The four products will be discussed separately starting with Instructor. ToolBook II is sold as an Internet development system and it aims to make the task of converting courseware into Internet ready products as simple as possible. HTML-based Web pages and Java applets can be produced without the developer requiring expertise in this area. ActiveX controls can also be used. An overview of the functionality of Instructor as a courseware development system follows.
Instructor is an object oriented development system that provides hypermedia type linkages.
Development of books is carried out using the windows environment to build pages of text, animations and graphics. Instructor includes a graphics editor but various picture formats are supported so that illustrations and diagrams can be imported from other packages as can digitised images. Buttons, icons, etc. can be included to help users to select options. Widgets can be modified to suit the specific requirements of a development team and added to the widget catalogue. Selected widgets can be saved in a hotlist so that they are easily accessed.