Developing reusable multimedia tutorials

This paper addresses the development of a reusable multimedia tutorial. Like all large organizations, the United States Army is constantly developing new software. One such project, the Warfighter´s Simulation 2000 (WARSIM 2000) project is being developed to replace existing legacy constructive simulation packages with a single integrated command and control constructive simulation package. This will fundamentally change how the Army conducts constructive simulation training and as such, the National Simulation Center and Simulation and Instrumentation Command developed a multimedia tutorial to highlight the differences between existing constructive military simulations and the emerging WARSIM 2000 software package. Similar packages such as the Standard Army Training System Training Exercise Development System Multimedia Tutorial and Combined Arms Tactical Trainer Multimedia Trainer had been previously developed. But instead of developing another multimedia tutorial for a single application, a multimedia tutorial was developed that could be easily adapted for other multimedia tutorials and provided for user adaptation, knowledge assessment and information presentation using commonly available software tools. This ability to reuse software components and easily substitute source materials provides an attractive and cost-effective alternative to the typical, time-extensive development cycle of multimedia software development