Multi-user Hypertextual Didactic Glossaries

In this paper we present a multi-user hypertextual glossary prototype which can improve the learning of a group (classroom) of university students in a multimedia environment. The glossary prototype has been designed to solve the typical problems encountered when using traditional electronic and printed glossaries: the authoring problem, the loss of reading context, the fact that glossaries are traditionally closed literary works and the difficulties encountered by students trying to use them for learning foreign languages such as Italian. These problems have been minimised or solved in the glossary prototype presented in this work. A dynamic word-stemming algorithm has been implemented in the glossary to improve the handling of foreign languages. The glossary has been designed as an objectoriented application.