Three Types of Student

When I started designing Computer Based Training, I remembered the prompt system and my own learning experience and used this Rule of Three to define the three types of students that would be taking the training. In the classroom, one can adapt training to the responses of the students, but with a CBT, one cannot read the student’s understanding by reading facial expressions or analyzing their questions. In CBT, one has to anticipate the questions and teach all levels of qualified students. There are basically three kinds of students:

1. The Novice who needs full explanations.
2. The Expert who needs a quick reminder or a quick reference card, and to be caught up on the latest changes.
3. Everyone else who are a combination of the two extremes and may be either on any particular topic.

When designing training, one needs to be able to teach the novice without annoying the expert. This rule holds true for the presentation of any information as all information presentation is a form of training.

Notice that the three types of students match the three types of prompts.

Note: There are two other types of students: The ones that do not have the prerequisite knowledge to understand the course, and the person who doesn’t need the course. Neither are actually a concern for the developer other than to weed them out and aim them at instruction relevant to the skill level.