Demonstration Tutorial – {sectionno}

{START}{QUIZ Quiz=demonstration}

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Introduction

 

This tutorial shows you how wtutor can deliver simple interactive tutorials over the Web. 

 

With wtutor you can

 

In this tutorial you will learn

 

In addition, this tutorial is an example of wtutor!

 

Click on [OK] to continue.

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How wtutor works

 

wtutor has four main components:

·        The wtutor program, which must be installed on the Web Server that delivers your web pages.

·        The tutorial itself, which must be stored in HTML format.

·        A quiz script file containing the quiz questions to be asked in the tutorial.

·        The qedit program, which is a free Windows program that can be used to simplify the creation of quiz script files.

 

A wtutor tutorial is just an HTML file containing embedded wtutor commands that is delivered from a web server by the wtutor program.  The wtutor program delivers the tutorial in individual sections where each section ends with an [OK] button, or ends (like this one) with a quiz question.  The quiz questions themselves are stored in a separate file, also on the web server and accessible to wtutor.  The quiz questions are stored in a very simple format in a text file, but to make authoring quiz question simple there is a Windows program called qedit that helps you build and test quiz questions outside tutorials.

 

{ASK Number=1}{SECTION}

Steps in building a wtutor tutorial

1. Download and install software

wtutor is available in source form and also as an executable program for Windows computers.  You may need to get your system manager to install it; tell him (or her) it’s a “CGI program” written in ‘C’.  qedit can be just be downloaded to run on any Windows computer.  Downloading and installation instructions can be found at the wtutor web site at http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/resource/wtutor/.

 

2. Design your tutorial

Think out what sections you will need in your tutorial.  In what order will you present the information?  What concrete questions might you ask to check that the student has understood the material?  You may need to structure the teaching material around the questions rather than vice versa.  What are the learning objectives for your tutorial?  How can you make your tutorial interesting enough for a student to bother with?

 

3. Draft your quiz questions

Use the qedit program to create some quiz questions.  These will be things like multiple choice questions, or choosing N from M questions, or questions that ask you to type in a word.  Don’t worry at this point about the order they will be used, or whether you need all of them.  The qedit program allows you to test out the quiz questions on yourself, so you can see if they make sense.

 

Here are examples of the three main types of question.  Note that you can’t proceed further in the tutorial until you attempt to answer these questions. Sorry!

 

{ASK Number=2a,Number=2b,Number=2c}{SECTION}

 

While you must attempt the questions, you don’t need to get the questions right.  You’ll get a score at the end of the tutorial.

4. Draft your tutorial

You can write your tutorial using any word processor capable of creating HTML formatted documents.  Microsoft Word can do this – just choose HTML format when you save the file.  Within the file you embed wtutor control commands.  The commands allow wtutor to determine the different sections of the tutorial, to identify the quiz file to use for questions, to select which questions to ask, and so on.  Here are some examples of wtutor commands:

 

{START}

Indicates the start of the tutorial.  Text above this line is included at the top of every section.

{QUIZ Quiz=demonstration}

Indicates that the ‘demonstration’ quiz is the source of questions for the tutorial.

{SECTION}

Indicates a section break.

{ASK Number=1a,Number=1b}

Asks questions 1a and 1b from the selected quiz.

{NOTES}

Inserts a “notes box” like the one below.

{END}

Ends the tutorial.

 

The NOTES command tells wtutor to include a text box at this point where the user can type his/her own notes.  These notes are kept until the student reaches the end of the tutorial and can then be printed out.  Type some comments about what you’ve seen so far, you’ll find the system remembers them.

 

{NOTES}

{ENDSECTION Prompt='Next Section'}

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5. Copy your tutorial and quiz questions to your web server

When wtutor is installed, a base directory can be specified which then restricts all tutorials to specific locations within the web server filespace.  For example, all tutorials might be kept within a web directory “/wbt/tutorial”.  You might then create subdirectories based on subjects or authors.  Copy your tutorial to the correct directory on the web server.  It is usually convenient to store the HTML file containing the tutorial and the quiz file in the same directory.  If your tutorial uses graphics or sound files, remember to copy those too.

6. Test out your tutorial

You can then try out your tutorial in the same way that a student would see it.  To do this start your web browser and supply the relative address of your tutorial.  For example, if your machine is called “server”, and the tutorial is saved in a file called “mytutorial.htm” in the default wtutor directory, you might use the URL:

http://server/cgi-bin/wtutor?tutorial=mytutorial

 

wtutor will then display your tutorial section by section, asking questions and evaluating responses. Test out all the sections and all the questions in your tutorial.  Enter the correct answers and also some incorrect answers to check that the explanatory text is useful and relevant.  Also ask some typical users to try your tutorial and give you some feedback.

7. Refine and publish

On the basis of your testing and evaluation, refine the text of the tutorial, the quiz questions and the answers.  When you are done, make a link to the tutorial from your main web site pages and advertise its availability.

 

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How to obtain wtutor

 

The wtutor home page at http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/resource/wtutor has all you need to start writing your own tutorials.

 

From the wtutor home page you can:

·        download the ‘C’ source code to wtutor

·        download the qedit program for question authoring

·        read documentation on how to write tutorials and quizzes

·        try out example tutorials

·        download example quizzes

 

Good luck with your tutorials!

 

If you have any comments about wtutor, or you want to report faults, please e-mail SFS@phon.ucl.ac.uk. Please note that this software is unsupported and comes without warranty.  You use it at your own risk.

 

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End of tutorial

 

This is the end of the tutorial.  You answered {nanswer} questions. You got a score of {nscore} out of a possible {ntotal} or {npercent}% right. Well done!


You can stop here if you like, but if you want to see the whole tutorial click on [Complete Tutorial]. This will show you all the text of the tutorial, your notes and the answers you gave to the questions.  This is useful if you want to print out or save the whole tutorial.

 

Goodbye!

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wtutor Demonstration tutorial © 2003 Mark Huckvale University College London