Lesson Explorer Overview
The lesson explorer is a tool for the user to maneuver around the application in a quick and efficient fashion. It is built in a tree- like structure where you can transverse along subcategories until the user have reached the section they are interested in. Once an user click on a section it is expanded to show the subsections. This can be done repeatedly until the section does not contain a subsection. The user's lesson explorer is a strict subset of the author's lesson explorer. It is missing some functionality that helps the author create lessons.
The lesson explorer for the author not only allows the author to easily maneuver around different tutorials but also assist in the creation of a lesson.
Figure# : Shows the lesson explorer picture
In figure # it shows an example of a lesson explorer expanded to the end of the tree and has reached a leaf. To get to the (Node1) section the user would first click on the department (CSC computer science depart shown) to expand the branch to show the classes within the department with tutorials offered. Next the user click on the class that he/she wish to view the tutorial for. This action list all the professors that are currently teaching that course and has a tutorial for that course. If the user clicks on the professor branch it will show the sections that the professor is currently offering. Once the user chooses a section all the lessons associated with that section is shown. The user can choose any lesson and it will show the nodes within that lesson. There is an option of choosing a node within a lesson and that will bring you to that node in the lesson.
If the user holds the mouse over a node there is a tool tip that appears to show pertinent information about that node. This is shown in figure#.
Figure#: Shows the node tool tip when mouse over a node
The node tool tip is useful to the user because it allows the user to look at what is in the node before opening it up to be viewed. This is an important feature because two lessons can not be opened concurrently. This allows the user to find the correct node without searching through every node and allows the user to look ahead to the upcoming nodes.
The lesson explorer also allows the author to modify the location of the nodes easily. The author can easily click and drag the nodes from one location to another. This can be from the same lesson or a different lesson in any area the author has access to.
Figure#: Shows the drag and drop of the nodes
The author's lesson explorer also allows the author to copy a node and paste it to another location within the accessible area of the author lessons. The user can click on a node and choose the copy function from the edit menu( edit -> copy) and then find the destination and choose the paste function in the edit menu(edit -> paste). The user can obtain the same affect by clicking on a node and using the right click button on the mouse to select the copy function and go to the destination and right click again to select the paste function. The user can use a combination of the two possible method to copy and paste nodes.
Figure#: Shows copy and paste by using menu option
Figure#: Shows copy and paste by using right click option
The user's lesson explorer is a strict sub set of the author's lesson explorer, so it contains all the same functionalities except for the methods that modifies the lesson. The functionalities are moving the nodes from one location to another and copying and pasting nodes from one location to another.
