No less an authority than Esther Grassian, bibliographic instruction librarian at the University of California at Los Angeles, admits playing Solitaire during training sessions. Perhaps there is another explanation. It may be that the clicking and dragging of the Solitaire-playing computer students can be viewed as a displaced response to a physical environment that is not conducive to training. The Physical Factor in Computer Training Research has been done on the theories of teaching the Internet to various audiences, including adults with some computer knowledge. Yet little has been published about the relevance of the physical environment to the success of training programs for adults on computers.
Institutions spend millions of dollars setting up computer training rooms.
They buy the latest computers, projectors, and software. Yet they seem to give little thought or money to the physical factors that can affect learning. Some of these include poor lighting, uncomfortable temperatures, ambient noise, and the arrangement of the furniture in the room itself. When the physical space of the training room is not designed well, it can virtually sabotage any training session that occurs in the room. In my first example, the training setup at the Getty Research Institute seemed to be luxurious and top rate.