American Chemical Society
Teaching Chemical Information:
Tips and Techniques
— August 1998 —
Independent Study: Advantages, Disadvantages and Considerations
Advantages
- Enables users to learn on demand and when they are motivated
- Tutorial can be done independent of time and geography
- User is able to stop for breaks and to repeat sections as needed
- Easier to briefly review or skip sessions if not a beginner
- Learning through written communication may be easier than learning through oral communication (e.g. English as a second language users)
- Less ongoing staff time is needed for instruction
- Experts can devise tutorial, even though they are located at a different institutions
Disadvantages
- Not possible to ask questions of instructor or to learn from questions asked by others learning the same topic
- Density of presentation may be high because content must be self-contained
- Individuals must be motivated enough to complete tutorial
- Frequently takes novices longer to learn via tutorial than via classroom setting
Considerations
- Tutorials are very labor-intensive to devise
- Hard to maintain especially if content in tutorial is changing rapidly
- Should tutorial include practice problems or a quiz?
- Using interactivity and examples to make tutorial more effective
- Choosing the right media: audio, video, web, email, combinations?
- Length of sessions — list total time needed, provide clear outline, and divide topics into modules
- What equipment and other types of infrastructure is needed to deliver tutorial?
- What level of user should you aim at?
- Lobby producers to create tutorials
- Use team to create tutorial