An HDM interpreter for on-line tutorials

The use of WWW for training purposes is rapidly growing; in a sense it could be said that training is one of the most important applications for Internet technology, in general and for WWW in particular. The overall organization of the sites, is, however, a difficult task, mostly if a standard structure must be enforced across different sets of content. In addition it is of growing interest the need for a compatibility between off-line training (e.g. CD-ROMS) and on-line training (e.g. WWW sites). A real life experience is described: A set of complex tutorials, for an industrial consortium, had to be delivered both off-line and on-line. At design time, the content was only partially known. It was important also to be able to add new material and to modify access structure, without reprogramming. The solution has been a flexible design schema (through the model HDM) and an advanced set of tools (based on Java), that allow the cost-effective development of advanced multimedia training material.