The status quo of lecture material usually consists of distributed files (ppt, pdf), books and/or paper scripts. Although the Internet has been around for some time, the advantages of content being in a network are not often used. On networked computers, people are connected, they can work together, data that can be gathered, automated messages/feedback can be generated, moving images and interactive models can be shown, and more. Because for instance public annotation is easy, collaboration is being fostered. Data about behaviour (clicks, downloads, test results) can give us valuable hints on how to change the material and make it more efficient. The automation helps us saving resources. Using images, videos and simulation help the visualization of the content. Additionally using interactivity like self-tests and interactive videos enhance the learning outcome because of the diverse codification and unification of the activities. Are the benefits of these functionalities underestimated? We will find out only when it is possible and easy to use them, sometime in the future. But let’s start at the beginning: How did we imagine powerful future lecture material?

Areas of Future Lecture Material

• Ubiquity, everywhere and on every device
• Convenience of use for students
• Collaboration using the material
• Activation of students
• Collaboration creating the material
• Convenience of use for authors
• Development (data incl. progress, feedback)
• Sustainability (format and software)

Let’s take these areas and break them down for the different user roles.

Features of Future Lecture Material

For students (role: users)

• Availability: available anytime everywhere on any device (and on paper)
• Portability: usable on every device
• Public annotation: peer annotation (questions/feedback/… in context)
• Private annotation (for the learning process)
• Drawing functionality
• Media: images, videos, simulation
• Interactivity: self-test questions, interactive video
• Information on progress (learning path, progress view)

For lecturers and students (role: authors)

• Easy to use: easy to enter text (word/ppt-like)
• Easy to migrate to: transforming existing material
• Available export formats
• Collaboration: working together on a text, report, summary
• Feedback on material in context

For educational developers

• Usage data
• Result/progress data

For technical staff

• Changes in content (fluid text)
• Changes in software

What now?

If you want to broaden your knowledge about nowadays’ possibilities and limitations, read through the next chapters which will look at the standard formats (PDF, EPUB and HTML) with a focus on the basic features needed for future lecture material, which are

Basic Features

• Ease of Use
• Online/offline
• Public/private annotation
• Quiz with/w/o tracking
• Videos
• Streaming
• Links
• Collaboration
• Update Cycle

If you know enough about standard formats but would like to see a summary that compares these formats, jump to the Decision Charts.

If you want to go ahead all the way right now, jump to eSkript, our suggestion for future interactive lecture material where almost anything is possible.