CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

An authoring website platform is a web based system program that has pre-programmed elements for the development of interactive multimedia software titles. Authoring platform have being defined by scholars as a software that allows its user to create multimedia applications which support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium through Content uploading. This  may take the form of text (such as documents), multimedia files (such as audio or video files), or any other file type that follows a content lifecycle requiring management.

However, Using multimedia, is simply using a variety of media, whether visual or auditory, with the intent of communicating. The graphics, sound, video, animation and interactive effects make contents come alive. Interactive multimedia is becoming a widely used phrase in higher education, business, and industry. It refers to any application that gets input from the user by means of the keyboard, mouse, or other pointing device and performs some action in response. With the introduction of interactive multimedia learning materials, there comes a need for easy-to-use development tools, which incorporate alternative visual metaphors in the development process. So, multimedia authoring tools come on the stage.

The authoring tool can be thought of as a system for organization and arrangement of multimedia project elements – graphics, sound, animation, video, documents  and interactive elements. It is used for designing interactivity and the user interface, for presenting the project on the screen and for connecting the multimedia elements into one project. Authoring programs now provide a wide range of possibilities for putting together different multimedia elements, controlling media devices such as audio and video, and allowing maximum user interactivity.

Authoring systems allow a wide range of people to assemble multimedia elements such as graphics, text, video, sound, animation, and at the same time easily incorporate an unseen logic of pauses, interactivity, conditional branching, and scoring. Unlike programming languages such as C and Pascal, which can be used to develop multimedia, authoring systems make the process “user-friendly” with an interface of buttons and menu selections. The advantage of these tools is that the designer doesn’t need to be highly skilled in high-level languages, but can use a simpler construction set of pre-programmed modules. Unlike presentation packages such as PowerPoint, authoring systems offer greater branching possibilities, device control (including videodiscs and overlay devices), use of variables and functions, multimedia file management and distribution utilities, and interface metaphors appropriate for creating interactive multimedia. Usually authoring tools help us to create a final application merely by linking together objects, such as a paragraph of text, an image, or a song. By defining the objects’ relationships to each other, and by sequencing them in an appropriate order, authors can produce attractive and useful graphics applications.

Aims and Objective of the Study

The main thrust of this work is anchored on the design and implementation of a group authoring website platform.

The specific objectives are:

1. To design the authoring web based platform that can be thought of as a system for organization and arrangement of multimedia project elements such as graphics, sound, animation, video, documents  and interactive elements

2. To create Group authoring  system where any member can write and put out publications of various types

3. To automate a system where users can easily share their ideas to the platform while it is controlled by the author/admin

Significance of the Research

This research is justifiable, on the premise that it will be of immense benefit to journalist, and scholars, for sharing their contents to the outside world.

Due to scanty of literature on Authoring system, The study will serve as an embodiment of knowledge , a guide and  references materials to future researchers embarking on similar study

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