"Procedural Markup Language (PML). PML is a markup language written in XML that allows the content designer to encode domain knowledge in an intuitive and flexible manner by specifying the knowledge structures, the underlying physical media, and the relationship between them using cognitive media roles. [In this paper] we focus specifically on procedural task domains, in which the primary type of knowledge to be represented concerns the performance of procedures." [see the publications referenced below]
Links:
"PML: Representing Procedural Domains for Multimedia Presentations." By Ashwin Ram, Richard Catrambone, Mark J. Guzdial, Colleen M. Kehoe, D. Scott McCrickard, and John T. Stasko. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0280. Technical Report GIT-GVU-98-20, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 1998. Also available in PDF and Postscript formats. "A central issue in the development of multimedia systems is the presentation of the information to the user of the system and how to best represent that information to the designer of the system. Typically, the designers create a system in which content and presentation are inseparably linked; specific presentations and navigational aids are chosen for each piece of content and hard-coded into the system. We argue that the representation of content should be decoupled from the design of the presentation and navigational structure, both to facilitate modular system design and to permit the construction of dynamic multimedia systems that can determine appropriate presentations in a given situation on the fly. We propose a new markup language called PML (Procedural Markup Language) which allows the content to be represented in a flexible manner by specifying the knowledge structures, the underlying physical media, and the relationships between them using cognitive media roles. The PML description can then be translated into different presentations depending on such factors as the context, goals, presentation preferences, and expertise of the user. . . What we add to the existing science is (a) a theory of effective organization for multimedia used forlearning (specifically, cognitive media roles), and (b) a notation for encoding knowledge such that an effective representation can be generated. To facilitate the development of a system outlined above, we propose and describe in this article a new notation called Procedural Markup Language (PML). PML is a markup language written in XML that allows the content designer to encode domain knowledge in an intuitive and flexible manner by specifying the knowledge structures, the underlying physical media, and the relationship between them using cognitive media roles. We focus specifically on procedural task domains, in which the primary type of knowledge to be represented concerns the performance of procedures." Local copies: HTML, PDF, Postscript.
"PML: Adding Flexibility to Multimedia Presentations." By Ashwin Ram, Richard Catrambone, Mark J. Guzdial, Colleen M. Kehoe, D. Scott McCrickard, and John T. Stasko. In IEEE Multimedia Volume 6, Number 2 (April-June 1999), pages 40-52. With 10 references. Abstract: "In multimedia systems, designers typically link content and presentation. The paper discusses a new markup language, Procedural Markup Language (PML), which decouples content and presentation. It lets users specify the knowledge structures, underlying physical media, and relationships between them using cognitive media roles. This approach fosters modular system design and dynamic multimedia systems that can determine appropriate presentations for a given situation by allowing knowledge specification to be done separately from knowledge presentation. . . . The highlights of our formalism are: (1) Domain information is encoded in knowledge nodes that are connected to each other through knowledge links. (2) Information within a particular knowledge node is represented using physical media clusters that contain media elements such as text, graphics, animations, video clips, and sound files. (3) Physical media are organized under knowledge nodes using cognitive media roles, such as 'definition' and 'example.' A cognitive media role can contain more than one different physical media type. For example, a faucet might be represented using some text and a graphic. (4) The information contained in knowledge nodes, knowledge links, physical media clusters, and cognitive media roles forms the raw material of presentation; it determines what users will see and hear, and which navigational connections and devices will be available onscreen. Different presentations can be created from the same underlying representation based on various factors such as the user's domain expertise, previous experience, and goals."
