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XPLANA CW Demonstration Course: Technology for Martians
Technology for Martians. Technology for Martians. Technology for Martians is a story-driven training framework for teaching the basics about the technology used buy teachers and students. It is based on the encounters of Bob, a radio talk-show host in Jupiter, U.S.A., and Zotz, an adolescent martian who has come to Earth to give Bob a hand. Thrown into the mix are Bob’s long-suffering attorney/wife Darlin’ and their spoiled dog Roger. In order to augment the narrative play of the course, Technology for Martians features the actual Radio Web site for Bob’s show, his personal blog, and Zotz’ personal blog. There is also a daily comic strip, Cosmic Radio, that pushes the narrative sequence.
Technology for Martians is actually a library of mini-courses on topics ranging from buying computers to digitizing audio. Each mini-course is taught/developed by a specialist on that topic and students can select from the list of available courses to build a curriculum that fits their specific needs. They can also have access the Technology for Martians community and the conversations and help discussions available there. All student progress is tracked and success in their chosen courses is recorded.
Xplana CW is a unique courseware environment that makes a course of this type possible by providing a collaborative authoring framework for both teachers and students. From a course design perspective, Technology for Martians is extremely demanding as it requires:

• Multiple course owners — The radio show Web site, Bob’s blog, and Zots’ blog are all written and managed by separate course owners.
• Multiple instructors — Each mini-course is a separate course unit with its own activities and developed by a separate instructor (but within the course).
• Complete modularity — Technology for Martians is a fluid course that is updated constantly and to which new courses can be added easily.
• Student independence — Students create their own road maps for study and yet have the option of being “connected” to a larger community.