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1.1 root 1: .\" @(#)p6 6.1 (Berkeley) 5/23/86
2: .\"
3: .NH
4: Conclusions
5: .PP
6: The following observations can be made about
7: secretaries, typists, and
8: other non-programmers who have used
9: .I learn :
10: .IP (a)
11: A novice must have assistance with the mechanics
12: of communicating with the computer to get through to
13: the first lesson or two;
14: once the first few lessons are passed people can proceed
15: on their own.
16: .IP (b)
17: The terminology used in the first few lessons
18: is obscure to those inexperienced with computers.
19: It would help if there were a low level
20: reference card for
21: .UX
22: to supplement the existing
23: programmer oriented bulky manual and bulky reference card.
24: .IP (c)
25: The concept of ``substitutable argument'' is hard
26: to grasp, and requires help.
27: .IP (d)
28: They enjoy the system for the most part.
29: Motivation matters a great deal, however.
30: .LP
31: It takes an hour or two for a novice to get through
32: the script on file handling.
33: The total time for a reasonably intelligent and motivated novice to proceed from ignorance
34: to a reasonable ability to create new files and manipulate old ones
35: seems to be a few days, with perhaps half of each day
36: spent on the machine.
37: .PP
38: The normal way of proceeding has been to have students in the same
39: room with someone who knows
40: .UX
41: and the scripts.
42: Thus the student is not brought to a halt by
43: difficult questions. The burden on the counselor, however,
44: is much lower than that on a teacher of a course.
45: Ideally, the students should be encouraged to proceed with instruction
46: immediately prior to their actual use of the computer.
47: They should exercise the scripts on the same computer and the same
48: kind of terminal that they will later use
49: for their real work, and
50: their first few jobs for the computer should be
51: relatively easy ones.
52: Also, both training and initial work should take place on days
53: when the
54: .UX
55: hardware and software
56: are working reliably.
57: Rarely is all of this possible, but the closer one comes the better
58: the result.
59: For example, if it is known that the hardware is shaky one day, it is better
60: to attempt to reschedule training for another one. Students are very
61: frustrated by machine downtime; when nothing is happening, it takes
62: some sophistication and experience to distinguish
63: an infinite loop, a slow but functioning program,
64: a program waiting for the user, and a broken machine.*
65: .FS
66: * We have even known an expert programmer to decide the computer
67: was broken when he had simply left his terminal in local mode.
68: Novices have great difficulties with such problems.
69: .FE
70: .PP
71: One disadvantage
72: of training with
73: .I
74: learn
75: .R
76: is that students come to depend
77: completely on the CAI system, and do not try
78: to read manuals or use other learning aids.
79: This is unfortunate, not only because of the increased
80: demands for completeness and accuracy of the
81: scripts, but because the scripts do not cover all of
82: the
83: .UX
84: system.
85: New users should have manuals (appropriate for their level) and
86: read them; the scripts ought to be altered
87: to recommend suitable documents and urge
88: students to read them.
89: .PP
90: There are several other difficulties which are clearly evident.
91: From the student's viewpoint,
92: the most serious is that
93: lessons still crop up which simply can't be passed.
94: Sometimes this is due to poor explanations,
95: but just as often it is some error in the lesson itself
96: \(em a botched setup, a missing file,
97: an invalid test for correctness,
98: or some system facility that doesn't work on the local
99: system in the same way it did on the development system.
100: It takes knowledge and a certain healthy arrogance on the part of the user to recognize
101: that the fault is not his or hers,
102: but the script writer's.
103: Permitting the student to get on with the next lesson
104: regardless does alleviate this somewhat,
105: and the logging facilities make it easy
106: to watch for lessons that no one
107: can pass,
108: but it is still a problem.
109: .PP
110: The biggest problem with the previous
111: .I learn
112: was speed (or lack thereof) \(em
113: it was often excruciatingly slow
114: and made a significant drain on the system.
115: The current version so far does not seem
116: to have that difficulty,
117: although some scripts,
118: notably
119: .I eqn ,
120: are intrinsically slow.
121: .I eqn ,
122: for example,
123: must do a lot of work even to print its introductions,
124: let alone check the student responses,
125: but delay is perceptible in all scripts
126: from time to time.
127: .PP
128: Another potential problem is that it is possible
129: to break
130: .ul
131: learn
132: inadvertently, by pushing interrupt at the wrong time,
133: or by removing critical files,
134: or any number of similar slips.
135: The defenses against such problems
136: have steadily been improved, to the point
137: where most students should not notice difficulties.
138: Of course, it will always be possible to break
139: .I
140: learn
141: .R
142: maliciously, but this is not likely to be a problem.
143: .PP
144: One area is more fundamental \(em
145: some
146: .UX
147: commands are sufficiently global in their effect
148: that
149: .ul
150: learn
151: currently
152: does not allow them to be executed at all.
153: The most obvious is
154: .I cd ,
155: which changes to another directory.
156: The prospect of a student who is learning about directories
157: inadvertently moving to some random directory
158: and removing files has deterred us
159: from even writing lessons on
160: .I cd ,
161: but ultimately lessons on such topics probably should be added.
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