I need ideas on how I can do this...

I have to create an interactive tutorial.

[jigga]

Hello all, excuse me if this is long, but I really need some help and ideas on what type of technology I can use to implement what I need to do.
I've been asked to create an interactive tutorial for students, and Im somewhat lost as to how to do it. This is what I have to do:

Students are given a business case study, which is simply a text document which depicts stuff about a company. Now different phrases of the case, can be categorized under different headings.
For example, when they do this on paper, they have 6 boxes on the last page of the case, and they place the different phrases into the approriate box. To be more specific, the first sentence might be : "the company was incorporated in 2001" This specific phrase tells something about the "Environment" company, and goes into a pre-labeled box called "Environment" , and so on.
I had the idea to have the case displayed on the screen for the user, and when they hover over a certain word of phrase, that phrase is high-lighted and a menu will drop down that offers a choice of which box they want to place that phrase in. If they are right, it does it, if not, it tells them they are wrong, and to try again.

Now I have to create this as a web application. Im not sure whether I should use Flash, DHTML, Java etc... oh, and to make it even more screwy, I have to make it so they can use more cases with it in the future. That means it needs a back end! Now what? ASP? If its possible to duplicate the program in the future without a backend, then I may not have to do that.

But for now, do any of you have any idea on what I can use to implement this?

[IanKelley]

It depends on how controlled your environment needs to be... If you can be relatively sure that the students will be accessing the tutorial the second time using the same computer/broswer then you could do the whole thing using JavaScript and cookies.

If not then you'll have to use server side scripting... ASP would work... PHP is open source. The scripting would be mixed with DHTML for some of the UI aspects you were talking about.

Sounds like a big project though... If you don't already know the languanges involved you're going to have a hell of a time :-) Could be fun though.

[SmallTime]

An experienced Flash 5 person could do this. Or, if you are doing a lot of it, Macromedia makes a set of products for web based learning - their Authorware program and elearning studio (includes Authorware Flash and Dreamweaver) . Have not used it, but looks like it pre-programs some of the student interactive stuff.

[Marcia]

jigga there's a whole emerging industry related to online conferencing, a good part of it for educational purposes. There is software specifically geared to an online learning environment.

Here's Google's result for online conferencing software [google.com]. There are some product review sites included, and if you watch the terminology you'll also find some other search phrases to check out. You might just find something you can use right "off the shelf".