[comp.ivideodisc] Authoring systems

ooblick@eddie.MIT.EDU (Mikki Barry) (02/04/88)

While there are very few authoring systems that state they are exclusively
for IVD, many can easily be used and have the necessary drivers and support.

Off the top of my head, there is TenCORE, Authority, and IMSATT.  I think
also that GIST has a system that is easily used.

We have used all of these and like TenCORE best for the applications we have
been creating.  However, I am sure that the other systems are equally good
for different applications.

If anyone would like information on any of the above systems (price,
address to contact, etc.) e-mail me and I will provide it.

Mikki Barry

ooblick@eddie.MIT.EDU (Mikki Barry) (02/09/88)

Since the response asking me about authoring systems was so great, I thought
I would finally get off my duff and post something about the systems we
are familiar with.

TenCORE

Not really an authoring system, but is a full-fledged programming
language.  Suppoorts IVD, graphics cards, touch screens, bit pads, etc.
Tencore is about 6 years old and requires programming knowledge to get
immediate use of all capabilities.  It is our premier authoring tool

Machine:	PC or clones (supports PS/2) also Apple II
Cost:		$2,000 for language itself
Contact:	Computer Teaching Corporation (217-352-6363)
		Or Learning Tree (for sales/support)

Imsatt 2000

System based on Forth.  Simple lessons can be created quickly.  Does not
fully support all hardware, but they are working on it.  Allows for some
limited Expert System abilities and has very good voice i/o feature.

Machine:	PC and clones (not sure about PS/2)
Cost:		$4500 (may drop soon)
Contact:	Imsatt Corporation (703) 533-7500
		Or Learning Tree (gee, our fingers are in everything)

Maestro/PC

Icon based easy to use system.  Great for the non programmer.  We haven't
used it, but documentation looks good.  Quick phone call confirmed that
they are in the process of supporting visage, matrox and microkey boards.

Machine:	PC and clones
Cost:		$799 and $250 for phone support
Contact:	Aimtech Corporation (603) 883-0220

TEL

Or Training and Education Language.  We know many of the people who worked on
this.  The idea was excellent, however, we are not sure how it currently works.
The demo version we received did not support the EGA card we had in our AT.
We have been told that this has since been fixed.  TEL is trying to be a pretty
loaded authoring system, easy enough for non programmers, but flexible enough
for complex programming.  The best feature is the extensive student
response mark-up, a feature it shares with TenCORE.  Like the above
mentioned systems, it also contains a student management system.  Not sure
about the completeness of the IVD interface.

Machines:	PC and clones
Cost:		$695 (but this is an old price)
Contact:	Regency Systems, Inc.  (217) 398-8067

Course of Action

We have been playing with this one and think it is quite well designed.
It is great for anyone who needs courseware on both Mac's and PC's.  
It seems to be quite easy to use.  You build the course outline and add
the info that you want in each section.  This completes the finished lesson.
It allows animation, multiple touch points or mouse click areas, sound,
and quite good graphics.  Some IVD capabilities and seems to support 
video overlay boards.  Mac overlay boards are unknown to us (if anyone knows of
any, please let us know).  Drawback is that it needs to allow for actual
code writing to do some of the things you need for a complete authoring system.
However, we haven't seen anything else for the Mac.  If anyone else has,
please post it.

Machines:	PC and Mac (support for Mac II)
Cost:		varies (there are several packages
Contact:	Authorware, Inc. (612) 921-8555
Note:		They offer several training packages where you can go to the
		company and learn how to use the system (they are in 
		Minneapolis)

Since there are about 50 different authoring systems and languages, it is
too difficult to talk about them all (especially when we haven't used
them all :-)  But these are the ones that stand out on the good side.
The ones we don't like so well are Authority, Visage V:EXEC, and Sam.
Anyone with any specific questions can feel free to call me at LTS

Mikki Barry
General Manager
Learning Tree Software
(703) 478-0010

solid@aucs.AcadiaU.ca (Tomasz Muldner) (02/18/91)

We would like to offer here, at Acadia a course on CBT and authoring systems
and I've evaluated the following authoring tools:
 Tencore, IconAuthor, ASK.ME, ACTIII, Phoenix, Course Builder, Authorware,
Hypercard.
I'm trying to decide which of the above packages (or perhaps yet another one)
would be the best, assuming that  an authoring tool should run on a 386,
 and *possibly* on Mac
-- 
Dr. Tomasz Muldner, Professor, Jodrey School of Computer Science
Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada B0P1X0
UUCP:      {seismo|watmath|utai|garfield}!dalcs!aucs!solid
BITNET:    solid@Acadia