Students in the Educational Psychology 304 class in North Carolina State University’s College of Education presented a perfect opportunity when they asked Bandsuch to participate in a usability test of their new computer tutorial for senior citizens.

The students were challenged to find a project that would help the community while applying what they were learning in a real-world setting. They decided to create a tutorial that will allow seniors to learn on their own or with an instructor in a group setting. The tutorial contains 11 lesson plans organized by level: beginner, intermediate and advanced. The beginning lessons are paper-based, since they teach very basic things like turning on a computer, using graphical interfaces and understanding the parts of a computer. The intermediate lessons discuss e-mail and using the Internet. The advanced lessons teach participants to send e-cards, manage files and use a scanner. The intermediate and advanced tutorials will be put on a CD-ROM.

The class plans to release the tutorial at the beginning of the year for senior centers across Wake County. Bandsuch says allowing seniors to learn computers on their own time may take some of the intimidation out of the process.