This paper looks at a variety of on-line help systems and at guidelines for their design, and indentifies general problem-solving strategies which are important for the effectiveness and usability of on-line help. The lack of a suitable evaluation instrument is identified and a questionnaire to address this need is developed: the On-line Help Evaluation Checklist. The new instrument is to assist instructional designers (who develop courses that require computer problem-solving skills of the target audience) to assess the adequacy of a tool's on-line help. The instrument is subsequently applied to the evaluation of software tools to be used in a first-year, university-level course on instructional instrumentation.

on-line help, evaluation, instructional design, navigation, hypertext