Book Image

User Training for Busy Programmers

By : William Rice, William Rice
Book Image

User Training for Busy Programmers

By: William Rice, 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)

Developing a Demo—Key Steps


When developing the demonstration that precedes an in-class exercise, follow this method:

  1. 1. Make a copy of the step-by-step directions for the exercise. Use this copy as the starting point for the demonstration.

  2. 2. Identify the core functionality that the student must know to complete the exercise successfully. What menu items and functions must the student learn?

  3. 3. Delete any optional functionality from the copy of the directions. Remove steps that use any menu items or functions that the student does not need to know.

  4. 4. Change the data in the copy, so that the demo uses different data from the exercise. Ensure that the demo data does not interfere with or affect the exercise data.

  5. 5. Consider adding optional functionality that you think will enhance the demo. Try to use different optional functionality than that used in the exercise.