Abstract:
The invention relates to systems and methods for tracking training and motivating a user to learn aspects of installed software or hardware. Aspects of the invention relate to methods that guide indications of a user&#39;s knowledge of a function or element of installed hardware or software on a user computer. Further aspects of the invention relate to motivating a user to learn underutilized features of a user computer. Yet further aspects of the invention relate to a display that changes based on a user&#39;s current state of knowledge in relation to a particular function or element of a software program. In one embodiment, the display output may be independent of the state of the software or hardware.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     The invention relates to training modules in the computer-related industries. More specifically, aspects of the invention relate to systems and methods for tracking training and motivating a user to learn aspects of installed software or hardware.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     Advances in hardware and software technology have increased functionality of computers. As a result, however, application software has become increasingly complex. Indeed, a large portion of recent technological advances have built more complex functions into existing applications. Thus, while computer applications have continued to increase in functionality, they have also greatly increased in complexity for the user. Furthermore, users may not even be aware of recently developed features. This is especially true, for example, when new features are added to already existing software. Indeed, as more and more programs are updated automatically through the internet, users are less likely to be aware of new features. Furthermore, without adequate training, newer functions may never be utilized by the end-user.  
         [0003]     Research demonstrates users find more value in products upon receiving proper training. Traditionally, printed manuals are distributed with software or hardware of a user computer. As mentioned above, however, updates are increasingly being downloaded online and therefore may not accompany an updated manual. Furthermore, manuals are generally consulted for troubleshooting a feature a user is already familiar with. Similarly, a user may not be aware of newly acquired features upon installing new hardware.  
         [0004]     More recently, there have been interactive approaches such as multimedia presentations that more readily inform a user of available features. Again, this approach is limited by the fact that the majority of users do not view the entire presentation, and therefore do not learn valuable features of the software. It goes from the foregoing, therefore, there exists a need in the computing industry for systems and methods for increasing a user&#39;s knowledge of their mastery of a software application or installed hardware and for systems and methods to motivate or train a user to learn underutilized or poorly understood features.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     Aspects of the invention relate to methods that guide indications of a user&#39;s knowledge of a function or element of hardware or software on a user computer. Further aspects of the invention relate to motivating a user to learn underutilized features of a user computer. Yet further aspects of the invention relate to a display that changes based on a user&#39;s current state of knowledge in relation to a particular function or element of a software program. In one embodiment, the display output is independent of the state of the software or hardware.  
         [0006]      FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary computer system in which embodiments of the invention may be implemented.  
         [0007]      FIG. 2  illustrates a schematic diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0008]      FIG. 3  illustrates one embodiment of the invention having a display comprising at least one icon.  
         [0009]      FIG. 4  illustrates at least one embodiment of the present invention having an interactive icon to provide additional information. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0000]     Exemplary Operating Environment  
         [0010]      FIG. 1  is a functional block diagram of an example of a conventional general-purpose digital computing environment that can be used in connection with selecting parameter value combinations to use when testing software modules. In  FIG. 1 , a computer  100  includes a processing unit  110 , a system memory  120 , and a system bus  130  that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit  110 . The system bus  130  may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. The system memory  120  includes read only memory (ROM)  140  and random access memory (RAM)  150 .  
         [0011]     A basic input/output system  160  (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the computer  100 , such as during start-up, is stored in the ROM  140 . The computer  100  also includes a hard disk drive  170  for reading from and writing to a hard disk (not shown), a magnetic disk drive  180  for reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk  190 , and an optical disk drive  191  for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk  192  such as a CD ROM or other optical media. The hard disk drive  170 , magnetic disk drive  180 , and optical disk drive  191  are connected to the system bus  130  by a hard disk drive interface  192 , a magnetic disk drive interface  193 , and an optical disk drive interface  194 , respectively. The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the personal computer  100 . It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of computer readable media that can store data that is accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks, Bernoulli cartridges, random access memories (RAMs), read only memories (ROMs), and the like, may also be used in the example operating environment.  
         [0012]     A number of program modules can be stored on the hard disk drive  170 , magnetic disk  190 , optical disk  192 , ROM  140  or RAM  150 , including an operating system  195 , one or more application programs  196 , other program modules  197 , and program data  198 . A user can enter commands and information into the computer  100  through input devices such as a keyboard  101  and pointing device  102 . Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit  110  through a serial port interface  106  that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB). Further still, these devices may be coupled directly to the system bus  130  via an appropriate interface (not shown). A monitor  107  or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus  130  via an interface, such as a video adapter  108 . In addition to the monitor, personal computers typically include other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers and printers.  
         [0013]     The computer  100  can operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer  109 . The remote computer  109  can be a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the computer  100 , although only a memory storage device  111  has been illustrated in  FIG. 1 . The logical connections depicted in  FIG. 1  include a local area network (LAN)  112  and a wide area network (WAN)  113 . Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet.  
         [0014]     When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer  100  is connected to the local network  112  through a network interface or adapter  114 . When used in a WAN networking environment, the personal computer  100  typically includes a modem  115  or other means for establishing a communications over the wide area network  113 , such as the Internet. The modem  115 , which may be internal or external, is connected to the system bus  130  via the serial port interface  106 . In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the personal computer  100 , or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device.  
         [0015]     It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are illustrative and other techniques for establishing a communications link between the computers can be used. The existence of any of various well-known protocols such as TCP/IP, Ethernet, FTP, HTTP, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11x and the like is presumed, and the system can be operated in a client-server configuration to permit a user to retrieve web pages from a web-based server. Any of various conventional web browsers can be used to display and manipulate data on web pages.  
       DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS  
       [0016]      FIG. 2  illustrates a schematic diagram of one exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The embodiment illustrates one method or system that may be utilized to inform a user of underutilized features and motivate the user to learn how to use features of a user computer application. As used herein, the term “lesson” may comprise a multimedia presentation, a simple text script, or any indica to the user that increases the user&#39;s knowledge of a particular software or hardware. In the exemplary embodiment, a lesson list  210  comprises lessons available to the user. The lessons may provide an overview of installed software and be arranged in increasing difficulty. In other embodiments, the lessons may each concern different features of the same software. In yet further embodiments, the lessons comprise information about different programs or installed hardware. The lesson list  210  may be generated automatically by third-party software or within the operating system. Indeed, while a single lesson list is shown, it is contemplated by the current invention to have multiple lessons lists or to combine individual lesson lists from individual software and hardware packages into a single lesson list. The lesson list  210  may be configured to access the internet, for example, through the wide area network  104 , therefore lessons may be added or updated as new features are downloaded or otherwise available on the computer. In yet further embodiments, the user may customize the lists to be downloaded.  
         [0017]     The illustrated embodiment further comprises a user status list  220  comprising information relating to the user&#39;s completion of lessons within the lesson list  210 . As illustrated by lesson list  220 , the lesson list may provide information regarding if a user has successfully completed a particular lesson. In yet further embodiments, the status list  220  is automatically updated if the user&#39;s actions demonstrate proficiency in the subject matter of a particular lesson. For example, if lesson  1  of the lesson list  210  comprises introductory information concerning utilizing a word processing software, for example, Microsoft® Word®, a user&#39;s actions demonstrating proficiency in basic word processing features would update the user status list  220  to reflect lesson  1  has been completed or otherwise reflect that the user has demonstrated mastery of the subject matter of the lesson. In yet further embodiments, lessons could be prioritized by the users proficiency. While the lesson list  210  and the user status list  220  are illustrated as two individual lists, it is contemplated by the present invention to have a single list comprising both a lesson list and a user status list. Alternatively, multiple user status lists  220  comprising information lesson lists from individual software and hardware packages are also contemplated.  
         [0018]     A training tracking module  230  sends and receives information from the lesson list  210  and the user status list  220 . The tracking module may be loaded into the system memory  120  and process information with the processing unit  110 . The tracking module  230  processes the received information from the lesson list  210  and the user status list  220  to provide an output on a display  240  ( FIGS. 3 and 4  provide more illustrative embodiments of a display output). In at least one embodiment, the output on display  240  is independent from the state of the program the lesson is directed towards. For example, if the lessons relate to setting up an email account in, for example, Microsoft® Outlook®, an indicia of the user&#39;s knowledge may be displayed on display  240  regardless of whether Outlook® is active.  
         [0019]     A multitude of algorithms may be utilized to determine how the information is processed in the tracking module  230 . Additionally, the processing and displaying of the output may further depend on which software or hardware application the information is received from. Parameters that may contribute to the final output on display  240  include the number of lessons the user has actually completed, the number of features utilized by the user compared with the total number of available features, and the number of features the user has used with minimal exposure.  
         [0020]     In yet further embodiments, the elapsed time a user has utilized a specific feature or program may be combined with additional parameters to determine the user&#39;s mastery of the subject matter. In one embodiment, the tracking module  230  may determine a lesson as completed upon the usage of a particular feature or features for a fixed amount of time that correspond to a particular lesson. For example, if the lesson list  210  comprises lessons relating to word processing, for example, Microsoft® Word®, the usage of the software for fixed period of time for word processing will result in the tracking module  230  updating the user status list  220 . In yet further embodiments, the elapsed time a user has consistently utilized a particular feature is compared with a fixed time period representing the expected full beginning-to-end scenario to determine if the user has mastered the feature.  
         [0021]     While the above description provides exemplary steps that may determine if a user has mastered a feature, those skilled in the art will appreciate the many methods and steps that may determine a user&#39;s completion and/or mastery of a given feature of software or hardware. Upon determining the user&#39;s knowledge, the tracking module  230  may continually update the user status list  220  and the output displayed on display  240 . Furthermore, in at least one embodiment the tracking module  230  is configured to access the wide area network  104 , therefore additional algorithms or rules may be downloaded.  
         [0022]      FIG. 3  illustrates one embodiment of the invention, where the output on display  240  comprises at least one icon. In one embodiment, an icon is located in the start menu  310  of an operating system, for example, Microsoft® Windows®. A start menu icon  320  possesses attributes that may be altered based on the user&#39;s knowledge. Additionally, more than one attribute may be altered to inform or motivate a user to learn a feature or set of features. For example, the start menu icon  320  may change color indicating the user&#39;s level of training. For example, a green coloration may indicate the user is at an expected level of knowledge, whereas yellow indicates more training is warranted, and a red coloration may indicate more training is critical. This is especially advantageous in the industrial setting, where employers want to ensure their employees are at a specified level of learning. In one embodiment, a specific attribute may indicate specific features are locked until the user demonstrates proficiency for a given set of features or takes a lesson.  
         [0023]     While the exemplary embodiment uses shades of a color as the icon attribute being altered, other icon attributes that may be altered include size and shape, or the combination of both size and shape. In yet further embodiments, a sound may be associated with a level of training, providing an audio cue to indicate more training is needed. One skilled in the art will recognize there are a large number of attributes of an icon that may be altered, such as, for example, animation of the icon.  
         [0024]     The start menu icon  320  may be independent or used in conjunction with individual program icons, such as program icon  330 . In one embodiment, the start menu icon  320  will be altered based upon the user&#39;s status on a plurality of individual programs, whereas program icon  330  will be altered to provide training information specific to a particular application. This is particularly useful when a new feature has been added to a particular program without the user&#39;s knowledge. For example, software and hardware developers increasingly encourage users to automatically update their hardware or software through the internet. When updating a computer, new features may be added without the user&#39;s knowledge, therefore the user is not aware of the need for further training. In the exemplary embodiment, one attribute of program icon  330  is altered to inform the user a new feature has been downloaded for Microsoft® Excel®. In yet further embodiments, different attributes of the program icon  330  may be simultaneously altered to further indicate the user&#39;s status of different features or elements. Attributes of both the start menu icon  320  and the program icon  330  may be updated or altered regardless of whether the user has the current program open or otherwise active in the system memory. In yet further embodiments, a plurality of program icons may be used without a start menu icon.  
         [0025]     In yet still further embodiments, at least one tray icon  340  is present. The tray icon  330  may be loaded into a memory, such as the system memory  120 , upon the starting the computer&#39;s operating system. The tray icon  330  attributes may be continually displayed on the system tray  350 , thereby providing real-time training information to the user. In select embodiments, the start menu icon  320 , program icon  330 , and tray icon  340  may be interactive. For example, if a user browses over the individual icons  320 ,  330 ,  340 , more detailed information may be displayed. In yet other embodiments, the user may “select” the icon, for example, by clicking on the icon, to open a new window or program to provide more detailed information.  
         [0026]      FIG. 4  illustrates at least one embodiment of the present invention having an interactive start menu icon  320  or tray icon  340 . In the exemplary embodiment, one or more of the icons  320 ,  340  has been “selected”, thereby providing the user with more detailed information. In the exemplary embodiment, attributes of program icon  410  have been altered to indicate the training is needed. Text may further accompany the attributes of the program icon to indicate more specific information. In the exemplary embodiment, the text “New Template Available” is present to indicate a new feature or an existing feature needs increased proficiency. This allows the user to quickly determine if the training would be beneficial. Similar icons may be used to support training for installed hardware. For example, attributes of hardware icon  420  have been altered to indicate to the user that a new lesson is available for a feature. The attributes may be altered based upon the rules set forth in the training tracking module  230 . In the exemplary embodiment, hardware icon  420  provides lesson information regarding a video adapter. For example, if the computer detects multiple display devices attached to the computer, attributes of program icon  420  may be altered to inform the user of available lessons regarding multi-display support of the adapter.  
         [0027]     In yet further embodiments of the invention, the program icons may visually indicate the amount of training needed to become proficient. For example, at least one attribute of program icon  430  is altered, for example shading, to indicate approximately 70% of the recommended lessons are completed or otherwise satisfied, such as through the user demonstrating proficiency, whereas at least one attribute of program icon  440  is altered to indicate approximately 90% of the lessons are completed. One skilled in the art will recognize that the shading may be accompanied by other altered attributes to indicate the training status to the user. Furthermore, the individual program icons  410 - 440  may be interactive to allow a user to “select” additional icons for further information.  
         [0028]     The present invention has been described in terms of preferred and exemplary embodiments thereof. Numerous other embodiments, modifications and variations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims will occur to persons of ordinary skill in the art from a review of this disclosure.