The document summarizes the cdstudent e-learning platform developed between 2000-2007 for high school students in the Czech Republic. It covered major subjects and sold over 12,000 copies. A custom CMS was developed to allow authors to create study materials in MS Office templates, which were then parsed to XHTML. An IE-based browser was used to view the materials stored in a database. In 2007, the project was sold to a major Czech e-learning company.

1. Project cdstudent
Elearning platform developed by Petr Podrouzek
petr.podrouzek@gmail.com

2. Overview
● cdstudent is an interactive e-learning platform for high
school students in the Czech republic.
● It contains various study materials and courses to help
students with day-to-day preparation for school.
● All major subjects (mathematics, physics, literature
etc.) have been covered.
● More than 6 versions were released and over 12000
copies were sold between 2000 and 2007.
● In 2007 the whole project has been sold to a major e-
learning company on the Czech market.

3. Technology behind cdstudent
●
Custom made CMS has been developed for cdstudent
– Authors of the courses and study materials created those in MS Office using
templates.
– Templates defined structure of the course.
– Parser was developed to convert DOCX into XHTML.
– Once parsed meta data has been stored into a database for further generation of
menus and search.
● Lightweight Internet Explorer based browser was developed
for viewing the study materials.
● In 2006 online service (called “Essay Centre”) was added
for providing continuous updates.

4. Technology behind cdstudent
DOCX
DOCX
DOCX
PDF
XHTML
Meta data
database
Essay center
IE based
browser
PDF were created
manually by
typhographer in order to
achieve best printability
XHTML
generated by
bespoke
parser
automatically
Meta-data about
any study
material/course
were added into a
database
Menus and search
generated
automatically
All documents
viewed through IE
based browser
with custom
interface
Once ready, all
data has been
burned onto CD-
ROM
In 2006 online
service has been
added to provide
updates

5. Interface of cdstudent
Subject menu
Study material
selection
Topic/course
selection
Content window
Print/search/help

6. Study material/course sample: one pagers
● “one pagers” were
designed to quickly
understand certain topic.
● These were manually
formatted by an experienced
typographer to fit as much
information as possible on
one page.
● Easy to print in different
sizes.
● Available for most of the
subjects (mathematics,
physics, chemistry etc.).

7. Study material/course sample: problems
● Bespoke set of problems for
physics, chemistry and
mathematics were created
for cdstudent.
● Thanks to the great storage
capacity of CD-ROM for all
problems detailed solutions
were provided.
● The detailed solutions
allowed students to
understand the problem
fully.

8. Study material/course sample: „student wikipedia“
● “student wikipedia” aimed
to provide comprehensive
high school knowledge in
subjects like history and
literature.
● It followed the topics
required for high school
leaving exam.
● It was interactive and
hyperlink based as is
wikipedia.org.

9. cdstudent marketing
DVD packaging
for brick and
mortar shops
cdstudent
poster