In this issue:
1. My Favorite Things
2. NMID - Calling Media Designers and Developers
3. Old Dogs/New Tricks.
4. Our Readers Answer Rose's question...
5. A Reader Asks: Is there aCBT product that would compliment an online help and User's Guide
6. Upcoming events
1. My Favorite Things
I have had a number of interesting emails from our readers offering resources and links that they have found of interest. So in this week's issue of Influential Trends, I will share some of these ideas with you all.
Frank Howard of Communications Corporation of America writes:
"I thought you might want to check out http://www.e-learnit.com ... this is a great new site that allows individuals and companies who want instructor-led training to bid on classes at authorized training centers."
And it is a cool resource.. and I know many of you out there have favorite sitesand resources that you would be willing to share with the Influential Trends readers.. I know I must have at least 200 bookmarks of training related sites, but I won't list them all here... BUT I will invite you to send me your favorite Technology Training-related sites... just send me an email (hfisk@influent.com) and put "Favorite Things" in the topic line and then list the URL and company name and let me know why you find it so valuable. I will share these in future issues.
2. NMID - Calling Media Designers and Developers
A few months ago, I posted a call for proposals for the New Media InstructionalDesign Symposium... and many of our readers responded either to submit presentation proposals or to ask for more information. Well, the Symposium web site is now up at http://www.influent.com/nmid99. For those of you who are involved in or responsible for the instructional design/content design of media-based training (including web-based,intranet-based, multimedia,CBT, DL, etc. training), this symposium is for you.
3. Old Dogs/New Tricks.
Seems like a story in our last issue touched quite a few of you. If you remember, George Spalding expressed his doubts on the ability of older workers to learn high tech subjects.
Chuck Beck of Lucent questioned George's stance. Chuck wrote to me, "I know quite a few older folks, though, whose minds are still quite sharp and who are "hip" to the emerging trends in technology. And they often have a wisdom and sensitivity that many younger people simply do not have."
Both gentlemen speak from their varied experiences and view points... and it is always great to get multiple sides of an issue. I think the points raised in the last issue do deserve more debate and coverage... so starting next issue I will be printing a series of articles on the challenges and issues around training various sectors of the work force as they relate to technology training.
The upcoming articles will have interviews from people involved in training seniors for second careers as IT professionals, groups that study trends in IT staffing and training, those responsible for the technology training iniatives in elementary, secondary schools and higher education, and those invovled in training diverse,international workforces.
At last month's Computer Training World Conference, there was a forum that addressed how to train these diverse groups and discussed where corporations find the IT and technology-users workforce of tomorrow. Since all of us are integrally involved in training (and sometimes finding) these workers, I think it is an issue of great interest and importance. I will draw upon some of the facts brought up during that forum.
If you have resources, links, or people whom you would like to recommend to be addressed in this series, please send me an email at: hfisk@influent.com.
4. Our Readers Answer Rose's question...
Last issue, Rose Nitz, the Manager, Learning Technology Implementation Team at KMart posed the following question: "I am looking for how other companies are Quality testing their newly developed multi media CBTs. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information out there. But every program has to be testing for content, bugs, etc. What are they using and how are they doing it?"
Here are some of the answers our readers provided:
"We've recently developed a role in our organization specifically for the purpose of insuring that we are adhering to the quality control standards within our organization. Design documents and storyboards go through a thorough editing process, but we were not doing enough to test the C/WBT products themselves. Our QC coordinator has done some research, both internally and externally, and has developed a process he uses to test each product. The process checks for bugs, looks at content of the C/WBT compared to the storyboards, final product compared to the detail design document, and usability of the final product."
Foster Fowler, Director, Multimedia Development, Bianco Hopkins & Associates
"There should be a QA team to bug test and evaluate the product before it is delivered to you. If you are creating the programs in house, then the programmers should be assisted by a QA team. The company I used to work for (children's educational software design) had an entire department. It was headed by a QA analyst and manager and they staffed it by hiring temp workers."
Kelly Robinson, Infoarch
"We use a peer review. We then turn it over to our Quality Assurance folks, who try to break it. We then send it to content experts, our support department, and other interested folks for their comments. Of couse we live in the Information Systems department and only do systems training."
Jim Lang (no company listed)
"Performing a meaningful QA on the CBT before delivery is a clunky process at best. Frankly, each member of our team takes a section and reviews it for accuracy and viewability. We have a generalized list of items to look for, but the comments often stray far from this list. We are only on the second version of the CBT and have yet to create a formalized QA process. Automating any part of the QA process would be a dream come true. All comments from the review are submitted to the developer via email. The biggest challenge we face is that sometimes the reviewers are not fully aware of all the changes in the user interface for the product, so it is difficult for them to catch all inaccuracies in the CBT."
Jill Oleson, MoneyStar
5. A Reader Asks:
"I am a technical writer and our company is looking into investing in a CBT product that would compliment our online help and User's Guide for our clients. Our company, SAI, develops software primarily for Pharmaceutical companies' sales forces. (We use ForeHelp as our help authoring tool and MSWord to produce our end User's Guide.) Any suggestions?
Denise L. Jackson, Sr. Technical Writer, SAI
6. Upcoming events
Here are some upcoming events that are of interest:
--- Strategies for Success - Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA)
September 13-15, 1999 13 - 15 september, 1999
Noordwijk aan Zee, (near Amsterdam) The Netherlands
Strategies for Success '99 is the Information Technology Training Association's (ITTA) premier event for its commercial training company members. This year's theme is a "Global Revolution" that highlights our growing industry's revolution on society as well as our global reach. This is our 3rd annual event serving Europe, the Middle East and Africa and we expect it to be our biggest event withmore than 400 delegates from 30 countries! For more information go to http://www.influent.com/sfs/
--- Frontlines Conference
September 22-24, 1999 Orlando, Florida
Having trouble finding a great event for your organization's help desk staff and technical support staff? Then the Frontlines Conference can be your solution. Whether you provide deskside, field service, or telephone support; whether you support internal or external customers; whether you supervise or provide technical support on the front lines, this conference is for you! Created and hosted by George Spalding, noted technology support guru, this event will get the folks on the "fronlines" of technical support up to speed on the important issues of the day. For more information, go to http://www.influent.com/frontlines/
Wanted! Your ideas and issues and questions..
Do you have a question about your technology training challenges? In need of a resource or idea to solve a specific computer training problem? Looking to connect with others in the IT Training industry? This e-newsletter is meant to be a resource for you to find the answers you need to help you survive and thrive in our industry. Readers of this e-newsletter are encouraged to send in questions, ideas, resource links or articles to hfisk@influent.com
That's all for now,
Heidi Fisk
