The Right Content at the Right Time: Contextual Examples for Just-in-time Creative Learning

Abstract

People often run into barriers when doing creative tasks with software because it is difficult to translate goals into concrete actions. While expert-made tutorials, examples, and documentation abound online, finding the most relevant content and adapting it to one's own situation and task is a challenge. My research introduces techniques for exposing relevant examples to novices in the context of their own workflows. These techniques are embodied in three systems. The first, RePlay, helps people find solutions when stuck by automatically locating relevant moments from expert-made videos. The second, DiscoverySpace, helps novices get started by mining and recommending expert-made software macros. The third, CritiqueKit, helps novices improve their work by providing ambient guidance and recommendations. Preliminary experiments with RePlay suggest that contextual video clips help people complete targeted tasks. Controlled experiments with DiscoverySpace and CritiqueKit demonstrate that software macros prevent novices from losing confidence, and ambient guidance improves novice output. My research illustrates the power of user communities to support creative learning.