E-Learning, Moodle, Magento, Technical Writing and Training

Review of My Moodle 1.9 Beginner's Guide

2012-01-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

If you're still on Moodle 1.9, you might be interested in a review of my Moodle 1.9 Beginner's Guide. It was written by an e-learning student, so it is from a beginner's point of view. You'll find the review here.

It's just too creepy having Google read all my email and documents

2011-12-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

Here's one reason I'm moving from Google Apps to Office 365 in the coming year. From Microsoft's Trust Center website: "No Advertising: Office 365 does not build advertising products out of Customer Data. We don’t scan your email or documents for building analytics, data mining, advertising, or improving the service." And, "Where: You know where Office 365’s major data centers and personnel are located and the logic used to determine where your data is stored.Who & What: We offer clear information on who can access your Office 365 Customer Data and under what circumstances they access it."

Sorry Google, but it's just too creepy to have you reading all my mail and documents. I'll pay extra for the privacy that Microsoft will give me.

Discounts on Moodle Books from Packt Publishing

2011-12-23T06:47:00.000-08:00

Packt Publishing is celebrating the recent publication of thire Moodle 2 Administration book, with discounts on all of their Moodle books.

Buy any Moodle print book and get 20% off.
Buy any Moodle eBook and get 30% off.

Good only until the end of December. See more at http://www.packtpub.com/news/moodle-festive-month.

Articulate versus Captivate

2011-11-30T15:56:00.001-08:00

If you do a web search on "articulate versus captivate," you will find a lot of opinions about how the two programs compare. One of my clients asked me about the merits of Articulate versus Captivate. The answer that I gave him is copied below. I hope it offers a different perspective for you when deciding between Articulate and Captivate.

Ah yes, the great Articulate versus Captivate debate. Ford versus Chevy, Coke versus Pepsi, Yankees versus Mets...I'm kidding about that last one. The Yankees are, after all, a professional sports team.

First, I would recommend they get the 30-day trial before purchasing. It's fully functional and free.

Both Articulate and Captivate will read in a PowerPoint and then enable you to add interactions, audio, and quizzes to the presentation. Then, they enable you to export the resulting activity as a Flash file.

Articulate makes it a little easier to start with PowerPoint. I think it brings in more of PowerPoint's advanced features, such as custom animations. However, the other things that you can do in Articulate are a little more limited. That's because Articulate's raison d'etre is to take a Powerpoint slide deck from a subject matter expert and enable the e-learning specialist to turn it into an online activity.

Captivate lets you add more features. It also enables you to take screen shots and full motion video of your screen and add it. Captivate just does more. And, it's more popular among e-learning specialists.

If your client is starting with a subject matter expert who knows just basic Powerpoint, then either tool will do. If the SME knows advanced PowerPoint, and will supply them with a slide deck that has advanced features like custom animations and timing and embedded files, then go with Articulate because it interfaces better with PowerPoint's advanced features. If your client wants to be able to create e-learning without PowerPoint, and start right from within the tool, then try Captivate.

Answered Question on Linkedin.com: Instructional Design standards for online learning? Ideally specific and measurable that can be used in contracts with vendors.?

2011-11-21T04:55:00.001-08:00

This question was posted to theInstructional Design & E-Learning Professionals' Group:

Does anyone out there have any useful resources to share around ID standards for online learning? Ideally specific and measurable that can be used in contracts with vendors.

I have used the standards posted by the Open ECBCheck. Open ECBCheck is "a new accreditation and quality improvement scheme for E-Learning programmes and institutions in international Capacity Building." Their members focus on a specific subject (international capacity building), however, their e-learning standards can be applied to any e-learning program.

I download the standards from http://www.ecb-check.org/2011-06-15-07-04-37/guidelines. They publish them as a pdf and Excel file. In the Excel file, I find the most useful section to be the tab labeled "Quality Toolkit." That tab has a list of specific, measurable criteria that you can use to judge the quality of your e-learning program. For example: "Does the navigation allow learners to always understand their position within the programme?"

Not all the standards in the Quality Toolkit will apply to all online learning programs. I copy and paste the standards that apply to the job into the contract for that job. This is a section of the contract that I label "Course Standards."

The Course Standards section also includes subsections for things like: the file formats of the material developed for the course, voice and tense of the speaker, the skin to be used when generating files from Articulate of Captivate, and the source(s) of the graphics used in the course.

The quality standards supplied by Open ECBCheck have made a good starting point for the course standards in my projects. Post your favorite resources for quality standards in the comments below. Or,

Answered Question on Linkedin.com: What successful techniques have you used to improve learner's retention?

2011-10-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

I recently answered a question on the Instructional Design & E-Learning Professionals' Group of LinkedIn, and wanted to share that answer here on my blog. The question posed was:

What successful techniques have you used to improve learner's retention? Based on my experience, there's only so much information you can stuff into people's heads.
What's the best single tip you would give to help improve the quality and quantity of information that people retain after experiencing the training you've developed?

My single most important tip is this: Instead of training your students to perform the task from memory, teach them why and when to perform the task, and how to use support materials to succeed at the task.

If you are training your students to perform a life-and-death skill under strict time constraints, then of course they need to be able to perform the task from memory, on demand. An emergency room medical procedure would be one example. In that kind of situation, you want them to leave class knowing exactly how to perform the task without any kind of support materials. But that is a rare situation.

In most situations, your students will have time to perform the task. That is, they will have time to find and use reference materials to help them with the task.

Instead of overloading your students with the detailed steps of how to perform a task, perhaps you should consider teaching them how to use the reference and support materials to perform the task. Then, you can focus your training on:

Why they need to learn to perform the task (motivation).
Who needs to be involved in the task (roles and responsibilities).
When they need to perform the task; where it fits into their workflow (context).
Which steps are critical or especially difficult (roadblocks and "gotchas").
Where to get supporting materials for the task (reference materials and job aids).

Of course you will still take your students through the detailed steps of performing the task. But instead of focusing on memorizing the how-to information, you'll focus on the information above. While demonstrating, you can reassure them that the "clicks, keystrokes, and actions" are all included in the support materials. After the student performs the task on-the-job a few times, with the help of the support materials, then it becomes committed to memory.

In my experience, this approach avoids information overload during class while enabling students to learn complex, long tasks. Does this agree or disagree with your experience? We want to hear from you in the comments!

The Fastest Way to Create a Course Review in Moodle

2011-09-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

Students who read a passage, then took Â a test asking them to recall what they read, retain about 50 percent more of the information a week later than students who used two other methods to study the material. That research was published in the journal Science.

Fortunately, Moodle makes it easy to create a quiz that you can use for review purposes. A Review Quiz in Moodle will enable you to re-use a log of the work that you do while creating the course, and, increase your students’ retention of the material. The keys to successfully creating a Review Quiz in Moodle are:

using feedback in your quiz questions.

creating a separate category of questions for each topic in your course.

creating one-page review for each topic in your course.

First, let’s look at the feedback for Moodle questions.

Feedback in Moodle Quiz Questions

In a previous post, I wrote about the various kinds of feedback that you can create in a Moodle quiz. I wrote about how to use feedback that is display when:

the student selects a specific answer.

the question is completed, no matter what the student’s answer.

the student achieves a specific score on the quiz.

the quiz is completed, no matter what the student’s score.

These four types of feedback give you the ability to make a Moodle quiz into a teaching tool. Instead of using a quiz to just test the student, you can use it to teach.

If you create quiz questions for every topic in your course then you can use a fast, easy method to create a course review. This method assumes that each question in your course includes feedback to teach the student why (s)he is right or wrong, and to help the student remember the correct answer.

Creating a Review Quiz in Moodle

With this method, you will use four phases to create a review quiz:

Create a category of quiz questions for each topic.

Create a quiz for each topic.

Create a one-page review for each topic.

Assemble the one-page reviews and questions into a review quiz.

Let’s step through each phase below.

First: Create a category of quiz questions for each topic

Here’s how to prepare your questions for a review quiz:

For each topic, create a category of quiz questions.

For each of the categories that you just created, create several quiz questions. Now, you have several quiz questions for each topic.

For every answer in each question, create feedback that teaches them why that answer is right or wrong. Now, every answer of every question is a teaching tool.

For every question, create general feedback that explains why that question is relevant. Now, no matter which answer the student selected, (s)he will learn where that question fits into the bug picture.

Make sure that each quiz question can stand alone. Do not refer to or depend upon any other questions.

Now your question bank for the course looks like this:

Topic 1 Questions

Question 1

Question 2

General Question Feedback: “This question relates to the concept ofâ€¦”

Answer A

Answer Feedback: “This answer is correct becauseâ€¦”

Answer B

Answer Feedback: “This answer is incorrect because... The correct answer isâ€¦”

Answer C

Answer Feedback: “This answer is incorrect because... The correct answer isâ€¦

Question 3

Topic 2 Questions

Topic 3 Questions

Now every answer, and every question, is a teaching tool. And, every question can stand on its own. You are ready to create a quiz for each topic.

Second: Create a quiz for each topic

For each topic, create a quiz. You can make the quiz appear in the gradebook, or, make a practice quiz that doesn’t affect the student’s final grade.

Third: Create a one-page review for each topic

For each topic in the course, create a one-page review. This can be a simple bulleted list of key points, an infogram, a video, or any other technique. Keep the review short enough so that it can be read, viewed, or listened to in a few minutes.

Fourth: Assemble the one-page reviews and questions into a review quiz

Finally, you are ready to create the review quiz. In the review quiz, you will assemble the one-page reviews and teaching questions.Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Create a quiz, and add instructions that look like this:

This quiz is practice for the final quiz. Your grade for this quiz will not be used to calculate your final grade.

This quiz will present one page of bullet points for each topic that we covered. These bullet points are reminders of what you studied in the topic.

Then, the quiz will present some random questions from that topic's quiz. Do your best on these questions. Feel free to refer back to the topic's presentation while attempting the questions. As before, the questions will give you feedback if you answer incorrectly.

The reminders before the questions, and feedback after the questions, are designed to help you learn the material.

You can attempt this practice quiz as many times as you like. When you're ready, proceed to the final quiz.

There are two things that make creating a review quiz in Moodle easy. Moodle enables you to add Descriptions to a quiz, and to add manual page breaks.

In a Moodle quiz, a Description is just a question that consists of nothing but a Web page. You can put anything into a Description that you can put on a normal Web page. The student doesn’t need to answer anything, and the Description doesn’t get scored. Usually, you use a Description to explain a section of the quiz. In this case, you will use the Description to display the one-page summary of the topic.

Add a Description to the quiz, and name it something like “Topic 1 Review Page.” Then add the one-page review for the topic to the Description.

After the Review Page, add a page break.

After the page break, add several random questions from the topic. To do this, you will select the topic’s question category, and then instruct Moodle to add a certain number of random questions from that category.

After the random questions, add a page break.

Repeat steps 2 through 5 until you have a Review Page and random questions for each topic in your course.

Congratulations! You’ve created a review test for your course. Because you re-used questions from your previous quizzes, you made efficient use of your work. Because you alternated a brief review of a topic with questions about that topic, you used the learning principle of Immediate Feedback to improve retention.

Guest Post: Free Online Classes to help Freelance Tech Writers become Effective Bosses and Business Owners

2011-09-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

While some technical writers are employed by large corporations, some on the other hand choose to freelance and start their own tech writing businesses. Going the entrepreneurial route is more or less ideal for those who like to make their own working hours and for those who wish to create a versatile portfolio by working for a variety of clients and projects. Unfortunately however, most technical writing degree programs don't adequately teach students how to be their own bosses or how to even oversee a team of subordinates.
While formal education in business applications can in fact teach students how to tackle the complications that arise with establishing a start-up business, this option is expensive and time consuming. Thankfully there are free online classes provide by distinguished brick-and-mortar institutions that can provide freelance tech writers with the knowledge they seek to become effective leaders when owning and operating their own business. While these classes are in fact free and typically include free old class materials such as course readings, syllabi and lecture notes and slides, note that some may require the purchase of specific textbooks or software. With that said, to learn the best classes that can help you become a more effective leader in the tech writing industry, continue reading below.
Finance and Accounting Online Classes. Because most tech entrepreneurs are strapped for cash and struggle coming up with enough capital for operating costs of their small business, all too often tech freelancers cannot afford to pay a professional to take care of the bookkeeping and other finances. So they opt to do it themselves. But handling your own finances is extremely risky, especially if you do not know anything about cash flows, how to acquire monetary income, or how to meet budgets—you don't want to over spend (or skimp) on buying necessary equipment such as authoring and editing software, style guide books, reference manuals, insurance, or proper licenses. In fact, any small mistake can result in your business quickly plummeting to the ground. So to make sure that your business doesn't fail due to your lack of knowledge in finance or accounting, check out a few of these classes that can teach you how to properly evaluate your blooming business' financial needs:

Introduction to Economics [Utah State]
Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning [UC Irvine]
Business Skills for Success [Kutztown University of Pennsylvania]

Content Management and Software Documentation Online Courses. In this new day and age most freelance teach writers are required to do far more than just write—they have to be editors, content modelers and even graphic designer at some moments. With that said freelancers who deal with a high volume of clientele needs to diligently work to stay organized and keep proper documentation of all of their various works—no telling when you may be able to reuse particular information. An easy way to do this is to use programs such as XML and SGML. These programs will not only keep all of the content consistent throughout your business, but will also aid in easy retrieval of those important documents from databases.

Software Engineering For Web Applications [MIT]
Learn and Apply HTML [Utah State]

Business Negotiations Online Courses. Typically a freelance tech writer is given the option to bid on projects individually or delve into a long-term contract with a publisher. Either way, freelance tech writers need to know how to market their business to find clients as well as how to make contract negotiations once they find a client. Not only will these classes do just that, but they will also teach students how to make deadlines, create a project plan, stay within budgets, and ensure client satisfaction.

Introduction to Project Management [UC Irvine]
The Art and Science of Negotiation [MIT]

Entrepreneruial Marketing [MIT]

E-Marketing [UC Irvine]

Leadership Online Classes. Lastly, if you work individually and do not have subordinates or business partners, the following classes may not necessarily pertain to you. However if you choose to hire help, these classes will teach you how to listen to your employees' complaints (happy employees equal a happy workplace environment) and how and why it's important to take the lead during writer's meetings etc.

Listening to Employees [Stanford]

The Influence of Leadership on a Company [Stanford]
The Difference Between Management and Leadership [Stanford]

By-line:
This guest contribution was submitted by Lenore Holditch, who specializes in writing about top online colleges. Questions and comments can be sent to: holditch.lenore @ gmail.com.

Moodle 2.0 E-Learning Book Just Published!

2011-08-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

Packt Publishing has just released my latest book, Moodle 2.0 E-Learning Development. I hope you find it as much fun to use as I did to write.

How to develop training when the subject is a moving target?

2011-04-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

Recently, I received this question from someone who had read my book on Writing Successful Software Classes. My answer appears after his question:

Problem: They keep changing the software spec's, as I'm developing training!

> The company is
> currently in the process of creating and implementing a new core business operating system.
> Our legacy system is antiquated to say the least (it is DOS based).
> The new system is being built from scratch, so this is no out of the
> box ERP that we are talking about.
>
> My team and I are competent instructional designers and trainers but
> our experience is limited to training on processes or systems that are
> already complete. What I am struggling with is building training for a
> system that is being built as we are expected to develop training. If
> the system were complete and then we had 6 months to develop the
> training before it was implemented, we would be okay, but that is not
> the case...we are expected to develop training from
> Functional Design Documents which by the way are not necessarily
> well-written. The system is being given to us in milestones, but they keep changing things and changing the milestones.
>
> I have found resources on major software rollouts, and systems
> implementations, but they are very technical in nature and gloss over
> end user training. Other resources that do concentrate on technical
> training make the assumption that a system or concept is complete when
> you develop the training.
>
> Do you have any advice or ideas of how we can tackle this? Let me know
> if you want any more details. I really appreciate your thoughts and your time.

Solution: Focus on documenting business processes first, then write keystrokes-and-clicks second

Training and user documentation almost always comes at the end of a software rollout. By the time the trainers and technical writers have the information we need, almost everyone else has finished their part of the project. And when people at the beginning of the project take more time than planned, and the deadline stays the same, that extra time they get must be taken from someone else. Usually, that's the trainers and technical writers. "We allocated three weeks for you to develop training, but testing and bug fixing took an extra week, so we had to shorten your time to two weeks."

At most companies, this is just the nature of the job. There are ways we can adapt.

First, focus on writing good instructions for your users. Unless your users must perform their work without referring to a manual, the instructions will be the user's safety net when they need to begin using the software.

Research I've done among the users that I serve showed that they prefer printed instructions. They don't like switching between two windows on their computer screen: one with instructions and one with the software. Among my users who have dual monitors, that is not a problem. But most of my users have a single, 17- or 19-inch monitor. I suspect that is why they prefer printed instructions.

Notice that I've been using the term "instructions" and not "user manual." A user manual is more than a collection of instructions. It gives background and context to the instructions. That is, a user manual doesn't just tell how to perform tasks, but also when and why. Think of instructions as a series of cheat sheets, or quick reference guides.

As you're writing those instructions, you will be simultaneously developing the demonstration that you use for training. More on that later. (At this point, you were probably wondering when I'd get around to answering your question about developing training. Hang in there).

Our biggest challenge is that as we are writing user instructions and developing training, the software is changing. We need to document and develop training for a moving target. How to do this? Here's something that has been key for me: start first with the information that will not change.

Forget about beginning your writing and course development with the introduction, or the clicks and keystrokes. Instead, begin with the information this is most unlikely to change.

In my experience, the specific list of business tasks that users need to perform with the software is unlikely to change. So I start with that. For example, suppose the business tasks I must teach are:

Create a new customer.

Enter customer demographics.

Attach a mortgage record to the customer.

Each of those tasks will have a quick reference guide, and a demonstration in your training class.

Now, I understand that you do not yet have the keystrokes for performing those tasks. The software is changing, so you can't write the keystrokes and clicks yet. But there are some things you can write about each of these tasks, such as:

When to perform this task (where does if fit into your workflow?)

Why to perform this task (what deliverable is produced; what result?)

Next steps (what do you usually do next?)

So on each of your quick reference guides, you can add that information. For example, for the task "Create a new customer" your quick reference document might look like this:

Section: Creating a new customer

Subsection: When must you create a new customer? [This is business process information. You should be able to write this even if they don't have the software finished]
Subsection: When How to create a new customer [This subsection isblank, you don't have the keystrokes and clicks yet because they keep changing them on you]
Subsection: Results [This is business process information. You should be able to write this even if they don't have the software finished]
Subsection: Next steps [This is business process information. You should be able to write this even if they don't have the software finished]

Notice in that example above, you can write three out of four subsections even while the software is still being changed.

Remember I said that you can simultaneously develop the training demo? So at the same time that you start writing these instructions, you can start writing the slideshow for class. Your slides might read something like this:

Slide 1: Creating a new customer
When must you create a new customer?
Create new customer only when...
Slide 2: Demo
...blank slide, here you begin your demonstration...
Slide 3: Results
A new customer record in....
Slide 4: Next steps
At this point, you can now do this....

You can also start writing the in-class exercise, if there is one. For example, "Create a new customer using the following information..." During the exercise, you would have the students try to perform the task, using the quick reference guide that you wrote.

At this point, you send the instructions back to the subject matter experts for their sign-off. Since you don't have the keystrokes and clicks yet, you probably won't be sending the material to the software guys for sign-off.
But what you do have is the business process information, that is, what the user will do and where that fits into their workflow. So you will send this to the business owner of the software.

As the software team finalizes the screens, you'll be able to fill in your instructions with the keystrokes and clicks. You'll also be able to plan your training demos. When all those instructions and demos are filled in, you have most of a user manual and a nearly complete training course.

When you train, you'll make it clear that you don't expect the people in class to come out with the keystrokes and clicks memorized. That is what user documentation is for. Instead, your purpose in class is to:

Show the students where each task fits into their workflow.

Emphasize the critical steps in each task: things you must do.

Stear them around the mistakes that you cannot recover from.

Show them where to get further help with the software (if your company offers this kind of support).

In your email, you mentioned Functional Specification documents. You might be able to pull much of this information from those documents. But don't get bogged down in trying to write detailed instructions from those functional specs. It just isn't realistic to document clicks and keystrokes until you have a working product in front of you, and an authority figure who says, "freeze this interface here." Until then, you are writing the framework, or outline, into which you will drop these keystrokes and clicks.

This is the process that has worked for me. I hope that you will find it useful. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help.

8 Tips for Improving Your Technical Writing (guest post)

2010-10-26T12:09:00.001-07:00

Good technical writing is always clear, practical and tailored to a specific audience, be it a technical or non-technical audience. What separates good technical writing from average technical writing, however, is taking the time to make the written material as user-friendly as possible. Here we will explore 8 tips for improving your technical writing.

1.) Break up text under clear headlines and subheads.

Technical writers are familiar with using headlines to transition from topic to topic when writing material. What often gets forgotten is effectively using subheads to further break down the material. Most technical readers strongly prefer to cherry-pick the specific information they're looking for, and the frequent use of headlines and subheads allows them to do this with ease. For non-technical readers, there's nothing more intimidating than large blocks of text with no place to rest the eye. You'll find that breaking each topic down into small, manageable chunks will also aid you in the writing process. Writer's Digest recommended revisiting your headlines to make sure they accurately summarize the content of that particular section.

2.) When possible, break up text into brief lists.

Not everything technical can be broken down into a short, snappy list some individual steps involve numerous vital details. However, if you can lay out a list of steps before plowing through those details, you'll let your readers know early on that there's an end in sight and logical steps to get them there. Lists also create a break for the eyes.

3.) Keep your tone professional.

Technical writing is not prose or creative nonfiction. It is written only to teach a reader how to do something or how to use something. While the For Dummies books exemplify a move toward technical writers creating more folksy and conversational how-to material, most technical readers aren't looking for clever wording or side stories while they read. They want stripped-down, straightforward writing that will help them learn how to accomplish a task. This doesn't mean you can never include clever and related anecdotal elements; it only means that technical writers should use them sparingly, particularly for a technical audience.

4.) Use present tense and imperative sentences.

Readers want to be told implicitly what to do. Writing imperatively and in the present tense is not only helpful to the reader, but it also eliminates unnecessary wordiness. For example, "Select Menu, and choose from the available options" works better than the more conversational "Once you've found the menu, you can choose from the available options."

5.) Keep it simple.

When you're proofreading your writing, keep an eye out for big words that take away from the simplicity of the material. While some jargon is unavoidable, you can certainly substitute "use" for "utilize" and "end" for "terminate." You're not trying to impress anyone and simple words are often just as effective as more elaborate words. Also, try to break up compound sentences whenever possible into two simpler sentences.

6.) Use specific words.

Part of using specific words involves avoiding the word "it," even on the third and fourth reference. Readers need to know what "it" is throughout a specific section to avoid confusion. You will also need to use consistent terminology. Do not alternate the terms you use to add variety to your writing.

7.) Write in active voice.

Using imperative sentences whenever possible will help you avoid the passive voice most of the time in instructional material, but for other technical writing you will need to actively avoid the passive voice, which will not only make your material more wordy, but will also weaken your sentences.

8.) Ask for feedback.

Some supervisors are better at giving feedback on your technical writing than others. You may need to ask specifically for them to look over your work and point out any consistent weaknesses in your writing and areas where you can improve.

About the Author

This guest post is contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online courses. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com.

Slashdot Review of Magento 1.3 Sales Tactics

2010-06-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

Slashdot reviewed my latest book. Check it out.

Converting a Course from Classroom to Online

2010-06-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

I'm working with a client who is converting a classroom-based course to an online course in Moodle. I'd like to share a question that I received from the client, and my response. I've edited our exchange to make the client anonymous:

Question

I hoping you can help me clarify a few issues before [our e-learning team meets].

The plan now is to take the existing ... Curriculum and "translate" it to Moodle. I am finding this to be a very difficult and awkward process. I'm thinking that this is a bit backwards, and that developing an online course requires building from the ground up. Its not that all of the content must be rebuilt from scratch, but that the order of material, the grouping of concepts, and flow of the online course is going to be different than a traditional class room experience.

In your experience, do you think that my instincts are correct here?

My Response

Yes, I think you are realizing one of the key facts about porting a course from classroom to online. Bringing a course on-line often demands that you change the organization and timing of the course.

Breaking down the classroom course into its smallest logical chunks is a good start. It's easier to rearrange small chunks than large chunks. If you find yourself rewriting most of the material, then you've broken it down too far into chunks that are too small. The idea is the break it down without needing to rewrite.

You will also need to allow more time for online learning. In a classroom, because of the force of the instructor's personality and the quick, live interaction with the instructor, a student can usually cover material faster than in an online course. The only time I have found that to be untrue is when the classroom presentation must be slowed down to accommodate slower students. But in a small class like you are accustomed to teaching, when you have everyone "in sync" and focusing hard, students can assimilate an amazing amount of material in a short time. Students won't have that experience on line. So when you bring the course on line, you must allow more time for each topic.

On line, you need to make everything the student learns relevant and useful, as quickly as possible. Again, you don't have the force of the instructor's personality helping the student to wade through preliminary material. There's no one there to say, "Stay with me, pay attention to this next part, because in an hour you're going to need to know how to do this." So to keep the student motivated, before you make the student learn something, show how that piece of knowledge will help the student to perform the task you're teaching. If each topic in the course is a separate competency, for each activity that you make the student perform or each resource that you make the student view, state how it will help the student to develop that competency.

On line, you need to test and apply the student's knowledge as soon as the student gets it. Moodle's quiz feedback is a great tool to combine testing and learning. You can give feedback for each individual answer that a student selects, telling the students why it's correct or incorrect. You can also give feedback for each question, regardless of which answer the student selected. Use this to explain the relevance of the question, or to give hints that will help the student to remember. For more about using Moodle quizzes as a teaching tool instead of a testing tool, see my blog post here: http://williamriceinc.blogspot.com/2008/03/using-different-kinds-of-feedback-in.html.

And after you've confirmed that the student knows the material, you need to have them apply it as soon as possible. Having the student create something and upload it to a Moodle assignment or forum are the standard choices.

As for rearranging concepts, you will often need to do this. If several parts of a course, or if several courses, depend upon a student understanding a concept, you can always link back to where that concept was introduced. When the student needs to remember a concept before learning a topic, at the beginning of that topic, give the student the chance to review the concept. If the student is comfortable that (s)he learned it well enough the first time, the student can skip the review. If not, the review is there.

Also, while teaching conceptual (theoretical) information, relate the concept back to the competency. The student might think, "I just want to learn how [perform this task]. Why am I learning about [this conceptual information]?" If you can't state how a concept relates to the competency, then try this: break the concept down further, into smaller pieces. Can any of those pieces relate back to the competency? If so, teach just that part of the theory and leave the rest out.

So on line: your presentations will be shorter, you will insert more teaching quizzes and short assignments, at the beginning of each presentation you will motivate the student by showing how the material helps build the competency the student desires, and before teaching anything theoretical or conceptual you will state how it helps the student perform the competency they are developing. These are all things that you do naturally in front of a classroom, but now you need to do them explicitly on line. So it's not just a matter of taking the written course material and popping it into an online course. You must also take the pieces of yourself that you give a classroom full of students, and put them on line for your remote students.

Client's Response

Perfect. You confirmed all of my suspicions. We met today, talked about all of these issues, and now finally have a plan for moving forward that makes sense. We have some cool ideas to add our own flavor to all of this. We'll be sure to show you what we have once we have some of our first beta topic together.

Example of Using the Same Product Characteristic for a Category and an Attribute in Magento

2010-05-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

This question came from someone in Iceland. It is a good example of how to use a category and an attribute, for the same product characteristic.

The administrator wants to enable customers to sort shoes by style, and then drill down into the size. He also wants his customers to be able to start with size, and then see the styles available. I have edited the original question and my answer for clarity, but the content is the same.

Question

Hello.

I have been reading your book - the first chapters. It has FAR better descriptions then the magento user manual...

Here is the setup I will be using:

I will have 2 stores (to begin with).

Store1 will sell clothes and Store2 will sell shoes.

What I am trying to figure out is what to do with attributes for shoes - I would add color to them and some other attributes.. But should i add Size to them as an attribute? Almost all our shoes come in the same sizes. So if a user clicks the size in Layered navigation the will show the customer all shoes we have anyway. What i need is for the customer to be able to click a size and then magento will show them all shoes that we have size and are also in stock. Say a user selects size 39 - the website should only show shoes that we still have in stock in that specific size... is that possible ?

I know i must add each shoe as a configurable product and then simple products for each size of that shoe (because i want to count stock on each and every size)

Regards, Hedinn

Answer

To enable customers to sort shoes by style, and then drill down into the size:

Ceate a category for each style, such as high heels, pumps, sandals.
Then, create an attribute for the size of the shoe. Make that attribute filterable in the navigation menu.
For Position, enter 0 (zero). This will place Size at the top of the layered navigation menu, on the left side of the page.

Your customers will select a category to see the style of shoe they want. After they select the category, the layered navigation menu will display on the left side of the page. They will see Size at the top of that menu. Now, they can filter that shoe style by size, and see only their sizes.

To enable customers to see all shoes in their size:

Create a category called Find Your Size.
Put every pair of shoes that you have into that category.

Then when the customer clicks the Find Your Size category, she sees the layered navigation menu on the left. Remember, Size will be a filter at the top of that menu.

By the way, you're the first person who has written me from Iceland. Cool!

Regards,
William

Magento Question About Applying Sales Tax Based on Amount of Purchase

2010-05-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

I received a question about how to configure Magento to apply sales tax to only purchases that are above a speficied amount. The question and my answer are below.

Question

Hello William Rice,

Ref Article: http://www.packtpub.com/article/creating-tax-rules-in-magento

First of all your article is really cool and help full. I gone through all the steps, but i'm unable to figure out how to set TAX based on Product cost?

I'm interested to learn how can we define TAX based on 'The amount' of the purchase. For example, some places tax clothing purchases only above a specific amount.

Criteria is like this:

TAX should be calculated if Product cost is higher than 150$.

if Product cost is less than or equal to 150$, TAX will be ZERO.

TAX Rate is 5.50%.

Could you please guide me how can i implement above criteria in Magento?

Thank You,

-Shahil

Answer

Shahil,

The most expedient way to apply a tax rate based upon a product's price, is
to create a product class for the products in that price range. In your
example, you would need to create a tax class for those items, such as
"Clothing items costing$150 and above." Then, you would apply that tax
class to all of the clothing items costing $150 and above.

This means you would need to search through your catalog, find every
clothing item that costs $150 or more, and apply the product class to that
item. To find all these items:

Go to Catalog > Manage Products.

The top row of the catalog listing, the one that is shaded in blue,
is for your search criteria.

For Price, enter From 150 To a very large number.

You might also use the Attrib. Set Name field to find your
clothing. It depends on how you have your catalog set up.

Click Search and you will see the results.

Using the check boxes to select all of the relevant clothing
products.

From the Actions drop-down menu select Update Attributes. Then
click Submit.

This brings you to an Attributes page. Whatever you change and save
on this page, happens to all of your selected products.

Select the tax class "Clothing items costing$150 and above."

Save.

Note that when you change a clothing item's price, you'll need to also check
its tax class. This will just need to be part of the store admin's job. We
all would like to see functions like this automated, but until Magento lets
you include the price in a tax rule, this will require intervention by the
store administrator.

Hope this helps. Good luck in your e-commerce endeavors.

Regards,
William Rice

Magento 1.3 Sales Tactics is Published

2010-04-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

My new book, Magento 1.3 Sales Tactics, has just been published by Packt Publishing. My goal for this book is to help you solve real-world Magento sales problems with some simple, effective recipes. You can read a sample chapter on the publisher's website. It's too new for any reviews yet, but the CEO of Magento recently received a copy, and I'm eager to know what he thinks of it.

Review of Magento Beginner's Guide

2009-12-18T09:09:00.001-08:00

MilkYourMoney.com is "a daily blog dedicated to helping its readers reach their financial goals." They just reviewed the Magento Beginner's Guide. I thought the review is thorough and fair. Check out the review and my comments here.

Magento Beginner's Guide versus Magento User's Guide

2009-06-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

The company behind Magento, Varien, recently published their own Magento User Guide. This is a few months after Packt Publishing released my Magento Beginner's Guide. If you're looking for a book to help you use Magento, you might want to know how Varien's book and mine compare. I'll try to answer that question for you in a way that enables you to decide which book is better for your needs.

Is there really a difference between a Beginner's Guide and a User Guide?

After 20 years as a technical writer and trainer, I have come to the conclusion that yes, you will notice a difference between a Beginner's Guide and a User Guide. The differences are in the scope and flow of the book. And I think you will see those differences between Magento User Guide and Magento Beginner's Guide.

Scope: Reference Librarian versus Coach

If you read the User Guide table of contents, and the Beginner's Guide table of contents, you can see that the User Guide covers more of Magento's functions. Yet, it has fewer pages. It covers more features than the Beginner's Guide, but usually with less detail.

In the Beginner's Guide, the step-by-step directions are usually more detailed than those in the User Guide. And, the Beginner's Guide includes some business intelligence. That is, not just how to use a feature, but also when and why.

If the books were people, the User Guide would be a reference librarian and the Beginner's Guide would be a coach.

Flow: Jump In and Out, or Go For a Ride

Both books work as reference material. The User Guide usually gives you just enough information to make a function or feature work. It answers the question, "How do I do this?" and then returns you to your work.

The Beginner's Guide tells you how to use Magento's basic functions while building an example store. The example runs through the book. So you will see not only how each function is used, but also when and why it is used, and what effect it has on your customer's experience. You can work through the book from front to back if you want to follow the example. Or, you can use it as a reference guide.

So which do I recommend?

Neither. I recommend that you consider your own situation. Do you prefer a reference guide, like the one supplied by the official Magento Online User Guide or Knowledge Base? Or do you prefer a step-by-step Beginner's Guide to coach you through building your store? You might find them both useful: the Beginner's Guide to show you how to create and run the store, and the User Guide to provide a quick reference for many of Magento's features.

You can read sample chapters for the books at magentocommerce.com and packtpub.com.

You can read reviews of the Beginner's Guide at Andi J's blog and the Milk Your Money site. It's available for sale at Amazon.

Do your research, dive in, and let me know how it goes!

Sample Chapter and Extract from Magento Beginner's Guide

2009-04-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

Packt has published my latest book, Magento Beginner's Guide. They offer a sample chapter on their website, "Categories and Attributes." They also took a section out of a chapter and published it as an article on their website, "Creating Tax Rules in Magento."

The sample chapter, article, and chapter descriptions on their website should give you an accurate and thorough impression of the book's style and content. If you're a Magento user, check it out. And if you've bought the book, as always, I like to hear from my readers. Send me compliments and complaints by clicking on the email link in my profile.

Developing an Online Course in Moodle as Quickly as Possible

2009-02-17T19:08:00.000-08:00

I had a reader send me a question about how to estimate the time it will take to develop a course in Moodle. I'd like to share her question and my answer with you. As always, your comments and experiences are welcome.

Her Question:

I am just about to embark on my masters dissertation project, and am looking a web-based tutorials for teaching. At the moment I’m considering putting together a tutorial as part of the project using moodle (I have copies of your books in front of me now).

One question I cannot seem to find an answer to, is realistically how long would it take for me to construct something like this? I have seen reports stating that construction of online courses can take up to 18 months, but I think these were from scratch as opposed to using a software programme such as moodle. I am fairly Internet literate, and have created basic webpages before, but have never done anything like construct my own online course.

I am studying via distance learning and also have a full-time job. I have between now and June/July to work on my project (including analysis and user-testing, etc) – do you think this is something which I can realistically achieve in this kind of time frame?

My Answer:

In my experience, the old methods of determining how long it takes to develop courseware were never very accurate. With the variety of tools available to us today, the many different situations, and the many different expectations from learners and stakeholders, those old recommendations are even more inaccurate.

I no longer ask, "How long will this take me to develop?" Instead I ask, "How long before the client needs it?" And then I determine what I can do between now and then. It sounds to me like you have a few hours a week to spend on developing an online course, between now and June. That's not much time. So instead of dwelling upon how long it will take, let's talk about how to maximize your output in the time that you do have.

First, try to get out of installing Moodle yourself. If you can use an outside hosting service, find one that has a one-click install for Moodle. If you must use your organization's web server, try to get the web admin to install it for you. When Moodle installs without trouble, the installation goes quickly. When it gives trouble, you can spend hours tracking down the problem. If you pay a few dollars a month for a hosting service that will install Moodle for you, I advise it.

Second, resolve to stay within Moodle's built-in capabilities. Some of the add-on modules add great functionality. But for a project working against time constaints, I advise you stick with Moodle's built-in functionality and not get bogged down in trying to get add-ons to work.

Third, make as much use of existing material as possible. As a librarian, I'm sure you can locate web pages that you can use as course material. I think there's nothing wrong with a course whose learning material consists entirely of links to external web pages, video, and audio. For example, if I was teaching a course on public speaking, I might link to a funny Youtube video of public speaking bloopers, tips from Toastmasters, and famous speeches. Creating your own multimedia takes especially long, so I would search Creative Commons for media I could use in my course.

Fourth, I would try to use Moodle's built-in Web page editor (Web page Resource) to write a short description of each resource that I link to, and what I want the students to pay attention to while viewing it, and what I'd like them to get out of it. To ensure that they read this before going to the resource, I would put the link to the resource on this web page instead of on the course's home page. Then, the students would need to go through the web page that I write before clicking through to the external web page/video/audio.

Fifth, I would follow up each reading/viewing/listening resource with an activity created in Moodle. For example, I might ask the students to:

contribute to an online discussion, and to rate other students' postings in that forum. (Forum activity)

take a short quiz on the material (Quiz module)

write a summary of the material and upload it (Assignment activity)

record a snippet of speech and upload it (Assignment or Workshop activities).

Sixth, I would use outside services for things that Moodle doesn't handle, or that it handles only with plug-ins. For example, after the students have completed viewing the resources and doing the follow-up activities, just before an exam, I might schedule a summary lecture with WebEx or GoToMeeting. The lecture could include a slide show of the material that will be on the final exam, whiteboarding, and chat. If possible, I would record the session and offer it to the students as a download.

Seventh, I would offer an online exam open only at a given time, to ensure that students don't take the exam and pass along the answers.

That would be my model for rapid development of an online course. And if I could, I would choose a topic for that course based upon the amount of good material freely available online.

Estimating the time to create a training course

2008-08-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

The Question

I received this email asking how to estimate the time it takes to create a software training course:

Hello,

I have a strong background in software development and training development and delivery. My training has always been around soft skills, business processes, and employee orientations.

I recently joined a software company as the Training Manager and I’ve been tasked with “figure out how we should do user training for our product”. I’ve purchased and read your book, User Training for Busy Programmers and it’s been very helpful already in translating my current knowledge of software development and non-software training into what I need to do for software user training.

I was wondering if you have any thoughts or resources around estimating the time it takes to develop user training following the process you outline in the book?

Thank you,

Jennifer

The (somewhat disappointing) Answer

Here's my reply:

Jennifer,

Years ago I asked this question on several of the most popular training and technical writing mailing lists. I also tried equating the time it took to develop training and documentation to things like function point counting, number of screens, number of keystrokes and clicks. None of it worked.

Seriously. The conclusion I arrived at is that there is way to predict the time to develop training and documentation, that is more accurate than your own experience.

Since you have experience developing training in business processes, you're not far off from being able to accurately estimate time to develop training for software. Because at the end of the day, a software class is (or should be) nothing more than a business process class that features a new tool. So when you're trying to estimate development and delivery time for a software class, ask yourself how long it would take to develop and deliver the class if you approached it as teaching a new business process, which just happens to use a new tool.

Sorry I couldn't give a more concrete answer. This is a question the continually challenges me, and I'd be happy to hear of any resources you find that help with it.

Regards,

William Rice

A Plea for Help

I want to hear what you have to say about estimating the time it takes to develop a software training class. Do you have any objective, quantitative methods that work for you? Or like me, must you rely on intuition and experience? How accurate are your estimates?

This topic is ripe for conversation. Leave a comment, and keep the dialog moving!

Book Review: Training for Software Rollouts

2008-07-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

When a book on software training begins with the political issues of selling the training program to management and users, it's a sign that the author has real-world experience. As a training professional who's read too many books that take an academic approach to training, I appreciated the practical approach in Training for Software Rollouts: The Definitive Guide to Developing and Implementing Software Training Programs.

Charles H. Trepper's 480-page book is a comprehensive and accessible guide for IT managers and training professionals. Following the methodology in this book probably won't save you time compare to the seat-of-the-pants, ad-hoc method I've seen at many companies. However, the discipline and thoroughness of Trepper's method ensures better results for the time you invest.

Trepper takes a conservative approach, and bases his method on Instructional Systems Design (IDS), which consists of five phases:

Analyze
Design
Develop
Implement
Evaluate.

Trepper adds his own experience in company-wide software rollouts to the IDS method. For example, he covers Political and Organizational Issues in Chapter 1, which is probably worth the price of the book alone. He then moves on to the Analyze phase of IDS, with Chapter 2, How to Conduct a Training Needs Analysis.

Chapters 3 and 4 cover the Design phase of IDS. Some topics that only an experienced trainer could add are 3.4 Getting funding--where does all the money come from? and 3.7 Avoiding training budget cuts.

Chapters 5 through 8 cover the Develop phase, when the actual training materials are constructed. These are some of my favorite chapters.

Chapter 5, Self-Directed Training versus Classroom Training, helps you decide between classroom, self-study, and live distance learning. It ends with a brief discussion on combining these methods, 5.5 Combining methods for maximum effectiveness and efficiency. In the training profession we call this blended learning. If you decide to go this route, you'll probably want to learn more strategies for mixing learning modes than this section provides.

Chapter 6, Make or Buy--Purchasing Training versus Developing and Delivering Training In House, helps you make this important decision. Trepper points out that

It is reasonable to assume that some training professionals, in an effort to perpetuate their usefulness, may present a barrier to the outsourcing option.

This resistance is not only futile, but also counterproductive. As Trepper briefly states, "the role of training professionals within corporate environments is changing." The profession is seeing a shift from training to performance consulting, and trainers who don't get with this program are going to be left behind.

Chapters 7 and 8, Purchasing Training and Customizing Packaged Training to Meet the Needs of Your Organization, finish the Develop phase. Chapter 8 is notable because I have not seen any other training books offer guidance on how to customize purchased material. Don't expect detailed step-by-step directions on how to deconstruct a Flash-based training module. The situations are too varied. The advice is useful, but necessarily broad.

Chapters 9 through 11 cover the Implement phase of IDS. Chapter 9, Implementing the Training Program, makes you aware of administrative needs such as Tracking attendance, Maintaining Courseware, and Monitoring and Logging Training. However, it doesn't offer detailed solutions. For a more thorough treatment, you might want to check out The Trainer's Support Handbook by Jean Barbazette (disclosure: I get credit from Amazon when you buy through that link).

Chapter 10, Communicating the Training Rollout to the Organization, discusses employee resistance to training and how to deal with the resistance. This is the only training book I've seen that deals with this crucial topic. I think this topic is worth more than 12 pages, and if I could ask Mr. Trepper to expand any one chapter this would be it. He talks briefly about determining the "real resistance reasons" to training, but doesn't tell us how to do that. Even a few examples of these reasons would be very helpful. For example, I've found that employees often resist training because:

They're afraid that efficiencies created by the new system will result in their jobs being eliminated.

They are the only ones who can do their jobs well, and the new system might make their jobs easy enough (or appear easy enough) for almost anyone to do.

They believe that the new system will take just as long as the present system, but management will still require more productivity to justify the new system.

Their managers will require them to do the same volume of work even while they're taking time out to attend training.

Previous, unsuccessful software rollouts make them cynical about this rollout's chance of success.

Chapter 11, Tips for the Trainer, gives some valuable advice for first-time trainers. The tips are general enough that they apply to almost every training situation. For more information about software training techniques, a good beginner's book is The Accidental Trainer : You Know Computers, So They Want You to Teach Everyone Else (yep, another Amazon Affiliate link).

Trepper devotes a few paragraphs to dealing with difficult students. If you want a more tips on dealing with hostile audiences, take a look at my article Surviving a Difficult Presentation: Techniques for Handling a Hostile Audience.

The Evaluate phase is covered in Chapter 12, Measuring Training Success by Measuring On-the-Job Trainee Performance. Trepper explains Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Evaluation, which is the most popular and widely-accepted model. The four levels of measurement are:

The students' reaction to the training. Did they like it? Did they think it was clear?
The learning that took place. Did the students learn the material?
The transfer of the learning to the job. Can the students apply the learning on the job?
The result of the training on the organization. We also call this the Return on Investment, or ROI.

The ultimate goal here is to determine if, and how much, training has supported organizational goals. It's a big topic, but this chapter is densely packed and gives you enough information to evaluate your training program's effectiveness and return on investment.

One of my favorite pieces of advice in this chapter could come only from someone who has learned the hard way. Trepper writes about the difficulty of measuring the effect that training has on an employee's performance. He defines "results" as things the employee produces and that can be quantified: a completed widget, a completed support call, a discharged patient, a resolved customer complaint. He then defines "behavior" as something the employee does, without producing something that can be quantified: clean a room, give a massage, serve a diner. Results are easy to measure. But what about behaviors?

...begin by measuring results and only measure behavior when you have to. Most people try to identify the results of a position by listing its responsibilities and asking what product each activity generates. This process can take several hours and usually ends up with a very long list of results. A faster and better method involves identifying your customers and what you provide to them. This produces a list of key performance indicators.

In other words, to evaluate the bottom-line effectiveness of your training program, determine what effect it had on your customers' experience.

Chapter 13 covers Training the I/T Staff. I know many techies will appreciate this chapter, because I/T staff are often left out of training plans. The assumption is that training is for users, and techies can get what they need to know from the manuals and hacking around with the software. This is far from the truth, as Trepper adequately demonstrates in this chapter.

I've been called in several times to develop and deliver training for software that has already been rolled out. In Chapter 14, Trepper acknowledges that

..."training is not always at the top of the corporate priority list. Often training is developed casually as the software is rolled out."

The title of this chapter, Training Issues After a Software Rollout, talks about training issues when no training has been done, and when training was done with the rollout and now needs to be updated. Like Chapters 8 and 10, I've not seen any other training books deal specifically with this topic. And once again, I'd like even more of Mr. Trepper's valuable advice on this topic.

Chapters 1 through 14 comprise part one of the book, Designing, Developing, and Implementing a Software Training Program for Your Organization. Chapters 15 through 19 comprise part two, Application-Specific Training Issues. The applications covered are:

MS Office
Windows
Lotus Notes
SAP
Oracle.

Each chapter covers some key training points for the application, potential problems, how to customize training for that application, and buying advice for training services and materials. These chapters are short but the advice is very targeted. For example, Trepper advises

Organizations often think they "know" Oracle because they possess the database. However, they fail to realize that the applications will probably be customized as much as the database.

Appendix A is the shortest of the seven appendices at only four pages. Trepper covers Rapid Development for Small Projects. I've spent at least half of my fifteen-year career rapidly developing small training programs, and I found Trepper's advice to be solid. For example, he states that

Designing the [training] program and custom-developing training can be done almost simultaneously...

This is often the case; an experience training developer will design and prototype the training program at the same time. Trepper includes a table of small-project steps and deliverables. This chapter, plus the guidance given in part one of the book, will serve you well if you need to rapidly develop a small training project. For a more focused treatment of rapid training development, you might want to look at my book User Training for Busy Programmers. It doesn't deal with the broader issues of a rollout like Trepper's book, but does offer a plan for non-trainers called upon to quickly develop end-user training.

Appendix B consists of Training Team Job Descriptions. Even if your team has been selected and everyone has their assignments, I recommend reading this chapter. Looking at the Principal Accountabilities given for each position may result in an "Aha!" moment when you realize that you left a task or area of responsibility unassigned.

Appendices C through G are hardcopy of sample materials that can be downloaded from the McGraw-Hill website:

Appendix C: Sample Training Sales Presentation
Appendix D: Sample Training Program Plan Outline
Appendix E: RFP Outline and Completed Sample
Appendix F: Training Program Process Checklists
Appendix G: Sample Forms

These forms are in Microsoft Word format. Original purchasers of the book are permitted to download and customize the forms for their use.

At first glance, it would seem to be this book's focus that makes it uniquely useful. There are few books about training for software rollouts. However, after reading it, I realized that it's not the topic but the author's insight that makes this book unique. About three-fourths of the information in this book is standard Instructional Systems Design, customized for a software rollout. The other one-fourth consists of advice and insight that only someone with experience can offer. This is where the book most differentiates itself. If you're an experienced trainer, Trepper's insight can save you hours of work. If you're a non-trainer tasked with managing a company-wide software training effort, consider supplementing this book with some of the others I recommended, or with books from the American Society for Training and Development. Either way, this book is an investment that will pay off in a smoother software rollout.

How to Install Moodle on GoDaddy Hosting

2008-04-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

I recently concluded an email exchange with someone who was very frustrated trying to install Moodle on their GoDaddy.com host. My first recommendation was, "If you can get your money back, switch to DreamHost.com or BlueHost.com and use their one-click installer instead." But he decided to see it through, and a dozen or so emails later we got his Moodle site up and running. In case you're using GoDaddy to host your Moodle site, let me post the instructions for installing Moodle on GoDaddy here.

First, create your MySQL database.

Go to godaddy.com and log in with your account number and password using the form on the right-hand side.
Once logged in, click the link My Account that appears where the form was.
In the Hosting & Servers drop-down, choose My Hosting Account.
Under Control Panel for the domain you wish to create a database on, click Open.
When your Hosting Manager window opens, and assuming Godaddy have put you on the right account package, under the Databases title click MySQL.
Click the CREATE NEW DATABASE button. GoDaddy is different from most hosts. It will ask you to enter a description, username and password. Note that you do not enter a name for the database. Instead, the username also becomes the name of the database. Make a note of the username and password.

Add the name of your domain to the beginning of the username, such as williamrice_moodle. This ensures the name of the database is unique.
Determine the host name by clicking on the pencil icon. It probably isn't "localhost." So click the pencil and note the name of the server.

Second, download the latest Moodle zip file

Go to http://download.moodle.org/, and download the latest stable version of Moodle to your PC. Choose the .zip file.

Third, upload the Moodle zip file to your root directory.

The preferred way to upload files to your hosting account is using an FTP client. GoDaddy has documentation on how to set up your FTP client. You can also upload files using a Web-based interface. Since we're going to upload just one file, the Moodle zip file, here are directions for uploading it using the Web based FTP. The text was copied from GoDaddy's support documentation:

Log in to your Account Manager.
Under the My Products section, select Hosting Account List.
Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Open. The Hosting Control Center opens.
Under the Content section of the Hosting Control Center, click the FTP Client icon.
If a security certificate window displays, click Yes or Trust to accept the certificate and open the FTP program.
In the Local System section, go to the location on your computer where you saved the Moodle zip file and select your file.
Click the >> arrows to upload the file to your hosting account.

Fourth, unzip the Moodle package on your site

Log in to your Account Manager.
Under the My Products section, select Hosting Account List.
Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Open. The Hosting Control Center opens.
Under the Content section of the Hosting Control Center, click the File Manager icon.
Assuming you have uploaded moodle.zip to the root, select it by using the check box on the left, then click on Unarchive at the top. In the resulting window, leave Select Destination as your root and don't select Overwrite Existing Files. The File Manager will unzip the files.
You should now see a folder called moodle in the root. Click on it to make sure that it contains all the moodle sub-folders.
Go back to the root directory and select the moodle folder again by checking the check box on the left.
Click on Permissions at the top.
In the resulting window, set these permissions for the moodle folder:
Inherit = unchecked
Read = checked
Write = checked
Reset all children to inherit (All subdirectories will be reset to inherit from current directory) = checked
Click OK. The File Manager will set the folder permissions for moodle and all its sub-folders.

Fifth: Create a Moodle data directory

If you've followed the directions above, you should be in the File Manager, at the root of your site. There is a /moodle directory with Moodle unzipped into it. Now, create another directory for the Moodle data. For example, /moodledata.

Click the New Directory button.
Enter the name of the new directory, such as moodledata.
Click OK.
Select the moodledata folder by checking the check box on the left.
Click on Permissions at the top.
In the resulting window, set these permissions for the folder:
Inherit = unchecked
Read = checked
Write = checked
Reset all children to inherit (All subdirectories will be reset to inherit from current directory) = checked
Click OK. The File Manager will set the folder permissions for moodledata.

Sixth: Step through the Moodle setup process

Open a new browser, and to the web address of your new Moodle installation. For example, http://www.williamrice.com/moodle. The setup process will start. Most of it is self-explanatory, but if you want instructions, try the guide at http://www.installationwiki.org/Moodle. That page contains the installation chapter from my book, Moodle E-Learning Development. When the book is updated, the publisher will also update that page.

These instructions should get you through installing Moodle if you've chosen GoDaddy.com as your host. If you have any questions, please contact me via the email address in my profile. Wherever you choose to host, happy Moodling!

Using different kinds of feedback in a Moodle quiz

2008-03-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

Moodle quizzes enable you to create different kinds of feedback. Let's define the different types of feedback, and then, let me suggest some best uses for each kind.

Types of Moodle Quiz Feedback

Different Feedback for Each Answer

You can have feedback for each of the answers in a question, so if the student selects answer "A" the feedback is different than if the student selected answer "B." Let's call this kind of feedback "choice specific," because it changes with each answer that the student chooses.

Different Feedback for Right and Wrong Answers

A less specific type of feedback is using one feedback message for the correct answer to a question, and another for all of the wrong answers to the question. Let's call this type of feedback "right/wrong," because the feedback changes according to whether the student got the answer right or wrong.

General Question Feedback

General question feedback gives the student the same feedback no matter what answer they chose.

Different Feedback for Different Quiz Scores

You can also have feedback based on the student's score for the quiz. For example, if the student scored greater than 90 percent, the feedback might congratulate the student on a great score. Let's call this "overall feedback," since that's the term Moodle uses.

Uses for Moodle Quiz Feedback

Best uses for different types of feedback in Moodle quizzes.
Type of feedback	Usage
choice specific and right/wrong	For right answers, tell why that choice is correct, in case the student selected the correct answer by guessing. For each wrong answer, there's a reason the student would think that it is correct. In the feedback for that choice, I address that specific reason. For example, take the question "Which is the smallest planet?" If the student selects "Pluto," then my feedback will state something like "A few years ago, your answer would have been correct. Pluto was considered the smallest planet, until it was downgraded to a pluton. Now Uranus is the smallest planet." The challenge for me is in creating feedback that addresses the probable reason the student chose that answer, without assuming that reason. If I can't do that, then I fall back on just using that same feedback for all wrong answers.
general question feedback	Give students background about the knownledge the question was testing. Or give a link to more information about the knowledge that was tested.
overall feedback	Whole-quiz feedback is difficult for me to make meaningful. If I want to tell the student anything more than, "You passed with flying colors," the quiz needs to be very very focused on a narrow topic. For example, what if the student scores low on a quiz on the American Revolution because (s)he missed all the questions on dates? And what if the student answered every other question correctly? The computer doesn't say, "You did great with concepts and names, but you seem to have a problem memorizing dates." But if I break that quiz up into mini-quizzes, and one of them is "Dates of the American Revolution," then I can say something meaningful in the whole-quiz feedback.

Articles About Using Feedback to Help Learning

Since we're talking of using question feedback as a learning tool, you might be interested in these articles that I found online: "Effects of immediate self-correction, delayed self-correction, and no correction on the acquisition and maintenance of multiplication facts by a fourth-grade student with learning disabilities." Also, "Effects of immediate and delayed error correction on the acquisition and maintenance of sight words by students with developmental disabilities." If you use question feedback, and make the quiz short so there's not a long delay between answering question number 1 and submitting the quiz, then I think that qualifies as "immediate error correction." Even more immediate would be to use a lesson, with one question per page, which the student answers before moving on to the next page in the lesson. That's my preferred way of creating immediate error correction. Partly because a lesson page is more flexible than a quiz question. And partly because each lesson page is "submitted" before moving to the next, making the feedback/error correction truly immediate.

Creating an Instructor Kit

2008-02-26T11:01:00.000-08:00

After you've tested the in-class exercises, polished the presentation
materials, printed the handouts and workbooks, and created the data files
for class, are you ready to hand over the course to an instructor? Not
yet. You have one more thing to do before calling your course finished:
Create the instructor kit.

An instructor kit often differentiates a good course from an exceptional
course. It is more than a pretty package or a finishing touch. It is an
integral part of any training course that you must hand off to an instructor.
The instructor kit's ultimate goal is to increase the quality of the students'
experience, by helping the instructor to assimilate, set up, and deliver
your course.

This article addresses creating an instructor kit for a software course.
However, 90% of this article is directly applicable to creating an instructor
kit for any technical course, and the other 10% is easily adaptable to
non-software courses.

What is in an Instructor Kit?

An instructor kit consists of information and tools.
Most of the information helps the instructor teach. Most of the tools
help the instructor set up, reset, and delete the course. The information
that you should include in an instructor kit is listed below. The software tools that you should include are described after that.

Types of Information in an Instructor Kit

Most instructor kits require the following types of information:

Prerequisites

Prerequisites include:

Proficiencies the instructor must have to teach the course.

Information the instructor must know about the subject.

Minimum equipment and software needed to teach the course.

Setup Directions

Setup directions include:

Required settings and configurations for the equipment and software before installing the course.
Directions for installing the course files.
Required settings and configurations for the equipment and software after installing the course.
Directions for testing the installation.

Delivery Information

Delivery information includes:

The location of any data or documents that the instructor or student will use in class.
The location of any data or documents, and a list of functions or menu items, that the instructor should steer students away from.
Key points that the instructor must address in class.
Directions for demonstrations.
Information to help the instructor coach students through workshops.
Directions for using the tools listed in the next section.

Reset Information

Reset information includes:

A description of the state of the data and documents used in class, after class.
Directions for returning data and documents to their pre-class state.
Directions for testing the reset procedure.

De-installation Directions

De-installation directions tell the instructor how to de-install all
software placed on the training computers, and how to reset the computers
to their original state.

Types of Tools in an Instructor Kit

For a software course, most tools consist of software designed to help
the instructor present the course, such as:

Installation Software.
Electronic Slide Shows.
Reset Software.

Tools may also include a printed instructor guide, and hardware needed
for the course. Most instructor kits require the following types of tools:

Instructor Guide

The Instructor Guide contains all of the information given above. It
is usually a printed document, but most instructor kits also include an
electronic version of the document.

Installation Software

The installation software may be simply files that the instructor copies
to the classroom PCs, or an application that performs the installation
when launched. The installation software can:

Install the data used during the course.
Install the documents and files used during the course.
Install the Electronic Slide Show.
Configure the settings on the computer(s) used during the course.

A course may require separate installation routines and files for the
instructor and students. A non-software course may instead have equipment
that is used during setup. This equipment may differ for the instructor
and student.

Electronic Slide Shows

Electronic slide shows are usually created with an application like PowerPoint
or Astound!. The slide shows may be installed by the same software as
the data and documents used during the course. Or, it may require its
own installation software.A tutorial on creating electronic slide shows
for technical training is beyond the scope of this article.

Training Applications

Training applicatioins consist of the applications that students and
the instructor need for the course. This may include the actual application
being taught, and also:

The application used to run the slide show.
Applications used to examine documents.
Applications used to examine, create, or modify data that is used in class.

Training Files

Training files consist of the data and documents used during class. The
instructor may receive more complete versions of the data, for demonstrating
the results of in-class exercises. If this is so, the instructor and students
will need separate installation routines.

Reset Software

Reset software returns the data and documents used during class to their
pre-class state. It also resets and software settings that the students
changed during class.

De-installation Software

De-installation software removes all training software from the computers
used during training. It also returns the computers to their original
settings.

Outline for the Instructor Kit Guide

Use the following outline as a starting point for writing your instructor guide. I've numbered the sections so that you can see the hierarchy.

1. Introduction to the Course

Explain why the course is taught, what the course covers, and to whom it is taught.

1.1Purpose

List the proficiencies the students will develop during the course.

1.2 Software Covered

States the software that the students will learn to use. Include the version numbers and platforms for the software.

1.3 Audience

Describe the audience and the audience’s situation. For example, "This course is designed for line managers at Company X who must create budgets for the groups they manage."

1.4 Agenda

State the high-level topics and estimates for the time to teach each topic.

2. Contents of this Instructor Kit

An instructor kit is often packaged into a binder that includes a written instructor guide and CD containing all software and files. Usually, the majority of this section lists and describes the files on the CD.

2.1 Documents

Describe the purpose and format of any documents used during this course. If a document must be printed for the course, state so in its description. State when each document is used in the course.

2.2 Data Files

List and describe the data files used in the course. Stating when each file is used helps the instructor trace any problems during the course to a faulty installation. For example, suppose an exercise in loading data does not produce the intended results. If the instructor knows that FileX is used in this exercise, the instructor can check the installation of that file while troubleshooting the workshop.

2.3 Applications

If the course requires the installation of any applications, include the installation files and instructions.

2.4 Hardware

If the course requires special hardware that is not available at the training site, include the hardware in the instructor kit.

3. Prerequisites

This section describes all prerequisites for the course. Prerequisites can include physical items, software, and knowledge.

3.1 Room Equipment

List and describe the non-computer equipment the instructor needs to teach the course. Some items that might appear on this list are:

A whiteboard.
A flip chart.
An overhead projector.
Give-aways for students.
Name cards for students and instructor.
Items used during training games or demonstrations.

3.2 PC Hardware

List the minimum requirements for the student computers, and the instructor computer. Some of the requirements:

The amount of memory. Does the instructor computer need more memory to run the training application and slide show concurrently?.
The amount of free hard disk space. Do the instructor files take up extra disk space?
Processor speed.
Display resolution.
Floppy, CD, and/or DVD drives.
A printer.

3.3 Software

The software on which you are training is an obvious choice for this list. Also consider any applications needed for opening files used during training. For example, if you load a graphics file into the training application during class, will you need a graphics application to examine or edit the file before loading it? If you supply documents in .pdf format, will the students need Adobe Acrobat to view them? If the training application exports data to a spreadsheet, will you need a spreadsheet application to examine the data?

3.4 Instructor Proficiencies

This can consist of a list of tasks the instructor is proficient in. Or, it can state that the instructor must have a certain amount of experience with the application.

Most in-class exercises begin with a list of the proficiencies developed during the exercise. One easy way to complete this section is copying those lists into this subsection.

3.5 Instructor Knowledge

An often-overlooked prerequisite for many technical training courses is instructor knowledge of the business processes that happen before and after training. The instructor should also know who supports the users after training.

Students often ask questions that go just beyond the scope of the application being taught, such as:

What is the source of the data that the training application accepts?
What happens to the data or files that the application outputs?
Who is responsible for supporting the users after training, as they begin to use the application?

3.6 Student Proficiencies

Many software courses list "Basic PC skills" as a student prerequisite. Be more specific. For example, many users who claim they have "Basic PC skills" do not know how to:

Navigate around a hard disk and find a file from within the Open File dialog box.
Turn on the display of file name extensions. With the file name extensions turned off, "file.txt" and "file.dat" are both listed as "file."
Right-click and use shortcut menus.

If you do not state exactly which "Basic PC skills" the student needs, the instructor may need to spend valuable class time teaching teaching remedial PC skills.

3.7 Access Rights

Many training courses are taught off-site, at a client’s offices or a rented training center. While developing the course, you have access to the application and your computer. Do not take for granted that the instructor and students will have this same access when off-site.

When writing this subsection consider whether:

The students can access the training application from the computers in the training room.
The instructor has administrative rights to install the training software on the training computers.
The students can access any network files they may need from the training room.

4. Setup Directions

This section includes setup directions for both the student and instructor computers. Refer to the section on software prerequisites and determine if the instructor needs to install the training application, and supporting applications used during class.

These directions do not always need to be detailed, step-by-step instructions. However, if you assume the instructor knows how to perform some parts of the installation without detailed directions, list this assumption in the Prerequisites section under Instructor Proficiencies.

4.1 Starting Point

Give a starting point for the installation. For example, before installation:

What software must be on the student and instructor computers?
What settings must be configured?
What hardware must be connected?

4.2 Installing and Testing the Student Files

This subsection gives directions for installing the applications and files used by the student.

4.3 Installing and Testing the Instructor Files

This subsection gives directions for installing the applications and files used by the instructor. Sometimes the instructor setup is a completely different process from the student setup. Other times it is an additional process.

4.4 Installing the Slide Show

This subsection gives directions for installing the slide show. The installation may be as simple as copying files to the instructor’s computer, or it may use an installation application.

5. About the Training Application

This section tells the instructor what is unique about the training application. It supplies the kind of information that an instructor will discover after hours of exploring the training application. Save your instructor some preparation time and include a section about the training application.

5.1 Limitations, Instabilities, and Non-functionality

The development of a training course often starts while the product is still in development. For software courses, this means that the training course is often developed using an application that is not completely functional. The instructor must know what parts of the training application are unstable or unusable. Discovering these while presenting the class will undermine the students’ confidence in the instructor and the application.

5.2 Login Information

The instructor and students may use different login information. If all students access the same networked application during class, each will need a separate login.

5.3 Where the Data Is

A training application rarely contains as much data as a fully-functional production application. The instructor must know which settings will show data during demonstrations. Few things are more embarrassing for an instructor than desperately trying random settings during a demonstration, in an attempt to show how the application processes data.

5.4 Differences Between Student and Instructor Applications

The instructor’s application might contain more data than the students’ application, to make demonstrations possible. Or, the instructor’s application may have the finished versions of in-class exercises. The instructor must know about these kinds of differences before class.

5.5 Installing Fail-safe Data

Most software courses require a student to complete a series of in-class exercises. The result of one exercise often provides the starting point for the next exercise. Therefore, if a student fails to produce the desired result from an exercise, the rest of the class exercises can become impossible to complete.

Fail-safe data is data that can be copied into the training application to simulate the successful completion of an exercise. This gives the student the correct starting point for the next exercise.

If you supply the instructor with fail-safe data, include instructions for copying that data into the student application.

6. Module Notes

Each module, or chapter, in a training course usually covers a specific task or group of related tasks. Most modules follow a lecture-demo-exercise sequence. The subsections described below are based on these assumptions. Repeat each of these subsections for each module, or unit, in the course.

6.1 Points to Emphasize

Is there any information that the client asked you to emphasize during the presentation? Are there any procedures or steps that, if omitted, will cause a loss of data or failure in later procedures? Hopefully, all of the information that you have included in the course is important. But this subsection is for information that is essential to the success of the students, in class or when they return to their work.

6.2 Demonstration Script

You don’t need to script the instructor demo click-by-click. Just tell the instructor enough to re-create the demo you have prepared. Of special importance is stating exactly which data to use during the demo, and where the data is located.

6.3 Pre-exercise Checklist

This is a checklist of the menu options and features that the instructor taught during this unit. Just before the instructor tells the students to start the in-class exercise, the instructor can scan this list and determine if (s)he covered all of the topics necessary for the students to succeed at the exercise.

6.4 Starting Point for Exercise

Most students follow along with the instructor during demonstrations. This means that their screens will usually not be as they left them after the last exercise.

Describe the starting point for the in-class exercise. State where in the software the students should be, and what data they should be viewing. A screen shot may be a good idea.

6.5 Fail-safe Files for Exercise

The exercises in most software courses build upon each other. For example, Exercise 2 usually uses the results of Exercise 1 as its starting point. If a student does not produce the correct result from an exercise, this can jeopardize the success of subsequent exercises.

If this is the case in your course, provide fail-safe data for each exercise. State where the data is located and how to activate, or populate, that data if the student does not succeed at the exercise.

6.6 Slide Show Printout and Instructor Notes

You may know exactly why you’ve included each bullet point on each slide, but the instructor to whom you turn over your course may be left guessing. Instructor notes give the instructor more detail about the slides.

The slides do not need to be printed out at full-page size. Two to three slides per page gives the instructor enough detail.

Interview on Packt Publishing

2008-02-25T08:23:00.001-08:00

Packt Publishing is the publisher of my book User Training for Busy Programmers. Based on that book, they published an interview with me on their site. We discuss some of the hard, real-world lessons I've learned as a technical trainer. It's a quick read, so if you're interested in training, check it out.

"User Training for Busy Programmers" is not just for programmers

2008-02-25T08:15:00.000-08:00

I wrote User Training for Busy Programmers because I felt sorry for the programmers I worked with. Several of the software companies I have worked for had their programmers develop and deliver user training for their product. This was usually because the company started small, and did not have the budget to hire a full-time trainer. So the programmers were given the task of end user training. As the company grew, the programmers became too busy with programming to continue training and they became profitable enough to bring in a full-time trainer. In those cases, the programmers were very relieved to have me join the company!

I realized how common it was for small and medium sized software companies to have programmers, customer service representatives, and even salespeople conduct end user training. While many of these people have a natural talent for teaching, they are not professional trainers. They usually learn how to develop and deliver a software class "the hard way," by trial-and-error. And their employers have no intention of bringing in a professional trainer to take over the end user training. I wrote this book for them.

So don't be fooled by the title. Even if you're not a programmer, if you've been told to develop a software training class and you don't know where to start, this book is for you.

Why did I write Moodle Teaching Techniques?

2008-02-25T08:12:00.000-08:00

I collect techniques. Techniques for writing clearly, techniques for constructing e-learning courses, techniques for making the best tiramisù (there is more to life than work, no?). When I began writing my collection of teaching techniques for Moodle, my intent was to add them to my first book, Moodle E-Learning Course Development. By the time I collected a handful of Moodle teaching techniques, I realized that they didn't belong in the same book as the general how-to instructions for using Moodle. Is this because the techniques in Moodle Teaching Techniques are more advanced than those in Moodle E-Learning Course Development? Partly, but if that were the only reason, I would have folded them into the first book anyway. It's because these techniques are developed and written from a different point of view.

When I wrote Moodle E-Learning Course Development, I started with Moodle and worked towards creating an online course that adheres to good teaching practices. The book is organized according to the workflow that works best in Moodle: create your course, add static course material, then add interactive material, then add social material, then customize the roles for your course...and so on. The approach in this book is to start with what Moodle can do and work towards creating an effective e-learning experience. The keystrokes and clicks in this book apply only to Moodle.

When I wrote Moodle Teaching Techniques, I started with a list of proven learning principles. I then developed Moodle techniques that used these principles. Some of these techniques work around Moodle's limitations, which makes them inappropriate for a book on using Moodle as it was intended. Others combine features, or use features in unexpected ways. In each case, the approach in this book is to start with a research-based learning principle and work towards creating an effective e-learning experience. Moodle Teaching Techniques is less about keystrokes, and and more about teaching techniques. You could probably apply all of the techniques in this book to another LMS, like ATutor or ILIAS. The keystrokes and clicks would change, but the most important parts of the book would not.

So here are two approaches that hopefully take you to the same place: creating an effective, engaging e-learning experience for your students. And that's the result all e-learning developers are striving for, no matter what tool we use.

Writing User Manuals from the Middle Out

2008-02-24T19:24:00.000-08:00

You need to write the user guide for a complex product. There must be a dozens of functions and hundreds of tasks that can be performed with the product. Where do you begin? How to start writing? Conventional wisdom says: start at the beginning with an introduction to the product, and work your way through each function or task in the order the customer will use them. Don't! Here's a tip I learned the hard way after my ninth or tenth year tech writing: start in the middle, and work your way outward.

This article presents a method of writing user documentation that you may find easier and more effective than starting at "Chapter 1:"

Start by writing procedures for each task or menu option. This is the "middle" of the document, and results in a collection of subsections.
Then, add material just before and after each procedure. This is working "from the middle out." The result is a collection of sections.
Organize the sections into chapters, and add more material to the beginning and end of each chapter.
Finally, organize the chapters into a manual.

I have found that this method of writing user manuals from the middle out saves time, and yields more accurate and useable documentation.

Why Not Start at the Beginning?

When you begin your manual with an introduction to the product, you also begin your research with an introduction to the product. Typically, you ask the Marketing or Sales department to describe how the product will help the user: "What will users do with it?" You ask Development or Engineering to describe the product's structure: "What is it?" You experiment with the product long enough to determine how it's used: "How does the user use it?" Then, you write your introduction. Which will probably contain inaccuracies and be less useful than it could be, for three reasons:

First, you are attempting to describe the purpose of the product ("What will users do with it?") before you have completely experienced using the product. By asking others what the product does, you are only discovering what they believe the product should do. You must first use almost every function of the product to determine what it really does. Remember, the manual is for users and should be written from a user's point of view. You can better convey the purpose and advantages of a product to a user when you have completely experienced the product from the user's point of view. This is why, in the middle-out method, you write the introduction last.

Second, you are describing the structure of the product ("What is it?") before you have experienced how the pieces of the product work together. Describing what the modules of a software application are is not nearly as useful to the user as describing what those modules do, and how they work together. You can best determine what they do and how they work together by experience.

Third, you usually develop the outline for your manual at this stage. Remember that the outline will determine the order in which you present the product's functions and tasks. And, you have not yet performed all of the product's functions and tasks. After you have experienced a complete cycle of using the product, you will be qualified to determine the order in which to present the procedures for using the product. At this point, determining the order for these procedures is guesswork.

In sum, when you begin writing a manual at Chapter 1, the manual becomes a diary of your learning curve. The first sectioins tend to be either ambiguous or self-obvious. They become ambiguous when you are conscientious enough to attempt to state something meaningful about the product, when have yet to gain real experience with the product. They become self-obvious when you attempt to state only those facts of which you are sure. Because you have little more experience than the reader, those facts will tend to be self-obvious. Starting in the middle and working outward avoids these problems.

How to Do It

To create user documentation from the inside out, follow the suggested steps below.

Write the Sections

Following the steps below will result in a collection of sections. Later, you will organize these sections into chapters, and then a manual.

1. Write the directions for each task or function.

Let's assume one of the tasks the user performs with the product is, "Create a new record." Write directions for this task. Don't worry about:

The purpose of the task (Why create a new record).
Where it fits into the big picture (When to create a new record).
What the user must do or know before performing the task (Prerequisites for creating a new record).

The only thing you are writing is how to perform the task at hand.

Repeat this for each task or function the user can perform with the product. When you finish, you will have a collection of directions for performing all possible tasks or functions with the product. Label this paragraph "Directions."

2. Add prerequsites in front of each task.

Add a paragraph of prerequisites in front of each task. In our example, the prerequisite might be that the product must be in a particular mode before creating a new record. This paragraph should tell the user only and exactly what conditions must exist before the procedure can be carried out. Label this paragraph "Prerequisites."

3. Add results after each task.

A results paragraph states what the user should see to confirm that the task was successful. It also states what has changed as a result of the task. Label this paragraph "Results."

4. Add background knowledge before the prerequisites.

Examine each task and determine exactly what the user must know to successfully perform that task. Put exactly and only the background knowledge the user must know for a task immediately before the prerequisites for that task.

If several tasks require the same background knowledge, you should probably organize them into a chapter or section and place the background knowledge only once at the beginning of that chapter or section.

5. Add next steps after the results.

State what user must, should, or can do next.

After following the five steps above, you have a collection of procedures. Each procedure comprises a section, consisting of:

Background information
Prerequisites
Directions
Results
Next steps

Organize the Sections into Chapters

Only now that you have performed every task possible with the product, and determined the prerequisites and results of each task, can you see how they fit together into the overall process of using the product. Now you are ready to determine the proper sequence for performing the tasks, the purpose of each task.

Organize the sections (procedures) into logical groups. You may organize the procedures in the order in which the user is most likely to perform them. Or, you may group procedures with similar functions together. Whatever scheme you choose, each group of sections becomes a chapter.

Now examine the procedures in each chapter and ask, is there any information that the user must know to perform these procedures? At the beginning of each chapter, add exactly and only the information the user must know to perform the procedures in that chapter. Label this section "Introduction."

Determine the Purpose of Each Procedure

Good user documentation doesn't tell the user only how to perform a procedure. It also tells the user when. Now that you have experienced and organized all of the tasks for the product, you are qualified to determine when it is appropriate to perform each procedure. A "When this... Do this..." table is one effective way of presenting this information. You can place this "When..." information in:

The introduction to the manual. You would probably include "When..." information for all of the procedures here. This is usually the easiest place for the user to find the information.

The introduction to each chapter. You would probably include "When..." information for only the procedures in the chapter here.

Each section. You would probably include "When..." information for only the procedure in the section here. This is usually the most difficult place for the user to find the information.

Finally: Write Chapter 1

Now, look at the whole manual. Is there any background info that a user must know before using any of the procedures in the whole manual? Write it down. Call it "Chapter 1: Introduction."

Assemble the chapters, generate a table of contents, and you've got yourself a manual!

Balancing Act: Keeping Your Screen Movies Small and Beautiful

2008-02-24T13:55:00.000-08:00

Screen recordings are a valuable tool for enhancing training, tutorials, manuals and websites. Companies use this technique to produce streaming and downloadable content. The recording tools are readily available and affordable.

In this article, we explore some techniques, tips and tricks for recording sound, mouse movement and happenings from your screen to an AVI file.

File Size vs. Movie Quality

One key to successful screen movies is keeping the files small. Larger files mean longer processing times for you and longer download times for your users. Especially large screen movies may not play at all for some users with outmoded PCs. Also, large files do not stream well over the Internet.

Unfortunately, larger files result in better quality movies. More colors, smoother action, and higher quality sound are all benefits of larger file sizes. Therefore, your most important - and most difficult -- decisions will balance file size against quality. This article presents technique for keeping file sizes small while retaining the quality you need in your screen movies.

Tip 1: Select Your Color Settings

Before you record a screen movie, you need to configure your display for color depth. We recommend setting your color depth to 256 colors, or 8 bits. In Windows, you do this by selecting Start | Settings | Control Panel and then double-clicking the Display icon.

Today, many computers work in True Color. True Color uses 24 or 32 bits per pixel, and can render millions of colors. Let's assume you're capturing an area that is 320 by 240 pixels. That's 76,800 pixels for every complete frame captured. How much storage space would each complete frame in this movie occupy?

Bit Depth	Colors	Storage Space per Complete Frame (320 by 240 pixels)
8	256	76,800 Bytes (76.8kB)
16	64K	153,600 Bytes (153.6kB)
24	16.7 million	230,400 Bytes (230.4kB)

As you can see from the table above, each frame in True color mode contains a lot of information to capture from the screen memory. This information must then be compressed and written to the AVI file. That process requires a lot of time, processor power, and disk space.

In many cases, the programs that you capture will look as good in 8 bit color mode as in True Color. The capture programs optimize the color map to make the best use of them, so you do not lose much quality unless your subject demands higher color depth. In 8-bit color mode the amount of information to capture and compress is a fraction of that in the other modes. These pictures compress the fastest, and produce the smallest AVI files.

If you must record in higher than 256 color mode, consider using 16 bits, and use Intel Indeo codec, configured to the "Quick Compress" option. If you don't have Indeo installed on your machine, you can download it for free from Intel's web site, http://developer.intel.com/ial/indeo/. On HyperCam, for example, this will compress about 10-20% faster than with the default codec of MS Video 1.

A final word of advice on setting colors: You may be tempted to record in True Color and then convert the file to 8 bit color depth. There are two reasons to avoid this. First, the software you are recording will probably do a better job of picking which 256 colors it displays best in, than the screen recording software. So, set your display to 256 colors and let the application you are recording pick its palette. Second, saving and processing a file in True Color takes more time than in 256-color mode. This extra time is wasted if you're just going to convert to 256 colors.

Tip 2: Select a Frame Rate. How Low Can You Go?

The frame rate is the number of frames per second that you record and play back. Television uses about 30 frames per second, and movies about 60 frames per second. This results in very smooth action. However, frame rates this high create very large computer files.

The frame rate needed for smooth motion depends on how fast objects move across the screen, and on the size of the objects. Small, fast moving objects tend to blink as they move. This occurs when the image of a moving object is present in one frame, but not in the next. For example, a cursor moving quickly across the screen will tend to blink. If your screen movie must include such objects, you'll need a high frame rate: 15 to 60 frames per second. If you keep the action on the screen slow, you can obtain good results with a frame rate as low as 2 to 5 frames per second.

Use these recommendations as a guideline, and experiment with a few settings to see how low you can go with the frame rate. The only way to determine how low you can go while maintaining quality is to record and play back a few samples.

HyperCam, like most screen recording software, enables you to select the frame rate for your recording.

Tip 3: Set Key Frames

Your screen capture software does not store information for every single pixel in a frame. Instead, it stores the information for which pixels have changed since the previous frame. For example, assume two frames are identical except that the cursor has changed position. The capture software will store information for only the pixels that have changed because of the cursor's movement. The majority of the screen stayed the same from the first frame to the second. Therefore, there is no need to repeat this information in the second frame. This storage method saves a lot of disk space and results in faster playback.

However, the longer a movie plays, the greater the errors introduced by this storage method. To correct any errors, your recording software inserts key frames. A key frame is a completely recorded frame, with all of its information intact. Then, beginning with the key frame, the software once again records only the changes from frame to frame. When it hits another key frame, it records the entire frame, begins recording only the changes... and so on, again and again.

Because key frames take more storage space than normal frames, the more key frames in your screen movie the larger the file. In our example of recording a 320 by 240 movie at 256 colors, each key frame occupies 76.8kB.

Most programs will automatically choose every tenth frame as a key frame. Most will also enable you to choose how often to insert a key frame.

If your screen movie contains a lot of zooming, panning, and other movement, you'll need more key frames to keep the quality high (every tenth or even fifth frame). If changes from frame to frame are small, you can select fewer key frames and still retain high quality (every fifteenth to thirtieth frame).

As in choosing the frame rate, the only way to determine the minimum number of key frames for the quality you need is to take a few test recordings.

Tip 4: Select the Recording Region

Some screen recording software enables you to select a specific region or Window to record. You can usually select the recording region in three ways:

Select an area of you display by dragging a selection rectangle. Everything inside the rectangle will be recorded.
Select a specific window.
Specify the X and Y coordinates of the recording area on your display.

The smaller the recording area, the smaller your file size.

The best method for determining the minimum size recording area is practice. Run through the sequence you need to record several times, and determine the minimum size window that the sequence requires.

Also, instead of choosing to record the entire window in which the program is running, consider selecting only the interior of the window. If the window's title bar, scroll bar, and status bar do not add useful information, do not record them.

Some programs enable you to move the recording area around the screen, so that you can pan from one area to another. The resulting movie is like watching a large screen through a small, moving window. This is a powerful technique for showing large areas with a small movie. However, it can be disorienting. Keep the action slow and use narration to clearly explain when and where you are panning.

Tip 5: Select the Right Audio Settings

Most of the space your screen movie occupies is comprised of video information. That is why we have focused on techniques for minimizing the size of the video information while still retaining quality. However, selecting the right audio settings can also minimize file size.

First, determine if your screen movie software enables you to select mono or stereo sound. Unless you have a compelling reason to record in stereo, select mono.

Second, select the proper number of bits rate for the quality of sound you want. Most software enables you to choose between 8 bit and 16 bit samples. Think of a sample as a pixel of sound. The more bits you use to store a screen pixel, the greater the number of colors that pixel can take. The more bits you use to store a sound sample, the greater the frequency response of the sample captured. Try your audio setting at 16 bits per sample, before going down to 8 bits. The difference in sound quality between 8 and 16 bits is usually very noticeable, so this is a good place to spend some file size.

Third, select the sampling rate. The sampling rate is how many times per second the capture software will record sound. For example, a sampling rate of 8000 means that the software is capturing 8000 slices of sound every second. For most screen movies with voice narration, a sampling rate of 11025 gives good quality with minimum file size. This combination of bits per sample and sampling rate is approximately equal in quality to an FM radio.

Screen recordings can be valuable tools for demos, tutorials, training videos and various technical applications. The latest commercial and open source tools provide this capability in easy-to-use and affordable packages - take advantage of this great technology!

Course Evaluations that Matter

2008-02-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

Do your course evaluations matter? Do they measure what's really important to your company and your students?

The training courses that you develop and deliver should advance your company's business objectives. This sounds like common sense. Now think back to the training classes that you have attended. After each class, you were probably asked to fill out a course evaluation. How many of those evaluations measured how well the course met the company's or your business objectives?

Too many course evaluations measure how well the course was written or delivered, and not how well the course supported the company's or student's objectives. For example, you have probably filled out course evaluations with a question similar to this one:

Rate the pace of the course:

Too Slow
Just Right
Too Fast

This question helps you determine if the course is good. It does not help you determine if the course met the needs of your company or students. Here is an example of a question that measures how well a course met one of the company's business objectives:
As a result of this class, are you able to spend less time performing the task covered? For example, are you able to spend less time creating a purchase order or travel request, or less time looking for ledgers to view?

No. It takes me just as long to perform the same tasks as before taking this class.
Yes. I can perform the tasks covered in class in less time than before.
This question doesn't apply to me.

One of the biggest challenges in the training profession is measuring return on investment for training. Entire books are devoted to this topic. While a complete treatment is beyond the scope of this article, you can still take steps right now to measure how well your course has met your company's or customer's business objectives.

Interview the course sponsors and/or students, and discover what business objectives they want to fulfill with the course. A business objective is a specific task whose success can be measured.

When you ask course sponsors or participants what they hope to accomplish in a course, their first answer is usually not specific enough. For example, if you are developing a course for a new engine analyzer, they might answer that the course objective is "To be able to use the analyzer." In this case, you would need more specifics. Use the asnalyzer to perform exactly which tests? On what kinds of engines? With what degree of accuracy?

Once you know the objectives being measured, the evaluation questions suggest themselves. When writing the questions, focus on asking the students whether they can now perform the given task better, faster, more accurately, etc. than before.

In addition to surveying the students, you might also consider objectively measuring the students' productivity before and after the class. For example, you might measure how long it takes students to perform a task before and after training, or how well they score on customer satisfaction surveys. These kinds of objective measurements are more difficult than having students fill out post-training evaluations. However, the payoff is a clearer idea of how well your classes support your company's and your students' business objectives.

This article is necessarily brief about how to measure the return on investment for a training course. However, using course evaluation questions that directly address your company's or student's business objectives is a good start. From there, you can move on to more formalized, complex techniques of course evaluation such as those discussed in the books recommended on this site. Your credibility as a trainer, and your company's bottom line, will both profit.

Taking and Making Better Screenshots

2008-02-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

If you’ve been a technical writer for more than 15 minutes, you’ve probably had to take a few screen shots while documenting software. Most tech writers have their favorite software for capturing and processing static screen shots. I won’t compare these applications or try to tell you how to use them. Instead, I’ll give you techniques that help you produce the best possible screen shots, no matter what application you choose.

This article assumes that you’ve taken screen shots before. It uses terms like “hot keys” and “time delay” and “capture cursor.” If you don’t know what these terms mean, look them up in the help for your screen capture software. They represent standard features that are found in most screen capture applications.

This article contains three sections. Each section contains three tips for improving your screen shots. You can print this list of techniques and keep it as a reminder when creating screenshots:

Before the Shot

Reduce Colors on Your Display
Decide Which Steps to Shoot
Get Set to Capture the Action

While Taking the Shot

Crop Out Extraneous Information
Set a Time Delay
Capture the Sequence of Windows

Processing the Shot

Screen Size: 75% - 50% - 25%
Edit to Compress
For Odd Shapes Set Transparency

Before the Shot

A good screen shot starts before you take the picture. You can do several things to set up for a better screen shot:

Reduce Colors on Your Display
Decide Which Steps to Shoot
Get Set to Capture the Action

Reduce Colors on Your Display

The fewer colors in a screen shot, the less disk space it takes up. That’s important for download speed, printing speed, and file storage.

Usually, the best way to reduce the number of colors in a screen shot is to take the shot on a display that’s using fewer colors. This usually gives better results than taking the shot on a display with more colors and then reducing the number of colors after the shot.

Below, the first screen shot on the left was taken at 16 million colors, converted to 256 colors, and then saved as a .png file. Notice the banding by the model’s right eye. The second shot was taken at 256 colors and saved as a .png file. The transitions between shades of grey are much smoother in this version.

Taken in True Color and Converted to 256 Colors

Taken with Screen Set to 256 Colors

Decide Which Steps to Shoot

Do you need to take a screen shot of every step? Probably not.

For example, in Step 1 below the sequence on the left shows the Save As dialog box before the user clicks the New Folder icon. The Save As dialog box is clearly labeled as such, making the screen shot in Step 1 unnecessary. Step 1’s screen shot would be necessary only if the new dialog box were difficult to identify or if you needed to point out special features before the user begins interacting with it.

Step 1’s screen shot could be eliminated with very little loss of usability. This is especially true for screens and dialog boxes that are common (like Save As and Open), and that conform to Windows standards.

The sequence on the right shows the Save As dialog box only after the user begins performing actions inside it. The instructions take less room and are just as clear.

Screen Shot for Every Step

Screen Shot for Selected Step

1. This brings up the Save As dialog box:

2. Create a new folder by clicking the New Folder icon:

1. This brings up the Save As dialog box.

2. Create a new folder by clicking the New Folder icon:

Focus on the Action

If a screen shot illustrates an instruction, then use color or shading to focus on the action. This tip is especially useful for selecting menu items.

For example, let’s use the instruction “From the File menu, select Save.” Below, the shot on the left just shows the File menu pulled down. The reader must search for the Save command. The shot on the right shows the screen while the user performs the instruction. The user immediately sees what must be done in this instruction.

Before the Action

During the Action

Including the cursor in a screen shot is usually a good idea, because it’s an easy way to direct the user’s eye to the action.

While Taking the Shot

While taking the actual screen shot, you can do several things to improve the result:

Crop Out Extraneous Information
Set a Time Delay
Capture the Sequence of Windows

Crop Out Extraneous Information

If the user is interacting with only a small portion of a screen, and that portion is easy to find and easily distinguishable from other portions of the screen, then show only that portion. In the example below, there is only one OK button on the screen that the user could possibly click on. The screen shot on the left shows the button’s position in relation to the rest of the screen, but in a screen this small that doesn’t add much value.

Too Much Screen

Click the OK button:

Enough Screen

Click

Set a Time Delay

Most screen capture software enables you to capture menus while they are pulled down. You do this by setting the software to capture the cursor. This works with most applications. Some applications, however, will fold up their menus when you press the hotkeys on your screen capture software.

Usually, you then make sure that the hot keys for your screen capture are not interfering with the application. For example, you would make sure that the hot key for your screen capture software is not [Ctrl]-[S], which in most applications is the Save command. Trying to take a picture of a menu pulled down with this hot key would cause most applications to collapse the menu and begin the save process.

When changing the hotkeys fails to solve the problem, frustration ensues. You may even give up on capturing the menu in action. Try this:

Set your screen shot software to a time delay of a few seconds.
Hit the hotkeys to take the shot.
During the delay, choose the menu items you need to set up the shot.
Hold still…
The screen shot software takes the shot. Success!

Capture the Sequence of Windows

If the user does something to spawn a new window, you may want to show the relationship between the original and new window. Or, you may want to show how information carries over from the original to the new window. In these cases, consider taking a shot of the new, spawned window overlapping the original window.

In the example below, the active window is the result of double-clicking on the appointment in the Calendar window. The Subject and Location data carries over from what is displayed in the Calendar window. This shot clearly displays the relationship between the two windows.

Processing the Shot

These techniques may help you while processing your screen shots:

Screen Size: 75% - 50% - 25%
Edit to Compress
For Odd Shapes Set Transparency

Screen Size: 75% - 50% - 25%

Most paper documentation is read at 75% of the distance to a computer screen. This means you can make screen shots 75% of their actual size and most users will see on paper exactly what is on screen. Use this size screen shot when all of the detail in the screen shot must be clear and all text in the shot must be legible.

If the user needs to read only the large text in a screen, you can usually make the screen shot 50% of actual size. This works for most screens where the display font is 11 or 12 points.

If the user needs to locate the major objects in a screen, but not read text, 25% of actual size is adequate.

Edit to Compress

Sometimes, resizing a screen shot so that it fits a page results in a shot that is unreadable. This usually happens when the elements of a screen have a lot of empty space between them. For example, this screen shot from the home page of the CIA is 641 pixels wide:

Let’s assume you need to resize this so that it fits your page’s margins. Here’s the result:

Notice that the links have gotten difficult to read.

An alternative to resizing is editing to compress. In the example below, I used the marquee tool to select the links on the right and drag them to the left. Then, I cropped off the excess from the right side. Here’s the result:

You may have ethical concerns about editing a screen like this. If so, consider adding a notation that the screen shot has been “edited for size.”

For Odd Shapes Set Transparency

In the example below, a screen shot was taken of two overlapping windows and pasted into an electronic slide. Notice that the lower left corner consists of extraneous information. It also obscures the company logo:

To correct this, the screen shot was processed in a graphics program as follows:

The area to be transparent was filled with a color that is not used anywhere else in the graphic. In this case, bright green:
The transparency for the graphic was set to the fill color (bright green):
The graphic was saved as a .gif file.
Finally, the graphic was imported into the slide:

Technically, the graphic still overlaps the company logo, but because the overlapping part of the graphic is transparent the logo shows through.

Moodle versus Sakai

2008-02-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

I received a question about how Moodle compares to Sakai. I'd like to share it with you.

What are the advantages to a ... university of 20,000 faculty and 5,000 students to using Moodle over Sakai?

I found several advantages to Moodle over Sakai:

1. Moodle is better documented from every angle than Sakai. Administrators, Teachers, Students, and Developers all have better documentation in Moodle.

2. There are more official vendors ("Partners") providing service for Moodle than Sakai. Note that the term Moodle Partner is a trademark, and is managed by the founder to ensure that anyone awarded that label knows their stuff.

3. There is a much larger active community for Moodle. It's no advantage to have the most popular software in a category if the community of users don't help each other. But Moodle's community is both larger and more (inter)active than Sakai's. Put simply, if you don't want to or can't pay for consulting, you have a better chance of finding answers from the Moodle community than from the Sakai community.

4. Moodle's user interface is more consistent than Sakai's. And I don't just mean in the traditional sense, where you compare the icons, colors, menu actions, and layout on each page to ensure they match. As you go through a Moodle site, things look, feel, and function consistently. But more importantly, you interact with each activity, your classmates, and the teacher in a consistent way, whether it's in the chat room, a forum, or leaving feedback on a workshop.

This is because Moodle is designed around an educational philosophy called "social constructivist learning." Sakai, on the other hand, is designed around a technical framework. Try as I might, I could not find anywhere on the Sakai websites a statement of their instructional philosophy, or what instructional strategies they strive to support. To an IT person like those I work with every day, this isn't a big deal. But to teachers and students, it is a key point.

Moodle Teaching Techniques

2008-02-20T12:05:00.000-08:00

Moodle Teaching Techniques is my newest book from Packt Publishing. This book is for Moodle teachers and course creators who want to use Moodle's features in more creative ways. The book is subtitled Creative Ways to Use Moodle for Constructing Online Learning Solutions.

This book focuses on best practices for constructing learning solutions, such as:

Applying your teaching techniques through Moodle
Creative uses for Moodle’s standard features
Workarounds, providing alternative solutions
Abundantly illustrated with screenshots of the solutions you’ll build
When and how to apply the different learning solutions

It's especially suited for university and professional teachers.

The publisher's website

The publisher's website has a detailed description of the book: http://www.packtpub.com/Moodle-Teaching-Techniques-Open-Source/book

Reviews of Moodle Teaching Techniques

Susan Smith Nash, the "E-Learning Queen," published an extensive review of the book: http://elearnqueen.blogspot.com/2007/11/moodle-teaching-techniques-meets.html

Free Software Magazine was kind enough to say that "This type of practical advice is worth its weight in gold": http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/book_review_moodle_teaching_techniques

Harold Jarche posted a very short review on his learning and technology blog. I enjoyed the comments about using a dedicated learning management system versus making a mashup of other tools: http://www.jarche.com/?p=1447

Our Lady's Catholic High School, a mathematics and computing specialist high school, uses Moodle and also offers training in Moodle. See their review on their Moodle training blog: http://www.moodletraining.org/?p=20

And of course, there's always the Amazon.com reviews from those who've purchased the book: http://www.amazon.com/Moodle-Teaching-Techniques-William-Rice/dp/184719284X/