Work Update

The first two big pieces of the new manual will be out for review by mid-week.  I am so excited that I have actually finished something from the objectives to the manual documentation.  Once the SME’s (subject matter experts) have approved, it will take maybe a day to create the training PowerPoints from the documentation. 

I completed the second team building class last week and wow, was that an experience!  The team in this office is very close, works very well together with only a couple of exceptions.  We have one whiner, one not nice person and one person with hygiene issues.  I was tasked with continuing to build the team and address these individual issues too, but in a way that was not confrontational.  So we all created an action plan of personal behavior in ourselves we needed to improve.  The only difficult part was playing the blindfold game and including the hygiene challenged person.  No one wanted to wear the blindfold after him and I really couldn’t spray it down in front of everyone! Yes, these are the difficult issues I struggle with on a daily basis, hurting feelings…the Mom skills are serving me well!!! 

Personal writing has made NO progress.  I just haven’t made the time to devote to my writing or to my own personal development.  My boss asked me to think of several things I still want to accomplish this year and she will hold my feet to the fire.  I need to make a final decision on when I will start working on my Master’s…Spring 2009 or Summer 2009.  I have been accepted into a great program, just need to figure out my schedule for next year.  I also need to work much more with Captivate.  I have the basics but really need to expand my knowledge to some enhanced capabilities to make my tutorials richer and more engaging.  Honestly, my main goal for the end of the year is to continue to set limits on my work outside of the office, regain my focus and concentration so I can be more productive.

Tool of the Day – Essentials of Adobe Captivate 3

I love Captivate, pretty easy to use and a robust software too.  I have used version 2 and recently upgraded to version 3.  I don’t want to talk so much about what Captivate can do, but the tool to learn to use Captivate.  I used the Iconlogic book for Captivate version 2 and it was awesome.  Kevin Siegel presents the lessons in a “skills and drills” format that works very well for me.  I received the version 3 book and CD last week and will start working though it today.

I found with the version 2 book, that if I worked the lessons as is, then took my project and worked through the book again, I had a handle on the various functions of the product and a completed project too.  I plan to work version 3 in the same way.  I did cheat just a bit yesterday as I looked at the playback bar and was able to solve my issue of the bar not showing up.

Tutorials Complete!

After 3 weeks of intense work, I have completed my 17 forum tutorials.  These are very short and simple how-to demos of various things our customers can do in the forum, such as changing their password, creating a post, searching etc.  No, they are not a tech savvy group.  I learned so much about Captivate 3 and am still learning…adding a preloader for example.

The best part….I can get back to the big documentation and training project.

The next tool I will be discussing is my new book, vBulletin.  I need to take a more active role in administering the forum.  The developer assigned just doesn’t have the time.  So another high learning curve to be conquered.  At first blush, the book seems a great enhancement to the forums available for vBulletin.  I confess I am a book learner and need the reference readily available while I am in the learning phase.  Thank goodness for Amazon.  I plan to complete reading this weekend and I’ll let you know if it helps.  Any thoughts/suggestions are appreciated.

Captivate!

The big tutorial tasks that was added to my schedule is finally complete. I created 17 very short (2-4 minutes) How-To tutorials using Captivate 3. I had used the previous version and have decent success. Long learning curve and needed a manual for assistance. The new version learning curve was almost non-existent, probably because I had used the older version. I didn’t have the opportunity to compare the two side by side so I can’t tell you what the changes were, just that is was was easier and more intuitive to use. The difficult part of the project was this is the third version of this same material that I have produced. The first was short narratives for the forum FAQ, a booklet and how the demo tutorials.

Now, back to the Learner and Task Analysis. The next week will be spent breaking apart call detail reports for the last couple of months. I am looking at this report to tell me where the customer needs additional training. I am also looking for any repeat calls, techs that had issues solving the problem in a single call and what issues required additional tech assistance. That information should provide the topics for our internal training.

As I have mentioned before, I have delivered in person training, but this is my first full blown development work. I have been using a number of resources. The links in the Instructional Design section of my Blogroll have been extremely useful and provided many more sources. I hope to update the blogroll this week. I have also used several books. Horton’s eLearning has been a very valuable resource. My next work related post will talk in more detail about my resource and tool list.