DESIGNING AND BUILDING OF INTERACTIVE CONTENT FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION Magdalena Roszak 1 , Barbara Kołodziejczak 1 , Anna Ren-Kurc 2 , Wojciech Kowalewski 3 1 Department of Computer Science and Statistics Poznan University of Medical Sciences, ul. Dąbrowskiego 79, Poznań 60-529, mmr@ump.edu.pl, 2 Mieszko I College of Education and Administration in Poznan, ul. 28 Czerwca 1956r. 213-215, 61-485 Poznań, 3 Adam Mickiewicz University, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, ul. Umultowska 87, 61-614 Poznań Abstract: Interactive elements constitute an important part of educational materials and make a significant impact on the memorization process. With the development of programming technologies, the range of interactive elements, such as games, simulations, and decision-making labyrinths that match the characteristics of the knowledge they present has significantly expanded. The article presents a review of the available technologies based on their use in creation of interactive content for distance education. The authors also present the applications of selected interactive elements in different educational contexts. Keywords: interactive content, interactivity in education, e-learning technologies, authoring tools, distance education INTRODUCTION With the development of ICT technologies, the terms interactive and interaction have gained a new context and now refer to cooperation between people and software interfaces (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactivity). In essence, they pertain to cooperation of the programmer who develops software with the software user. The programmer is overlooked in the same way as the designer of the control panel of a car, a plane, etc. Only the software user and the machine remain; in the matters to be discussed here, they are the learner and the interactive software. From the point of view of the programmer who develops editor software for distance learning materials, there are several types of possible interaction with software.