This module incorporates some good interactivity via some interesting applets.
However, it is difficult to detect a logical progression of topics aimed at meeting
a specific educational objective. As an example, note that the "objectives" page seems
to indicate that the module's primary focus will be on linear and matrix algebra when,
in fact, material in this module that focuses on those areas is sparse.
First Applet: "Bike"
- This is a extremely effective applet! The interface is very intuitive.
- Units (m) sould be given on the y-axis of the elevation "graph".
- When
this applet appears for the second time, accompanying text reads,
"With this activity, however, you can also go mountain biking on the mountains of
Mars or other planets in the solar system." In fact, it was possible
to do this in the previous activity.
Second Applet: "BikeTires"
- This applet is simple and effective.
- The applet also exhibits odd behavior when values less than or equal to 0
are entered in the "seat/pedals/handlebars" text areas.
Third Applet: "BikeTires - Rear Tire Guessing"
- The applet does not handle the value 0 when entered as a guess for the rear-tire weight.
- The applet also exhibits odd behavior when values less than or equal to 0
are entered in the "seat/pedals/handlebars" text areas.
- When the user requests the answer, the "Correct" or "Try Again" image (especially the latter)
should not remain visible.
Fourth Applet: "EyeMount - Tug of War"
- This applet is well done and has a nice interface.
- The attempt to make this applet "bicycle-oriented" is rather sophomoric, don't you think?
Perhaps some way (a visual cue?) should be found to reinforce the association with bicycles.
Fifth Applet: "Bicycle Frame Geometry"
- Again, a very nicely-done applet.
- There is some wasted space at the bottom of the applet that should be removed;
the less space an object can take up on a page while remaining effective, the better.
Sixth Applet: "Bicycle FBDs"
- After "trying again", the user is presented with the "correct" message from the previous exercise.
This can be extremely confusing.
- The feedback for determining the correct placement of friction is not always correct.
The applet gave me an incorrect answer when I tried it with the red circle.
- The same error occurred for me with the "normal forces" section on the red circle.
In fact, no matter how I tried, I could not even get past this part of the applet;
this issue must be dealt with before beta testing can be done on this module.
Seventh Applet: "Moments of Pedaling"
- Wow. What a great-looking applet!
- The instructions given for this applet seem out of date (i.e. "clicking in the selection boxes on the left..." - there are no selection boxes on the left of the applet!).
- The applet should display units (N?).
- The HTML pages may now be updated to the new Links style as outlined in
the Template
module. I have begun work on this, but several of the pages have yet
to be reworked.
- Library
page: the H2 tags should be *outside* the A tags around the word "Glossary".
- There are minor technical problems with several of the applets in this
module. Please see the "Alternate Media" section above for details.
- Netscape Communicator 4.5 for Windows
- Explorer 4.5 for Macintosh