of example and not intended to limit the present invention thereto, will best be appreciated in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals denote like elements and parts, in which:  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 shows a computer network environment in which one embodiment of the invention operates;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 shows a system architecture overview in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 is an illustration of a web page of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention that allows an author to login;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 4 is an illustration of a web page of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention that displays to the author a list of courses of the personalized course library;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 5 is an illustration of a web page of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention that displays to the author a list of courses in the master course library;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 6 is an illustration of a web page of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention that allows a user to create a new course;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 7 is an illustration of a window of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention that allows an author to select a graphic for use by a course;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 8 is an illustration of a web page of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention for displaying existing sections of a course and adding new sections thereto;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 9 is an illustration of a web page of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention for displaying existing subsections of a course and adding new subsections thereto;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 10 is an illustration of a web page of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention for displaying existing pages of a course and adding new pages thereto;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 11 is an illustration of a window of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention for selecting a page template;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 12 is an illustration of a window of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention for selecting a page template;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 13 is an illustration of a window of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention for selecting a page template;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 14 is an illustration of a window of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention for displaying existing instructive content and adding new instructive content;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 15 is an illustration of a window of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention for displaying existing instructive content and adding new instructive content;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 16 is an illustration of a window of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention for displaying existing instructive content and adding new instructive content;  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 17 shows the data structure of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention; and  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 18 is a flow chart for the operation of the course authoring system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0029]    [0029]FIG. 1 illustrates a system  100  assimilating an embodiment of the present invention including a number of client computers  102   a  . . .  102   n  and one or more server computers  101   a  . . .  101   n  each having a course authoring system  106  in communication via a communications link  104 . In a preferred embodiment, course authoring system  106  is a server computer.  
         [0030]    The communication link  104  generically refers to any type of wire or wireless link between computers, such as a global computer network like the Internet. Although the present invention is designed for the Internet, it may be used on any network supporting Internet protocols such as a wide area network, a local area network, or a combination of networks.  
         [0031]    The client computer  102  can be any type of computing device, such as but not limited to, desktop computers, workstations, laptops, and/or mainframe computers. One or more authors (not shown) can be associated with each client computer  102 .  
         [0032]    Each client computer  102  includes a central processing unit (CPU)  103 , a user interface  105 , a memory  107 , and a communication interface  109 . Communications interface  109  is used to communicate with server computer  101  as well as other system resources of the type well known in the art but not shown. Memory  107  of client computer  102  may be implemented as RAM (random access memory) or a combination of RAM and non-volatile memory such as magnetic disk storage. Memory  107  can contain the following:  
         [0033]    an operating system  110 ;  
         [0034]    Internet access procedures  111 ;  
         [0035]    as well as other procedures and files  113 .  
         [0036]    Server computer  101  includes a CPU  112 , a user interface  114 , a memory  116 , and a communications interface  118 . Course authoring system  106  can be any type of computing device, such as but not limited to, server computers, desktop computers, workstations, laptops, and/or mainframe computers. Communication interface  118  is used to communicate with client computers  102  as well as other system resources of the type well known in the art but not shown.  
         [0037]    Course authoring system  106  includes memory  116  which may be implemented as RAM (random access memory) or a combination of RAM and non-volatile memory such as magnetic disk storage. Memory  116  can contain the following:  
         [0038]    an operating system  120 ;  
         [0039]    Internet access procedures  122 ; and  
         [0040]    a course authoring system  106  comprising:  
         [0041]    a course authoring engine  123  comprising web server procedures  124  that host web pages that may be accessed by client computers  102 , and web page creation procedures  126  that dynamically generate web pages in response to input from the author at client computer  102 ;  
         [0042]    a personal data repository  128  for storing course content of a personal course library;  
         [0043]    a templates and graphics data repository  129  for storing a page template library and a graphics library;  
         [0044]    a master data repository  130  for storing course content of a master course library;  
         [0045]    a relational database management system (RDBMS)  136  for managing queries and data information flow to and from data repository  128 ; and  
         [0046]    other procedures and data structures  137 .  
         [0047]    It should be appreciated that for explanatory and clarification purposes, data repositories  128 ,  129 ,  130  are each referenced as a single element in the present embodiment. It is important to note that any number of data repositories may maintain course content.  
         [0048]    Course authoring system  106  generates a graphical user interface (GUI) that is designed to allow for user-friendly control of system  106  from the remote location of client computer  102 . In the present embodiment, the GUI is a website comprising a series of web pages that are delivered to an author at client computers  102  over network  104  for viewing through an associated web browser.  
         [0049]    [0049]FIG. 2 shows an architecture overview of system  100 . The GUI comprises a plurality of authoring screens  150  generated by web page creation procedures  126  of FIG. 1. In the present embodiment, screens  150  are Active Server Pages (.aspx) run under the Microsoft .NET framework. It should be appreciated that the web pages may be created using a variety of programming languages supporting dynamic scripting such as Common Gateway Interface (CGI), Active X, Jscript, VBScript, and other scripting languages. In the present embodiment, the GUI supports extensible markup language (XML) to facilitate seamless data communication with data repositories  128 ,  129 ,  130 , although XML is not a requirement for implementation or use of the present invention. It should further be appreciated that the present invention is not confined to the NET architecture, and may alternatively employ Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), ColdFusion, or other architectures supporting dynamic web services.  
         [0050]    Course authoring engine  123  generates authoring screens  150  which are transmitted to client computer  102  so that an author may edit an existing course or create a new course. If the author elects to edit an exiting course from the personal course library, authoring engine  123  retrieves course content from personal data repository  128  and templates and graphics data repository  129  for the dynamic generation of screens  150 . The author may submit additions, modifications, or deletions using screens  150  with respect thereof to authoring engine  123 , which would, in turn, update personal data repository  128 . If the author elects to use a master course as the foundation for creating a new course, authoring engine  123  copies course content of the selected master course from master data repository  130  to personal data repository  128 . Authoring engine  123  then treats the copy of the master course as it would any existing course in the personal course library. If the author elects to create a new course, authoring engine  123  generates screens  150  without any course content displayed therein. Upon submission of new course content, authoring engine  123  stores the content in personal data repository  128 .  
         [0051]    A course may be published by delivery over network  154  by course delivery engine  156  to a client computer  102 . Delivery engine  156  pulls course data from repositories  128 ,  129  for publishing to a plurality of student screens  158 . A student taking the course may view and interact with student screens  158 , but student screens  158  do not allow the student to modify the content of data repository  128 .  
         [0052]    A feature of the present invention is that the complex technicalities normally associated with authoring a cognitive learning course for delivery over a network are substantially reduced. An author is not required to be proficient in computer graphics, screen design, or any computer programming language(s). Instead, an author merely is required to be familiar using web forms such as that of authoring screens  150 . In this manner, course authoring system  106  is designed for use by the non-technical user.  
         [0053]    Exemplary illustrations of authoring screens  150  will now be described.  
         [0054]    An exemplary illustration of a login screen  300  is shown in FIG. 3. An author logs into system  106  via login screen  300  for accessing the course authoring capabilities of system. Login screen  300  is adapted to receive a username and/or password of the author. The author may gain access or alternatively be denied access because, for example, there is no record of the submitted username and/or password. The author login requirement prevents unauthorized access to system  106 . Of course, other graphical representations of login screen  300  are possible, as is the case with any of the screens described herein.  
         [0055]    Upon authorization of a username and/or password, authoring engine  123  generates screens  150  which the author uses to create a new course or edit an existing course. As shown in an exemplary illustration of FIG. 4, each screen  150  has three panels: a navigation panel  402 , a course tree panel  404 , and a working panel  406 .  
         [0056]    Navigation panel  402  is a static navigation bar used to navigate through course authoring system  106 . Navigation panel  402  is an always-visible panel that is available to the author throughout screens  150 . In the present embodiment, navigation panel  402  comprises a plurality of navigation buttons. The author may select a “My Courses” navigation button  408  for viewing the personal course library, a “Master Course” navigation button  410  for viewing the master course library, a “New Course” navigation button  412  for creating a new course, a “Help” navigation button  414  for general assistance on using system  106 , and a “Logoff” navigation button  416  for securely logging out system  106 .  
         [0057]    Unlike navigation panel  402 , course tree panel  404  and working panel  406  are dynamic for displaying course content of the chosen course. Course content includes course structure content, which describes the structure of the course, and course instructive content, which is organized within the course structure and forms the subject matter that is taught by the course. Course tree panel  404  preferably displays a tree-like hierarchical structure representing the course structure content, identifying sections and sub-sections by name. The author may expand or contract to view or hide subsections of the course structure. Upon an author&#39;s selection of a section or subsection in course tree panel  404 , the course authoring system provides a display in working panel  406  adapted to receive an author&#39;s selection to create, modify, or delete the course content of the chosen course. As sections or subsections within a course are added, modified, or deleted, course tree panel  404  is dynamically updated to display the new course structure.  
         [0058]    Upon either a successful login or the selection of My Courses navigation button  408 , working panel  406  displays the personal course library associated with the username and/or password submitted at login screen  300 . FIG. 4 shows an exemplary illustration of working panel  406  showing a personal course library with several existing courses. Working panel  406  displays information such as each course name, course short name, and the percentage of pre- and post-test questions that a student is required to answer correctly to receive credit for taking the course. The author may modify any course in the personal course library.  
         [0059]    By selecting master course navigation button  410 , a master course may be copied from the master course library to the personal course library. Once copied to the personal course library, the author may add, modify, or delete the course&#39;s structure or instructive content, just as with any existing course in the personal course library. FIG. 5 shows an exemplary illustration  500  of working panel  406  displaying the master course library comprising a list of master courses available for copying to the personal course library. It is important to note that the author does not have access to altering the structure or instructive content of the original master courses. A master course will comprise the same course structure and instructive content regardless of changes to the copies of master courses placed in the personal course library.  
         [0060]    [0060]FIG. 6 shows an exemplary illustration  600  of working panel  406  after selecting new course navigation button  412 . Working panel  406  provides a display for receiving input directed to the creation of a new course. In the present embodiment, working panel  406  receives a course name, a course short name, and a student-passing requirement. The course name and short name provide identifying indicia for the course. These indicia will be displayed by screen  400  when listing the courses of the personal library. Also, the author may also begin composing instructive content for the new course by using a word processor component. It is preferable that the word processor component offers a simple and intuitive interface that includes basic word processing functionality such as a “cut &amp; paste” operation, text formatting, paragraph formatting, etc. In the present embodiment, working panel  406  instructs the author to input the course syllabus or course objectives into the word processor component. However, it should be appreciated that the content authoring system may accept any instructive course content in the word processing component.  
         [0061]    For the purpose of achieving a professional and polished appearance to a course, one or more graphics may be added. In the present embodiment, a graphic may be associated with the course itself and each section or page in the course. FIG. 7 shows an exemplary illustration of a screen  700  after the author has chosen to add a graphic to the course. A graphics library is displayed which permits the author to view and select the image which is to be associated with the course or section. As shown in FIG. 7, the graphics library may be navigated using a theme-based hierarchal tree structure.  
         [0062]    [0062]FIG. 8 shows an exemplary illustration of working panel  406  providing a display for the author to make additions, modifications, or deletions to sections of the course structure. Course tree panel  404  now displays structure content comprising sections and subsections, and in the present embodiment, authoring engine  123  generates pre- and post-test sections without any action on the part of the author. There is no limit to the number of sections that an author may submit to the system. As each section is created, a graphic may be associated therewith. No instructive content for the course may be assembled for a section until that section has been created.  
         [0063]    [0063]FIG. 9 shows an exemplary illustration of working panel  406  after sections have been submitted for the course structure. Using the display of working panel  406 , the author may add, modify, or delete a subsection for any of the existing sections. Each and every subsection must be associated with a section. In the present embodiment, no graphics are associated with the subsections. It should be appreciated that in alternative embodiments, a graphic may be associated with a subsection.  
         [0064]    [0064]FIG. 10 shows an exemplary illustration of the display of working panel  406  after a plurality of subsections has been submitted. Working panel  406  provides a display for receiving instructive content for organization into the course structure. Each and every page accepted by system  106  is associated with a subsection.  
         [0065]    System  106  provides a variety of templates for the presentation of instructive content. In the present embodiment, system  106  makes available a number of templates for presenting general instruction, a number of templates for presenting a review exercise, and a number of templates for presenting a scenario as shown in the exemplary illustrations  1100 ,  1200 ,  1300  of FIGS. 11, 12, and  13 , respectively. Upon the selection of a template, the course authoring system presents a display for receiving instructive content corresponding to the selected template. FIGS. 14, 15, and  16  each show an exemplary illustration of a display  1400 ,  1500 ,  1600  used for submitting the instructive content, the review exercise, and the scenario situation, respectively.  
         [0066]    The data structure of course authoring system  106  will now be described with reference to the example data structure of FIG. 17. Data repositories  128 ,  129 ,  130  are implemented and managed using RDBMS  136 . Data repositories  128 ,  129 ,  130  may be implemented using other relational database technology, or other database technology than that described herein, such as those based on the entity-relationship model, the hierarchical model, or the network model. It is preferable that RDBMS  136  supports XML data storage.  
         [0067]    Data repository  128  comprises table  1701  for storing a list of courses in the personal course library, a table  1702  for storing course structure content of the author&#39;s personal library, and table  1704  for storing course instructive content for organization within the course structure. Table  1701  stores a username for identifying personal course libraries among authors, a course title, a course shortname, a percentage to pass pre- and post-test review questions for course credit, and a creation date. Each course title corresponds to a course title of table  1702 .  
         [0068]    Each tuple of table  1702  includes a course title, a section title of the aforesaid course title, a subsection title of the aforesaid course title, and a page number of the aforesaid subsection title. Each page number of table  1702  has a corresponding page number of table  1704 , as the latter stores the instructive content of each page. Each page number is associated with a templatelD, which is referenced to a corresponding templatelD of table  1706  in data repository  129 . The templatelD has a corresponding file path pointing to a web page adapted for receiving instructive content for the corresponding template. Authoring engine  123  may access the web page when an author selects to add, modify, or delete instructive content from an existing course page or create an entirely new course page.  
         [0069]    Referring back to table  1704 , the text of instructive content pages is stored in the content columns. In the present embedment, template A defines three text areas to which an author may contribute text, such as the template of FIG. 14. Therefore, three of the content columns for the pages using this template contain text. Template B may define two text areas, such as that illustrated in FIG. 15. Therefore, two of the content columns for the pages using this template contain text.  
         [0070]    Each tuple of table  1704  may also contain a graphicID. The graphicID is referenced to a corresponding graphicID of table  1708  of data repository  129 . The graphiclD of table  1708  corresponds to a file path where the graphic is stored on system  106 .  
         [0071]    When an author creates a new course to or edits an existing course from the personal course library, changes are made by engine  123  to tables  1701 ,  1702  and  1704  of data repository  128  only. Engine  123  has read-only permissions to tables  1706  and  1708  of data repository  129 .  
         [0072]    When an author chooses to edit a master course of the master course library, the selected master course content is copied from tables  1710 ,  1712 , and  1714  of repository  130  and added to tables  1701 ,  1702 , and  1704  of repository  128 , respectively. When it is copied, the author&#39;s username is affixed to the course content of the copied master course in accordance with the other courses of the personal course library, as well as a creation date. It should be appreciated that the master courses of repository  129  is not associated with a username because access to copying these course is not limited to a particular author. As with repository  129 , engine  123  has read-only permissions to repository  130 .  
         [0073]    When a student takes a course, course delivery engine  156  queries course content from repositories  128 ,  129  for dynamically constructing student screens  158 . Screens  158  may be cached for subsequent access.  
         [0074]    It should be appreciated that the data structure of FIG. 17 is by way of example and for explanatory purposes only. In other embodiments, the tables of the data repositories may vary.  
         [0075]    The operation of system  106  will be described with reference to FIG. 18. The process begins at block  1802  and proceeds to block  1803  where the author is presented login screen  300  for accessing authoring system  106 . Authoring engine  123  receives a username and/or password at block  1804 . At decision block  1805 , the username and/or password is compared to login data of data repository  128  to determine if the author has access privileges to the course authoring system. If there is a username and/or password match in data repository  128 , then the author is granted access to system  106  beginning at control block  1806 . Alternatively, it there is no match, the author is denied access and a new login screen  300  is presented at block  1803 .  
         [0076]    Upon successful login, authoring engine  123  queries data repository  128  at block  1806  for the personal course library that corresponds to the username and/or login submitted. At block  1808 , authoring engine  123  returns display screen  400  to client computer  102  with the results of the query performed at block  1806 , including the course name, shortname, percent to pass, and creation dates from data table  1701 . If the author is new to the course authoring system, the personal course library will be empty and the query of block  1806  will not return any courses from data table  1701 .  
         [0077]    Once the personal library is displayed, course authoring engine  123  can receive a variety of inputs from the author at block  1808 . Engine  123  may receive either an input for adding a copy of a master course to the personal course library, an input for modifying an existing course in the personal course library, or an input for creating a new course.  
         [0078]    If authoring engine  123  receives an input for copying a master course into the personal choice library, authoring engine  123  queries data table  1710  at block  1810  for the master course library and returns a list of master courses at block  1812 , commensurate with display screen  500 .  
         [0079]    At control block  1814 , course engine  123  receives the author&#39;s selection of a master course. Authoring engine  123  then updates the personal course library at block  1816  by copying the master course content data, including course structure data and instructive content data, from data tables  1710 ,  1712 ,  1714  to data tables  1701 ,  1702 ,  1704 , respectively. As before, the personal library is queried at block  1806  and displayed to the user at block  1808 , now with the copy of the master course.  
         [0080]    If the author elects to modify an existing course from the personal course library, authoring engine  123  receives the chosen course at control block  1818 . Engine  123  then queries data table  1702  at block  1820  for course structure data. Once the structure data is retrieved, the course-tree hierarchy of panel  404  can be compiled at block  1822 . At block  1824 , data tables  1702 ,  1704  is queried for the course content to be displayed in working panel  4006 , commensurate with display screens  600 ,  800 ,  900 ,  1000 . The content retrieved by the query need only be for the requested display. For example, there is no need to request pre- and post-test question content if the author has requested to view a course page of a different section or subsection. Authoring engine  123  transmits the requested instructive content to client computer  102  at block  1826 .  
         [0081]    The author may then add, modify, or delete course content, including the course structure or instructive content, at client computer  102 . However, no updates will be stored in data repository  128  until they are submitted to authoring engine  123 . At block  1826 , the authoring engine  123  receives one of several selections from the author. If engine  123  is instructed to cancel any modifications made at client computer  102 , or if engine  123  is instructed to display different course content, then control flow loops back to block  1820 .  
         [0082]    At block  1826 , authoring engine  123  may receive other selections, including a selection for updating data repository  128  with additions, modifications, or deletions to the current course structure or instructive content. Upon receiving this selection at block  1827 , engine  123  updates the appropriate tables in data repository  128  at block  1828  and loops back to block  1820  for loading either the same display page or a new display page at client computer  102 .  
         [0083]    At block  1826 , authoring engine  123  may receive still a different selection, including adding a graphic to the instructive content of course or adding a new page of instructive content to the course.  
         [0084]    With the selection to add a graphic, authoring engine  123  queries the graphic library of table  1708  at block  1830 . The graphics are transmitted for display at client computer  102  at block  1834 , commensurate with display screen  700 . An author can then submit their selection, which is received at control block  1836 . Authoring engine  123  updates the current display screen with the selected graphic at block  1826 , but the graphic must still be submitted to data repository  128  at block  1828  for association with the course.  
         [0085]    With the selection to add a new page of instructive content to the course, authoring engine  123  queries the page template library of table  1706  at block  1838 , which are transmitted to client computer  102  at block  1840 , for a display commensurate with screens  1100 ,  1200 ,  1300 . The author can then select a template which engine  123  receives at block  1842 . Engine  123  provides an appropriate display at block  1 : 844  adapted to match the text requirements of the selected template, commensurate with screens  1400 ,  1500 ,  1600 . Engine  123  then receives submission of the instructive content at block  1827  and data repository  128  is updated at control block  1828  with the new content. The display screen is then updated to reflect the new content by cycling through blocks  1820  to  1826 .  
         [0086]    The author may exit system  106  at any time during its operation, but a secure logoff can be performed by engine  123  at block  1846 , ending operation at block  1848 .  
         [0087]    While this invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the preferred embodiments of the invention as set forth herein, are intend to be illustrative, not limiting. Various changes may be made without departing from the true spirit and full scope of the invention as set forth herein and defined in the claims.