Intro to Macromedia Coursebuilder
By Garin Hess

Macromedia's Web development tool Dreamweaver is already popular for building e-courses. WBT developers can increase Dreamweaver's functionality by using Coursebuilder, a free add-on tool geared at building interactivity. Here's a brief look at how to use Coursebuilder to add interactivity to your Web courses.

Inserting a Coursebuilder interaction

Interactive exercises hold the learner's attention, aid knowledge retention, and can wow budget-holders. Quizzes remain the most commonly used type of interaction.

There are two methods for adding quiz questions in Dreamweaver. The first is to click on the insert menu and choose insert Coursebuilder interaction. The other option is to click on the drop-down menu at the top of the object palette and select learning (see Figure 1). In the learning pop-up box, click on the Coursebuilder icon and Dreamweaver inserts the interaction. Unless other extensions have been installed, Coursebuilder will be the only object in the learning object palette.

Figure 1

NOTE: The first time you use Coursebuilder in Dreamweaver, you're prompted to copy support files to your site structure.

Question types

Once you've selected a Coursebuilder interaction, Dreamweaver displays the question type gallery tab (see Figure 2). The various question types include

• multiple-choice
• text-entry
• drag-and-drop, including matching, ordering, and identification questions
• button, an alternative version of true-and-false or multiple-choice quizzes
• sliders, which has learners slide a "thumb" along a line to choose the correct option
• exploring, which asks the learner to click on a graphical image. This option is useful for learning software menus, machine parts, and so forth.

Figure 2

Interaction options include a timer and an action manager. Each question type works differently, but they all have the same basic setup. To demonstrate, here's a close look at the setup for true-and-false questions.

Step 1: In the question type gallery, click on the icon for the true-and-false graphic. A standard true-and-false question is inserted at the cursor. A new dialogue box appears onscreen with four tabs at the bottom that allow you to customize the question.

Step 2: Complete the information in the General tab. This information tells Coursebuilder how to handle such issues as question evaluation, number of times a learner can access the question, the amount of time a learner has to answer the question, and so forth (see Figure 3).

Figure 3

Step 3: Fill out the Choices tab. For example, indicate whether possible answers are correct or incorrect (see Figure 4).

Figure 4

Step 4: Beginners can ignore the Action Mgr tab, and click OK. You should be able to see your question on your Dreamweaver page.

Step 5: Check your work in a browser.

Special features

Customization. The action manager is the brains behind each Coursebuilder interaction. It configures the decision-making structure which scripts how the program will manage learners' answers. Developers can tell the program to temporarily store scores in a variable table in a database or display specific feedback for each answer. Other options in the action manager feature include playing sound and video, sending users to different pages based on their responses, displaying animated feedback, and more.

Data tracking. Coursebuilder is equipped with features for tracking learner data. Developers can choose to link data to a database on the server or a learning management system. Also, data tracking can be configured to comply with AICC requirements. Setting up Coursebuilder to track learner data can be difficult; consult your IS department or someone already familiar with Coursebuilder.

Browser-friendly. Coursebuilder scripts code that displays equally well in Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. More important, it develops interactions in pure Javascript that require no plug-ins.

If you're already using Dreamweaver, adding Coursebuilder to your development toolbox is a no-brainer. Coursebuilder automates complicated Javascript so you can build interactions effortlessly, saving time and resources. And it's easy to learn. If you have a copy of Dreamweaver 4, simply go to the Coursebuilder download page and follow the instructions; installation is a snap.

Published: May 2001