Book Image

User Training for Busy Programmers

By : William Rice
Book Image

User Training for Busy Programmers

By: William Rice

Overview of this book

If you need to write a successful software training course and are unsure of how to start, then this book gets right to the point with clear, concise directions for developing an end-user software course. This step-by-step job aid walks you through the process of developing a successful, instructor-led software class. There are many good books on training theory. This book takes a more practical, condensed approach for when you don't have time to learn training theory. It is based on fifteen years of technical writing and training experience. In under 100 pages, the book guides you through the process of developing an end-user software course using a method that is tested, proven, and based upon sound instructional theory.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Chapter 7. Setup and Test Run

Every course writer and instructor would like to have a complete, start-to-finish test run of every course they deliver. Unfortunately, today’s tight budgets and aggressive timelines don’t always allow for a thorough test run of every course. The development method that you have followed minimizes the chance of surprises when the course is delivered. However, you should still try to perform all or at least some of the pre-class tasks below.

Test the Room Setup

You don’t know for sure if the course software will run on the instructor and student computers until you have tested it. For example, consider teaching a web-based application. In this case, the firewall or security settings in the browser might prevent the application from functioning properly. If the software must be installed on the training room computers, you may need to deal with issues like disk space, memory, and missing .dll files.

You should also test the projector for the training room. Some...