Two packages are used as examples of such software: (1) The Arc-View Tutorial entitled "Getting to Know Arc-View" to accompany Arc-View 2.1, and (2) The "Student Handbook" to accompany "IDRISI for Windows", produced in association with the Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts. Both are excellent programs for the beginning GIS user, especially as introductions to the field of GIS, but there are several shortcomings in the form of annoying features or questionable practices concerning the learning process.. One of the major problems is that there is an attempt to accomplish too much without enough reinforcement for the learner. In order to reinforce what has been covered, subsequent tutorials should often necessitate the recall of previously learned algorithms for prescribed tasks so that recall is more probable when the software package is later used for spatial analysis.
The Environmental Science Research Institute has introduced a software package entitled Arc-View with the tutorial "Getting to Know Arc-View". This tutorial itself has a price tag of $64.00 and uses as a format a series of exercises, each of which is designed to illustrate some feature of the program. For example, one might deal with using the presentation module of the package, another with the layering feature, still another with performing an analysis or measuring distance. To accompany this strategy, the tutorial uses lots of illustrations in color for various features and techniques.
One annoying feature about this tutorial, which is also true of many tutorials intended for mass consumption, i.e., for the public, is that the word "you" is used literally hundred of times in the text. Practically every other sentence starts of with the word "you": "You can create .. ", "suppose that you want .", "you can edit .", "you can resize .", etc. This style of writing is extremely monotonous reading to the point of annoyance. This style ceertainly does not make the text any easier to digest for the layman or beginning user., so the motive behind such usage is questionable..
Another annoying and questionable feature is the use of a narrative style for giving instructions. Such language is wordy and difficult to return to after executing the particular instruction. The instructions could be much more concise and to the point by listing a series of steps which are to be followed. The style used by instructions accompanying stereos, VCRs, computers, etc. are more appropriate for this type of presentation.
Another puzzling practice is to be led through the steps needed to accomplish a certain task, key by key. The problem with this approach is that no one will ever remember the myriad combinations of keys that need to be pressed to accomplish a task. It would have been more productive to present the steps needed to carry out the operation, with little concern for the specific keys to carry out the task. Unless frequently used, no one will remember the hundreds if not thousands of key combinations that are explained by the end of the tutorial. The instructions would have been more productive with explanations of more general procedures. IDRISI uses a similar approach: Instructions guide students step by step through the solution to a problem. This procedure is basically sound, but again there is an overemphasis on which combination of keys to press in order to accomplish that task. Such combinations will not be remembered unless practiced again and again under similar situations.
A third problem with such tutorials is that problems of the type which the student is trained to solve are usually not the ones which he is called on to solve. Such problems are usually just different enough so that the learner is at a loss concerning the appropriate algorithm for their solution. It may be more profitable to use a much greater variety of circumstances and illustrate how each could be dealt with using the software package. Merely indicating the modules to use in the proper sequence and illustrating their application through may examples would be more efficient in training the learner how to use the software package in a variety of settings or problems. Such problems should be just different enough so that there might be some difficulty recognizing their solutions as similar to those which have been demonstrated in the tutorial.
(2) Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., GETTING TO KNOW ARC- VIEW, 380 New York Street, Redlands, CA 92373-8100