Proyecto Coaster: un programa para generar prácticas interactivas basado en simulaciones matemáticas y aplicaciones multimedia

COASTER es un proyecto de la Unión Europea desarrollado por 6 universidades y 4 centros asociados de diferentes paises cuyo objetivo es realizar, demostrar y evaluar pedagógicamente la eficacia de un programa informático para generar simulaciones interactivas de prácticas de elevada calidad científica, pedagógica y técnica, basadas en experimentos reales de diferentes áreas de conocimiento como una alternativa al alto coste y a las limitaciones de los laboratorios experimentales para atender a una docencia práctica de calidad. COASTER es capaz de simular procesos biológicos y físicos e introduce aplicaciones multimedia para mejorar la comprensión de los contenidos por los estudiantes. Además, COASTER permite que un docente o un estudiante con conocimientos informáticos estándares pueda realizar experimentos basados en modelos matemáticos creados por los modelizadores, diseñados para recrear cualquier proceso biológico o físico siempre que se disponga de una descripción matemática del mismo

An authoring tool for education based on multimedia and simulation

Some experiments, often crucial for the comprehension of fundamental principles in physiology, neurophysiology, cardiology, endocrinology, or engineering domains can not be carried out by students due to financial and/or practical constraints (e.g., cost, risk). Such inconveniences may be avoided by simulations based on a mathematical model of the studied phenomena. The coupling of multimedia materials and animations in simulation tools greatly facilitates the student's comprehension of complex phenomena. The COAST system is based on this philosophy and it proposes an assistance in the creation of multimedia tutorials by using a software package. The core of the COAST system is composed of four environments: the modelling environment for the development and fitting of dynamic models described by ordinary differential equations; the author environment dedicated to development and editing of experiments; the tutor environment for the building of practical scenarios (conditional linking of experiments); student run-time. COAST is a simple and flexible authoring software. Using this software, an author without any particular experience in computer sciences can create his own multimedia practical course. The authors can very easily customise or modify specific features (experiments, sequence of experiments, pedagogic rules, adding explanations and questions, etc.). The flexibility of the system and the integration within WWW technology offer the teacher the possibility to create his own structure of course in accordance with his pedagogic rules. Several examples of courseware, built with the COAST system, are presented during the session. The results of our validation are also discussed.Anglai