General Introduction and Acknowledgements

Teaching Templates are a set of nine authoring tools for creating interactive, WEB-based exercises, tests and quizzes. The exercises are all basically of HTML type, and are fully portable to any computer with the Windows operating system and with Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer versions 4 and above installed. They can be incorporated in a Web page on the Internet, or executed as stand-alone programs at home or in the classroom. The interactivity relies on client-side JavaScript and Dynamic HTML, both of which work independently of any other server. No knowledge of any programming language is required to use the authoring tools effectively. The user's only task is to enter the necessary data - questions, answers, texts, comments etc. - and the program creates the Web pages automatically. In addition to complete control of the content of the exercises, Teaching Templates also allow the author considerable influence on the appearance of the exercises. Changes to the background colour, background images and the addition of sound and image files are just three of the options which are available to customise the Web pages . Teaching Templates were originally developed at Reutlingen University in Germany for English language teaching purposes. They are the result of a long process of research into the applications of Computer Aided Learning and Teaching (CALT) which started with the publication of a pilot program in 1991 (The Grammar and Vocabulary of Business English, Oxford and Cornelsen Press) . Our experience in recent years has shown that the programs are not only suitable for one subject area. They can be used for teaching, training and testing in a broad spectrum of courses and seminars in educational, business and industrial contexts. They have also proved to be very popular for creating self-study revision exercises for pupils and students at schools and universities. As with all computer teaching material - and authoring programs in particular -, the success or failure of the program is determined not by the machine, but by the intelligence, skill and creativity of the user. Our aim has been to provide a reliable, attractive and user-friendly framework, which we hope will enable many people to create material which will really promote and encourage effective learning. In the ten years that we have been working with CALT, we have profited from the stimulus and feedback of numerous individuals and institutions. Our colleagues at the University of Victoria Language Centre in Canada, Dan Beeby and the Mellon Language Project , and Charles Kelly in Japan deserve special mention, but there are many, many more. The JavaScript and the DHTML code builds on a vast corpus of material available worldwide. Bill Cava, Duncan Crombie, Kerri Schiller and the author of a hangman game in 1998 whom we have been unable to trace will all recognise their contributions to the code. Its implementation and development was helped by the use of the highly recommended CoffeeCup HTML editor .Thanks to you all. Last but not least - our families. Working on interactive computer programs can, and usually does, lead at times to a lack of interaction in the family. For the support and patience of all concerned, our gratitude. The result is yours as much as ours.

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