Known and Unknown Weaknesses in Software Animated Demonstrations (Screencasts): A Study in Self-Paced Learning Settings

Abstract

Introduction The ever-growing importance of computer literacy has ensured the continuity of political and scientific interest in computer learning media and environments for over 30 years. Although human-computer interaction research has strived to facilitate the acquisition of software skills, firstly through the design and exploitation of interfaces that have clear intentions, anticipated semiotics, direct manipulations, real world metaphors, and various other exciting qualities (Shneiderman & Plaisant, 2005) and, secondly, by designating 'learnability' as one of the most fundamental usability attributes of software applications (Grossman, Fitzmaurice & Attar, 2009), most idiosyncratic problems related to computer learning remain unsolved. The paradox of the active (Carroll & Rosson, 1987; Fu & Gray, 2004) endures since users persist in realizing tasks in an inefficient way even when demonstrably more efficient procedures exist. The occasional, rather than causal or premeditated, character of computer learning (Phelps, Hase, & Ellis, 2005), as well as various factors such as the impossibility of complete coverage of the computer knowledge domain, the inevitability of knowledge obsolescence (Eisenberg & Fischer, 1993) and the prevalence of unsupported exploratory learning from early on (Carroll & Rosson, 1987), constitute a complex and original learning ecology (Barron, 2004). Computer learning is a complex task that puts a tremendous burden on all computer users, experienced or not (Kiesler, Zdaniuk, Lundmark, & Kraut, 2000), and results in a multiplicity of 'frustrating experiences' and extensive time losses (Lazar, Jones & Shneiderman, 2006). Regardless of the multibillion investments in schools, universities, and corporate training activities (Corrall, 2008; Gupta & Bostrom, 2006), computer learning continues to be viewed as a personal landscape dominated by individual exploratory approaches, even for students and instructors of Computer Science Departments. Software animated demonstrations (SADs), which were developed in the early 1990s and which more recently have come to be known as 'screencasts', have generated new interest as a promising platform for computer users. Many commercial authoring tools, such as TechSmith Camtasia[C] and Adobe Captivate[C], and free authoring tools, such as Articulate ScreenR [C], TechSmith Jing [C]and Wink Screen Recorder[C] have been made available, while a new trend towards sharing screencasts in specially configured web 2.0 platforms (such as www.jingproject.com) or generic user generated video sites (such as www.youtube.com), have also started to gain momentum. SADs, in their primitive form, reproduce a screen-captured usage scenario of a software application. Their definition is usually differentiated on the basis of the presumed presenter or the scenario contents. In most cases, SADs resemble watching an instructor, an expert, a ghost user, a colleague, or even a student providing worked-out examples of software utilization. From a factual point of view, SADs constitute a unique tool for e-learning design, especially for Computer Science instructors, since they promote an easy and affordable way of producing multimedia instructional material that is authentic, situated, and motivating and can be exploited in various educational settings (in the classroom, self-paced, collaboratively, etc.) unlike other kinds of multimedia resources. Instructors, whose role in educational technology adoption has long been underestimated, desperately seek an accessible technology that enables the quick creation/development of software tutorials and that allows them to update the learning material frequently in order to keep up with the pace of software evolution. SADs production, with the use of the last generation of screencasting tools, requires almost a time-frame similar to the one needed for preparing a class demonstration plus the time required for recording it, or, in essence, realizing it for once. …