Computer aided publishing as a tool for preparing instructional text: A case study

Although there have been considerable advances in media technology in recent years, print remains the most widely used medium for providing instructional materials, especially in distance education. Further, print materials make up the majority of any instructional package and the key to providing quality instruction through print lies in the presentation, instructional layout and textual format of the materials, all of which can contribute to enhancing the learner's educational experience.

The emergence of relatively low cost sophisticated computer aided publishing equipment has meant that organisations which are engaged in the development and preparation of course text, training manuals and other instructional materials can now, within their own environment, manage and monitor the total preparation of print materials thereby obviating the necessity for outside typesetting facilities.

This paper details the implementation of a computer aided publishing system, based on an integrated network of Apollo Domain workstations coupled with laser printers and scanner, by an organisation involved in the design, development and preparation of a high volume of instructional materials. Reasons for adopting computer aided publishing are presented together with specifications of the chosen system in terms of production, operator and course development needs. The instructional materials which have since been developed by computer aided publishing are described with particular reference to page layout, typography, use of instructional icons and integration of graphics. A key element in the development of materials and utilisation of the system has been the establishment of typographic and instructional style which maximises the potential functionality of the computer aided publishing system. This style has been documented for use by all involved in the development and production process.

The paper then discusses unpredicted shortcomings of the chosen system and provides a set of recommendations for organisations anticipating the implementation of computer aided publishing for similar purposes. Finally future directions and developments that are likely to occur in the use of computer aided publishing systems are considered.

In Australia, because of the nation's geographic and demographic peculiarities, distance education remains the only way by which an increasingly significant part of the population can obtain an education. For a further group, it is also the preferred mode of study. As at the time of production over 48,000 (approximately) higher education students and 60,000 TAFE (approximately) students study by distance education.

Although there have been considerable advances in technology in recent years, print remains the most widely used media for the dissemination of instructional materials at a distance. This is not to say that the way print media is being prepared and used for instruction has not changed. To the contrary, there have been a number of dramatic and significant changes brought about by: the need for students to receive high quality stand alone self instructional materials; the need for providers to have the ability and capacity to produce high volume print runs; and the need for providers to achieve greater efficiency and cost effectiveness in the production of print materials.

Consequently, whereas in the early eighties when the majority of study materials for distance education courses consisted of "lecture notes" prepared by an academic, a vast amount of material now consists of self instructional packages that may include a variety of other media such as audio and video cassettes, computer aided learning programs and home experiment kits, all of which have been developed by course development teams.

Whilst these changes have been occurring there has also been quite a revolution in the publishing of print material. In the past there were essentially two options used for the preparation of print materials for distance education: the typewriter, a low cost, low quality, production option; and the typesetter, a high cost, high quality production option.

However, the advent of the microcomputer and the simultaneous development of word processing software has had a significant impact upon this situation and more recently, the introduction of the laser printer for high quality output has provided the impetus for a quantum leap in the sophistication of in house word processing technology. The new "desktop" technology based around personal workstations has afforded the distance education provider the means by which to produce typeset quality publications without the expense of the traditional equipment required to do so. In this paper, computer aided publishing, as a term to describe this technology, refers to all methods of electronically capturing, combining and manipulating page elements prior to output as paginated print ready materials.

For the distance education provider an implication of adopting a computer aided publishing system for the preparation of instructional material using a course development team approach has been that it has enabled the development of increasingly sophisticated educational materials. However, at the same time the production process has become more complex and, as a consequence, more difficult to manage. For instance, a greater variety of skills input are necessary during the development phase and operators using the system require significantly greater training in the aspects of system operation, typography and page layout.

This paper details the implementation of a sophisticated computer aided publishing system by a distance education provider for the development and production of a range of self instructional study packages.

Why computer aided publishing?

1.	Materials design, information gathering and generation	Course team: author instructional designer typographic designer editor
2.	Information transformation	Production team: keyboard operators graphic artist editor
3.	Information delivery	Publication team: printer binder dispatch staff

The main advantages of computer aided publishing are:

1. It offers a low cost, high quality alternative to word processing - an alternative which allows far greater flexibility in textual layout than has been possible with typewritten output.

2. Generally these systems provide a "friendly" user interface with features such as a "WYSIWYG" (What You See Is What You Get) display, pop up option menus, mouse controlled cursor etc. Together these features allow greater ease of operation for the user who is untrained in typography.

3. It enables the generation and integration of a wide variety of textual and graphic components within a single system as shown in Figure 1. Inputs can be from a number of sources (e. g. text may be captured from online word processors, remote terminals, optical character recognition scanners (OCR), transmission via modem, with graphics generation through CAB systems, paint/drawing packages or digitising via an electronic scanner. Output is normally via laser printers or typesetters depending upon the desired quality.

Model and approach for the development and production of instructional texts for distance education

Figure 1: Variety of input and output options with computer aided publishing

In the development of self instructional textual materials, the authors of this paper adopted the use of an instructional sequence teased on the work of Gagne and Briggs (1979) who defined instructional elements which typically apply to a lesson segment. These elements are: motivation enhancement; revealing the structure of the content; objectives; the content; self assessment; feedback; prerequisite learning; learning guidance; and formal assessment.

In addition, attention was also given to the following macro textual features (Reigeluth, 1983) to guide and facilitate student learning. These included: logical/schematic presentation of the total content; features to demonstrate interrelationships between content areas; use of structured overviews; use of flexible study routes; devices to attract learner attention to important information; information access devices to enable learners to readily access any material in the whole text; reference guides to additional sources of information and other media for learning.

It is acknowledged that the development of high quality instructional materials requires;

• a multidisciplinary team including subject material specialists, instructional designers, media specialists;

• detailed design specifications for the design phase (information gathering and generation of materials).

Thus materials developed is limited within the constraints of a chosen instructional model and the capabilities of the computer aided publishing system.

Tailoring a publishing system to address specific needs

The needs of these users are now dealt with individually in order to illustrate the importance of many of the technical issues involved in making the transition to computer aided publishing.

Author's needs

As well as transferring files into the publishing system it is highly desirable for the author that any amendments made to the document whilst in the publishing system are transferable back onto the author's disk. This may provide some problems due to format changes between particular systems, but if the author is seen as being an integral part of the computer aided publishing system, this functionality is necessary.

Instructional designer/Typographer's needs

In this case study, the following features were seen as essential instructional and typographic needs and, as such, criteria upon which to base the choice of system.

• A drafting program to enable the preparation of complex mathematical functions, chemical equations and formula, etc, together with a more fundamental paint/draw package for the generation of icons and logos as aids to distinguishing instructional features.

• The capability of generating tables and charts was required to offer the author a succinct method of presenting information in a graphic manner.

• A scanner was essential for the incorporation of supplied graphics into the publishing system (e. g. photographs, freehand graphics etc. ). These can be digitised by scanning, and electronically combined with the on screen text. These distinct types of graphics are illustrated in Figure 3.

• A range of type styles and sizes to typographically differentiate titles, various hierarchical headings, captions, quotations etc. Such textual differentiation is a necessary feature for instructional material in order to reveal the structure of a body of material to learners, as well as to act as a typographic cue to emphasise specific points or to signal important issues (Hartley, 1981).

• A flexible page layout in both portrait and landscape to allow for single or multi column format to suit the unique requirements of particular disciplines. Figure 2 illustrates a variety of page organisations which exhibit the layout requirements of the publishing software.

Figure 2: A variety of layout styles for an A4 page

• There are many other typographical features (e. g. line spacing, justification, kerning, indentation) all of which impact greatly upon the readability of a body of text. While there has been much research on the readability and legibility of print in regard to these and other typographical features (Tinker, 1963), it remains a debatable issue how much of this research is relevant to the formatting of instructional text which is often more complex than narrative prose (Hartley, 1986). However, a publishing system which offers these typographical features provides the user with greater flexibility to improve the overall readability of instructional texts.

Figure 3: Examples of different types of graphics

• An output quality greater than 300 dpi in order to clearly highlight text and complex illustrations (especially halftones). The output quality of a publishing system determines the level of sophistication of any of the components and it should be noted that if higher quality output is desirable, in the case of professional publishing, many systems provide the facility for driving a typesetter, allowing quality output up to 2650 dpi. The capability for "interchanging" output devices is made much easier on later publishing systems through the use of standardised page description languages which are device independent and will drive each particular output device to its resolution capability. Although the resolution difference between typesetters and laser printers is great (as is the price difference), the comparative quality in visual terms is minimal as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: A comparison of typeset quality (left) and laser printer quality (right)

System operator's needs

In regard to operation, it was desirable for the publishing system to incorporate as much automation as possible to economise on operation time. Several areas identified for automation were: page numbering; figure/table numbering; footnote/reference numbering; index compilation; table of contents generation. In addition a spelling checker was seen as necessary to conserve the time required for proofreading.

System administration needs

The complexity of the graphics creation and pagination tasks makes enormous demands upon the power of the publishing system hardware. Also the ability to share files across the system and access other user accounts from any terminal was seen as a useful feature. These requirements encouraged the exploration of networking as a means of integrating the publishing system hardware.

Student needs

Description of the chosen publishing system

Figure 5: Configuration of computer aided publishing system at Capricornia Institute

A network of 7 Apollo Domain engineering workstations was chosen as the hardware platform upon which the publishing software Interleaf would run. Interleaf allows for the creation and integration of textual and graphic elements as well as provides a considerable degree of typographic flexibility. The Apollo workstations, each with four megabytes of main memory, provide the operator with a large, high resolution screen and the capacity to operate on very large documents containing text and graphics with no degradation in speed.

The graphics subsystem comprises another Apollo workstation upon which the computer aided drafting program Autocad is used to generate the complex scientific graphics alluded to earlier in this paper. As the Interleaf software is also resident on this machine, Autocad graphics are transferred into the publishing software and then become available to the operators for integration with the text. An integral part of the graphics subsystem is a Datacopy flat bed laser scanner for the electronic digitisation of supplied illustrations (photographs etc.). These illustrations, once scanned, are also transferred to Interleaf for integration with the text.

Output from the publishing system is via two Apple LaserWriter Plus laser printers capable of 300 dpi resolution on plain paper. Each of these system components is an integral part of the Apollo Token Ring Network making each device accessible by all operators on the system.

For the provision of file transfers there is a serial link with the superseded word processor to allow the transfer and updating of existing files. There is a second serial link to a microcomputer for the transfer and retrieval of word processing files in other locations within the institution.

Implementing the publishing system

• the need to import expertise in the areas of typography, system management and professional publishing

• training scheme for operators on both system hardware and publishing software

• defining a typographic style as a guide to writing and setting study materials

• initiating course development teams for the implementation of the typographic and instructional style.

Operator training

Due mainly to its geographic isolation, Australia suffers greatly from a lack of support, especially in the area of computer software. This problem was exacerbated at the authors' institution as it is further distanced from a major city. These problems, coupled with the fact that the Interleaf software was still a very new product in publishing, meant that software support and user training was virtually non existent. Due, however, to the very comprehensive Interleaf documentation, operator training was carried out initially on a self paced "work through the book" basis until such time as a structured training manual was prepared by one of the authors (Kemp).

The complexity of the publishing software demands that operator training is ongoing as is training in various aspects of typographic style relevant to the preparation of study materials.

System management and operations

• coordinating the installation and implementation of the publishing system

• planning the typographic structure and page layout of documents prepared on the new publishing system

• managing and administering the day to day system tasks of file storage and transfers, system back up, archiving etc.

• developing training programs for all involved with the publishing system.

Defining a typographic style

A typographic style was seen as essential for a variety of reasons:

• to facilitate the development of study materials by offering writers a variety of instructional features and ideas

• to facilitate the production of study materials through its use as a reference manual detailing the typographic format of all components

• to exploit the full functionality of the publishing software and thereby act as a selling tool for the publisher.

Flexible study routes and information access imply the employment of access devices. These instructional aids need to be readily identifiable and distinguishable from the main body of text. The use of the larger "concepts margin" allows students quick access to important information within the text through the use of a wide range of instructional aids. In this particular style the following methods are used to distinguish instructional features:

• iconic representations
• typographic devices (boxes, horizontal bars, patterned areas)
• type differentiation by font, style and size
• layout differentiation (positioning in a discrete column)
• coloured pages

• over the 5.5 inch column width, 12 pt provided an average of 10-12 words per line, the ideal number of words per line to sustain a reasonable level of comprehension (Trevilt, 1980)

• the majority of external students study after work hours typically at night, and the larger 12 pt type size can only improve the readability of the instructional text and subsequently enhance comprehension.

Course development teams

Once a typographic style was developed and published it was decided that the team approach to course development would provide the best means of "selling" to the author, computer aided publishing and its inherent instructional advantages. These teams would typically comprise various skilled personnel from the writing, development and production areas, and the Style Guide would act as the blueprint upon which the instructional and typographic format of the new materials would be based.

The implementation of style through the course development teams has provided a proving ground for the initial Style Guide in terms of its adaptability across a wide range of academic disciplines. It was soon found that the initial style was somewhat over restricting in trying to tie authors down to a regimented method of content presentation and did not sufficiently accommodate a range of instructional strategies appropriate to different subject areas. The recently revised version of the Style Guide has made provision for these areas and is seen as a more flexible document which is still based on sound typographical principles.

Implications of computer aided publishing

Production throughput

Some measures have been taken to avoid these delays:

• the development of strict page templates which automatically generate the desired space margins for each component to ensure correct positioning in relation to other elements

• the preparation by author and course development staff of copy which conforms to the Style Guide so that all requirements for instructional and typographic features are consistently presented

• the generation of all graphics being assigned to the skilled personnel operating the graphics subsystem.

Enhancement of educational quality of material

In the absence of this expertise, these authors consider that the publishing system capabilities cannot be exploited and thus would serve as little more than a word processing system. It wasn't until the Style Guide had been developed and based upon an instructional model for distance education that there was clear evidence of enhanced educational quality of materials.

Print quality

The quality of binding and the cover typography can also impact greatly upon the professionalism and credibility of the publisher.

Production and maintenance costs

Recognition as a professional publisher

It is important to note that the technology to publish is becoming increasingly accessible to the author through his/her own equipment. This being so, there is an increasing need for the author to realise the importance that the structure and typography of the material plays in relation to the presentation of the content.

Staffing issues

System integration

This institution was faced with some problems of integration regarding the graphics subsystem. Although the Autocad drafting software satisfied specification regarding functionality and would, in fact, interface with the Interleaf software, this capability was not available on the Apollo platform. Fortunately the graphic artist was able to write a software interface to overcome this problem, but as one could well imagine the development of this software was a time consuming task.

Learning curve for implementation

Now that there exists a pool of user expertise, these persons train other users with the aid o' training manuals that have been developed. This is not only seen as a way of acknowledging the expertise that is necessary to be a user but in the process of "teaching" new users, the "teachers" (operators) learn more about the system as a whole.

Preparation of instructional materials as a team effort

Recommendations

1. Formulate a needs analysis based upon the desired instructional and technical quality of the materials to be published. This analysis should accommodate the specific needs, present and future, of all involved in the publishing process.

2. As a means of maintaining quality assurance over the range of materials which is to be produced, there is a need for a documented style guide that not only details typographic and instructional features, but also details the potential functionality of the computer aided publishing system and the publisher.

3. Because of the complexity of the computer aided publishing technology and the inherent range of expertise required to fully exploit the potential of these systems, develop a program of workshops for initial and ongoing training of all users.

4. Computer aided publishing provides the means to produce high quality and educationally sophisticated print materials. This goal cannot be achieved, however, without employing specialist expertise and as a consequence modifying the organisational structure of the publishing department. It is important to recognise that because the publishing process will be more complex these specialists will fit into the organisational structure at various levels.

References

Gagne, R. M, and Briggs, L. J. (1979). Principles of Instructional Design. New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Hanley, J. (1981). Eighty Ways of Improving Instructional Text. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 24(1), 17-27.

Hartley, J, (1986). Planning the Typographical Structure of Instructional Text. Educational Psychologist, 21(4), 315-332.

Morison, S, (1951). First Principles of Typography. London, Cambridge University Press.

Reigeluth, C. M, (1983). Instructional Design Theories and Models; An Overview of their Current Status. New Jersey, Erlbaum.

Tinker, A, (1963). Legibility of Print. Ames, Iowa, Iowa State University Press.

Trevitt, J. (1980). Book Design. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Weildon, C. (1984). Communicating - Or Just Making Pretty Shapes. Sydney, Newspaper Advertising Bureau of Australia.

John Dekkers BSc MSc PhD John is the Director of the Department of External and Continuing Education at the Capricornia Institute in Rockhampton, Queensland. He was previously Director of the Science and Mathematics Education Centre at the Western Australian Institute of Technology. His research interests are in distance education and science education evaluation studies. Neale Kemp DipT(TAFE) Neale is the Production and System Manager in the Department of External and Continuing Education at the Capricornia Institute in Rockhampton, Queensland. He was previously a TAFE teacher in the area of typesetting and graphic design and gained a Churchill Fellowship in 1985 to study computer aided publishing in the USA, UK and Europe. Please cite as: Dekkers, J. and Kemp, N. (1988). Computer aided publishing as a tool for preparing instructional text: A case study. In J. Steele and J. G. Hedberg (Eds), Designing for Learning in Industry and Education, 190-205. Proceedings of EdTech'88. Canberra: AJET Publications. http://www.aset.org.au/confs/edtech88/dekkers.html