Student preference for tutorial design: a usability study

Purpose – This article aims to report on a usability study to assess whether students performed better after working through a screencast library tutorial or a web‐based tutorial with screenshots.Design/methodology/approach – This qualitative study asked 21 students from diverse backgrounds and learning styles to take two learning style inventories prior to a usability study. The students then went through two short tutorials (a static web page tutorial with screenshots and a Camtasia screencast (video) tutorial, as well as a pre‐ and post‐test and debriefing for each. The “think aloud” protocol was used as their movements and voices were recorded using the Camtasia software.Findings – The results of this study indicate that across all learning preferences students performed much better in recreating tasks when they used a static web page with screen shots than they did after viewing a screencasting tutorial.Practical implications – Suggestions are offered for ways to create tutorials that are effective f...

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