Primary advantage of authoring languages is special subroutines facilitating educational programing; primary disadvantages are execution speed, memory limitations, and little gain in programing ease. Primary advantage of authoring systems is menu-driven editors; primary disadvantage is significant limitation in the frame-based branching programed…

Describes ongoing work in designing modular software components based on open standards and a specific instructional design theoryuinstructional transaction theory. Focuses on applied technological solutions to overcome identified limitations of current authoring environments, including proprietary architectures, instructional design theory…

Discussion of courseware development focuses on a transaction shell approach that stresses flexibility and reusability of the courseware. Topics discussed include high-level programing languages, authoring languages, authoring systems, knowledge structures, and knowledge acquisition; and an example for applying the transaction shell approach to…

Reviews instructional design techniques that are suggested for improving the quality and effectiveness of educational software. Three areas of instructional design are addressed: (1) instructional strategies, including provision, examples and active feedback; (2) screen display, including text style variety; and (3) human factors, including…