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5. The Nomenclature of Organic Compounds 5.3.2 Help Required
For the majority of students working with the Nomenclature package, this was their first experience of PCCAL materials. Nevertheless observers found that in almost every case, the students began work with the package with no instruction on how to use the package or move around within it and encountered almost no difficulties. On the post test questionnaire students were asked whether they had asked for help and if so how many times and what kind of help it was. 71% did not ask for any help, bearing out the impressions of observers, stated above. Of the 29% who did ask for some help, the number of requests ranged from 1-5. 45 % asked for help just once and only 1 person sought help 5 times.
Table 2 below sets out the results on the type of help students required. One can see that the majority of help requests (66%) were subject-related, which also suggests that the students had few problems of a technical or navigational nature.
TABLE 2: WHAT TYPE OF HELP DID STUDENTS NEED?
Type of Help
Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Subject Matter Help
73
19.4
65.8
Operational (Computer or Package)
24
6.4
21.6
Other Help
11
2.9
9.9
Operational AND Subject Matter Help Help
3
.8
2.7
No Help Requested
265
70.6
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TOTAL
376
100.0
100.0
One operational problem that was mentioned several times and is worth noting, concerns the use of the cursor keys when editing text input. Students discovered that if they had made a mistake when entering a compound name and wished to move the cursor back along the line of characters, they could not do this using the cursor keys. Pressing the left hand cursor key moves the package back one whole page. It has been anticipated that the learner would automatically use the mouse to reposition the cursor. Whilst the majority would probably use a mouse, there were clearly some problems arising from this, as evidenced by the following remarks:
"If you press the arrow to go back, it goes back a page. I just thought you could use the arrow keys"- Discussion group - Manchester 26/9/95
"The arrow key should allow you to move back through the answer to change it - they just move the pages and then the correct page had to be found again."- Questionnaire response - Bath
The general tone of these and other remarks, suggests that it was annoying rather than confusing and that the students did get used to it. Furthermore, discussions with the courseware developers in connection with this, revealed that it is the PCCAL House Style which imposes this limitation and therefore the implications of making a change would be significant. Nevertheless, advice should be included, either within the package itself or the teaching situation to assist students with this as it is never desirable for the package to do something unexpected.
Generally speaking, questionnaire responses and those involved in discussions reported that they found the package easy to use and navigate.
"I appreciated the fact that I could allocate any page at any time I wanted. In some software programmes, you have to finish the section or set of pages before transferring or going back to look something up" Questionnaire response - Manchester
"The package was easy to use and allowed you to move through the work at your own pace, it was very instructional - you could learn without having to worry about trying to "use" the computer at the same time." Questionnaire response - Bath
"You control it. You can go backwards and forwards" Discussion group - Liverpool 24/10/95
However, there were still some misgivings about moving around the package, these really concern the very nature of the medium.
"It was quite good in that you could go back. But sometimes you just wanted to be there, you wanted to have taken notes and sort of, have it there and be able to look at the (...) basics once you got to the harder bits"
And when asked if she did go back, the student said:
"I did yes, but it was quite hard because I couldn't remember where things were(...)
It's not like leaving a book open in front of you" Discussion group - Bath 9/10/95
Despite this physical shortcoming, the vast majority of the remarks made in discussions and on questionnaires bear out the earlier evaluation findings, produced by the consortium and shows that the PCCAL package design and style is well received and intuitive for students to use, presenting no major barriers to learning.