The creators of the site clearly are passionate about their work, and understand what types of guidance and tasks are both educational and engaging. The shortcomings of the site appear in the site’s functionality. Basic usability best practices are ignored, and the learner must maintain several browser windows open to different pages on the site in order to perform the interactive tutorials.

When the user starts thinking that maybe she should just download the PDFs and explore the material offline, it's a good sign to the site owners that it may be time to optimize the web experience.

What Works?

The content of the site is very strong, providing a solid context for learning about Paleography in the "Where To Start" and "Quick References" sections. These sections

• help users understand how to use newfound skills to help decode old writing.
• successfully explain obscure historical quirks that make the interpretation of texts complicated, such as old calendar dating and measurement names.

As a whole the site offers access to wonderful texts, used in the transcription exercises and "Further Reading" section.

The site relies on a very solid structure for learning. From the home page's definition of paleography, through a great sequence of progressively more complex concepts, to exercises, and finally a fun game that allows a little payoff at the end.

Going through the site linearly is both enjoyable and informative. In ten minutes, new users are able to decipher passages that they would have seen as unfathomable just minutes before.

What Doesn't Work?

The site makes poor use of web technology, particularly in the tutorials and game, but even some basic usability features are missing.

• Adding a menu, or even simply adding a "next" at the bottom of the page, since the site is very linear, would be a simple usability improvement. They do add this feature in the tutorials, but it is missing in the content section.
• In the "Where to Start" section, the subnavigation, which spreads across the top, spills over onto two lines rather than a single line of menu items. The menu titles are small enough to fit on a single line, and they should. Having them on two lines is confusing. The error is not repeated on the other pages of the site.
• Tutorials activities are fun, but they are poorly implemented on the web. The need for so many open windows could have been mitigated.
  • No need for two zoomable texts. The site provides two zoom features for any given text: one, the less powerful, is on the tutorial page and part of the exercise. However, I found myself needing the more powerful zoom in a second window. Why not have the same zooming capability in both spots and remove the need for a popup?
  • In the tutorial, users transcribe texts one line at a time. Upon submission of a given line, users are told which words they got right, and which they got wrong, but they cannot see the correct transcription for the words they got wrong. For that they need to refer to another window with the complete transcription of the text. If instead the site included a correctly transcribed line directly beneath the user's own trial, the necessary comparison could be made with one less popup.
• Like the tutorials, the duck-stool game is a fun concept, but here again the execution makes it harder than it should be to learn from it. The user never gets to compare the three key elements: the graphic, the user's own transcription, and the correct transcription. Indeed, the user isn't even able to go backwards to see the original text a second time. Just a simple revision of the word might enhance the learning.

What can WDILers take from this Site?

Linear learning is a perfectly valid format for the web, as is demonstrated by this site. The learning structure of this site is very strong and engaging. If you do choose to use a linear structure, here are some elements you can model from this site:

• Help your users understand what you're about from the get go, and step them through basic concepts and techniques that will help them develop expertise quickly: contractions, how the mind works, etc.
• Use your strongest materials available to help your users get excited about your topic: they could have chosen church rolls, but they started with Elizabeth 1st.
• Like the Palaeography website, throw in a reward for people going through the learning. Adding a small game at the end need not be complicated, and yet provides a nice payoff for the user who has put effort into the learning process.

By the same token, steps can be taken so that the same mistakes are not repeated in your own online activities:

• Interactive elements need to be tested on users. Making all the material available is not enough if the learner then has to run four browsers just to get the elements together. With proper testing, the site's creators might have noticed that users needed to operate five open windows to complete the tutorials, and could have looked at ways to simplify the experience (see suggestions above).
• If you're a learning site, make sure the learner CAN learn: In the case of user mistakes, allow him or her to triangulate between the question (or in this case the original handwritten word), the user's own answer, and the correct answer. If any of those elements are missing, it's hard for a new learner to understand how their answer differs from the correct one, and it gives them a chance to reinterpret the original text with the new information.
• Repetition is a powerful learning tool Allow the user to step backwards to review previous steps, or to try something again.
• Lastly, think the activities through before you create them. Figure out not just what the user will learn, which the Palaeography did a great job with, but also how the learner will learn. How do we best enhance the learning? What types of activities should be included? How can these activities be executed on the web? Budget limits are a reality in online learning. But if you've thought through what NEEDS to happen during the activity, then you can figure out inexpensive alternatives to help you reach those goals – and still provide a useful learning experience.

Palaeography succeeds in spite of its weaknesses because the content is so very compelling, the materials from the National Archives that can be reviewed are rich, and because the overall learning structure is strong.

There is nothing wrong with linear learning structure. I do very much enjoy the site, and it wouldn't be a huge investment to repackage some of the interactions to make them more effective, and less awkward.

Regardless of the weaknesses of the tutorial and the game, I can't help but be very grateful that someone had the presence of mind to post this resource on the web, and offer the public not just access to exceptional and unique old texts, but also the means to begin to decode them ourselves. Palaeography is a great demonstration of empowering learning.