There are currently three tabs in the online editor:
Instructions, Results, and ChatGPT.
Instructions also has the general concept introduction on top, which can make the file a bit long. Can we have an extra introduction or concept tab? This way it seems cleaner and simpler to find things.
Current scenario:
Suggested change:
My instinct on this is a no. As a student needs to read through both the introduction and the instructions to be able to solve the exercise, I think being in one tab makes sense. I’d want to start with the Concept Introduction tab (which is why they’re there to learn the concept), so making someone read that tab, then switch to a different (Instructions) tab to actually solve the exercise would be a frustrating extra step I think.
Although the instructions/introduction are long, I don’t see that as a usability problem. People want to learn and they’re here to read through that to learn, so I think it’s ok just to have a wad of text. Having gone through the Elixir and Go tracks over the last few weeks, I don’t feel like I’ve ever wished to not have that info right in front of me.
We actually went the other way recently and added the Introduction to the main exercise page too, as it turns out tons of people were missing the Concept introduction altogether when solving the exercise via the CLI (and just reading the instructions from the website).
I do understand that that tab is a bit unwieldy but I feel the value of the introduction being in someone’s face overwhelms that.
For me it’s the opposite. Having the concept introduction and the instructions on the same tab but vertically widely separated forces me to do a lot of scrolling and repeated vertical scanning. I imagine it would be nicer to have them on separate tabs, so that I can more easily (re-)read both sections sorta-simultaneously without getting lost.
Present workaround: open the concept page in a separate tab.
Is there still much of a difference if the tab that is initially shown is the concept introduction?
Why not have the introduction as something that that appears before the main exercise? The student will be forced to read it and click something like “Unlock concept exercises” if they want to move on. Each learning exercise should also have something like a link/tab “explore concept” that can be accessed any time. This will help if the concept has more than one learning exercises and the student needs to access the introduction quickly without having to open multiple windows.