Scope and Content
Preferred Citation:
Provenance
Publication Rights
Access Restrictions
Biographical / Historical
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Stanford University, Academic Computing and Information Services, academic software
development collection
creator:
Stanford University. Academic Computing and Information
Services
creator:
Stanford University. Faculty Author Development
Program
Identifier/Call Number: SC0589
Physical Description:
15 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1984-1995
Scope and Content
This collection pertains primarily to the Faculty Author Development Project (1984-1986),
which sought to encourage Stanford professors to develop courseware on microcomputers.
Instruction and Research Information Systems, the division of ACIS that managed the Project,
provided equipment and programming support to faculty.
The collection consists largely of binders containing programming instructions, handbooks,
manuals, computer disks, and other materials on the final projects. Some examples of the
courseware are a theater staging simulation, a simulation of economic and social life in
17th century France, an economics tutorial, and physics simulations. The collection also
includes copies of academic software published by Intellimation (1990) and by Kinko's
Academic Courseware Exchange (1984-1986).
Preferred Citation:
[Identification of item], Stanford University, Academic Computing and Information Services,
Academic Software Development Collection (SC0589). Dept. of Special Collections and
University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Provenance
Administrative transfers, 1999-2000.
Publication Rights
Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the
documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the
Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.
Access Restrictions
The materials are open for research use.
Biographical / Historical
The Faculty Authoring Development Program (FAD) and Courseware Authoring Tools Project
(CAT) were courseware development initiatives at Stanford University during the years
1984-1990s. Several dozen teaching applications were created including tutorials in
economics, drama simulations, thermodynamics lessons, and historical and anthropological
role-playing games.
In 1984 FAD began by asking professors to propose projects for teaching with
microcomputers. It then awarded programming support for six months or a year to several
faculty. In 1987 in a new project, the Courseware Authoring Tools Project, end-user
authoring systems for creating teaching applications were developed. Faculty used these
authoring tools to create their own applications with a reduced level of support. A
multimedia lab was also started at this time to author videodisc-based applications. The
effort was started by Michael Carter, director of Stanford's Instruction and Research
Information Systems group, and managed by Barbara Jasinski. Applications were distributed on
floppy-discs with assistance from the Apple University Consortium through Kinko's copy
centers.
The TheaterGame was a 2.5D Theater staging simulation, running on a 512K Apple Macintosh
computer. Using it, students design an Elizabethan stage and then direct a play by moving
characters and changing their body positions on the stage. Students record scenes
synchronized to their audio recording of the play and then replay their work for the full
class audience. The Shakespeare Project was a videodisc-based tutorial that used theater
techniques in interactions such as writing the subtext for multiple versions of the same
scene as played by different theater companies. It was distributed through Apple Computer as
part of its multimedia marketing effort. Authored by Prof. Larry Friedlander, assisted by
Charles Kerns, with graphics by Marge Boots.
The Would-be Gentleman was a role-playing game, modeling the economic and social life of a
French bourgeois during the life of Louis XIV of France (1638-1715). In the game, the player
makes decisions about investing income, planning marriages and estates, and seeking
influence with powerful figures. The game starts when the player is told that his father
died and left him a small amount of cash and land. The student then decides how to invest
his resources. Historical and personal events are inter-related in the game. The real
challenge is keeping one's social and economic status in balance. If successful the player
will archive a high court position and riches. Authored by Prof. Carolyn Lougee and Michael
Carter for the 512K Macintosh computer.
The Rankine Cycle and Brayton Cycle, two thermodynamics simulations and tutorials, in which
students manipulated variables for steam and jet engines to affect power output. Authored by
Prof. Robert Eustis for a 512K Mac. Later released as ThermoWare in 1990 by the Stanford
Mechanical Engineering Department.
The Computer-aided Tutorial in Economics was a set of interactive lessons for an
introduction to economics course. Students played the role of consumer, producer, and policy
maker to learn about the forces that drive different parts of the economy. During the
tutorial, students responded to questions and interpreted graphs. Authored by Prof. Michael
Boskin for an IBM PC XT with 320K memory.
Tarski's World Tarski's World is a 3-D block world in which students use the symbolic
language of first-order logic. Turing's World is a simulation of a simple computer, a Turing
machine, one of the key abstractions used in modern computability theory to study what
computers can and cannot do. Currently published by the Center for the Study of Language and
Information and distributed by Cambridge University Press. Authored by Profs. Jon Barwise
and John Etchemendy.
Mogul, a role-playing game for learning the history of cinema in the U.S., in which the
player helps Adolph Zukor run nickelodeons and start a movie production company. In one
activity the player views and books early movies for theaters and has his position in the
company affected by theater profits. Authored by Prof Henry Breitrose
Alias, a role-playing game authoring tool, written in Hypercard by Brodie Lockard.
American Sign Language, a tutorial and visual dictionary; Heat Exchange in Animals;
Chemotherapy Simulation for practicing administration of drugs and monitoring vital signs;
The Drama Image Archive, a large set of still images accessed on a videodisc controlled by a
Macintosh computer, Science for Living, a set of tutorials and simulations teaching about
the heart and circulatory system; a SuperCard version of A La Rencontre de Philippe, a
French language exploratory world original developed at MIT's Project Athena for
workstations; Physics Simulations.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Education -- Computer programs.
Computer-assisted instruction.
Stanford University. Academic Computing and Information
Services
Stanford University -- General subdivision--Curricula.;
Stanford University. Faculty Author Development
Program