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DigHT 310
Program Structure

In the Instructional Design lecture I discussed several basic instructional design strategies for instructional software.

We looked at four different strategies: Tutorial, Simulation, HyperText/Hypermedia, and Drill and Practice. We also discussed linear vs. non-linear presentation and structured vs. unstructured approaches to instructional software.

Today we are going to look at several basic program designs and create simple LiveCode projects based on these structures, paying attention to how we can use the innate layered nature of LiveCode to quickly set up a structure with basic navigational capabilities.

Here are the basic structures, presented roughly in order from the simplest to the most complex:

Linear

Suggested structure in LiveCode:

• one Mainstack;
• one background-style group containing all navigation buttons and common information fields;
• as many cards as needed, with the group on each card;
• Card-specific controls as needed.

Jump-Linear

Suggested structure in LiveCode:

• one Mainstack;
• one background-style group containing all navigation buttons and common information fields;
• one menu card, without the group on it;
• as many other cards as needed, with the group on all remaining cards

Strict Branching

Suggested structure in LiveCode:

• one mainstack;
• one group with controls for navigation between the branches and the beginning card, placed on the last card of each branch;
• three background-style groups, one for each branch, each containing buttons for internal branch navigation and common information fields;
• as many cards as needed in each branch, each with the background group for that branch placed on it.

Open Branching

Suggested structure in LiveCode:

• one mainstack;
• one group with controls for navigation between the branches and the beginning card, placed on the each card of each branch;
• three background-style groups, one for each branch, each containing buttons for internal branch navigation and common information fields;
• as many cards as needed in each branch, each with the background group for that branch placed on it.

Indexed or Hyperlinked

Suggested structure in LiveCode:

No particular structure suggested by this format; could be a collection of unique cards with hyperlinks to other cards as needed. Probably one group for navigating back to a "home" card.

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A program need not employ only one of these various structures exclusive of the others. One could easily incorporate several structures into one program. For example, a mainly linear tutorial might be have optional exercises that use a branching structure:

In-class Exercise: Creating program structures.