This module is designed to help you learn the material it contains. People learn in different ways. The most 'effective' way to use this module is the way that you feel will do the greatest good.

The following remarks are just suggestions of ways of increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of your work with this module.

How to work through presentation pages

An overview page that gives summary information about subsidiary pages can be just as important as the pages it introduces. Properly understood, such a page can help you to organize and categorize the subsidiary material, and stop you getting lost in detail.

In general, a presentation page contains a small amount of material that presents a few related points. You should therefore be in a position, after working through a presentation page, to list in your mind easily the main points of the page.

The authors of this module have tried to present material using language that is simple, clear and accurate, and with a terminology that is consistent and precise. If you are having difficulty with a section, pay careful attention to the terminology used, if necessary going back to earlier material to make sure that you understand these terms.

When to do exercises

We all can work through some material and think we understand it. Understanding is not the same as doing, however. An exercise will give you an opportunity to apply what you have learned and show you what you do and do not know, and what you can and cannot do.

• If you have no idea how to answer a particular exercise you can just click the evaluate button until you have exceeded the number of attempts that are allowed and you will be shown the answers. In this case, studying the answers will help you to understand the task required by the exercise.
• An exercise will normally allow you more than one attempt to get it right before showing you the correct answers. This is a core feature of the learning process: you can see immediately where your difficulties are and you can focus on these problems.
• Revisit exercises as often as you can. Even exercises you did correctly should be revisited from time to time.
• The great advantage of using a computer rather than a human as a learning helper and teacher is that the machine has endless patience and will neither be impressed nor shocked by your performance.

When to start, when to stop

You can start when and where you want, but since the material in this module is arranged progressively, in your first pass through the module you should work your way through the material from beginning to end.

You can spend as much or a little time as you want in any particular sitting. Loading the module and getting to any particular point in it takes only a few seconds, so it is possible to dip into the module for short sessions with new material or revision.