3. Plan the support, then fade it
Decide: how much help do learners get at the start, and how does it go away?
Help is like scaffolding on a building: essential at first, in the way once the building stands. The goal is a learner who no longer needs the lesson.
3.1 Show it done before learners do it
Do
- Let beginners see the whole task done once, the way an expert does it, before they try it themselves.
- Show not just what the expert does, but why: what they check, what they look out for.
- When you record a demonstration, say out loud what you are checking and what beginners usually get wrong at that moment.
In ALF
- Record yourself doing it with Motion: learners watch see-through ghost hands repeat your movements on the machine, hear your explanation, and see the machine react. They can pause and go back to any moment. See Record a demonstration and Create the playback for learners.
- A short video on the first panel: Write the instructions: Video.
- A demonstration run: a scenario where each step shows the action, for example a part moving by itself with the Kinematic Editor Tool, and the learner only presses Next.
The learner experiences: they've seen it done once, on the same machine they are about to use, and know what they are aiming for.
Avoid: letting beginners figure out the task by trial and error.
Why: beginners learn more from studying worked examples than from solving problems on their own. Showing the expert's thinking turns imitation into understanding. Worked-example effect (Sweller), Cognitive Apprenticeship (Collins, Brown & Newman).
3.2 Remove the help from the end first
Do
- Run 1: every step has a full instruction.
- Run 2: the last step only has a short cue, for example just its name.
- Run 3: the last two steps only have cues, and so on, until learners do the whole task alone.
In ALF
- Make each run its own scene, or copy the scenario and shorten the panels: Write the instructions.
- Put the runs in order in the main menu.
- With a Motion demonstration, make the ghost hands more see-through in later runs (Ghost Hand Opacity), or leave the playback out once learners know the task.
- In AR, lower the model's opacity from run to run, until the learner works on the real object alone: Set transparency.
The learner experiences: they do the end of the task alone early, and know the start well when they get there.
Avoid: removing the help everywhere at once, or from the start of the task first.
Why: taking away worked steps from the end works better than from the beginning, because learners still have the full example for the parts they haven't mastered. Backward fading (Renkl & Atkinson).
ALF doesn't fade help automatically depending on how a learner performs. Build the runs as separate scenes for now.
3.3 Give each stage less help than the one before
| Stage | Typical help |
|---|---|
| Orient | Overview, background, the words learners will need. |
| Practise in VR | One instruction per step, next to the part. Then shorter in later runs. |
| Transfer in AR | Labels and key cues on the real object. Few words. |
| Perform for real | None from the system. A checklist for the learner or a supervisor. |
In ALF: the instruction panel's position and size are set per step: Place the instruction panel. Labels on parts: Add a label.
Why: support should decrease while realism and learner independence increase. 4C/ID, Fitts & Posner's stages of motor learning.
3.4 Keep background knowledge out of the steps
Do
- Explain how things work (parts, principles, reasons) at the start, in the orientation, or in an exploded view.
- In the steps, say only what to do now.
In ALF: an exploded view in the orientation for the background; short step instructions for the procedure.
Avoid: long explanations in the middle of a procedure, which break the flow and are forgotten by the next step.
Why: background knowledge is best studied beforehand, step-by-step instructions are best given just in time. 4C/ID: supportive and procedural information.
3.5 Let learners choose more or less help
Do
- If your group is mixed, offer the lesson at two levels, for example With guidance and On my own.
- Tell learners they can go back to the guided version at any time, and that going back a step is normal.
In ALF
- Two scenes, two buttons in the main menu.
- The Previous button on every panel goes back one step and puts the room back as it was: Scenario Setup: How a lesson is built from steps.
Avoid: forcing experienced learners through every guided step.
Why: help that beginners need gets in the way of learners who already know more. Learners who plan and check their own learning learn more. Expertise reversal (Kalyuga), self-regulated learning (Zimmerman).
ALF can't yet adapt the help to how a learner performs. Learner choice is the workaround. Pair it with a short self-check, so learners judge their level well.