Dynamic role-based instructional symbiont for software application instructional support

摘要

The disclosure provides a computer-based learning system that minimizes the “distance” between applications (for which instructions are provided) and the instructions themselves. That is, the instructional material provided is dynamically integrated with a “state” of one or more applications, which constantly change as a user interacts with the application. Further, the instructional information is visually presented within a common screen, window, or focus region as the application, in a minimally intrusive manner. For example, the instruction window can be an overlay that is designed to “hide from” or to avoid obscuring application content of particular interest to a user. Various techniques can be used to ensure the instructions are provided unobtrusively, including use of transparency settings to make instructions legible, resizing techniques, variable shading, font size/contrast/style adjustments, and the like.

主权项

1. A computer based learning method comprising:
visually presenting instructional content within a graphical user interface overlay on a display for an application window also presented on the display, wherein application code controls behavior of the application window and instruction code is responsible for presenting the instructional content within the graphical user overlay, said application code and said instruction code being different runtime modules, each capable of operating independent of each other; dynamically detecting interactive events between a user and the application; responding to the interactive events, iteratively determining state-specific substantive instructions given a current state of the application as determined from the interactive events, wherein the instruction content are predefined information to guide a user in utilizing the software based on current state of the application; dynamically and continuously modifying the instructional content that is visually presented to continuously present the state-specific substantive instructions that correspond with the detected interactive events; and dynamically and continuously modifying presentation characteristics of a graphical user interface overlay based on the interactive events in a manner to enable the user interact with the application without causing any obstructions while ensuring the graphical user interface overlay is presented in a visually proximate position to a user's current interactive focus as determined from the interactive events, wherein unobtrusiveness of the graphical user interface overlay ensures that focus, keystrokes, and cursor movements directed at the application are not interfered with.