[Xerte] structuring LO's needing a topic hierarchy

[johnathan.kemp at ntlworld.com]

Alan,

I notice that you refer to the routed tab navigator page wizard.

This wizard is thus far the only page wizard that offers routing from the page i.e. the ability to assign destination pages or exit points to features on the page (in this wizard's case radio buttons). However it is limited in what you can display within a tab, i.e. you can include text, an image or a flashPaper document or a swf, but you can't include features such as multiple choice questions, hotspots etc. With respect to swfs that can be included on a tab, this includes Wink generated swfs. Wink (just incase you have not come across it) is a free application that performs screen capture and is well suited to rapidly develop demonstrations of software applications).

If you want to use the features offered by the many other page wizards you would need to design your project around one or more hub pages based on routed tab navigator based pages, the exit options from which would take you to the first page in a series of pages that dealt with that particular topic.

I will be releasing soon three more routed page wizards that could offer you alternative formats for hub pages. These are :-

Routed Plain Text - which allows you to add hyperlinks to other pages in your Xerte learning object.
Routed Hot Spot - based on the Hot Spot page, but the hot spots when clicked take you to the destination page specified for the hot spot.
Routed Multiple Choice Question - based on the multiple choice question page wizard. You specify a question and a number of answers. When you select an answer you are taken to the destination page for that answer.

These should give you some further options for hub pages, but they will not be available for a few days, so I am unsure whether this will meet your current time scales.

You may also be interested in the simpleNavigation model that was developed for use with routed pages. It uses a simple swf based button, so you could easily customise the presentation to suite your project, but it includes options for home page and a Last In First Out queue based back button that may be more appropriate if your project offers a variety of routes.

I don't know if this is of help.

Kind regards

Johnathan
---- Alan Duncan <al at akduncan.com> wrote: 
>  Sorry this is a bit long
> 
> I am intending to use xerte to present on-line leaning for a software
> application (First session next week actually). The LO's will be usd for
> initial training and will also serve as the business process help system for
> users who have forgotten how to do something. Separate learning objects will
> be created for each of the business processes and some sub processes
> depending on the level of complexity or detail the process needs (and
> managed at the LO level by Moodle or some other LMS to allow practical
> learning tasks and competency tests to be available for each process and
> fully managed etc.
> The overall question is how to (quickly) set up a 2 or 3 level hierarchy
> with different page types at the leaf level
> An example of part of the first LO is as follows
> 
> Topic 2 – biscoPro Screen
> 
>      Main Screen
> 
> Notes + Image = main screen
> 
> 
> 
>  Notes
> 
> 
> 
>  Main List
> 
> Notes + Image = mainlist
> 
> 
> 
>  Notes + Image = mainlist
> 
> 
> 
>  Notes = usage
> 
> 
> 
>  Main Tool Bar
> 
> My Diary
> 
> My Desktop
> 
> Notes + Images?
> 
> Diary (Old)
> 
> Notes + Images?
> 
> Show Reminders
> 
> Notes + Images?
> 
> Close Reminders
> 
> Notes + Image?
> 
> Reports
> 
> A list of 10, or more
> 
> Separate Topic
> 
> Search
> 
> Search Form notes + image
> 
> Separate topic Direct Link?
> Other topics are
> Topic 4 Tree View
> Topic 5 Button Bar more details on special buttons e.g $Cost
> Topic 6 Glides/Splitters
> Topic 7 Right Click Menu
> Topic 8 Grid View
> Topic 9 Search
> Topic 10 Reports (*Could easily be another LO)
> How the topic is used
> Ideally the user will go straight to the topic of interest and be able to go
> back and forward between subtopics where there is no implied sequence
> 
> Tab navigator looks the most suitable because the user can tab to what they
> want without clicking thourgh a sequence of pages that are not relevant to
> the specific topic the user wants to view. At the same time they can still
> see the other sub topics in the group
> 
> However this is not a single hierarchy it has
> 
>    1.
> 
>    the list of topics (a Menu Page?)
>    2.
> 
>    the first level sub topic
>    3.
> 
>    the second level sub topic
> 
> 1 What is the best way to implement with a 3 -level hierarchy (more than
> that will probably confound the user) e.g a tabbed navigator with a tabbed
> navigator as one of the “pages'
> 
> 2 There is a practical limitation on the number of tabs that can fit on a
> single page. What is the best way to cope with the 10 sub topics in the tool
> bar topic for example?
> 
> 3 It is possible an leaf (sub topic) would need to use a slide show,
> annotated page, or even another navigator etc. Ideally any leaf level item
> could use any existing page wizard plus maybe some new ones that need to be
> created
> 
> 4 What is the best way to integrate the different page types into one of the
> navigator page wizards (especially the Tabbed Navigator or the Routed Tab
> Navigator
> 5 what is the best way to direct link fronm within a tabbed lead page to
> another topic ( a GOTO!)
> 
> Suggestions most welcome as I need to produce something really fast (apart
> from a menu page it looks like everything needed is there)
> 
> I thnk this sort of relates to the mention of pedagogical models that was
> raised on one of the Friday forums a while back
> 
> Regards
> Alan Duncan