Resumen de Aspects of an Environment for the Use of Adaptable Courseware Products
Sjoerd A. de Vries, Paul van Schaik
In this article the concept of an Environment for Courseware Use (ECU) is defined. It is required that a courseware product can be adapted within the environment in which it is going to be used. An ECU is a collection of tools to carry out activities related to the use of adaptable courseware products. We describe a model for applying computer support within educational organizations and distinguish in this model two levels of computer support which are related to the use of adaptable courseware products. Adopting the requirement of product adaptability, we discuss the concept of adaptable courseware products and describe the life cycle of such products. We make a distinction between a product cycle and a use cycle and describe four types of users of an ECU. Based on these theoretical aspects of using adaptable courseware products we urge the importance of an information model of an ECU for ECU design. The model consists of a task structure of an ECU, a data structure and of a user interface.
