Interactive learning system
Contents
1. SAVE FREQUENTLY TO AVOID LOSING YOUR WORK USE FILE NAMES THAT RELATE TO THE PURPOSE OF THE WORKSHEET ALSO USE FILE NAMES THAT ARE EASY TO REMEMBER FILE NAMES CAN BE UP TO 8 CHARACTERS LONG INCLUDING THE UNDERLINE _ OR HYPHEN SPACES CANNOT BE USED LOTUS AUTOMATICALLY ADDS THE WK1 EXTENSION TO THE END OF A FILE YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING pe J D e U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 6 of 18 5 395 243 AN 2 Fig 7a UNIT MENU LESSON MENU TOPIC MENU USING TYPING KEYS QUIC REFERENCE NOTE ABOUT ALTERING RANGE LAELS QUICKREF DESKREF ALIGNING WORKSHEET LABELS DESK CLIPBOARD APPLICATION RESUME UNIT MENU LESSON MENU TOPIC MENU _ AT ALT MUST BE USED REFERENCE SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH OTHER TYPING KEYS IT INVOKES QUICKREF MACROS AND COMMAND LANGUAGE PROGRAMS DESKREF BACKSPACE ERASES THE CLIPBOARD CHARACTER TO THE LEFT OF THE CURSOR APPLICATION ENTER COMPLETES THE CELL ENTRY RESUME CLIPBOARD ITEM HELP U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 7 of 18 5 395 243 110 Fig 7c USER NOTE TEXT OF THE NOTE TEXT CAN BE WRITTEN ALL THE WAY TO THE END OF THE LINE WITHOT WORRY BECAUSE IT AUTOMATICALLY WRAPS TO THE NEXT LINE REFERENCE QUICKREF CLIPBOARD APPLICATION CLIPBOARD CREATE HE Fig 8 SKILL BUILDER LESSON SEQUENCES ON SPECIFIC SUBJECT MATTER AREAS TOPIC PATH EASY ACCESS TO BRIEFINGS ON SPECIFIC2. C omo J Fig 12 GENERATE OPTIONS DISPLAY 282 SE lt YES NO 300 NO NO 302 370 Y lt QUICKREF ig NO NO 250 LESSONS 320 TOPICS YES YES ES 420 DESKREF 306 YES CLIPBOARD NO CLIPBOARD 600 APPLICATION YES 294 LESSON IN YES PROGRESS C NO 296 MESSAGE TO USER NO LESSON TO RESUME U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 12 of 18 5 395 243 n Fig 13a GENERATE TOPIC INDEX DISPLAY GENERATE TOPIC SELECTION DISPLAY U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 13 of 18 5 395 243 Fig 13b Q i 250 YES LESSONS NO S 370 lt YES QUICKREF 356 NO 420 YES DESKREF NO 798 470 YES CLIPBOARD CLIPBOARD NO 600 U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 14 of 18 5 395 243 370 Fig 14 GENERATE QUICKREF INDEX DISPLAY 376 NO 250 teg YES YES lt i wen LESSONS NO 378 Hoer YES z VAILABLE YES 258 NO B MESSAGE TO USER s NO 320 NO INFORMATION YES AVAILABLE FOR TOPICS SELECTED ITEM 420 pen 404 YES DESKREF DISPLAY INFORMATION FOR SELECTED ITEM yo yo YES NO 408 En 600 YES APPLICATION 386 APPLICATION YES 420 e NO DESKREF se ON Son YES e gt NO PROGRESS PO OT Yes NO 412 go TTEM ON YES MESSAGE TO USER CLIPBOARD 2 NO LESSON TO RESUME STORE ITEM MESSAGE TO USER ON CLIPBOARD ITEM ALREADY CLIPPED 394 U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 15 of 18 5 395 243 a Fig 15 NO 250 448 YES YES LESSO
3. UNDERSTANDING MODE INDICATORS UNDERSTANDING STATUS INDICATORS USING POINTER MOVEMENT KEYS EDITING DATA USING NUMERIC KEYS USING TYPING KEYS QUICKREF SAVING FILES RETRIEVING FILES DESKREF USING HELP USING FUNCTION KEYS CLIPBOARD EXITING 1 2 3 QUICK REF INDEX ONG 76 Fig 5b LESSONS UNIT MENU LESSON MENU TOPIC MENU USING TYPING KEYS EEE USING TYPING KEYS KEY DESCRIPTION ALT ALT MUST BE USED REFERENCE SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH OTHER TYPING KEYS IT INVOKES MACROS AND COMMAND LANGUAGE PROGRAMS DESKREF BKSP BACKSPACE ERASES THE CLIPBOARD CHARACTER TO THE LEFT OF THE CURSOR ENTER COMPLETES THE CELL ENTRY APPLICATION RESUME U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 5 of 18 5 395 243 call Mon LESSON MENU TOPIC MENU WORKSHEET BASICS UNDERSTANDING MODE INDICATORS UNDERSTANDING STATUS INDICATORS USING POINTER MOVEMENT KEYS REFERENCE EDITING DATA USING NUMERIC KEYS QUICKREF USING TYPING KEYS SAVING FILES DESKREF RETRIEVING FILES EXITING 1 2 3 USING 1 2 3 FUNCTIONS ALIGNING WORKSHEET LABELS CLIPBOARD RESUME DESK REF INDEX ew Fig 6b LESSONS UNIT MENU TOPIC MENU PURPOSE THE FILE SAVE COMMAND SAVES THE CURRENT WORKSHEET AND ITS SETTINGS TO DISK REFERENCE QUICKREF DESKREF CLIPBOARD APPLICATION RESUME DESK REF ITEM CONSIDERATIONS
4. FIG 55 is an illustration of a quick reference item display generated during operation of the system FIG 6a is an illustration of a desk reference index display generated during operation of the system FIG 66 is an illustration of a desk reference item display generated during operation of the system FIG 7a is an illustration of a clipboard index display generated during operation of the system FIG 7b is an illustration of a clipboard item display generated during operation of the system FIG 7c is an illustration of a clipboard create display generated during operation of the system FIG 8 is an illustration of a path selection display generated during operation of the system FIG 9 is an overview of the methods of learning available in accordance with the present invention and FIGS 10 18 are flowcharts of a computer program that controls the operation of the learning system 5 395 243 3 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of an interactive learning system 10 in accordance with the invention is shown in FIG 1 The system 10 includes a microprocessor 12 connected to a read only memory ROM 14 and a random access memory RAM 16 via a bus 18 A com puter program that controls the operation of the inter active learning system 10 is stored in the ROM 14 and executed by the microprocessor 12 A number of input output I O devices are con nected to the microprocessor 12 via the
5. U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 18 of 18 5 395 243 Fig 18 Es ES Es ES 5 395 243 1 INTERACTIVE LEARNING SYSTEM This is a continuation of U S application Ser No 07 765 563 filed on Sep 25 1991 now abandoned BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a computer driven interactive learning system for use in learning a com puter program for an application such as a word pro cessing in which a number of different modes of learn ing are accessible to the user of the system Many computer programs exist for performing often used functions such as word processing financial spreadsheeting and database functions Such computer programs are referred to herein as application pro grams Examples of application programs in widespread use are LOTUS 1 2 3 and WORDPERFECT Appli cation program as used herein also includes an operat ing system program such as the DOS where a user is learning to use the operating system program The training of personnel in the use of application programs may be performed by various methods Such training may be accomplished via a traditional approach in which students are taught by a teacher with written reference materials such as a user s manual for the application program In addition each student may be provided with a computer for executing the application program being learned so that the instruction is aug 10 20 25 mented by hands on experience
6. pleted the lesson path or the topic path or who are simply more adventurous 15 w 0 35 45 55 65 8 Detailed Operation The operation of the interactive learning system is controlled by a computer program 200 executed by the microprocessor 12 A flowchart of the computer pro gram 200 is illustrated in FIGS 10 18 Referring to FIG 10 at step 202 when the operation begins the user is given a visual prompt on the CRT 20 asking whether the user will be using the clipboard feature If the user intends to use the clipboard feature a diskette must be inserted into the disk drive 24 so that system can store items on the diskette and retrieve information from the diskette At step 204 if the user responds that the clip board feature will be used the program branches to step 206 where the user is given a visual prompt to insert the clipboard diskette into the disk drive 24 When the diskette has been inserted as determined at step 208 the program generates a visual prompt on the CRT 20 to ask the user which application program or course the user wishes to use The interactive learning system 10 is capable of providing instruction with re spect to a number of application programs After the user selects the desired course at step 212 the program generates another visual prompt to the user at step 214 requesting that the user insert the CD ROM corre sponding to the selected course into the CD ROM drive 26 At step 2
7. 25 40 45 50 55 60 65 14 text of the customized note the user may save it to the clipboard If the user saves the note the program automatically checks to determine whether the name of the title has been used for a previously stored clipboard item If the title has a unique name the program branches to step 496 where it saves the item on the clipboard diskette If an item having the same title has previously been stored on the clipboard diskette the program branches to step 498 where it generates a message to the user that the item has already been clipped Since steps 500 516 of the CLIPBOARD routine 470 are analogous to steps 396 412 of the QUICKREF routine described above in connection with FIG 14 the description of those steps is not repeated APPLICATION The APPLICATION routine 600 which is a part of the interactive learning computer program of the pre ferred embodiment described herein is the functional link between the learning program and the application program being learned The APPLICATION routine performs a number of functions such as automatically loading and running the application program without requiring the user to manually exit the learning program and manually initiate the application program The APPLICATION routine 600 also automatically loads a terminate but stay resident TSR computer program that allows the user to access reference infor mation available from the learning computer pr
8. As a result of this selec tion the system generates a topic index display 58 shown in FIG 4a The topic index display 58 has a relatively large win dow 60 which lists the various topics relating to the application program upon which audiovisual lessons can be received The subject matter areas of the topics may be made relatively narrow so that the lessons are 5 395 243 5 short and specifically tailored to the specific topic As a result the use of the topic index to receive audiovisual instruction is advantageous in that specific instruction can be received without the necessity of going through an entire lesson Upon selection of one of the topics shown in the topic index window 58 of FIG 4a the system generates a topic selection display 64 shown in FIG 45 which prompts the user to select the type of instruction to be given on the selected topic The user may receive three types of instruction To receive interactive audiovisual instruction the user should select the Lesson Segment key in the main win dow 66 of the display 64 To receive relatively brief textual instruction and examples the user would select the Quick Reference and Examples key in the main window 66 To receive detailed textual instruction the user would select the Details key in the main window 66 The QuickRef Key Referring back to FIG 2 the user can receive rela tively brief textual reference information by selecting a QuickRef key in the refe
9. DESKREF routine generates the desk reference index display 80 like the one shown in FIG 6a At step 428 the program determines whether detailed reference information is available instead of whether brief reference information is available At step 432 the DESKREF routine generates detailed refer ence information for the selected item such as that shown in the display 86 of FIG 6b Finally the DESK REF routine does not have a step corresponding to the step 386 in the QUICKREF routine since the informa tion on the desk reference display 86 is already detailed and no further detail is available CLIPBOARD A flowchart of the CLIPBOARD routine 470 is shown in FIG 16 The CLIPBOARD routine is used to allow the user to write notes regarding various aspects of the application program to the clipboard diskette and to retrieve from the clipboard diskette any textual refer ence information about the application program that has been previously stored on it User selected portions of reference information gen erated by the QUICKREF and DESKREF routines can also stored on the clipboard however as described above this is accomplished during those QUICKREF and DESKREF routines and not during the CLIP BOARD routine Referring to FIG 16 at step 472 the CLIPBOARD routine generates the clipboard index display 90 shown in FIG 7a This display contains in a main window 92 the titles of all items currently on the clipboard diskette At step
10. TOPICS AND TASKS WORK SUPPORT ACCESS TO THE ACTUAL SOFTWARE PROGRAM LESSON PATH CHOSE HOW YOU WOULD LIKE TO USE SKILL BUILDER HIGHLIGHT YOUR ANSWER WITH THE TAB KEY THEN PRESS ENTER OR CLICK ON IT WITH THE MOUSE CHOOSE HELP FOR MORE INFORMATION PATH SELECTION Sheet 8 of 18 5 395 243 Mar 7 1995 U S Patent IFONIHIHIH 0IUVLIO FONIHIHIH 33149 CHUVOBdINI LI OLI NOILYONddY NOY HLVd LUOddNS XHOM Wa 6 Bis LINN OL G3tiO1IV1 SISIOHIXI NOLLVONdaV 3131dNO0 F1IJWNOIJ SNOSS31 TIV 9EL NOSS37 00 NOSS31 193138 LINN 193138 cel H1Vd 103136 01 NVUDOHd ONINUVITAUVIS MIIAHIAO ONINUVII FJONJYA4IY 3130 FONIHIHIH 43199 SNOSS31 3dAL NOILONHLSNI 10313S dIdOL 193138 4 H1Vd DIdOL U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 9 of 18 5 395 243 Gaara a PROMPT USER REGARDING CLIPBOARD FEATURE 202 204 USING CLIPBOARD NO 218 PROMPT USER PROMPT USER TO TO INSERT SELECT PATH CLIPBOARD DISKETTE YES A 210 L YES 250 PROMPT USER TO LESSONS SELECT COURSE NO 212 320 COURSE ES SELECTED TOPIC PATH TOPICS NO x lt 2 PROMPT USER TO INSERT CD ROM 14 YES YES i APPLICATION U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 10 of 18 5 395 243 CEE 20 Fig 11 GENERATE UNIT SELECTION DISPLAY GENERATE LESSON SELECTION DISPLAY FOR SELECTED UNIT YES U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 11 of 18 5 395 243
11. This traditional type of 30 instruction has disadvantages such as the relatively infrequent scheduling of classes and limited availability of personal instruction due to class size One alternative to the traditional approach to learn ing application programs is the use of computer driven interactive learning systems which can be used by a single student One such interactive learning system is described in U S Pat No 4 637 797 to Whitney et al That patent describes a computer driven software train ing system in which a computer is coupled to a cassette tape player system The training system operates by selectively activating the cassette player to provide oral instruction to the student and by analyzing the stu dent s keystrokes input while the computer program being taught is running If the student makes the correct keystrokes the tape player is turned on and the oral lesson continues If an incorrect entry is made the learning system enters the correct entry and proceeds with the next portion of the training lesson Another computer driven interactive learning system is described in U S Pat No 4 622 013 to Cerchio That patent describes an interactive software training system which trains a student to use an application program The training system works by interpreting the data entered by the student for the application program That interpretation allows the training system to deter mine if the student requires additio
12. hand portion of the display 74 If the user selects the Detail key as determined at step 386 the program branches to the DESKREF routine 420 from which the user may select detailed textual information for the selected item The user may also decide to clip or store portions of the displayed textual information on the clipboard diskette The desired information may be selected by the user for clipping in a conventional manner such as by highlighting the desired portion via a keyboard key such as the Tab key and then pressing the Enter key If the user selects the Clip key as determined at step 388 the program branches to step 390 where it will determine if that same information has already been stored on the clipboard If it has been previously stored at step 394 the program will generate a visual message to the user that the selected item was already clipped If the item was not already clipped the program branches to step 392 where it stores the item on the clipboard diskette in the disk drive 24 If the user did not select either the Detail or Clip key after the generation of the quick reference information display 74 the program branches from step 388 to step 396 Step 396 is also performed if the user did not select an item as determined at step 376 In either case the user selected one of the eight stan dard options shown on the left hand portion of the displays 70 74 The purpose of steps 396 412 is deter mine which opti
13. separated from the text relating to the visual portion of the lesson The generation of visual text corresponding to the audio soundtrack may also be performed in other ways The interactive learning system 10 of the invention may be utilized in connection with a conventional per sonal computer or any other type of computer system The manner in which the computer program of the preferred embodiment and the application program being learning or used are stored in memory is not criti cal to the invention The two programs could be stored in different portions of one memory or in two separate memories Overview of Operation The interactive learning system allows a user to uti lize three different types of instruction 1 interactive audiovisual instruction 2 textual reference informa tion and 3 instruction by using the actual application program being taught The interactive audiovisual instruction includes two sub categories of instruction The user can receive au diovisual instruction based upon either predesigned sequences of audiovisual lesson segments or audiovisual lesson segments tailored to very specific points of in struction The textual reference information has three subcate gories 1 a quick reference sub category which pro 5 10 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 65 4 vides relatively brief textual explanation of various as pects of the application program being taught 2 a desk refer
14. the application program This feature is particularly advantageous where users access the interactive learning system in a central training center and subsequently use the application program in their own offices The Application Key An Application key 46 is provided towards the bot tom left hand portion of the options display 40 of FIG 2 The purpose of the Application key 46 is to allow the user to use the actual application program being learned As described in more detail below the selec tion of the Application key 46 results in different ac tions depending upon when the user selected it For example if the user selects the Application key 46 without first conducting any lessons the application program will be automatically run without the need for the user to manually terminate the operation of the interactive learning program Alternatively if the user selects the Application key 46 upon completion of the lessons contained in one of the units of the interactive learning program the appli cation program will be automatically loaded and run and an electronic file relating to the subject matter of the lessons just completed will be loaded into the appli cation program Thus after completing a unit of lessons for a particular subject matter the user may reinforce his or her learning by using the application program in a manner relating to that subject matter for which in struction was just received The Resume Key Th
15. 164 Primary Examiner Richard J Apley Assistant Examiner Joe H Cheng Attorney Agent or Firm Dressler Goldsmith Shore amp Milnamow Ltd 57 ABSTRACT An interactive learning system used for learning an application program such as a word processing pro gram provides three basic types of instruction includ ing interactive audiovisual lessons reference informa tion and practice in using the actual application pro gram being learned The reference information may include relatively detailed reference information rela tively brief reference information and customized ref erence information generated via an electronic clip board The subject matter of the application program is subdivided into different subject matter areas or units and the user of the system may select to receive lessons relating to any of the units The interactive learning system provides three learning paths one of which comprises completing all of the lessons in a unit and then using the features of the actual application pro gram relating to the unit that was just completed to reinforce the instruction received by the user 1 Claim 18 Drawing Sheets Y Ne U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 1 of 18 5 395 243 LESSONS UNIT MENU LESSON MEN TOPIC MENU DISPLAY U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 2 of 18 5 395 243 SKILL BUILDER COURSE 10391 LOTUS 1 2 3 RELEASE 2 2 NORKSHEE BASIO BUILDING FLEXIBLE WORKSHEETS IMPRO
16. 18 the program prompts the user to select the path the user wishes to use in receiving instruction for the selected application program As described above one of three learning paths may be chosen the lesson path the topic path and the work support path The path selected at step 220 determines what type of instruction the user will receive during the initial por tion of the training session As described in more detail below the user is given great flexibility in selecting which type of instruction to receive at any given time and thus the path initially chosen may easily be changed At step 222 if the lesson path is chosen the program branches to a portion 250 of the program or routine referred to herein as LESSONS At step 224 if the topic path was chosen the program branches to a rou tine referred to herein as TOPICS If the selected path was neither the lesson nor the topic path the work support path was selected in which case the program branches to an APPLICATION routine LESSONS The operation of the LESSONS routine 250 is de scribed in connection with FIG 11 When LESSONS begins execution at step 252 the program generates a unit selection display on the CRT 20 like the display 50 shown in FIG 3a and described above After generat ing this display the program waits for the user to make a selection Referring to FIG 3a the possible selections are shown The user may select any of the eight units gener ally de
17. 474 the program waits for the user to select an option The user may select one of the displayed items or write a customized note to the clipboard diskette by selecting the Write A Note key shown in the bottom portion of the display 90 FIG 7a Alternatively the user may select any one of the eight standard options shown in the left hand portion of the display 90 If the user selected one of the items on the clipboard as determined at step 476 the program branches to step 478 where it generates the clipboard item display 96 as shown in FIG 70 The textual matter contained in the selected clipboard item is displayed in the main window 98 of the display 96 After generating the display of the text of the selected clipboard item the program waits at step 480 for the user to select an option which in this case may be any of the eight standard options If the user did not select an item from the clipboard to be displayed as determined at step 476 the program branches to step 482 where the program determines if the user selected the Write A Note key If so the pro gram branches to step 484 where it generates the clip board create display 110 shown in FIG 7c and waits for user input at step 486 The user creates a customized note by first selecting a title at step 488 and then at step 490 generating the text that is to be stored on the clipboard diskette for that title At step 492 if the user is satisfied with the title and 15 20
18. NS 428 DESKREF YES NO VAILABLE 450 YES 430 NO B MESSAGE TO USER NO 320 452 YES TOPICS NO INFORMATION gt QUICKREF AVAILABLE FOR SELECTED ITEM ir CLIPBOARD NO YES 2 serale APPLICATION NO LESSON IN Do PROGRESS MESSAGE TO USER NO LESSON TO RESUME 458 MESSAGE TO USER ITEM ALREADY CLIPPED STORE ITEM ON CLIPBOARD U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 16 of 18 5 395 243 470 Fig 16 GENERATE CLIPBOARD INDEX DISPLAY MESSAGE TO USER ITEM ALREADY CLIPPED STORE ITEM ON CLIPBOARD 500 Y 2 NO 250 502 YES lt tr wad LESSONS NO 204 YES B NO 320 kass YES TOPICS 7 me YES QUICKREF NO 420 486 a du YES ennan DESKREF NO 512 GENERATE CLIPBOARD ITEM DISPLAY GENERATE CLIPBOARD CREATE DISPLAY YES 600 se APPLICATION EI meo gt APPLICATION YE NO PROGRESS gt 492 NO 516 lt gt MESSAGE TO USER NO LESSON TO RESUME U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 17 of 18 5 395 243 Fig 17 w OO 602 RUN NO PPLICATION 2 YES SAVE CURRENT SESSION DATA IN GLOBAL FILE 604 GO TO DOS LEAVING 606 STUB IN MEMORY 608 610 START APPLICATION BATCH FILE LOAD APPLICATION ASSIST TSR RUN APPLICATION 614 APPLIC ASSIST poe NO EXIT APPLICATION 616 REMOVE APPLICATION 618 ASSIST FROM MEMORY EXIT APPLICATION 620 BATCH FILE LOAD INTERACTIVE 622 LEARNING PROGRAM RETRIEVE SESSION DATA 624 FROM GLOBAL FILE Gra m
19. United States Patent no Lubin et al IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII US005395243A 11 Patent Number 451 Date of Patent 5 395 243 Mar 7 1995 54 INTERACTIVE LEARNING SYSTEM 75 Inventors David A Lubin Watertown Tyrone C Mowatt North Andover Andrew Brenneman Arlington all of Mass 73 Assignee National Education Training Group Reno Nev 21 Appl No 263 016 22 Filed Jun 20 1994 Related U S Application Data 63 Continuation of Ser No 765 563 Sep 25 1991 aban doned ST Tnt CEE Li rev illa G09B 19 00 521 USC etienne 434 118 434 307 R 434 323 395 154 395 927 345 119 58 Field of Search 434 118 169 307 R 434 308 318 322 323 350 365 395 10 100 154 155 160 927 364 419 01 419 20 345 118 119 120 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 541 056 9 1985 Matthews semssssrerererereee 434 118 4 622 013 11 1986 Cerchio 434 118 4 637 797 1 1987 Whitney et al 434 118 4 671 772 6 1987 Slade et al 434 350 X 4 772 206 9 1988 Kerr et al 434 118 4 798 543 1 1989 Spiece wes 434 323 4 945 476 7 1990 Bodick et al 364 413 02 4 965 741 10 1990 Winchell et al 364 488 X 5 002 491 3 1991 Abrahamson et al 434 323 X 5 109 482 4 1992 Bohrman 395 154 5 120 230 6 1992 Clark et al 5 179 658 1 1993 Izawa et al 395
20. VING WORKSHEET APPEARANCE PRINTING WORKSHEETS BUILDING DATABASE CREATING GRAPHICS WITH VER 2 2 SPECIAL FEATURES OF VER 2 2 SELECT A UNIT HIGHLIGHT THE DESIRED UNIT WITH THE UP OR DOWN ARROW KEYS THEN PRESS ENTER OR DOUBLE CLICK WITH THE MOUSE CHOOSE HELP FOR MORE INFORMATION SKILL BUILDER COURSE 10391 LOTUS 1 2 3 RELEASE 2 2 UNIT 1 WORKSHEET BASICS LESSON 2 GETTING STARTED LESSON 3 ENTERING DATE LESSON 4 ENTERING FORMULAS LESSONS SAVING RETRIEVING FILES amp HELP LESSON 6 MOVING AROUND THE WORKSHEET LESSON 7 RANGES amp RELATIVE ADDRESSING SELECT A LESSON HIGHLIGHT THE DESIRED LESSON WITH THE UP OR DOWN ARROW KEYS THEN PRESS ENTER OR DOUBLE CLICK WITH THE MOUSE CHOOSE HELP FOR MORE INFORMATION LESSON SELECTION U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 3 of 18 5 395 243 a W Fig 4a LESSONS UNIT MENU LESSON MENU WORKSHEET BASICS GETTING STARTED UNDERSTANDING THE DISPLAY SCREEN UNDERSTANDING MODE INDICATORS UNDERSTANDING STATUS INDICATORS REFERENCE USING THE KEYBOARD USING POINTER MOVEMENT KEYS iCKREE ENTERING DATA eee EDITING DATA DESKREF ENTERING NUMBERS TOPIC INDEX mo USING NUMERIC KEYS LIPBOARD USING TYPING KEYS ENTERING FORMULAS EDITING FORMULAS APPLICATION USING COMMAND MENUS TOPIC INDEX LESSONS UNIT MENU TOPIC MENU WORKSHEET BASICS TOPIC SELECTION U S Patent Mar 7 1995 Sheet 4 of 18 5 395 243 Fig 5a QUICK REF INDEX GETTING STARTED
21. anches to step 662 where it generates a select topic display like the one shown in FIG 5a After the user selects a topic the program generates the reference information corresponding to that topic The user may exit at step 666 Steps 670 676 are analogous to step 660 666 described above except 5 395 243 17 that detailed reference information is provided to the user instead of brief reference information The user may obtain clipboard information about an application program other than the one currently being run by the user via the Change Course key If the user selected the Change Course key as determined at step 680 the program branches to step 682 where it prompts the user to select the desired course such as to LOTUS 1 2 3 WORDPERFECT dBASE III etc After the user selects the course the program generates at step 684 a clipboard index display like the one of FIG 7a to list the titles of all clipboard items Upon the user select ing one of those clipboard items at step 686 the pro gram generates a display like the one of FIG 7b show ing the selected clipboard item Steps 690 694 allow the user to request help to obtain instruction relating to the application assist feature The user may exit the application assist feature at step 696 at which point the application assist display disappears from the CRT 20 and the application display that was covered up reappears Modifications and alternative embodiments of the inventio
22. branches to step 294 where it determines whether there is a lesson currently in progress Since the purpose of the Resume key is to return the user to an interrupted lesson at step 294 the system checks to make sure that there was a lesson in progress If no lesson was in progress the program branches to step 296 where the user is given a visual message on the CRT 20 that there is no lesson to re sume If a lesson was in progress as determined at step 294 the program branches back to step 272 where the lesson is resumed at the same point at which it was interrupted If the user selected the Unit Menu key as determined at step 298 the program branches to the LESSONS routine 250 where the unit selection display 50 of FIG 3a will be generated If the user selected the Topic Menu key as determined at step 300 the program branches to the TOPICS routine 320 where the topic index display 58 of FIG 4a will be generated to allow the user to select a particular topic If the user selected QuickRef as determined at step 302 the program branches to the QUICKREF routine 370 where the quick reference index display 70 shown in FIG 5a will be generated If the user selected Desk Ref as determined at step 304 the program branches to the DESKREF routine 420 where the desk reference index display 80 shown in FIG 6a will be generated If the user selected the Clipboard key as determined at step 306 the program branches to the CLIPBOARD routine to all
23. bus 18 These I O devices include a display device such as a CRT 20 an audio generator such as a speaker 22 a disk drive 24 a compact disk CD ROM drive 26 and a user input device 28 such as a keyboard or an electronic mouse During operation of the system visual information and lessons are generated on the CRT 20 from the CD ROM drive 26 At the same time audio instruction is provided to the user via the speaker 22 In addition to the audiovisual lessons textual reference information about the application program being learned may be provided on the CRT 20 When used by a hearing impaired user or in an envi ronment in which individual speakers are not available such as a local area network LAN the learning sys tem 10 may be provided with means for generating text on the display 20 that substantially corresponds to the audio that would be generated by the speaker 22 In this case the text corresponding to the entire audio sound track for each lesson is stored in a portion of memory Instead of periodically activating the speaker 22 to gen erate audio instruction for the user the learning system 10 periodically accesses the memory portion in which the text corresponding to the audio soundtrack is stored and displays sequential portions of the text on the CRT 20 as a lesson progresses The visual text cor responding to the portion of the audio soundtrack may be provided in a predetermined area of the CRT 20 such as in a window
24. e Resume key 47 is provided at the bottom left hand portion of the options display 40 of FIG 2 The purpose of the Resume key is to allow the user to tem porarily interrupt a lesson in progress to access refer ence information and then to return to the exact point where the lesson was interrupted For example if a user were conducting a lesson and wanted to obtain detailed reference information about a particular topic the user could select the Topic Menu key in the lessons window 42 to access the reference information and then return to the exact point where the lesson was interrupted by selecting the Resume key 47 The lessons window 42 the reference window 44 the Application key 46 and the Resume key 47 are provided on many of the displays that are generated during the operation of the interactive learning system As a result the user may select any of these keys at any point in the program thus giving the user tremendous flexibility in using the system to his or her own maximum benefit 5 395 243 7 Overview Of Methods Of Learning The interactive learning system of the present inven tion offers users three different learning paths to allow maximum flexibility of the system to meet the varying user needs These three different learning paths include a lesson path a topic path and a work support path which are shown in FIG 9 The lesson path may be advantageously selected by users who have never used the application pr
25. ed by the user by activating the Unit Menu key in the lesson window 42 In response the system 10 generates a unit selection display 50 which is shown in FIG 3a The unit selection display 50 contains eight relatively broad categories or units on which audiovisual instruction can be received with respect to Version 2 2 of LOTUS 1 2 3 These categories include 1 SKILL BUILDER orientation which is an orien tation to the interactive learning system of the present invention 2 Unit 1 Worksheet Basics 3 Unit 2 Build ing Flexible Worksheets etc When the user selects one of the eight units of the unit selection display 50 the system 10 generates a lesson selection display 54 shown in FIG 3b which contains seven lessons for Unit 1 Worksheet Basics It should be appreciated that there is a unique lesson selection dis play like the one shown in FIG 35 for each unit shown in the unit selection display 50 of FIG 3a When the user selects one of the lessons shown in the lesson selec tion display 54 a series of audiovisual lesson segments is initiated on the subject matter described by the selected lesson The Topic Menu Key Instead of receiving audiovisual lessons by selecting particular units and lessons the user may instead choose to receive audiovisual instruction or textual instruction based upon a particular topic Referring to FIG 2 this course of action is chosen by selecting the Topic Menu key in the lesson window 42
26. ence sub category which provides detailed textual explanation of various aspects of the application program and 3 clipboard information which is cus tom generated by the user These six categories of instruction or modes of learn ing can be accessed by the user a number of ways one of which is an options display 40 generated by the sys tem during operation Referring to FIG 2 the options display 40 includes a lessons window 42 at its upper left portion a reference window 44 at its middle left por tion and an Application key 46 and a Resume key 47 at its lower left portion The Unit Menu and Lesson Menu Keys The lessons window 42 includes two sub windows or keys that can be selected by the user in order to receive interactive audiovisual lessons a Unit Menu key and a Lesson Menu key These keys may be selected via an electronic mouse or by enclosing them in a highlight box and hitting the Enter key of the keyboard The subject matter of the application program being taught is broken down into relatively broad information categories or units Each unit is further subdivided into a number of lessons In order to receive interactive audiovisual instruction the user may select a particular unit and one of the lessons within that unit The number of units and the number of lessons in each unit is not important nor is the particular manner in which the application program is divided into units and lessons A unit is select
27. file that is automatically loaded may be supplemented by a printed text or manual for requesting the user to perform predetermined opera tions on the electronic file such as requesting the user to perform specific manipulations of the columns of a spreadsheet in case the user was using Lotus 1 2 3 as the application program At step 610 the first statement in the batch file causes a self loading application assist TSR program referred to generally above to be loaded into the RAM 16 and executed by the microprocessor 12 A TSR terminate but stay resident program is a conventional type of computer program which may be accessed during the operation of another computer program The TSR stays in the background during operation of the pro gram but comes into the foreground when invoked by the user The application assist TSR used in connection with the preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG 18 and described below in connection therewith At step 612 the second statement in the batch file causes the application program to be loaded into the RAM 16 and executed by the microprocessor 12 When 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 16 the application is running it appears to the user exactly as it would if the user were using the application pro gram without the system of the present invention However if the user wishes to access any of the information provided by the learning sy
28. g path see FIG 8 or when the user selects the Application key 46 provided in any of the displays shown in FIGS 2 and 4 7 At step 602 the program generates a visual prompt to the user via the CRT 20 confirming that the user wishes to run the application program If the user mistakenly selected the Application key or has changed his or her mind and indicates such by an appropriate keyboard entry the APPLICATION routine simply exits and returns to the point from which the user invoked it 5 395 243 15 At step 604 the program stores data relating to the learning session from which the user has just termi nated This data includes the user s name and sign on and data relating to the lessons that the user has com pleted The data is stored in a global file so that it can be retrieved when the user exits from the application pro gram to go back to using the learning program At step 606 most of the learning program is removed from the RAM 16 to make room for the application program which will be stored in the RAM 16 and exe cuted and the operating system takes control If a per sonal computer is being used the operating system may be the DOS program of Microsoft Inc Although most of the learning program is removed from the RAM 16 a portion of it known as a stub is left in the RAM 16 A stub is a conventional type of computer program used to perform various housekeeping functions One of the purposes of the stub i
29. give the user the opportunity to select a different unit without having to go through a lesson If the user selected a particular lesson as determined at step 266 the program will branch to step 272 where the selected lesson will be conducted The lesson is conducted interactively by generating displays on the CRT 20 that simulates the actual application program providing accompanying audio instruction in timed relationship with the video displays and quizzing the user on the proper commands and use of the application program Each lesson consists of a number of lesson segments The user may be provided the capability to select the next lesson segment without completing the current lesson segment and may be allowed to go to previous lesson segments The user also may be allowed to pause the lesson or to terminate the lesson while the lesson is being given The use of interactive audiovisual lessons is preferred although other types of lessons may be uti lized 5 20 25 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 After the selected lesson is conducted at step 272 the program branches back to step 262 where the lesson selection display is generated thus allowing the user the opportunity to select another lesson OPTIONS The operation of the OPTIONS routine 280 which is described below in connection with FIG 12 generates the options display 40 shown in FIG 2 to give the user all of the options described in connection therewi
30. herein said processor further includes means coupled to said first and second control means for temporarily suspending said first visual display sequence at an interruption point in order to display said second visual display and means coupled to said first and second control means for causing said first visual display sequence to be resumed from said interrup tion point after said second visual display has been displayed and manually operable means coupled to said processor for specifying a user assisting function and wherein said processor is responsive thereto for initiating a selected function
31. ing selection is the Help selection in which case the program branches to step 262 where it generates help informa tion in a conventional manner before branching back to the beginning of the LESSONS routine If the user selected a particular unit as determined at step 256 the program branches to step 258 where the program prompts the user to insert the CD ROM corre sponding to the unit selected After the CD ROM is inserted at step 260 the program generates at step 262 a lesson selection display on the CRT 20 like the display 54 shown in FIG 3b The lesson selection display con tains all of the lessons available for the particular unit that the user selected at step 256 At this point the user may select one of the lessons shown in the main window 56 of the display 54 or alternatively the user may select one of four keys shown at the bottom of the display 54 a Unit Menu key an Options key a Help key and an Exit key If the user selected the Help key as determined at step 268 the program generates a help display and returns to step 262 where the lesson selection display is re generated If the user selected the Options key as deter mined at step 270 the program branches to the OP TIONS routine 280 which generates the options display 40 FIG 2 If the user selected the Unit Menu key the program will branch to step 252 from step 270 where the unit selection display 50 like the one of FIG 3a will again be generated This will
32. invoked by the user the ASSIST routine generates an assist display not shown on the CRT 20 that overlaps the display generated by the application program The assist display includes six of the option keys described above Clipboard QuickRef DeskRef Change Course Help and Exit The user may select any of these options to obtain access to the corresponding type of information The selected information is displayed on the CRT 20 and also overlaps the display generated by the application program When the user exits from the assist feature the assist displays disappear from the CRT 20 and the appli cation program displays reappear Thus unless the as sist feature is being used it stays in the background and is invisible to the user A flowchart of the ASSIST routine 650 is shown in FIG 18 If the user selected the Clipboard key as deter mined at step 652 the program branches to step 654 where it generates a clipboard index display 90 like the one shown in FIG 7a that lists the titles of all of the clipboard items After the user selects one of the titles the program branches to step 656 where the clipboard information corresponding to that title is display in a clipboard item display like the one shown in FIG 7b The user can repeatedly access the clipboard feature or exit from it by making an appropriate keyboard entry such as the Esc key If the user selected the QuickRef key as determined at step 660 the program br
33. lessons or electronic textual reference information regarding the selected topic In a third learning path the user may run the application program without initially receiving any system training but may access electronic textual reference information relating to the application program while the application pro gram is running without the need to exit the application program These and other features and advantages of the pres ent invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the detailed description of the pre ferred embodiment which is made with reference to the drawings a brief description of which is provided be low BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is a block diagram of the electronics of a preferred embodiment of an interactive learning system in accordance with the present invention FIG 2 is an illustration of an options display gener ated during the operation of the learning system FIG 3a is an illustration of a unit selection display generated during operation of the system FIG 3b is an illustration of a lesson selection display generated during operation of the system FIG 4a is an illustration of a topic index display generated during operation of the system FIG 4b is an illustration of a topic selection display generated during operation of the system FIG Sa is an illustration of a quick reference index display generated during operation of the learning sys tem
34. n this case is to automatically reload the learning program when the user exits the application program so that the user does not have to reload the learning program manually At step 608 an application batch file is started Batch files which are conventional and well known are very short computer programs e g several lines of source code which may perform any functions In this case the batch file consists basically of three program state ments a first statement which causes the TSR program to be run a second statement which causes the applica tion program to be run and a third statement which causes the TSR program to be removed from the RAM 16 when the user decides to terminate use of the applica tion program The batch file may also include an electronic file for use in the application program As described generally above if the user has entered the APPLICATION routine after completing a unit of lessons the electronic file relates to the unit of lessons that has been com pleted Thus if there are eight possible units of lessons in the learning program there would be eight unique electronic files that would be loaded depending upon which lesson unit the user completed This feature may be implemented by having a separate batch file for each unit or by having a single batch file having the capabil ity to access one of eight unique electronic files The subsequent use of the application program for the unique electronic
35. n will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the foregoing description This description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode of carrying out the invention The details of the structure and method may be varied substantially without depart ing from the spirit of the invention and the exclusive use of all modifications which come within the scope of the appended claims is reserved What is claimed is 15 20 25 30 35 45 50 35 65 18 1 An interactive learning system for providing les sons relating to an application program to be learned by a user said system allowing the user to access a second ary source of instruction for the application program during the execution of one of said lessons said system comprising a programmable processor wherein said processor includes first control means for providing a first type of in struction relating to the application program being learned by the user said first type of instructions comprising lessons that substantially simulate the actual operation of the application program and second control means for providing a second type of instruction relating to the application program a display coupled to said processor for displaying a first visual display sequence relating to said first type of instruction and a second visual display relating to said second type of instruction w
36. nal instruction before proceeding with the next portion of the application program instruction SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is an interactive learning sys tem and method for use in learning an application pro gram such as a word processing program that provides different modes of learning to a user and gives the user great flexibility in using the various learning modes The learning modes may include interactive audiovisual lessons that simulate the operation of the actual pro 35 40 45 55 65 2 gram a reference mode in which the user may access textual reference information about various subject matter areas of the application program and an applica tion mode in which the user runs that actual application program being learned The interactive learning system in accordance with the present invention also provides a method of learning an application program in which three different learn ing paths may be utilized One of the learning paths is a lesson path during which the user works through a sequence of audiovisual lessons relating to various fea tures of the application program being learned and then upon completion of the lesson sequence uses the actual application program to reinforce the audiovisual in struction provided by the system In a second learning path the user may select a topic relating to a feature of the application program being learned and then receive either audiovisual
37. nfor mation or receive lessons The topic path may be used to quickly obtain information and instruction about specific areas of the application program without the need for going through an entire sequence of lessons If the topic path is selected the user first selects a topic at step 150 via the topic index display 58 shown in FIG 4a and described above At step 154 the user then selects the type of information or instruction he or she wishes to receive This selection is accomplished via the topic selection display 64 of FIG 4b Depending on the user s request the user receives lessons specifically tailored to the selected topic at step 154 or relatively brief textual reference information at step 156 or de tailed reference information at step 158 The third learning path available to the user the work support path is shown in the right hand portion of FIG 9 This path initially bypasses all lessons and reference information and allows the user to run the application program at step 170 However at any point in the application program and without exiting the application program the user may retrieve and display on the CRT 20 customized previously generated clip board information at step 172 or brief reference infor mation at step 174 or detailed reference information at step 176 The work support path may be advantageous to users who already have some working knowledge of the application program or who have already com
38. ng that key activates an electronic clip board or memory the contents of which may be cus tom generated by the user and stored on a diskette as explained in more detail below When the clipboard is selected the system generates a clipboard index display 90 as shown in FIG 7a The display 90 contains in a main window 92 a listing of the titles of all items of information that have been stored in the electronic clipboard When the user selects a title from the index display 90 the system generates a clip board item display 96 shown in FIG 7b which con tains in a main window 98 the textual contents of the selected title 10 20 25 35 40 45 50 35 60 65 6 The Clipboard key may also be used to write notes generated by the user and save those notes to the clip board diskette Writing notes to the clipboard is accom plished via a clipboard create display 110 shown in FIG 7c and described in more detail below The clipboard feature also allows the user to clip or store any of the reference information available on the interactive learning system such as the reference infor mation available via the QuickRef and DeskRef keys described above to the clipboard diskette After the clipboard diskette is generated by the user he or she may use that diskette in any other computer where the application program is available so that the user may access the information on the clipboard during subsequent use of
39. ogram of the present invention while using the application program without requiring the user to exit the applica tion program and run the learning program A third function performed by the APPLICATION routine 600 is to automatically pass information relating to a unit of lessons that has been completed from the learning program to the application program when the application program is invoked by the user As a result when the learning program automatically loads and runs the application program preselected files relating to lessons completed by the user are automatically loaded in the application For example if a user just completed a unit of lessons relating to the use of columns in the WordPerfect appli cation program the APPLICATION routine 600 would first load WordPerfect and then automatically load a preselected document having multiple columns so that the user could practice the word processing functions relating to columns upon which instruction was just received from the learning program Each unit of lessons has a unique electronic file asso ciated therewith that is automatically loaded into the application program to allow the user to practice the particular features of the application program upon which he or she has received instruction Now referring to FIG 17 the operation of the AP PLICATION routine is described in detail Generally the APPLICATION routine is invoked when the user selects the work support learnin
40. ogram or who have little knowledge about its operation The lesson path provides a sequence of specially designed interactive audiovisual lessons for each subject matter area or unit into which the application program is di vided Referring to FIG 9 after the learning program is started at step 120 the user is given a visual prompt on the CRT 20 at step 122 to select one of the three learn ing paths available on the system If the user selects the lesson path at step 130 the system generates the unit selection display 50 shown in FIG 3a and described above to allow the user to select a desired unit After the unit is selected at step 132 the system gen erates the lesson selection display 54 of FIG 3b to allow the user to select a desired lesson After the user com pletes the lesson at step 134 he or she selects another lesson from the unit until all the lessons in the unit are completed If all the lessons are completed at step 136 the user transfers to the actual application program at step 138 to perform exercises relating directly to the unit for which all lessons were completed thus rein forcing the instruction the user just received during the lesson session Instead of the lesson path the user may select the topic path which is shown in the left hand portion of FIG 9 As described above information about the ap plication program is divided into various subject matter areas or topics about which the user can obtain i
41. on was selected and to take appropriate action in each case If the QuickRef key was selected as determined at step 396 the program simply returns back to step 372 of the QUICKREF routine 370 If the Unit Menu key was selected as determined at step 398 the program branches back to the LESSONS routine 250 in which case the program will generate the unit selection display 50 FIG 3a If the Lesson Menu key was selected as determined at step 400 the program branches back to step 262 where the lesson selection display will be gen erated Steps 402 408 determine respectively whether the Topic Menu DeskRef Clipboard or Application keys were selected and cause the program to branch to the corresponding routine If the program reaches step 410 meaning that the user selected the Resume key it deter mines whether there was a lesson in progress and either resumes the lesson by branching back to step 272 or generates a message to the user at step 412 that there is no lesson to resume 5 395 243 13 DESKREF A flowchart of the DESKREF routine 420 is shown in FIG 15 The DESKREF routine is used to allow the user to obtain detailed textual reference information about any one of a number of subject matter areas The operation of the DESKREF routine is very similar to the operation of the QUICKREF routine described above in connection with FIG 14 Accordingly only the differences between the two routines are described At step 422 the
42. ow the user to perform the clipboard func tions If the Clipboard key was not selected at step 306 5 395 243 11 the only remaining key on the options display 40 ex cluding Help and Exit which are not treated in FIG 12 is the Application key 46 and the program branches to the APPLICATION routine where the application program being taught is loaded and run TOPICS A flowchart of the TOPICS routine 320 is shown in FIGS 13a and 13b The TOPICS routine is performed either when the user selects the topic path via a path selection display 114 shown in FIG 8 or when the user selects the Topic Menu key on any of the displays shown in FIGS 2 and 4 7 The basic function of the TOPICS routine is to provide a list of relatively narrow topics upon which information or instruction is avail able and to allow the user to select the information or instruction that is desired for any of the topics available Referring to FIG 13a the TOPICS routine begins execution at step 322 where the topic index display 58 FIG 4a is displayed on the CRT 20 At step 324 the program then waits for the user to select one of the listed topics or one of the eight other option keys at the left hand portion of the display 58 If a topic was selected by the user as determined at step 326 the program branches to step 328 where the topic selection display 64 FIG 4b is generated to allow the user to select either textual reference informa tion or lessons for
43. re the quick reference index display 70 FIG 5a is generated on the CRT 20 At step 374 the program then waits for the user to select a particular subject matter area for which brief textual information may be available or to select one of the eight options shown in the left hand portion of the quick reference index display 70 If the user selected a particular subject matter area or item for which textual information is desired as deter mined at step 376 the program branches to step 378 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 where it determines whether textual information is available for the selected item This step is necessary since quick reference information may not be provided for all items If the information is not available for the selected item as determined at step 378 the program branches to step 380 where the program generates a visual message to the user via the CRT 20 that no tex tual information is available for the selected item If textual information for the selected item is available as determined at step 378 the program branches to step 382 where the information is displayed via the genera tion of the quick reference item display 74 like the one shown in FIG 50 After the system generates the display 74 the user may select a Clip key or a Detail key shown at the bottom of the display 74 FIG 5b or the user may select one of the eight standard options shown on the left
44. rence window 44 If the user selects this key the system generates a quick reference index display 70 like the one shown in FIG 5a that includes in a main window 72 an index of topics relating to the application program for which relatively brief reference information can be obtained Upon selection of one of the topics in the main window 72 the system generates a quick reference item display 74 shown in FIG 5b that contains in a main window 76 relatively brief textual information about the topic selected from the index The DeskRef Key Referring back to FIG 2 in order to obtain detailed textual reference information about a topic the user may select the DeskRef key in the reference window 44 Upon that selection the system 10 generates a desk reference index display 80 like the one shown in FIG 6a that contains in a main window 82 an index of topics for which relatively detailed textual reference informa tion about the application program can be obtained Upon selecting one of the topics in the main window 82 the system generates a desk reference item display 86 shown in FIG 65 that contains in a main window 88 relatively detailed textual information about the se lected topic If the reference information exceeds one CRT display the information may be scrolled up and down by the user The Clipboard Key Referring back to FIG 2 a third option available when using the reference window 44 is the Clipboard key Selecti
45. scribed in the main window 52 Alternatively the user may select one of four keys shown towards the bottom of the display 50 which are the Change Course Options Help and Exit keys The actions resulting from any of the above selections is now described in connec tion with FIG 11 If the user has not selected a unit as determined at step 256 the program branches to step 258 where it determines whether the user has decided to learn an other application program or change course If so the 5 395 243 9 program branches back to step 210 in FIG 10 where it will again prompt the user for the desired course If the user has selected the Options key as determined at step 260 the program branches to another portion of the program referred to herein as OPTIONS which as described below generates the options display 40 shown in FIG 2 and gives the user all of the options provided in that display For purposes of simplifying the flowcharts shown herein the Exit key although available to the user on most of the displays generated by the system is not represented in the flowcharts since it merely results in the termination of the operation of the system Simi larly although the Help key is likewise available on the displays it is only described in the flowchart shown in FIG 11 If the user did not select the Options key as deter mined at step 260 and did not select the Exit key which is not treated in FIG 11 the only remain
46. stem of the invention the user simply selects a particular key com bination control shift H to invoke the ASSIST routine 650 of FIG 18 which allows the user to access previ ously generated clipboard information brief reference information or detailed reference information about the application program When the user is finished using the reference information he or she can exit the routine by making a keyboard entry Exit When the user is finished using the application pro gram the user exits the application program at step 616 and at step 618 the third statement in the batch file described above causes the application assist TSR pro gram to be removed from the RAM 16 At step 620 the application batch file terminates returning control to the stub program that remained in the RAM 16 At step 622 the stub program causes the interactive learning program of the invention to be automatically loaded back into the RAM 16 without the need for the user to manually start the learning program At step 624 the session file data that was previously stored in the global file at step 604 is retrieved The program then branches to the OPTIONS routine 280 which causes the options display to be generated on the CRT 20 so that the user can decide how to continue ASSIST As described above when using the application pro gram the user may access reference information from the learning system via the assist TSR or ASSIST routine 650 When
47. th When OPTIONS begins execution at step 282 the pro gram generates the options display 40 shown in FIG 2 This display 40 gives the user eight possible choices The user may select any of the three keys in the lessons window 42 any of the three keys in the reference win dow 44 the Application key 46 or the Resume key 47 The operation of the system in response to each of these selections is described in connection with FIG 12 After the options display 40 is generated at step 282 the program waits for the user s selection at step 284 At step 286 if the user selected the Lesson Menu key in order to select a lesson the program branches to step 288 where it determines whether the user has previ ously selected a unit The reason for checking whether a unit has been previously selected is that before a lesson can be conducted both the lesson and the unit in which the lesson is contained must be specified by the user If a unit was previously selected as determined at step 288 the program branches back to step 262 FIG 11 where the program generates the lesson selection display 54 FIG 35 to allow the user to select a lesson as de scribed above If no unit has been selected by the user as determined at step 288 the program generates a visual message 290 to the user via the CRT 20 that the user must select a unit before a lesson can be selected If the Resume key was selected by the user as deter mined at step 292 the program
48. the selected topic If the user selects the Lesson Segment key as determined at step 332 the program branches to step 272 FIG 11 where a lesson segment is conducted on the selected topic If the user selects the QuickRef and Examples key as determined at step 334 the program branches to the QUICKREF routine 370 If the user selects the Details key as deter mined at step 336 the program branches to the DESK REF routine 420 If the user did not select a topic as determined at step 326 or if the user did not select one of the three options in the main window 66 of the topic selection display 64 FIG 45 the user must have selected one of the eight option keys shown in the left hand portion of the dis plays 58 64 These options are Unit Menu Lesson Menu Topic Menu QuickRef DeskRef Clipboard Application and Resume If any one of these keys was selected the program branches to step 338 Steps 338 358 shown in FIGS 13a and 135 determine which one of these keys was chosen and cause the ap propriate action to be taken Steps 338 358 are similar to steps 286 306 of FIG 12 and thus the description of those steps is not repeated QUICKREF A flowchart of the QUICKREF routine 370 is shown in FIG 14 The QUICKREF routine is used to allow the user to obtain relatively brief textual reference infor mation about any one of a number of subject matter areas Referring to FIG 14 the QUICKREF routine begins execution at step 372 whe
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