Videotapes Help to Ease Manual Labor
One of the hidden joys of writing a computer column is getting to learn an average of one new computer program a week.
Many publishers try to make it easy for new users with demonstration disks, on-screen tutorials and, in some cases, well written, well illustrated, well printed instruction manuals.
But let’s not kid ourselves. Learning most software programs is frustrating, tedious, tiring and not much fun. I don’t mean that as a criticism of software or software publishers.
The fact is that good, useful software must accomplish complex goals and must itself be complex to do that. Everyone who really has a need for word processing or spreadsheet or data base software and who has found a good program and taken the time to learn it thoroughly already knows how worthwhile the effort was.
Those of you who have yet to learn have an advantage, however, because it is getting easier. The reason is television.
Videotape software instruction has arrived and its a real boon, based on the two products that I used.
Arthur Young, the big accounting firm, is marketing a videocassette training course that it developed for internal use, with versions for Lotus 1-2-3 ($399), Multiplan ($349) and VisiCalc ($299). The tapes are marketed by Arthur Young Business Systems, 1111 Summer St., Stamford, Conn. 06905.
Tapes on dBase III, Others
Another entrant in the training field is CompuTutor, a product of ChaseScientific Inc., 1311 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica 90404. I looked at its tape on dBase III, but it also offers “Using Your Machine” tapes for the IBM PC, Apple IIe and Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 4. In addition, there are tapes about VisiCalc for the same three computers, about WordStar for the IBM and Apple, and about SuperScripsit for the Radio Shack. Tapes on dBase II are available for the Apple and on Lotus 1-2-3 for the IBM PC. Each tape is priced at $69.95.
Another producer of computer training videos, whose products I have not seen, is Software Video Productions, 12416 Hymeadow Drive, Suite Two, Austin, Tex. 78750, with “Video Guides” to Lotus 1-2-3 and Multiplan at $89.95.
Arthur Young and CompuTutor take quite a different approach, but both perform the tasks they set out for themselves admirably.
Arthur Young provides a complete course of 18 chapters on two videocassettes along with a diskette of 17 Lotus worksheets, some of them quite long and complex, and an elaborate training manual. The result is a package half again as thick as that containing Lotus 1-2-3 itself.
The format involves watching the narrator and his assistant lead you through a chapter on the screen. Then you stop the videotape machine and go through the workbook problems yourself, making use of the worksheets provided on the training disk. The time to complete each chapter, ranging from 20 to 90 minutes, is given at the beginning. Total time is about 14 1/2 hours, not counting video viewing time, but it may well take longer, especially if the training is given in a classroom setting with time for questions and answers.
The video presentation is easy to follow and makes good use of video production techniques to highlight the important parts of the computer screen at each step.
While the Arthur Young product is designed for a single user, the accounting firm also offers a special license that allows the videotapes and training disk to be used in a classroom. The cost for this special education license is $500, which allows the holder to copy the training disk and distribute it to students. The students are expected to buy their own workbook manuals, however, at a suggested retail price of $75. For more information, call the company toll-free at 800-543-3450.
More Modest Offering
CompuTutor, by comparison, is a much more modest offering, packaged complete in a plastic cassette holder. The only written instructions are contained on two sheets of paper and consist of short sample database records and file structures.
Don’t be deceived by the packaging. CompuTutor is a slick, professionally produced video that manages to teach and entertain at the same time with some delightful whimsy.
The narrator’s assistant is a pair of gloved hands reaching up puppet-like from below the screen to make the appropriate entries on the computer keyboard as the program’s features are explained. At each of the six chapter breaks, there is some nice pantomiming between the narrator and the hands, dubbed “Dos Mitts.”
CompuTutor host Brent Seltzer, a former radio newscaster in Los Angeles, described “Dos Mitts” as a “sort of Casper the friendly ghost” character and an alter ego for the viewer.
“We encourage people to view the whole tape first to get the gist of it,” Seltzer said, “and then go back over it with their computers on.”
He said surveys show that about 70% of new computer buyers already have a videocassette recorder, giving them an already familiar piece of technology to help them learn to use their computers. CompuTutor tapes are available in some computer and software stores as well as bookstores and a few department stores, Seltzer said.
The training format, similar to that used by Arthur Young, involves watching a segment of the tape, then pausing and working through the examples just seen. It is an excellent method, and I have little doubt that a diligent student can learn the program faster, better and more easily than by just reading the manual.
