Development of Topdown Courseware and Cellular Models

摘要

Frameworks for applying the cellular models, proposed by the authors years ago, are investigated aiming to reduce the complexity of courseware design. Development of topdown course-ware involves the task of arranging the contents which are logically hypertextualized so that learners can walk through the courses with utmost ease. In many cases, the produced courseware must face with varieties of learners who have different backgrounds, failing often to meet the demands of the majority of both teachers and learners. An ideal solution to this problem is to produce customized versions of the courseware, each of which is so arranged that each learner can maintain and increase one's primary interest and motivation. However, the time complexity involved in such a process is combinatorial, which can be reduced to an amenable task only when, at present, experienced teachers or courseware designers are involved. In general, developing courseware takes much human resources. Using the cellular models, we can save courseware projects from this difficulty. We propose here a courseware design method based on the cellular database technology that greatly reduces the complexity of designing processes in orders of magnitude, aiming to promote the development of courseware for topdown education.