CatStat / TeachM is a Hypertext textbook development system that was developed at the department of Statistics at the Potchefstroom University. The project started in 1994 and was finished it in mid 1995. The main objectives of this application was the following:

1. Hypertext documents (or textbooks) must be easy to develop and edit in ‘n multi-user network environment so that the writers could simultaneously work on their part of the textbook .
2. Full-text facilities must be available (bold, italic, underline, paragraph formatting etc.) and inline mathematics must be handled with ease via OLE objects (Mathtype or Equation editor).
3. Changing the contents of a textbook must be quick and easy. Therefore the textbook viewer and the development system must be one application. Switching between the two requires a combination of three keyboard keys and a password.
4. TeachM must be able to convert (export) the total textbook contents into HTML files, linked with hypertext links.
5. TeachM must be able to print the textbook via Microsoft Word in linear form by using footnotes.

CatStat also include more than 30 interactive simulations to convey complex statistical concepts to students.

Today, electronic textbooks with hyperlink facilities are common practice. The latest example is the so-called e-book.

CatStat Examples

Authoring mode

Empirical probabilities

Population vs sample