Case studies

UK Online Centres: Keyboard Tutor

UK Online Centres exist to provide skills for life learning opportunities to a national audience of people who have not had much past experience of either IT or learning in general.

Following a recommendation from an existing customer, UK Online Centres approached us to develop Keyboard Tutor, a short and snappy course introducing learners to the basics of how to use a modern computer keyboard.

From the outset, we recognised that we faced a number of challenges:

The course would be covering what, at first glance, looked to be a fairly dry and uninspiring subject - a grey slab of plastic with over 100 individual keys!
The target audience might well be sceptical of both learning in general and e-learning in particular, so the course needed to 'win people over'.
Many of the target audience would have very low levels of IT literacy and might well be nervous about taking their first steps into the world of IT.

All of the above made it imperative that we struck the right note and presented the content in an entertaining, stimulating and engaging way. As part of our learning strategy, we therefore:

Developed a colourful, highly visual course interface.
Made initial interactions and exercises straightforward in order to gradually build confidence.
Structured the course into four bite-sized sections.
Adopted an informal, chatty style, and used down-to-earth narrator voices.
Incorporated a series of fun games to encourage learners to practise using their newfound keyboard skills.

Despite the tight timescales and challenging nature of the project, Cylix were great to work with and brought many innovative ideas to the table. I'm absolutely delighted with the course they produced for us and would recommend them to anyone seeking an e-learning solution.

Peter Farrell, Project Manager, UK Online Centres

I was very impressed with Keyboard Tutor. I particularly liked the games at the end of each section. Sections covered enough information but did not overload the user with too much.

Learner, Doormanstown UK Online Centre