CSc 332: Multimedia Development and Design
Authorware authoring assignment

  1. Do the tutorial that comes with the Authorware package. Then write a short (about one page) paper discussing what you learned about multimedia design as well as any techniques that you think you might incorporate in your term project.
  2. Using a web browser, download http://www.eecs.lehigh.edu/~glennb/mm/demoUM.zip, then use pkunzip or winzip to unarchive it in some directory and load demoUM.a5p into Authorware.
  3. Add some new display content to demoUM, some new text and new graphics (created by some other tool, such as Photoshop, PaintShop Pro or Macromedia Freehand). Kudos for interesting content! Clip art is optional.
  4. Animate Knobby or some other graphic, using the Motion icon, so that it moves in a straight line, then zigzags or curves.
  5. Imitating the quiz example in demoUM (there’s also an example in an Authorware Help "Show Me"), create a new quiz question, using radio buttons and responding appropriately to user responses. (The content of the quiz doesn't matter, so long as it isn't scurrilous!)
  6. Imitating the drag and drop example in demoUM, create a new drag and drop exercise.
  7. Make sure that the backward and forwards buttons work properly, going to reasonable places, i.e., the last page in the previous framework and the first page in the next framework, respectively. Ideally, it should always be possible to press the slow forward button to go to the next screen (except when you reach the end of the entire piece) and the slow backwards button to go to the previous screen (except at the first screen of the entire piece). This exercise will require that you insert some Interaction icons in the first and last map icons of some Frame icons, with Navigate icons that go to the appropriate icons in other Frames. This exercise is probably the most challenging part of this assignment (many people working on the UM project couldn’t figure this out!), so if you aren’t sure what to do, feel free to ask for help!
  8. Try creating an executable package from your source, then try executing it. (By the way, when you deliver an executable package, you must also deliver all external files referenced by your application, including "xtras" in an XTRAS folder.) Note the steps involved, any problems encountered and files required; however, you won’t need to hand in an executable package (due to storage and upload/download considerations).
  9. Write a README.TXT file, which comes up when one press the LOG button on the interface, explaining the changes that you made to the source code, so I'll know what to look for. Change the calculation icon for the LOG button so that it reads a file in a predictable place, where your program can find it.  Include your report of how to create an executable package.   (Note that the "FileLocation" variable, built into Authorware, contains the path to the folder that contains the current file. This provides an easy method for specifying file locations in functions that require a path. For more details, see Authorware Variables under the Window pull-down menu.)
  10. Add a Flash movie to the program.  The Flash movie should include an animation and some interactivity.

Due: Monday, March 12, or earlier.  I strongly recommend that you complete as much as of this assignment as you can in the next week or two, then add the Flash movie after you have learned Flash, then hand it in as soon as you believe you have completed all of the requirements.

Hand in: A zip file containing your README file (discussing your responses to all the above questions and documenting your modifications to demoUM) plus your Authorware source code modifying demoUM—including any library files (create your own library file rather than change standard.a5l). To save upload/download time and file space, you do not need to hand in your packaged executable. Upload your zip file to the CourseInfo Student Drop Box for CSc332.

Extra credit: design and implement screens that use other forms of interaction, such as new buttons, text-entry, hot spots or hot objects, pull-down menus, sliders or rotating gauges, or that use other media types, such as sounds or movies, or invoke a URL, See the Authorware Help and "Show Me" examples for details. User manuals for Authorware are also available at the LUCC user desk in Fairchild-Martindale and on reserve in the FM library. Be sure to document any extra credit in your README file!