Mars Mania

I published Mars Mania as a HyperCard program in 1991 for schools. I believe it to be one of the earliest examples of a video-based e-Learning adventure. It is also innovative (I believe) in allowing free-text input, in its level of personalized feedback response, and in its use of the Socratic form in e-Learning design. Student responses within the age group 11-15 were extremely positive at the time. Video graphics obviously have moved on (in 1991, even the use of colour within a HyperCard stack was very unusual), but I believe the program could still be used today with good effect in introductory science teaching in schools. I re-compiled the program in 2005 in Director as a ShockWave file to run over the Internet, preserving everything that I could of the original Hypercard program to show what an innovative e-Learning program could look like 20 years ago. I forgot about it until this year, 2012. I published a French version, Mars Manie, also in 1991.

Here's the (almost) fully functional Internet version. The only thing that wasn't implimented was the button to print the final report at the end. Apologies if the file doesn't run in your browser. I haven't performed rigorous testing yet over all platforms and browsers. Just let me know if it doesn't run with you by emailing me at adrian@adrianmallon.com.

Click on the START button: