Why would someone need a help manual or a tutorial if the product is self-explanatory, obvious, easy to use? In fact why not build applications/products that have usable user interfaces and require no training, no context sensitive help or cheat sheets. Yes, I am talking about  intuitive applications that guide the user to complete their tasks on their own without referring to any support material or external resource. This post tries to raise some questions in favour of intuitive software applications/products.

Let’s begin with the basic question.

What users want?

Consider any user of a software application:

• They are aware of their work processes.
• They know their tasks.

All that they want to know is how to complete the tasks using a software product.

When users require tutorials or help manuals?

A user will need tutorials and help manuals when:

• How the product can help them is not obvious.
• The steps to use the features are not clear.
• The user gets started with the product but is stuck with a task and is not able to proceed.

In some cases tutorials and help manuals also fail and people are left for hours figuring out how to complete a task using the product. Some give up and some start searching the entire web for help.

How software products/applications force users to seek help

I am an avid user of Facebook. I use it so frequently that I do not realize how challenging and difficult it is to use Facebook. The first time I visited Facebook, I was just too confused and apprehensive to use it.

Reasons

• I knew it was a social networking site similar to Orkut. But then I really didn’t know where to get started.
• I checked some profiles that were really organized. I was wondering how to achieve that perfection in my profile page.
• It took me days to get comfortable with Facebook and use all its features effectively. I noticed that I was not alone. Many other newbies felt lost and some also gave up. For example one of my friends was wondering how to  send a private message to someone in Facebook. If you are a ++regular Facebook user, you might find this strange and you might also think that my friend is not tech savvy. But that’s not the case. I am sure lots of others have problems figuring out a lot many simple things in Facebook.

With Facebook, you need to be patient and persistent. This way you will be able to figure out how to use it. But how may are that patient enough I wonder?  The truth is there are really patient people in this world

Jokes apart, when it comes to Facebook,  its a great way to connect with people and is really engaging. Above all there is peer pressure. I guess that’s why people push themselves to use the site, no matter how difficult it is to use. This might not be the case with business applications.

Another example is the new wordpress interface. If you regularly use wordpress, you should be knowing that wordpress has revamped their site completely. My mother who is 50 + is a regular user of wordpress. I taught her how to use it and she learnt really fast. After wordpress revamped their site appearance, she was completely lost and really didn’t know how to go about a simple task such as including an hyperlink which she did with ease in the previous interface.

The examples above are just to illustrate how difficult and annoying it can get to use a software product without any help/support. This being said, now I need to mention atleast two applications, that require no help manuals or tutorials to get started. Of course the choice is completely subjective. Feel free to challenge my choice

Applications that you can use without any help

Snagit

Snagit is a screen capture tool that helps people capture screenshots from software products/applications. I referred to no help manuals when I first used Snagit. Before using Snagit, I was using the Prt Scr option in the keyboard. When someone mentioned about Snagit, I was wondering what difference can this product create with a simple screen capture action. The product does create  a lot of difference. It not only has some cool screen capture options but is also very easy to use. So here are the top 5 things I like about Snagit:

Top 5 things I like about Snagit

1. The main menu – where the screen capture options are obvious.
2. Guided Instructions – The product guides you to take your first screen capture.
   • The instruction “Press Print Screen to capture” is clearly stated in the main menu.
   • Once you click on “Capture” you are informed what to do next.
3. Tooltips – When you mouse over an option in the main menu, you see a feature description.
4. The snagit editor – The options in the editor are self-explainatory and easy to use.
5. Good Orientation – A new user trying to use Snagit,  will be able to figure out the whats, whys and hows of the features in less than 15 minutes.

Here is an overview video of Snagit:

You can download the trial version here.

Ning

I would also vote for Ning when it comes to ease of use.

Ning is a service that allows you to create online social networks.  Last we at  Instructional Designers Community of India wanted to create an online social network for the community . We were sure about the  kind of features and facilities that we wanted to facilitate interactions and learning activities within the community. We were evaluating some freely available networks when one of my friends referred Ning. Ning instantly communicated to us that it had all the features to make an online network work well. I liked it instantly and I also learned how to use it in a very short time. I needed no help manuals or tutorials to get started.

Top 3 Things I like About Ning

• Simple and easy to use
• How the product can help you is obvious.
• Labels and naming conventions – These make the product features obvious.
• Good Orientation – A new user can get started in less than 15 minutes.

Intuitive software applications will help companies bring down their training budget. Embedding the learning/training component within a software application may be challenging but not impossible. “Where there is a will, there is a way”. And of course there may not be a single way to doing things though the usability concepts and principles may be obvious and remain the same .  Here is an interesting article on 8 characteristics of successful user interfaces.

With this I end my post and leave it open for discussion:

• Can you name one product that you managed to use without any help?
• Do you think it is easy to eliminate software product tutorials?
• What are the challenges in developing intuitive applications?
• Is it a mental barrier or a technology barrier?

VIDEO 1 ( via Tom Kuhlmann)

VIDEO 2

VIDEO 3

Read more about Mc Donald’s Augmented Reality Game here:

• No McDonald’s on Pandora, but Plenty of Avatar at McD’s
• Avatar – Experience Pandora After the Movie Ends

VIDEO 4

If you have read any article  or seen any videos on Augmented Reality games, please do share them here.

Here’s presenting TOP 10 resources for learning professionals across the globe:

1. ASTD – If you check the Archives section in this website, you will find articles written from the year 2000 to 2009. The articles are very insightful and a must read for all learning professionals.
2. eLearning Technology – You must check this blog for latest news/updates in the learning/training industry. This blog also has lots of external links that lead to really good web resources on learning/training.
3. The Rapid eLearning blog – If you are a designer or an avid PowerPoint user, then this blog is just for you. This blog is exclusively on rapid e-learning and has loads of tips and tricks which makes it one of the best freely available resources on e-learning design.
4. Upside Learning Blog – If you are interested in MLearning, Augmented Reality and other latest technologies for e-learning, then you must visit this blog.
5. Kapp Notes – If you are interested in Game Based Learning and Immersive Learning, then this blog is for you. This blog has lots of good examples and case studies on the subject.
6. The Learning Circuits Blog - This blog  is known for its “Question of the Month” feature. The questions are focused on learning/training and the responses are insightful.
7. PINOT - If you are interested in learning about non-training solutions for performance improvement, then join this social network. This network has focus groups and useful discussions, resources are available within each group.
8. C4LPT - If you are interested in social learning examples and tools for learning, then you must visit this site. This site lists top 100 tools for learning and has excellent getting started guides for social learning.
9. Making Change – This blog has useful tips and tricks on e-learning design and also good e-learning examples.
10. Learnability Matters – This blog again has useful tips and tricks on e-learning design, e-learning case studies and some e-learning examples. There are some articles that give good introduction to Instructional Design concepts/practices.

Hope you find this list useful!

In this post, I will explain -

• What is an Instructor Led Training program
• What matters most when you design Instructor Led Training programs
• What goes into an Instructor Led Training program toolkit
• What goes into an Instructor Led Training developer toolkit

So here we begin!

What is an ILT program?

An ILT program is a training program that happens in the presence of an instructor or trainer. The instructor may be knowledgeable and experienced in the learning material, but can also be used more for their facilitation skills and ability to deliver material to learners.

An instructor/trainer might deliver the training in a :

• Physical classroom or
• Virtual classroom

What matters most while designing ILTs

While basic Instructional Design knowledge/skills is a prerequisite, there are two important things that you should pay attention to while designing ILTs.

First  is CONTEXT. You should always keep in mind that the training will happen in a classroom setting (virtual or physical) and a live instructor will interact with the learners.

Second is TARGET AUDIENCE. As an instructional designer, you should keep in mind that you are designing training material for both the Instructor and the Learners.  With this in mind, you will be able to work in the right direction.

What goes into the ILT program toolkit

While I believe there are no hard and fast rules to designing ILT programs, there are standard materials that are part of an ILT toolkit. Let us look at some typical materials that are created for ILTs. We will use this New Employee Orientation material for illustration purpose.

An ILT program toolkit has all of the following:

A POWER POINT PRESENTATION

A power point presentation with the key learning points of the training program is designed for the trainer/instructor. The trainer/instructor speaks/interacts with the learners keeping the power point presentation in focus. The power point presentation is never self-contained or comprehensive and the trainer/instructor fills the gap.

The power point presentation typically captures the entire training flow including:

• Welcome note
• Training objectives
• Training agenda
• Key learning points in each Lesson/Topic
• Activity/assessment details
• Summary
• Next steps

Here is a sample powerpoint presentation created for an ILT program:

Click on the image to access the complete presentation

THE FACILITATOR’S GUIDE

The facilitator’s guide is designed for the trainer/instructor who delivers the training program to the learners. This guide has all the information that is essential for a trainer/instructor to effectively conduct the training program. The facilitator’s guide is designed with reference to the powerpoint presentation created for the training  program.

A facilitator’s guide typically has:

• Training overview
• Training objectives
• Training agenda
• Tips on how to prepare to deliver the training
• List of training materials to keep handy
• Briefing on training contents/activities

When you design the facilitator’s guide you need to keep in mind that you are instructing the trainer/instructor on how to conduct the training program. This includes the following from the trainer’s perspective:

• What to say
• When to say
• What to ask
• What to show
• What activities/discussions to conduct

PS: Some Instructional Designers  do train the trainer programs via web conferencing or in a physical meeting. Some others also deliver training programs themselves. In either case, the facilitator’s guide is important.

Here is a snapshot of a section  from a facilitator’s guide designed for an ILT program that describes how to start the training program:

Click on the image to access the complete document

THE PARTICIPANTS HANDBOOK

The participants handbook is used by the learners during the training program. The instructor usually circulates printed handbooks to the learners before starting the training program. Learners use the handbook for reference during the training program.

A participants handbook typically has:

• Training objectives
• Training agenda
• Dos and Donts
• Key learning points
• Instructions on how to take the activities
• Provision to jot down notes, write answers etc.

Here are some examples of participants handbook:

• Key points handout
• Activity handout
• Sample participant workbook

Things listed above are part of any ILT program. There are some things that an Instructional Designer might require while designing materials for an ILT. These materials will go into the ILT Developer Toolkit.

What goes into the ILT Developer toolkit

Your ILT toolkit can  have developer support material to help you meet standards and guidelines.

The ILT Developer toolkit may have:

• Getting started guides
• Language and style guides
• Templates for power point presentations, facilitator’s guide and participant’s handbook
• Sample ILT materials

Here is an example of an ILT Developer Toolkit.

Conclusion

With this I conclude my post here and leave it open for comments/discussion.

If you have experience designing ILTs, please try to share any of the following here:

• Tips and tricks
• Useful ILT resources
• Some examples of ILTs

According to Wikipedia ” Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery“.

You will understand the concept of Augmented Reality better when you see it work. So here are some interesting videos that demonstrate how augmented reality works.

VIDEO 1

VIDEO 2 ( Courtesy : eLearning Blog Dont Waste Your Time)

VIDEO 3

Video 4 (Courtesy: Augmented Reality to Help Military Mechanics Fix Vehicles)

More on Augmented Reality

• Augmented Reality Explained by CommonCraft
• 35 Awesome Augmented Reality Examples
• Augmented Reality for Learning: eLearning Technology
• Resources on Augmented Reality

When you talk of e-learning testing,  Instructional Design review is also a critical testing activity that happens in the development phase/storyboarding phase.

During Instructional Design review,  you analyse storyboards  to check the following:

• Is the course meeting the instructional objectives?
• Is content structuring okay?
• Have instructional stragies been applied right?
• How is the instructional flow?
• How is the quality of the content?
• How’s the language?
• Are assessments complete and effective?
• Is the audio script in sync with onscreen content?
• Are visual descriptions detailed enough?
• More…

When you review storyboards, here are some things you might do:

• Completely understand project requirements, target audience, design strategy.
• Map existing storyboards or work done to the initial requirements and design strategy.

It is a good practice to test and evaluate your storyboards  during regular intervals to avoid major issues during the implementation phase. It is even better to provide Instructional Design Review checklists to Instructional Designers just when they are about start storyboarding. This will help you minimize mistakes to a greater extent and save all the time you spend fixing mistakes during the review stage.

In this post, let’s try answering some questions about Instructional Design Review checklists and how they can help achieve desired quality levels in e-learning.

So what are Instructional Design Review checklists?

ID Review Checklists are job aids that specify parameters/guidelines for storyboarding and e-learning content creation. Checklists can be created for specific projects. Instructional Designers can use the checklist to check if the storyboards are meeting the desired quality.

What kind of parameters/ guidelines can be included in Instructional Design Review checklists?

Lets take the example of templatized e-learning content such as these in the MedlinePlus website. In this case, checklists can specify :

• Guidelines to design course menu
• Naming convention for topic titles
• Limit on number of topics
• Things to keep in mind while designing the course introduction
• Instructional Strategies to be used
• Image and text positioning
• How much text onscreen allowed?
• How many assessments to include?
• Assessment design

What are the advantages of Instructional Design Review checklists?

• You will be able to clearly communicate quality expectations to your Instructional Design team.
• The work that your Instructional Design team deliver will be better synchronized.
• You will be able to detect quality issues during the development phase.
• You will be able to achieve consistency and desired quality levels in e-learning courses.

Finally!

An Example of Instructional Design Review Checklist

Please do share your thoughts on this post and also any Instructional Design checklists freely available on the web.

So here is the excerpt from Donald Clark’s blog post:

It’s has been claimed by the likes of Donald Taylor and Jay Cross, that training must transform itself or risk being ignored. And there is a feeling in the training world that all is not well, and that the deep, dark secret is that training is regarded by many as second-rate, full of odd people delivering oddball stuff using outdated methods.

For the first time I’ve seen evidence that this may be true. So I draw your attention to this independent survey of decision makers at 100 of the UKs top 500 companies (by turnover):

• 70% see inadequate staff skills as barrier to growth
• 40% see risk of employee skills risk being obsolete
• 55% claim L&D failing to deliver necessary training
• 46% doubt L&D can deliver
• Less than 18% agree that L&D aligned with business

(Coleman Parkes Spring 2010)

Read more @ Donald Clark’s Blog and do not miss the interesting comments on his post.

If you are buying e-learning, is the price quoted by your e-learning vendor acceptable or questionable?

These are common questions and a lot of experts have tried to answer these questions. So presenting to you some interesting articles on the cost of E-learning from the web:

• Tony Karrer’s Blog Post on E-learning Costs
• Estimating Costs and Tine in Instructional Design -Donald Clark
• Costs, Benefits and ROI of  E-learning – e-Learning Centre
• The Cost of E-learning – Howard B. Schechter
• Measuring the Total Cost of E-learning – Kevin Kruse

If you have a useful resource to share on E-learning Costs, please leave the URL in the Comments section.

I have been offering training programs for Instructional Design and all the training programs I have done so far have been classroom training programs. Before I begin my training program, I make sure I do the following:

• Give people a pretest to assess their current knowledge/skill levels .
• Interact a lot and try to understand their personality type, their likes and dislikes and learning preferences.

This really helps me customize my training program to suit my learner needs and choose the right approach for  my training programs.

Now that  I am planning to take my training program online ( via web conferencing), apart from regular pre-training assessments, I am going to give my learners an additional assessment - ONLINE READINESS ASSESSMENT.

Why an Online Readiness Assessment?

While I want to take my training program online, I also think I must not assume that people will be comfortable and will be ready for an online training program. This is because quite a few people who I have spoken to (in India)  have been reluctant to take an online training program due to various reasons such as:

• No internet at home
• Long work hours at office
• Low bandwidth issues
• No confidence/not comfortable learning online

This is when I thought an online readiness assessment will help me get the right candidates for my online training program.  I spent some time googling for online readiness assessments and found quite a few interesting  assessments designed for students. I particularly liked this online readiness assessment that has questions pertaining to :

• Time management –  Learner’s readiness to manage  time especially if there are going to be offline activities exercises.
• Technology –  Details about internet usage , internet speed etc.
• Class Preferences – Learner’s attitude and preferences when it comes to online lectures, offline activities, online discussions etc.

Thanks to Google, I got some good examples of Online Readiness Assessment. Now that I have got a clue,  I would frame some questions to check learner readiness for my online training program

Have you done an online readiness assessment? Please share your thoughts here.

In its endeavour to promote education and networking,  the medical institution has been publishing e-learning material in their portal and LMS. Currently they have been able to publish only recorded CME sessions. This medical institution wants to publish large number of e-learning programs apart from CME sessions in their LMS.  Let’s review this medical institution’s objective, challenges and how templatized e-learning content might help them solve their problems.

Objective

A medical institution wants to increase publication of e-learning programs within the organization while cutting short their development timelines and meeting their desired quality criteria.

Challenges

The major challenge here is producing instructionally sound e-learning material and achieving consistency in e-learning programs.

Reasons?

• The e-learning division is small and comprises of graphic designers and flash developers who have no clue about the subject they are dealing with.
• There are quite a few departments and quite a few SMEs who provide medical content in the form of PowerPoint presentations which are not self-contained.
• The SMEs produce e-learning content in their own style.

Solution – What’s Ruled Out

• Use of Rapid E-learning tools – because the medical institution already is investing in flash development and graphic design and do not want to try out anything new.
• Hiring Instructional Designers – the medical institution does not want to hire more people.
• Training the e-learning division  - time, effort, money will be huge. Success rates low (the e-learning division wants to be involved only in graphic design, flash development and publishing activities)

Possible Solution

• Set a process for e-learning content development.
• Create standardized PowerPoint templates for creating instructionally sound e-learning content. Templates must enable creation of instructionally sound content. Templates must  be designed in such a fashion that SMEs have less pain filling the template with subject matter.
• Provide SMEs with quality checklists and guidelines that helps them meet quality criteria and also evaluate the quality of their PowerPoint presentations.
• Train SMEs to use the templates, checklists and guidelines and create instructionally sound PowerPoint presentations.

Benefits

Training will help :

• SMEs understand Instructional Design basics.
• Help SMEs  use templates and checklists and work well.

Templates will :

• Help achieve consistency in e-learning programs across the organization.
• Help achieve desired quality criteria.
• Speed up the e-learning development process.

From a designer’s perspective, templates are boring and cause monotonous work. From an organization’s perspective, templates help them a great deal.