Towards an option space for network structures in computer-based instruction

Abstract

There are three major agents in a computer-based instruction (CBI) environment: the tutor, the tutoring system and the tutee. The emphasis of this paper is on the tutoring system which contains the instructional content and structures for presenting the content, the rules guiding a particular student's path through the material, and information regarding the performance data to be recorded. A CBI program consists of a network of related chunks of information, called nodes, that are connected by means as associated links. Research has been undertaken into the general structures of a CBI environment and some of of the results will be discussed in this paper.

The structure that makes up a CBI program is essential a directed semantic multigraph. Formal specifications are employed to discuss several properties that influence the usability of these CBI networks structures, including reachability, determinism, precedence ordering and restartability. Although these structures are discussed in the context of CBI, the particular properties can also be transferred to other multimedia applications.