Week 2 class: User diversity and effective screencast tutorials

We began this class session by going over the conditions a librarian on the floor or in programming needs to consider when assessing the users she helps or educates. We might forget that norms we are used to may be glaringly strange to new patrons, and that experts will approach information and learning in a different fashion than novices. These are the sorts of things to keep in mind when creating lesson plans and screencasts, the process for which we also went over in class. We reviewed the ADDIE process from the readings; yet another iteration of the design and implementation process.

We spent a good amount of time reviewing and evaluating Google Reader tutorials, in order to gain an understanding of what makes a good screencast. Various students noted the way that the following influenced their judgement of the videos:

• pacing: time spent explaining, moving between screens
• narration: extraneous information, personality
• information content: comprehensive?
• time: attention span dictates less than 5 minutes

I observed that some reactions to video judgement were more about personal preference than I would have expected. Of the screencasts I've seen from our own assignment, too, I've already noticed that some students have already repeated the offenses we listed during this activity, proving that these tutorials are no less of a challenge than a short presentation to the class.