Emerald Article: Student preference for tutorial design: a usability study Lori S. Mestre To cite this document: Lori S. Mestre, (2012),"Student preference for tutorial design: a usability study", Reference Services Review, Vol.  With over forty years' experience, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education. In total, Emerald publishes over 275 journals and more than 130 book series, as well as an extensive range of online products and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. 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 for multiple learning styles that will fit into a student's workflow. Originality/value -Results of this study may help inform other librarians in ways to effectively design tutorials and learning objects to meet student needs.
On the contrary, REF found that students performed better after viewing static web page tutorial than they did after viewing a screencast tutorial.
Student preference for tutorial design: a usability study
Reference Services Review
Computer Science