Facilitating Over The Shoulder Learning

1. Facilitating Over The Shoulder Learning Michael Twidale Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign twidale@uiuc.edu www.uiuc.edu/~twidale

2. Over-The-Shoulder Learning Michael Twidale Karen Ruhleder What happens when things go wrong? When the interface isn’t ‘intuitive’? I get by with a little help from my friends

3. Collaborative help in the workplace • Basic focus: 2 people around 1 screen • Looking at use of computer applications • Peer Help, Just in Time solutions • Learning but also problem solving • Strong Workplace Orientation • users have a real task • not usually learning for future use • It is good, but how can we make it better? • Workplace studies (7 sites) + prototyping

4. Results • It happens • Duh! Definitive proof of the blindingly obvious • An IS not an OUGHT • In some supportive contexts it happens a lot • Rich multilayered contextual explanations • When it’s good its so fast you don’t notice it • But it can be a bit clunky • We focused mostly on the problematic cases

5. Issues • Multiple applications • Copy and Paste as Computational Duct Tape • Where am I and Who am I • Lost in multiple contexts • Cyber Infrastructure: what happens when it breaks? • Why is that question not being asked? • Playfulness • Demeanor, Creativity

6. Barriers to spreading OTSL • Unprofessional? • Illegitimate? • Wasteful? • Haphazard? • Silly? • Not for the likes of us? • Fear • Stress • Prerequisite skills: • computational, • learning

7. Design implications • Managerial • Educational • Technical

8. Managerial • Acknowledge • Validate • Support • Reward • Get out of the way • Quality circles: Japan > USA • OK for assembly line workers! • OK for cubicle workers? • OK for secretaries? • Add slack • Cf Google

9. Educational • Standard Metacognition Issues • Learning how to learn • How to ask for help • How to give help • How to explore • How to experiment • How to diagnose • Education v Training

10. Issues to think about • Granularity of analysis • Micro-learning / teaching • Coffee break learning • Peer-centric approaches • Metaphors: • Climbing Everest v Surfing • Investing v Fire-Fighting • Inputs v outputs • Syllabus weighing v outcomes assessment • Fear of blame

11. Engendering a Learning Culture • Sharing findings • Did You Know… • Localized solutions • The atomic theory of ‘knowledgeons’ • Conceptual levers

12. Try this at home? • “Mary is stuck. She is trying to….. Can you figure out how to help her?” • Find out something about <app>. • Explain it to your neighbor • Now explain it to someone else • Can you figure out a better way • to do it? • to explain it? • Your experiences? • Your ideas?

13. Aspects of Problem-Solving • A bit like debugging • A bit like search • A bit like science • A bit like knowledge management • A bit like story-telling • A bit like a Reference Interview • Precious few tools/features/interfaces help

14. Technological Solutions • Ideas around process representation • History • Hidden Variables • Levels of explanation • Pedagogic resources • Conversational resources

15. Kinds of problems • What is this for? • Why should I even bother learning it? • I never knew you could do that! • How do I make it do X? • Remembering sequences • Conceptual frameworks & misconceptions • Coping with problems • Coping with buggy solutions • What else??

16. Conclusion: How Can we Try This Out? • Lightweight methods • Insinuate into existing practice • Productive settings • Stealth Solutions • Practice or Research? • Your stories & experiences