New software

Fabris is new software that allows teachers and lecturers to design and deliver learning materials. It is entirely web-based.

With Fabris you design pages in a book. You can create quizzes and tests and you can monitor the progress of individual students.

Fabris has been born out of a need to carry over materials which were originally authored on CDROM using traditional authoring packages onto a web format and yet retain the ease and productivity of those packages. The screens are built up graphically (rather like Asymetrix Toolbook, Macromedia Authorware, Visual Basic and Delphi) and behind the scenes the system puts together the necessary DHTML code. Authoring is entirely WYSIWYG.

With Fabris you build a lesson working directly from your learning material. There is no need for any coding. Standard interactions are built into the graphical objects on the screen. However, it is a feature of the system that these interactions can be customised using functions written in Javascript.

The system is currently in the final alpha stage of development. The relevant sites are being assembled and should be fully operational in beta stage from July 2001. This is later than originally planned, but then again, there is a lot to put together!

The Fabris home page, where you will be able to look at and take to pieces examples and where you will be able to participate in trials, will be

It is expected that the initial materials will be at UK secondary/tertiary level in Modern Languages and Mathematics and hopefully should be ready by October 2001.

If you are interested in the Fabris development,contact Mike Beilby at CBLProjects.