Institute for Systems Research Technical Reports

This paper describes the design space and discusses the challenges of implementing learning histories. It presents guidelines for creating effective implementations, and the design tradeoffs between sparse and dense history records. The paper also presents a first implementation of learning histories for a simulation-based engineering learning environment called SimPLE (Simulated Processes in a Learning Environment) for the case of a semiconductor fabrication module, and reports on early user evaluation of learning histories implemented within SimPLE.

This paper describes an experiment involving a between-subject comparison of simultaneous menu and their traditional sequential counterparts. Twenty experienced web users used either simultaneous or sequential menus in a standard web browser to answer questions based on US Census data. For novice users performing simple tasks the simplicity of sequential menus appears to be helpful, but for most tasks and most users there is good evidence to believe that simultaneous menus speed performance and improve satisfaction. Design improvements can amplify the benefits of simultaneous menu layouts.