Maya has a very steep learning curve and as the tutorial stated it is really for intermediate users which means he really expects you to know your way around the GUI .
I would recommend you start to learn Maya firstly by hitting F1 on the keyboard and doing the tutorials that come with Maya in the help files, this will give you a reasonable understanding of the GUI and then the DVD might not seem so alien to you.

If you have any questions relating to Maya please don't be shy to ask, we are happy to help here.

regards John.