Computer tutorials are often difficult to follow if they do not have effective graphics. To correct that gap, In Pictures provides graphics-based instruction for all kinds of learners. These illustration-based computer tutorials that are free for any student or teacher to use, and available at www.inpics.net.They were developed through a research study funded by the U.S. Dept. of Education. There are new tutorials, on Office 365 and Google Drive applications. Considering the rapid adoption of Google Apps in schools, this might be of interest.
Welcome to an interview with Chris Charuhas, founder of In Pictures.
1. What is your name and your relation to elearning?
Chris Charuhas. I've
been involved in elearning since 2000, when I started a company that provided
textbooks in electronic format. That was Visibooks, an early provider of
textbooks as bound books, and as PDFs. With In Pictures, we've decided to move
the learning materials online.
With the widespread
adoption of larger monitors, online tutorials have become a more attractive
proposition. You pull the tutorial off to one side, which leaves room for you
to view the program you’re learning. Viewing both simultaneously makes it easier
to take a tutorial.
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| Chris Charuhas, In Pictures |
2. What is your philosophy with respect to elearning? What
approach do you see as being most effective?
I conducted a U.S. Dept.
of Education-funded research study on what sort of learning materials are most
effective: http://www.inpics.net/files/In_Pictures_Research_Report.pdf
The study showed me that
simpler is better when it comes to elearning tutorials: fewer words, more
pictures, and proceeding step-by-step. It's also why our tutorials employ
screenshots instead of video. Screenshots that show how to do things
step-by-step are simpler and easier to work along with.
3. What do you believe is the best way to present technical
training?
Online. In a simple,
self-paced tutorial, based on real-world tasks. Each task should build
upon what was learned previously.
When people can feel
themselves progressing through a tutorial, performing more complex tasks as
they go, it gives them a feeling of confidence and accomplishment. That's very
important in learning new things, as all teachers know!
4. What are some of the challenges?
Creating the hundreds of
screenshots required by each tutorial. Each screenshot must be taken, processed
for size and color, and have the blue "look at this" oval placed on
it. This is a time-consuming process.
Then hundreds of pages
must be linked together to comprise a full tutorial. Web coding is tricky--one
small mistake can derail an entire tutorial, so each tutorial must be carefully
checked and edited.
5. Please discuss the training that you've developed.
It's based on the idea
that Show is better than Tell in learning technical subjects. What people can
see, they find it easier to do. And learn.
We've gotten kudos from
people all over the world, praising this approach. It lends itself well to
learners who might not speak English very well. For example, in India, where
most people speak Hindi as their first language, over 2000 people have used our
tutorials this month.
6. What do you have planned in the future?
Supplemental tutorials
for Office 365 applications that are more in-depth, such as creating complex
queries in Access, using Excel like a database, and employing multimedia in
PowerPoint presentations.
Also, we plan to create
complete tutorials on Google Forms and Sites. Creating an interactive,
data-gathering Web site should be as easy to accomplish as creating a Word
document. We aim to help make that happen.
Thank you!
