Macromedia Authorware is a product designed to allow non-programmers to develop interactive multimedia. Although Authorware is used primarily to produce computer based training for corporations, it can also be used to develop computerized practice, review, remediation or enrichment for K-12 and University students. 

A few faculty pioneers at the University of Delaware, with the help of budding experts at the PRESENT, are exploring a variety of ways that the power of Authorware can be harnessed to promote learning, both inside and outside of the classroom. This page is intended to showcase some of what they have accomplished, and envision what is yet to come.

Technical Strengths and Weaknesses: flexibility, availability, ease of use.

Pedagogical Strengths and Weaknesses: addressing the "7 Principles" 

Plug-in test: Check here to make sure you have the Authorware plug-in.

University of Delaware Authorware Works in Progress

Other Links

Perhaps the best way to describe Authorware is by comparison with a tool many faculty already know and use: Microsoft's PowerPoint. I will compare these two products across three dimensions: flexibility, ease of use, and accessibility. 

• Flexibility: Authorware is by far the more flexible of the two tools. This is especially true in the area of interactivity. Where PowerPoint can easily make an objects fly onto the screen in a predetermined order, Authorware easily allows objects to move in any path, at any time, in a manner that is determined by a student response. Where PowerPoint easily creates buttons that link to other presentation pages, Authorware buttons can trigger virtually any action you can imagine. Not all such behaviors will be easy for a beginning developer to create, but the range of easily producible actions is much greater in Authorware than in PowerPoint. 
• Ease of Use: One of the prices you pay for increased functionality is decreased ease of use. For example, PowerPoint provides a variety of professionally produced backgrounds, bullet styles, actions, sounds, etc. A developer willing to choose from among the options that come packaged with the program can produce a professional looking product with very little effort. Authorware offers very little in terms of pre-packaged graphics or effects (the exception is a wide variety of fade-ins, fly ins, dissolve ins, etc.). The price of increased control over what the program can and can not do is the requirement that you design for yourself. This means, for example, importing media (clip art, digitized photographs, sounds, video, etc.) rather than simply picking a template and entering text. Of course, many faculty already import media into their digital projects. If you are in the habit of customizing your PowerPoint presentations with backgrounds, sounds, video or graphics created in other applications, and are chafing at the limitations* of its "animation effects", you are well prepared to graduate to Authorware.

• Accessibility: This is perhaps the biggest weakness of Authorware, especially as it compares to ubiquitous tools such as PowerPoint or Javascript. A finished Authorware piece must run on a Macromedia runtime application or browser "plug-in". Although these applications are free, they are generally NOT already loaded on a potential user's machine.

Principle 1: Encouraging student-faculty contact: When used over the web, Authorware pieces can contain dynamic links to email and other web pages. Perhaps more importantly, Authorware can capture student comments and performance in a text file. These files can be transferred back to the web server via FTP. Because of security issues, it is not advisable to use Authorware for web-based testing. However, practice exams, and practice problems with computerized feedback and the option to seek further explanation via email are all ways that Authorware can enhance faculty/student communication.

Principle 2: Encourage cooperation among students. This is an area of relative weakness. Authorware is not inherently a tool for collaboration. However, virtually anything is possible. For example, Authorware can offer students the opportunity to write their own practice problems, which could then be presented to other students. This rather challenging technically, but definitely possible. UD faculty who wish to pursue this or similar options should seek help and advice from the PRESENT.

Principle 3: Encourage active learning. A definite strength. Authorware's raison d'etre is interactivity. Not only can students answer questions and receive instantaneous feedback, they can explore computer microworlds, invest in a virtual stock market, even run for political office, and experience life as a state senator. Such applications are complicated, and take a great deal of time to build, but if your goal is to promote "learning by doing" on a computer, there are few tools as powerful and easy to use as Authorware.

Principle 4: Giving Prompt Feedback. Another strength. As with any interactive computer application, Authorware offers instantaneous feedback, but can also be adjusted to delay feedback, provide context sensitive hints, adjust problem difficulty to individual students, or direct learners to other learning resources.

Principle 5: Emphasizing Time on Task. One of the great benefits of well designed multimedia is that it is very engaging. However, many so-called educational software products fall into the trap of putting in more bells and whistles than true content. This can be counter-productive. Clearly this is a design issue that is not specific to any one development tool. When well used, Authorware can enhance time on task by creating providing clean, well-targeted, interactive learning activities that motivate students to spend a bit more time than they otherwise might. 

Principle 6: Communicate High Expectations. Again, this is a design issue. It is of course possible to place very challenging content in an Authorware piece, or demand a high degree of proficiency before a student is "passed" from one level or topic to another. However, the expectations communicated to students will be determined by a complex web of factors, including the design of the piece, the manner in which it is introduced by the professor, the extent to which student work within the computerized activity is monitored, etc..

Principle 7: Respecting Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning. There are many ways in which learners can be diverse, and some of these are more sensitive to design than to a development tool. Nothing about Authorware is inherently helpful in dealing with issues or race, culture, or upbringing. However, Authorware does enable content presentation using multiple, and in some cases simultaneous sensory modalities, and can easily allow user control over the style of presentation. For instance, some students might like to read the background information and instructions for a certain type of exercise before beginning. Others might want to jump right in, and access instructions on an as needed basis. Allowing either or both is a simple task using Authorware.

As mentioned above, viewing these demos on the web requires a browser "plug-in". If you are using Internet Explorer, your computer has probably been downloading the Authorware Web Player plug-in from the Macromedia web site while you were reading this page. If it is finished, you will see an ugly scrolling banner below. With a bit of good timing, you should be able to control its color.

If you have not successfully installed the plug-in, and you are using IE, you may just need to wait a bit longer. You can minimize your browser while you wait, but you should not close the browser, or send it to another page. If you want to surf the web while you wait, open another instance of your browser. If you are having difficulty acquiring the plug-in, or if you are using Netscape, click here, or contact Becky Kinney at the PRESENT (302) 831-0640.

WARNING: Do not browse to any of these links unless the test piece above is working. Doing so will abort the download of the plug-in you need to view these sites.

Once your plug-in is working, you should be able to view these sites without further ado. Please contact Becky Kinney if this turns out not to be the case.

• Lab Math Simulation. This showcases the way Authorware can be used to produce simulations, as well as to allow students to control the difficulty level of the problems they will solve.
• More Lab Math. A more symbolic, less visual coverage of the same material.
• Unit conversion. A game which "graduates" students to harder problems after 3 "warm-up" problems have been solved correctly.
• Quiz: Very similar to Flashcard, the Quiz engine is designed to accept longer and more varied question stems for each individual response. Unlike Flashcard, the quiz engine requires pre-scripted distractors (incorrect responses) for each question, and allows pre-scripted feedback for each possible response. Response choices are positioned randomly at run time. New question sets are read from a simple text file (no additional programming required. If you wish to mount a new quiz, contact Becky Kinney at the PRESENT. NOTE: THIS APPLICATION IS INTENDED FOR SELF ASSESSMENT ONLY. WE DO NOT RECOMMEND THE USE OF THIS TOOL FOR STUDENT TESTING.

CAUTION: Do not follow any of the links on this page if you are still waiting for the Authoware Plug-in to finish downloading! To see if the download is complete, click here.

7 Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education

The PRESENT

Becky Kinney's Home Page