Building electronic performance support systems for first‐year university students

Abstract

This paper outlines the principles and theory of performance support (in general) and of electronic performance support (in particular). It explains why the design and creation of electronic performance support systems are so important as a mechanism for providing scaffolding environments for use in improving the learning experience for new (and established) students within a university environment. It goes on to explain and demonstrate our methodology by means of a case study involving the design of an electronic performance support system—called Epsilon—which was built to support students’ use of an academic library.

Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to the Higher Education Funding Council for England for financial support (through its National Teaching Fellowship Scheme) to enable this work to be undertaken. Financial support from the University of Teesside (through its University Research Fund) is also gratefully acknowledged; this initial funding enabled feasibility studies to be undertaken and a prototype system to be constructed. We also wish to thank our colleagues in the University’s Learning Resource Centre for their encouragement and support. Finally, we acknowledge the help given to us by Jan Anderson who allowed us to evaluate our system with her first‐year psychology students.