WIP: Identifying Tutorial Affordances for Interdisciplinary Learning Environments

TL;DR

This work investigates how tutorials function in interdisciplinary bioinformatics learning by applying Borrego & Newswander's interdisciplinarity criteria to a content-analysis of 22 software tutorials. It identifies ten design themes (axial codes) and assesses how well tutorials support interdisciplinarity, finding strong disciplinary grounding but only moderate translation and teamwork, and low critical awareness. The study highlights that tutorial features such as installation clarity, data specifications, and multimedia aids enhance accessibility, while maintenance and reliance on default infrastructures influence long-term learning support. The findings inform the design of tutorials that better accommodate learners from diverse backgrounds in interdisciplinary environments and point to areas—particularly critical awareness and cross-disciplinary collaboration—that require improvement.

Abstract

This work-in-progress research paper explores the effectiveness of tutorials in interdisciplinary learning environments, specifically focusing on bioinformatics. Tutorials are typically designed for a single audience, but our study aims to uncover how they function in contexts where learners have diverse backgrounds. With the rise of interdisciplinary learning, the importance of learning materials that accommodate diverse learner needs has become evident. We chose bioinformatics as our context because it involves at least two distinct user groups: those with computational backgrounds and those with biological backgrounds. The goal of our research is to better understand current bioinformatics software tutorial designs and assess them in the conceptual framework of interdisciplinarity. We conducted a content analysis of 22 representative bioinformatics software tutorials to identify design patterns and understand their strengths and limitations. We found common codes in the representative tutorials and synthesized them into ten themes. Our assessment shows degrees to which current bioinformatics software tutorials fulfill interdisciplinarity.