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ATutor Feature Requests
A selectably simpler GUI
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| tim | Subject: A selectably simpler GUI |  |
| As some have noted (such as the review in spanish linked from your site www.uv.es/ticape/docs/nabuen/PFC.pdf ) the GUI is not as intuative as it might be. With a development team lead by someone that claims to have a visual rather than linguistic preference, ATutor's interface is, in my humble opinion, rather geeky-nerdy and suitable thus for people like me perhaps, but not sufficiently graphical and intuitive for people like the average arts-majoring nineteen year old. I would not want the functionality of Atutor to be removed, but perhaps it might be reduced. For example rather than having cascaded collapsable menus, perhaps it would be nice to be able to select an unpacked three column version as a default. Despite my would be geeky-nerdiness, I would also like to claim to be visually orientated, and enjoyed the quote of Poplin (1995)in an article by Greg Gay, below: "Very long ago, hunting was all important and reading (in whatever form) was a pursuit of marginal value. In the modern era, reading is all important and hunting is a pursuit of marginal value. We might imagine, however, the beginning of another era, a third phase of development--a post literate society where the most highly valued combination of traits is reversed once again...(p. 84) ...[aptitudes as marketable skills] may gradually begin to reward, instead, the creative, visual-thinking dyslexics and others like them who have had such a difficult time in literate society for so long....(p. 89) www.ldrc.ca/message.php/index.php The Atutor web site is rather attractive however. I like the pencils. Tim Posted: 2004-05-29 03:26:59 | ||
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greg | Subject: Build the Templates | |
| ATutor can be as simple as you like by creating template as such. geeky-nerdy is a new one for me. perhaps a definition. I'm guessing you have not seen the current ATutor, which looks almost like the Web site. Your moddleness is showing through. One thing we are not trying to do is copy moodle. Posted: 2004-05-31 10:57:44 | ||
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| tim | Subject: Great. But perhaps then a different Default... | |
| I do have the current ATutor installed (since last night) but also I presume that the ATutor here is the latest. And it seems to me that the current version is not all that different to 1.3 praise them both. While my Moodling is certainly clouding my perception, I am quite familiare with other CMS too. I have Drupal, Movable Type, Nucleus installed and have tried Mambo, PN, PhpNuke, among others. Setting up Drupal, the "rocket science" blog/community software did not seem to be all that more complicated than using ATutor. Additionally, as mentioned above, the Spanish review linked from this site and (I think) another that I have seen mention that Atutor is not er "intuitive." I think that I it would help if I read the manual. But I don't think that I have read a manual in about 10 years of computing. I am used to things being intuitive. I am getting the hang of it. I think that if I find anything difficult to use then my students will find it quite magical. You should speak to my students. The three column layout with changing content in the center and bread crumbs at the top is quite standard, I find, for CMS, such as Movable Type. To this ATutor adds MORE POWER. 1) Collapsable menus 3) Two additional menu bars and a drop down menu at the top in addition to the bread crumbs 2) Differing focal fields of the menus (including Local, GLobal, SIte, and Jump) This is very good. However.... Global seems to refer to the course (is this "Global"?). Local seems to refer to a course section and not just to the current page. (is this "Local"?) "Site Map" seems to refer to the Map of the Course a sort of extended Global - that puts tools in a line with course content. (Is this a "Site" map) "Jump" seems to be a thick grained Global/Site map. If the course were weekly then perhaps I could change the language files thusly Global > All Weeks Local > This Week Site Map > Course Jump > Your courses (It does say this already). Also...the following two points are going to *seem* Moodle biased but, please, I beg you, give them some thought. 1) The bar above the content window "Home Tools Resources Discussions Site Map" suggests, by being placed at the top, to be a superior point in the heirarchy, whereas, from the learners perspective at least, it would seem to me that Tools, Resources and Discussions, are secondary to the course content. This is definately a Moodly bias, or a rather, I would argue, a Moodly strength - in Moodle content is not presented to the user as another activity. Activities are secondary to course content. From a programmers point of view I can see why "tools" would be bunched together, but from a learners point of view, the tools are, I believe, secondary to the course content. That is why I think that it should at least go at the side. Or...Well as it stands the content is at the side....hmm...perhaps learners can be taught to think that "the side is above the top." In order to achieve this, I think that perhaps puttign the side menus on the LEFT would help. By Internet Convention, the more important navigation menus usually go on the LEFT. Yes. I have just done that in my preferences. 2) The top dark blue menu is a bit confusing. This is really the GLOBAL or SITE menu. Could Browse Courss be put at the left, then my course, then Options which would contain both "preferences" and "profile". Most users have their own mail systems (yahoo, or some mail client) so the ability to remove this woulde be a plus. Also perhaps Home means Home as in "Splash Page" or welcome page. Indeed, the word "Home" is some times used to refer to spash pages. I think that it might be more meaningfull if it refered to the top level of a heirarchy (either the whole site, or a particular course). If so then I think that home should include the Tools, Resources and Discussions rather than being on a par (or row) with them. Home > Course Introdution Anyway....I see that the About ATutor course has preferences. This is a wonderful idea. Some ideas for the preferences of the About ATutor course. 1) Make the preferences a default, rather than giving the user the option of using them. 2) Remove the "close menus." 3) There are few "related topics" and it is an advanced feature, so remove them (until later in the course). 4) There are few glossary items so I think that it would be a good idea to remove it, at least until the glossary is explained. 5) Put the Course (Not "GLobal") menu at the right. 6) I don't think that the local menu (this week menu) is needed at all, since it is possible to click the little plus in the global menu and display the local (this week's) pages. At the least I suggest it should be an option which is NOT included in the default of the in the About Atutor course. End, for the time being of my suggestions for improving the simplicity of the basic ATutor interface. Draw people in with something simple and then hit them with the whammy of ATutors configurability. Tim PS before I posted I took the precaution of saving my post to my clipboard. Just as well because again I was sent back to the front page and my post was not registered. Posted: 2004-06-02 22:21:04 | ||
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| tim | Subject: Close X Menu | |
| Another idea.... It seems a little unfortunate that the Title of each of the most important menus is "Close X Menu." For example "Close Global Menu." I suggest that you use a "x" (the standard icon for closign things on desktops) icon after the Menu name. "Close Global Menu" > "Course Menu x" Tim Posted: 2004-06-03 00:12:27 | ||
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| greg | Subject: Intuitive is in the Eye of the Beholder | |
| The ATutor default display is indeed "busy", and perhaps unintiutive for some, but for a reason, to display a full set of features. The main idea behind ATutor interface is adaptability. With preferences and themes it is possible to configure ATutor just about any way you like. There are several groups I'm aware of who have simplified ATutor for younger and less skilled learners by modifying user and course default preferences. I'm sure as the ATutor community become aware of ATutor themes, you will see a whole variety of more and less usable themes become available.
Posted: 2004-07-02 20:30:30 | ||
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| greg | Subject: Global and Local | |
Global and Local are terms from cognitive science. Simply put, they are terms to represent large and small units of interrelated information.
Posted: 2004-07-02 20:36:30 | ||
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| greg | Subject: Language can be customized | |
We do try to use as general term as possible. Language is easily modified. Even we have changed global/local menus to course and lesson menus based on the way we present instructional content. Global and local are general terms that can be adapted to whatever language describes structures used to represent instructional units.
Posted: 2004-07-02 20:43:46 | ||
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| greg | Subject: Templates and preferences | |
| I'd think from a constructivist perspective placing priority on experience and social interaction would be a good thing. There is emphasis in the way we've created the ATutor interface that does promote interactivity, though the structure in which content is displayed is also emphasized. That said, with templates are preferences it is possible to emphasize features that might support any particular type of teaching, or learning style. The long term goals are to have ATutor figure out what works best for different learners based on their behavioural patterns while using ATutor. A couple years off...
Posted: 2004-07-02 20:55:05 | ||
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| greg | Subject: Do it with themes | |
With a themes/templates the positioning of feature is customizable. Preferences and profile represent two distinct types of information in ATutor. Though Options does seem to encompassed them both. Something for me to think about...
Posted: 2004-07-02 21:02:53 | ||
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| greg | Subject: More themes coming | |
There are a number of new themes coming that may be more appealing for your purposes. You could one of your own. A theme sharing site is also in the works.
Posted: 2004-07-02 21:24:16 | ||
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| greg | Subject: Philisophical considerations | |
| 1) Limiting students preferences to the instructors choice would go against ATutor\'s philosophy of giving students full control over the learning environment. There are some features (as opposed to preference settings) that we are going to give instructors control over. 2) menues close to create a linear display. An accessibility features for the benefit of those using older assitive technologies, or those using small screens that need the extra display area available when the menus are closed... 3) Maybe an instructor controlled feature, or controlled by whether related topic exist for a topic. 4) same as related topics, instructor controlled, display if gloassary items exist for a topic 5) left/right is a matter of taste, controlled with a prefercne setting. right is preferred becasue that is usually where the scroll bar is displayed, and where the users mouse pointer is most likely to be placed. Lefties might arrange the menu on the left. 6) Local menu is also matter of taste for those who prefer smaller chunks of information displayed. Another philisophically based feature that accomodates a \"local\" cognitive style. Again, preferences and templates can be used to control the display of any of the menues.
Posted: 2004-07-02 21:25:38 | ||
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| greg | Subject: Menu icons | |
Yes. Icons as alternatives for the words open/close in the menus would be a good idea.
Posted: 2004-07-02 21:27:41 | ||
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