Tutorials are designed to teach students about certain concepts, as if a teacher is teaching that concept themselves. Tutorials are usually used by themselves without needing extra help or materials. Many educators and developers confuse tutorial software with drill-and-practice software. Although they have some similarities, drill-and-practice are used to assess a student's understanding of the concept and then give feedback, while a tutorial's job is to teach the concept and then give practice problems to determine if the student understands what was taught. Tutorials are supposed to be given to students without assistance from the teacher, so they are mainly geared towards older children.

Selecting Good Tutorial Software

Well designed tutorials should meet the following criteria:

• Extensive interactivity - good tutorials will often ask students to give thoughtful responses to questions, instead of just being something that the student sits there and reads for a few minutes
• Through user control - the student should be able to have control over how fast they go through the tutorial, and the ability to look things over again if need be
• Appropriate pedagogy - the tutorial should efficiently teach the material as well as have good examples that make understanding easier
• Adequate answer judging and feedback capabilities - tutorials should give appropriate feedback to practice problems, as well accept all correct answers and variations of answers
• Appropriate graphics - graphics should only be used if it is related to what is being taught
• Adequate recordkeeping - tutorials should be able to keep a record of how the student did during practice problems, and how fast the student went through the tutorial

Benefits of Tutorials

While no specific benefits are stated for this type of instructional software, there are people who say that tutorials adapt their instruction to the needs of each learner. Also, many people learn things by seeing it done first, so it can be easier for those types of students who learn that way.

Limitations and Problems with Tutorials

Although tutorials are a good instructional tool for teachers to use, they do have their criticism's to keep in mind:

• Criticism by constructivists - another tool disliked by constructivists, they believe that tutorials are more directed instruction and don't allow students to generate their own knowledge hands-on
• Lack of good products - due to the expense of designing proper tutorial software, there is a lack of this software out on the market
• Reflect only one instructional approach - teachers often have their own beliefs on what they want to teach and how they want to teach it, which makes it hard for teachers to find the correct software to meet their needs

Tutorials have yet to be fully utilized as a instructional software tool, but it can be very helpful when mixed with audivisual media or distance learning, as well as other instructional software.