Desired features in instructional software

• Authoring capabilities. There needs to be more software with authoring capabilities, allowing instructors to generate their own materials to make learning relevant for their students and to incorporate students' prior knowledge. Software programs often do not capture the interests, nor represent the diverse cultural backgrounds, of adults in literacy programs.

• Adult-oriented. While there is a lot of educational software on the market, not enough of it caters to adult interests or relates directly to the context of adult learners' lives. Much literacy software is inappropriate for adults because it is intended for children and/or has childish images (e.g. "goblins and flowers"). There is a need for software programs that offer "real life" adult-oriented context and tasks.

• Student control. Giving students more control over the software is essential to an adult, learner-centered approach to literacy instruction. Students often feel frustrated when the computer controls their learning. Control includes being able to:

  • adjust the rate and sequence of information, review and repetition
  • flip through exercises to find the ones they like and exit the exercises they don't like
  • move onto more difficult exercises when they feel they are ready
  • select the level of text that they wish to work on by choosing their own skill level
  • override the timing function
  • access information about their performance at their own discretion

• The level of reading required to use the software should be consistent with the level of the learning activities. Written instructions provided in a program can be difficult to read. These instructions may require a higher level of reading ability than the software is teaching and often require "way too much reading for beginning level students."

• Facilitate and support collaborative small group work among learners and learner-instructor interaction. Most software programs are designed for independent use and don’t provide interactive designs for learners to work collaboratively together in small groups. Also, instructional design must take into account the principle that computer-based instruction in literacy education is not intended to supplant the instructor. The instructor's role is key to the success of any instructional approach, whether or not the approach is based on computers.