Features
Powerful Internet Capabilities
The new version of Quest harnesses the data transfer power
and file access capabilities of the Internet, using the Internet for both peer to peer
communication and client server communication. This new capability will allow Quest titles
to communicate with each other and access files across an Internet connection. Users of
Quest will be able to Internet-enable their titles using several new features which will
be included on the new Internet tool tab within the Frame editor.
Peer To Peer Communication
The new version of Quest introduces a whole new way to
create courseware that can communicate and exchange data across an Internet network.
Quest's new objects provide peer to peer event and data handling that can be used in
either a client server or multiple client model for true real-time interaction between
users of Quest titles. This new functionality provides for true interactivity and real
time delivery of titles over the network in a way unparalleled by any other authoring
tool.
These new objects are flexible enough that they can be used
to create courseware for team training simulations, real time updating of course content,
centralized data tracking, and many other distributive and remote training needs. Since
these new objects use Microsoft's Winsock API, they will work with any internal or
extended network that uses the TCP.IP protocol, allowing them to not only work with the
Internet but also with a company's own local area network.
There are five new Quest objects that provide Internet
features. Four of these objects work with peer to peer Internet communications. The Peer
Connect object allows the author to connect to or specify connections for other Quest
titles during runtime. Any title can connect to any number of other titles and manage
these connections through an alias assignment method that allows the title to carry on
several different conversations with multiple connections all at once. The Peer Disconnect
can be used to terminate any active connection. The Peer Monitor object allows a title to
respond to events and automatically capture data sent from other titles. This data capture
uses the same variable support described with the CMI objects above. The final object is a
Peer Send object that can be used to transfer events and data to active connections during
runtime.
URL File Access
The fifth new object found on the Internet tool tab is a
URL File Access object. URL stands for Universal Resource Locator and is a standard way to
specify locations of files using the Internet. This new object allows a Quest title to
read files stored on any web site, providing a means to update or add content to a Quest
title during runtime.
Unlimited Interactive Offerings
The power, ease-of-use, and functionality afforded in Quest
goes far beyond the restricted offerings of HTML. Quest gives you unlimited interactive
options that can be built quickly using click-and-drag objects in a WYSIWYG environment.
In other words, you are not limited to a small subset of operating system functions
typically associated with Internet applications--Quest gives you all of the features you
need to create dynamic, powerful education and training applications using a series of
objects, pull down menus, frames, and boxes.
Plus, since Quest allows separation of content from
structure and doesn't store duplicate media elements, it's easy to control the size of
your course for easy delivery over the Internet. Quest also offers unique functionality
which allows the author to selectively define which elements of a course need to be
downloaded. For example, if a trainee in a remote location opens up his/her training
assignment, he/she can download in real time only those units of the lesson assigned to
him/her rather than spending the time downloading the entire lesson. This helps optimize
productivity and eliminates the long waiting periods that are often associated with
pulling information off the Internet.
New CMI Power
The new version of Quest also includes an integrated CMI
utility called the Quest Manager. With its easy-to-use interface and compatible Quest
objects, this new tool is a great solution for data tracking and student management needs.
There are two main pieces to the new CMI features in Quest: the new Quest Manager and a
set of new CMI objects available from within Quest's Frame Editor.
The Quest Manager
The Quest Manager is a shell used by administrators to
manage users and courses, and by students to control the presentation of assigned course
activities. As an administrator you can view and create lists of both users and courses. A
course is made up of one or more activities that may involve running a program such as a
Quest title, attending a stand up lecture, completing a training manual, etc. Activities
using software applications are automatically marked as completed once the program has
been run or upon meeting a defined scoring requirement.
As an administrator you are presented with two tabs, one
containing a list of users, the other a list of courses. While viewing either tab, you can
add, remove, or modify items in the associated list and make assignments between the
available users and courses. When creating courses and defining their activities you can
specify other activities such as pre-requisites which must be completed before the student
can proceed. From either list you can access the reports feature to view the progress or
interactions saved during the running of a course. This allows you to selectively view
reports based on either users or courses for a single item or multiple selected items.
When entering the Quest Manager as a student, you are
presented with a list of all assigned courses and activities within those courses, each
with a graphical notation showing you which activities have been previously completed and
which are currently available. From this list you can select and automatically launch
software programs specified as activities for an assigned course. If the associated
program supports the Quest Manager's data tracking feature, then the student data is
collected and stored for future reporting purposes.
The Quest Manager uses an Access database through ODBC to
store user registrations, course definitions, and collected student data. Its data
tracking features conform to the CMI Guidelines for Interoperability (a standard
created by the AICC), so it can be used with courses currently compatible with Pathway
from Solis, a product resold by Macromedia.
New CMI Objects
To support the new Quest Manager, a new set of object tools
have been added to Quest's Frame Editor. These three new objects utilize a user friendly
wizard and can interface directly with Quest variables for reading and writing data. When
accessing variables, the new objects can automatically convert data between standard data
types such as integers, floats, character strings, etc.
Hypertext Functionality
Quest Net+ also delivers new hypertext capabilities. When
creating or importing text, authors can now automatically turn text into hot words. Unlike
many other authoring tools, the hypertext links set up in Quest can trigger any Quest
object -- including video, audio, graphics, branching, pop -up windows, etc. -- not just
text based events. The new hypertext feature is integrated directly into Quest's
object-oriented, event driven architecture. This allows simple hyper link selection to
utilize all of Quest's capabilities as feedback, opening up many unique and exciting
opportunities for new levels of interactivity.
Quest Thinks Like You Do
Quest is a breakthrough authoring tool built by
instructional experts to enhance the creation of interactive training and education titles
using an approachable, reusable, powerful, and extensible object-oriented architecture. It
is used by thousands of developers worldwide to develop training, educational titles,
kiosks, and other highly interactive presentations. Windows Magazine (June 1995) said,
"With its intuitive interface and excellent detail control, Quest is a powerhouse
program for creating interactive multimedia projects."
Quest has also been labelled by many media as the first
authoring tool which really thinks like an instructional designer. It offers two main
levels of development--the Title Design level and the Frame level. The Title Design level
is your opportunity to lay out the structure of your course using modules, lessons,
frames, and paths. The Frame level gives developers the development tools--graphics,
animations, text, everything necessary to create powerful multimedia applications in one
WYSIWYG environment. Quest is the only true object-oriented authoring tool on the market,
which translates into tremendous interactive capabilities. Plus, for those who demand
extra power, ANSI C is embedded in Quest, which means users can access the power of C, or
directly link to other C-based programs, from within Quest.
|
