What is CIF?

Curriculum Interchange Format, or CIF, is a set of very simple HTML standards developed by Growth House, Inc., for presentation of brief learning modules via a Web browser. CIF tutorials can be played-back directly from a web site, used as embedded content within a frame of another web site, displyed on the right-hand frame of the IICN console, distributed as components of larger education systems, and even shipped to end users via diskettes if standalone use is preferred to web connectivity. The Interchange aspect refers to the fact that CIF modules can be developed by different educational institutions and later combined like "tinker toys" to form larger educational applications.

While CIF modules can be used directly for online education, the design of CIF pages also is optimized for integration with our Lex artificial intelligence system. When used in this way the CIF pages are components of the Lex knowledge base, with the Lex language processing software running as a higher-order indexing layer between them and an end user. In effect, Lex keeps copies of all CIF-compliant tutorial pages in his back pocket and can present individual pages from a CIF-compliant tutorial to a user in response to a natural-language question. This permits the user to pick up with the entire tutorial from the point which pertains specifically to the question which the user asked.

What is an "Edu-mercial"?

We have coined the term Edu-mercial to refer to the use of CIF-compliant modules to give a brief overview of more detailed instructional content which may reside elsewhere on the Internet, to which the CIF module links. This permits the use of CIF modules to give short looks at instructional content and move web traffic toward an instructional system which resides elsewhere. The CIF module is therefore a form of educational advertising intended to bring other education tools to the attention of web surfers. We welcome inquiries from educational content providers who would like to explore developing a CIF Edu-mercial to help promote their educational resource.

What does a CIF-compliant tutorial look like?

You may take a brief CIF-compliant tutorial on opioid neurotoxicity that was prepared in collaboration with the University of Alberta's Edmonton Regional Palliative Care Program. It can be completed in under ten minutes and covers the most common questions which palliative care professionals have regarding opioid rotation and the general issue of managing opioid toxicity.

Why are CIF HTML pages so short and simple?

The CIF system was developed to deal with the special case of event-driven education in which a user is surfing the web to look for information on a specific topic. Studies of user interaction with web sites consistently show that this transaction-oriented relationship with information must be brief, concise, and immediately clear in order to hold the user's attention. Individual CIF pages are somewhat like the answers to individual questions which are often seen in FAQ format on the net. A well-designed FAQ has anticipated the most common questions which will be asked and has chunked-down the responses to be very targeted to specific information needs. CIF-compliant pages do the same thing but with a random-access presentation paradigm. Many FAQs can be converted to CIF format with little effort.

What are the main issues in CIF HTML design?

The CIF design standards are intended to permit individual chunks of information to display accurately under a very wide range of possible HTML environments within which they may find themselves. A CIF page may not be able to control how much pixel space it has available, for example, so it must dynamically resize itself to fit a constraining frame. To permit interchange of content between multiple institutions it must have some way of identifying its sources. A tutorial page that is part of a CIF series may be presented "out of sequence" to a user and therefore must carry with it some sort of brief navigational control to help the user see that it is part of a series. Very simple color, font, and heading standards permit modules developed by different authors to visually combine with one another to dynamically form series if needed. Naming standards for CIF pages simplify distribution of mutli-page tutorials as separate directory structures, which may have optional associated lexical scanner logic modules if they are to be indexed in conjunction with the Lex Project.

CIF is cool. How do I add a CIF module to this project?

We welcome inquiries on how to develop modules which can be used as part of our demonstration system. Content quality is a very important issue. We prefer working with academic centers that have existing palliative care institutes or technical people working on distance education applications. For details please send mail to lex@growthhouse.org and mention your involvement with instructional technologies.