October 2007 Volume 10 Number 4 - Educational Technology ...

Figure 3. Comparison of scenario completion times
Many of the interviewees' comments alluded to the frustrations they faced using their computers at home. These
comments strongly support the argument that modern personal computing systems have become too complex for
learning (“there's a lot of stuff that you just don't need. And to get around to doing the task that you want to do, it's
harder to get there because you've got obstacles in the way.”); that poor rural internet service renders server-centred
systems unworkable (“waiting, waiting”; "You can dialup and get online. But you can't get anything."); and that
without anyone more experienced on hand to help, the home student may not be able to complete their learning tasks
(“It's easier to do the basic stuff, [easier to drive the 70 kilometres into town to] go to the library and things like that
and photocopy pages out of a library book [than find the item on the web]. But it should be easier on a computer but
I find that it is not.”).
Overall the interviewees embraced the learning computer as an easier and more effective vehicle for achieving tasks
related to e-learning. "Half the time I get frustrated when I have to work with my computer... If I was to be studying
at Massey and there was a program like that, that would probably be one of the main reasons why I would study
online… there were things that I got confused on but overall it was very clear what I was doing to the point where I
thought: this is too clear, and too easy.” Some of the features they singled out were: simplicity, ease of use,
integration, speed, timeliness, relevance, robustness, friendliness, transparency, consistency, and clear instructions.
One user liked the way the Shell was simplified and standardised across all screens. Another noted that the
advantages of this simplicity are that “you don’t have to remember a lot of things” and that “you don't have to worry
about all the bells and whistles and everything else going on because it is all just there”.
One of the benefits of the Learning Shell's simplified, consistent, modular architecture is that help screens,
emphasising a "Handy Hints" approach, can be easily linked to each component in the system to provide just-in-time,
just-enough, context-sensitive help to the user (Figure 4). For one user, “if I click on Help I have found every time
what I need to do and its been able to solve it for me,” while accessing the help system in Windows applications
didn’t solve his problem because “quite often it's not the scenario where you have got yourself”. Another noted that
“the content is relevant to what you are doing" whereas on her home computer it was often “irrelevant drivel”.
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