Managing tutorials in large classes: a case of using a tutorial system developed from commercial products

  • Authors:

  • Dick Ng'ambi;Lisa Seymour

  • Affiliations:

  • Multi-media Education Group (MEG), University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa;Information Systems Department, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa

  • Venue:
  • SAICSIT '04 Proceedings of the 2004 annual research conference of the South African institute of computer scientists and information technologists on IT research in developing countries
  • Year:
  • 2004

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Abstract

It is time consuming and labour intensive to administer and manage tutorials in large classes. It is also time consuming and labour intensive to design and implement efficient computer based tutorial systems that reduce the administrative burden of managing such tutorials. Building interactive computer based tutorials from components that come with already pervasively used and available COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf software) such as Microsoft Office promises to reduce both the development and maintenance effort. In this paper we begin by describing COTS systems and their development cycle. We then discuss a case study in which a COTS-based tutorial was used to manage a Microsoft Excel tutorial cycle in an Information Systems first year course. We found that the approach of using the familiar Microsoft Office environment for COTS-based tutorials was well received by students, saving them time. The computer assisted tutorial approach improved the feedback to students and lecturers but required considerable time from developers and the lecturer concerned. We discuss our observations and future work.