Archive for the ‘Tips for Trainers’ Category
See all content for this category
A Learning and Development Professional’s Continuing Education
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012Finding a way to put professional development into your working life is not easy to do. There are groups you can join, and you can follow people on social media (though often there’s too much information to comfortably consume). Professional groups and user communities can be helpful. For myself, I find a lot of value with Adapt meetings (a non-profit group that helps connect L&D pro’s with Technology), and heading up to Boston for Adobe User Group meetings (when the stars align for a sitter).
In the end though, it often comes down to the need for “Train-The-Trainer”. Some places will bring in a TTT course for their Learning and Development staff, though usually the success or failure of a trainer rides on the end of class evaluations.
I’ve been asked to use a huge variety of evaluations, mostly made by the site or by the training company I was contracting with. Generally they fall along the lines of “Did you find the class to be valuable” or “Was the trainer prepared?” These (as you may know) are known in the industry as “Smile Sheets” and what they really measure is how good the instructor was at making the students feel good – good about him or her, good about themselves, good about the material… you get the idea.Â
What do you do when that feedback is not enough? If you’re truly dedicated to teaching then it’s not enough to have people like you – they have to “Get it”. Teachers/Trainers – you know what I’m talking about. It’s that moment when the person you’re working with clicks into understanding. Their eyes sparkle and they smile or sit a little taller in their seat. It’s really addicting – if you do training (I’m using training and teaching interchangeably)Â you ride that feeling like a wave. Having an entire class really click-in is a huge energy boost. Having people not click-in feels horrible – it’s like death by paper cuts. To stay in the field you need to keep fresh. Bad habits develop over time, little things you don’t even notice.
So what do you do if you’re an independent or in a workplace that doesn’t have the time, or money to spend keeping trainers sharp?
Make it yourself
You can make your own Train-the-trainer class – I had to. Sign up for webinars, regardless of the topic. Go to seminars, user group meetings, anywhere where people are presenting. Keep doing this. Then do it some more. You’ll be making little comments in your head “Oh – never say that” and “Ooh, that works” while checking what the view is like from the student seat. It doesn’t need to be work related – I recently was at a dance seminar and saw a really talented dancer struggle with the multiple levels of students in the class.
Find the people you want to learn from. One the things I’ve enjoyed doing is building a list of people that are my touchstones for certain topics. For example, will always listen to Cindy Huggett, Lieve Weymeis, Cathy Moore… The list goes on for a while. This helps me for my own development and as a great shorthand for my students. When I teach Adobe classes, I will often say “you can always trust Deke – his info is solid!“. I do this because Deke Mc Clelland is not only a great trainer but also a really good resource.
So what can you do?
Here are a few things you could build into your own personal TTT program.
Webinars
(AKA Online Training, Virtual Training, that stuff you dread…)
- Sign up for a free webinar service, one that let’s you record the meetingÂ
- Give your friends some free 20 min class. Those videos will be very helpful.
Screen recording
- Sign up for Jing or some other screen cast recording service (Jing has 5 min free).
- Make a video on one feature or term from your work.
- Show the video to someone else, perferably several other people
Live video recording
- Record yourself presenting to a room. A real room; one that is NOT full of your people. This is the brutal one. DON’T watch it the same day!
- Watch it
- Cry
- Do it again
Your Turn
What have you done to keep your skills sharp in your work?
Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments.
Photoshop compositing and the never ending road
Sunday, November 6th, 2011Mastery doesn’t mean you’re done learning
Are you a “Photoshop Expert” or “Guru” ? *shudder* When was the last time you edumacated yourself? (yes. the spelling is deliberate)
The image on the left is of a composite I’ve been working on for class. I will play with more features when making “random art”. I’m a big fan of the Photoshop Disasters site. It kills me that some of those images manage to get the the approvals process all the way to final print without anyone going… “Wait! What the hell is that!“. I don’t have the same time pressures that they do and am grateful for it (one of the many reasons why I’m a software trainer and not a production artist). However, some of the mistakes that you’ll see are just nuts. Basic anatomy people. Normal human elbows don’t attach at the chest – It’s not that hard!
So… back to the purple fantasy picture… I don’t have any specific class that is if going to use those images – I just need to keep my hand in and work on all the techniques that I want my students to know.
There are specific tutorials I will sometimes use, and I need to work through those regularly too. Nothing, however, beats the value of grabbing some images on whim (bless you fotolia) and trying to make something out of thin air. I urge you to dig thru the stock photography database at your favorite site (I cannot give the Fotolia people enough love) and look for an image that captures your imagination. In this case it was the dancer and the purple background that did it.
Ok, Kirsten, we get it. So why the rant?
Someone recently expressed surprise that I have a Lynda.com membership. They said something to the effect of “but I thought you taught this stuff?” Yes, I do and have for over a decade. I also go to the NAPP website, Deke.com, have an RSS feed of tips and tutorials a mile long, and have a bookcase of software manual that takes up most of one large wall.
It’s simple – you’re never done
I’m well known for having three-too-many resources for people at the end of class. I have books and videos I recommend along with the names of people who are always worth listening too. There’s a reason I have that information – I’m a student too. Any technical trainer (heck, any teacher at all) will tell you that the best way to master a subject is to teach it to someone else. It’s true. It’s also true that you don’t really know a subject if you can’t explain it to someone. My favorite quote is on my desktop so I see it every day, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough - Einstein”.
Please don’t get caught up in the “I know that already” trap. I was fortunate enough to go to Photoshop World when it was last in Boston. Most of the classes I took covered things that I teach in class regularly – and yet I got a TON out of going. I got to see other trainers work, which is extremely valuable, and picked up lots of new ways of getting a topics across to an audience.
It’s scary to know that there is no end to what you can learn. Sometimes it seems like there’s too much to take in. I won’t lie – I sometimes curse Adobe’s release schedule, but focus on the positive. Every new features gives you a new toy to play with. There are so many fun, amazing things you can learn – become a master of – that you can pick and choose what suits you best.Â
Strive!
Mastery is a fantastic goal. It’s just not the last goal. The farther you go the easier that is to forget – we’re never done learning.
Â
Â
Â
Intro to ePub – part 2 of 3
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011ePub Tips, Tricks, and Links
In the first post of this series, I had you create a very simple file (with a template the Terry White was nice enough to provide) and preview it in Adobe’s Digital Editions software.
In this post I’m going to share a lot of links and some general Do’s and Don’ts for epub and digial book creation. In the third and final post we will be making a file from scratch.
What am I getting into?
If you are a regular InDesign user making content for eBooks can be a bit of a brain twister. In essence you are making webpages. Much of the control you had is gone, and some of the really fun features that can be seen in interactive files won’t work in book readers. To give you a sense of how new this might be, I’m putting some of the tips I gathered together below
General
- .epub is an XML based format designed to enable text reflow. All content will be linearized so plan for one long stream for text and images.
Layout
- Make each page one text box with inline graphics
- Make the cover ONE image
- Create separate document for cover page – have it be one image or imported ID file
- The book panel is a good way to make separate chapters that are seen in the conversion
- InDesign has an option for automatically making a TOC in an epub file. Create a TOC style and specify it on export. The Automatic ID TOC is turned into navigation men
Formatting
- You are creating Cascading Style Sheets when you convert (think like a web designer)
- Change Nested or Grep styles to regular styles
- Use Space Above, Below, and Indent to make space around images
- Soft Returns are turned into hard Returns
- Use Paragraph and Character Styleson the text (these will convert to CSS for the .epub file).
- You can’t totally control the fonts the user will see (the type of reader that is used will determine how fonts are seen)
- Convert Nested and Grep Styles to Paragraph and Character Styles
- Epub does support font embedding, but not all eBooks formats do and not all eBook readers that support the epub format will use embedded fonts
- Use OpenType Fonts
Exporting
- If you don’t want to make a new file you can apply XML tags to existing content and use the Structure pane to reorder it for export
- For long documents break document into chapters and use the book panel
- Create a Table Of Contents – this will become navigation in the e-reader
- For a true TOC you may need to make a manual page with hyperlinks or cross-ref’s
- Un-anchored content will float and end up at the beginning or end of your file
- Keep main graphics between 300 and 600 px wide
- The cover is often best at 800×600
- Images are converted to RGB
- Add Metadata
Graphics
- Epub supports several image formats, including JPEG, GIF, PNG
- Anchor Images to an empty paragraph (then center align and use space before and after) or paste Inline
- Use color images
- InDesign coverts graphics to JPEG and GIF when exporting to epub unless you choose to copy the original images
- Convert InDesign art by Cut/Paste into Il or PS and Placing in ID
Conversion
Altered
- CMYK will be converted to RGB on export
- Convert Tables to lists or images if you can
Preserved
- Hyperlinks to URL’s, files, email addresses, and text anchors
- Cross Ref’s are converted to hyperlinks on export (Note: Some eBook readers don’t support any hyperlinks)
- Footnotes are kept, but are converted to endnotes
Discarded
- Multiple Carriage returns
- Empty Frames
- Frame attributes such as Fill and Stroke
- Custom settings for Anchored Objects
- Text wrap setting. Use Space before and After instead
- Hyperlinks that reference specific pages
- Master Page Items
- Automatic Page Numbers
- Page Breaks
- TOC generated by the InDesign TOC feature (do this anyway – it becomes navigation )
- Artwork made with InDesign vector tool (those you should copy into Illustrator and place back into InDesign)
- Not all text formatting is preserved
Links
- Digital Editions Reader
- Open-source EpubCheck program hosted by Google at code.google.com/p/epubcheck
- Free, standalone, cross-platform Javaâ„¢ app, ePubChecker
- More information on epub format -Â http://idpf.org/
- Free open-source eBook conversion tool www.calibre-ebook.com
- InDesign to Kindle – Adobe
- Terry White – http://terrywhite.com/techblog/
- Colleen Cunningham has a massive and massivly helpful list of resources here - http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2011/indesign-to-ebook-resources/
Ok, got it – now what?
Take an existing Indesign file (a reasonalbly fancy one) and export it to epub. Look at how the content is moved (and what doen’t convert). Next time we will finish will a soup-to-nuts tutorial – see you then!
Scooby-Doo and the Office 2007 Mystery Tabs
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011In the previous post, we looked at “The Office Button” briefly. Let’s take a quick look at another feature…
Scooby-doo mystery tabs
One of the biggest changes from a behavioral perspective in 2007′s Office Suite is the new “Contextual Tabs” – what I call Scooby-Doo Mystery Tabs. In short, you can’t see certain content from the main tabs.
If you want the see the details on manipulating a picture you must be touching the picture to get the options for it. If you click off the picture, the tab disappears.
In the screen capture you’ll see “Header and Footer Tools” in green. This is the tab you get when you insert a header or footer. When you click back into the document, the tab goes away. When you want the tab back you need to click into the header or footer.
It’s not a huge problem but it does take some getting used for for a lot of my students.
Just remember: Touch the content you want to change.
The Five Rules for Software Trainers
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011Here are the “five rules” I talked about in my chat with Rick Zanotti and Terrence Wing on eLearnChat this week.
- The Trainer Should Never Lie And The Student Should Always Cheat
- There is NO “Bippity Boppity Boo”
- Software Is A Hammer
- Students Just Want To Have Fun
- Be Prepared To Go Backwards
By themselves, these don’t make much sense. Watching the video will put them in context.
I didn’t expect to learn anything at Harvard
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011The title is a bit misleading. It needs a subtitle for context – “Never forget that each new student gives you a chance at gaining a fresh perspective”.
I teach people how to use software for a living. It’s a wonderful job that lets me work in a huge variety of locations, teaching many different topics. I almost never have to teach the same thing two weeks in a row and, while I do have many repeat students, I am usually at a different location each time I work (I don’t deal with boredom well).
One of my regular gigs is teaching Outlook and Entourage at Harvard University. I’m nowhere near qualified to teach students; just faculty and staff. The irony is delicious.
I really like Harvard; each class is going to be at least a little different from the last because of the variety of people signed up for training. I’m usually very good at keeping fresh in my mind how challenging it is for new users to learn a software package for the first time. One of the things I haven’t been as mindful of (which I realize today was a HUGE missed opportunity) is how different my usual corporate training world is from a university environment. I thought that having gone to college gave me all the perspective I needed, and yet I have approached certain topics from a solidly corporate mindset without even thinking about it.
One of the bigger challenges for users moving from a previous software setup (for mail, calendar, notes, and the like) that was not integrated to an Exchange Server/MS Outlook or Entourage style program is the concept of what’s known as the “free/busy calendar” – having a shared calendar space that shows time as free or busy. If you haven’t heard of this it’s essentially how people in the same group (office, company…) can see that other people have time booked on their calendars but not necessarily the details. One user looking to book a meeting with another would “invite” that person to a meeting with a meeting email and be able to see strips of color like blue and purple indicating that the person was “busy” or “out of the office”.
I’ve been clear on why some people didn’t like others “seeing” what they are doing, even with no details – but until this afternoon I was thinking of it from the corporate side. Basically, in most companies this is simply “how it is” and there is no other option. You can not use the calendar, fill it with dummy information, or deal with the fact that people in the office down the hall will see that you are gone in an hour, even though they don’t know where you’re going to.
I’ve been sympathetic when people were uncomfortable with it and have helped people work within whatever IT rules apply to their particular group. In some cases there is nothing that can change, in other cases there are things that can be altered. Today though I really listened. One of my students laid out cogently and patiently her reservations for having her time usage (free or busy) shown to others. The lesson for me was to see how much I was thinking in the frame of mind of a training environment that has very different users, and sometimes very different needs.
It was wonderful for me to get this wake-up call. I generally am able to see things from my students point of view but in this instance I was only partially doing it.
Why does that matter?
If the end result is the same, why is it important to see the training from the students perspective?
It changes the way you phrase things, how you order the topics, what examples you use – it changes how much you make the training about helping a person make a connection with what they need to learn. You can’t make anyone learn anything. Much of the joy and excitement in the job comes from learning enough about the people in your room to target information specifically for them. You know it when it worked. The “Ah Ha” look is universal – and awesome!
Learn from my mistake.
Don’t let time go by at a new training site without making sure you can see the work through the eyes of the people you’re there to help.
On My Computer in Entourage and Outlook 2011 for Mac
Monday, February 28th, 2011“On My Computer” is one of the searches that has brought people to my site. I mention it in my post on Outlook 2011 but not what it is. Here’s a quick explanation of what it is and why some people will find it in Outlook 2011.
Entourage and Outlook are both products that fall into the category of “PIMsâ€, or “Personal Information Managersâ€. They have Mail, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and Contacts all wrapped in one product. Generally the different sections work with each other to help users manage most aspects of work and/or home life.
Why mention Entourage in an article about Outlook?
Entourage was the Macintosh email/calendar app in MS Office before Outlook 2011 came out. Some of the confusion people are experiencing is because a few of the software “quirks” are really Entourage features that were brought over into the replacement application. “On My Computer” is an odd concept for anyone who is not used to Entourage.
What is “On My Computer”
?
Mail is brought into the application from another server using a few different methods; POP, IMAP, or Exchange. Your setup determines which method you use – which controls how some parts of the software look to you.
In one type of Exchange setup users will see a server copy of their Mail and a blank area called “On My Computer†which provides a place to archive mail messages locally on the hard drive. People can move mail from the server to the local drive easily.
There is generally a server version of the Calendar as well as a local calendar. The idea is that you can have a private local calendar (that can only be seen from that machine) and a server calendar that can hold meetings and other work-related items. However, many people keep all calendar items on the server so they can be seen from OWA (Outlook Web Access – the browser version) or their iPhone/Blackberry.
The Notes, Tasks, and personal Email Groups are usually local only but Contacts, Calendar, and Mail can generally be stored either locally or on the server.
To make things even more complicated – it’s sometimes possible to have items that are usually local only, like Notes that sync to a server. In a company, the organization that installs and implements the software will have many rules they have to follow for data management so, even though the software is the same, the behavior of the software can be different company to company (which for a software trainer is not a lot of fun to figure out, believe me).
So what is the practical result?
People using Entourage often have to remember to keep the “On My Computer” part closed and just ignore it most of the time.
For Outlook 2011 it depends on if the user is using POP, IMAP, or Exchange mail as to what they see. For users that do see it, but are not using it to store anything, “On My Computer” can be turned off in Preferences -> General.
If it can be hidden, why turn it on?
Because most of the time you can’t make private email groups (distribution lists) without it. It’s also a fast way of pulling mail off the server to archive on your local machine (you are backing up your computer regularly, right?) There is no way of hiding it from some screens and displaying it in others.
My head hurts. What should I do if I have the software?
Ok – here’s the simplest version I can think of.
- If you’re on Entourage and you see a server version of your mail and calendar and an “On My Computer” version – keep it closed in those screens unless you wan use it for local storage. You likely will only have an “On My Computer” option for notes, tasks, and private contacts though.
- If you’re on Outlook 2011 (not 2010, just the mac version) keep “On My Computer” turned off unless you need personal email groups or to have a local-only version of mail.
- If you’re in Outlook 2011 and your Mail lands in “On My Computer” from the server keep it turned on to see all of your content.
I hope that helps new users avoid accidentally putting items locally that they want to be on the server. When it comes to Outlook 2011 please keep in mind that it is very new software (it had a October 2010 release date) and should evolve over time. The version that you see at home or at work may look quite different that what you see in pictures on the internet. There are a stunning number of ways to change the behavior of the software during installation – most, if not all of which you will have no control over in a work setting. So don’t be surprised if your version is different that others.
Introducing Captivate to new users
Friday, January 28th, 2011I’ve been meaning to write this for a while but was motivated to actually do it when I met some people recently who told me “Captivate is hard”. They had taken a class at work but didn’t really use the software after that because it seemed to be too much effort. Before I begin my rant I want to be clear that I am talking specifically about one or two day in-person training, usually not professional training either.
First –
Some General Software Training Rules..
- Software is a tool. The goal for most people is to learn what features they need, which ones might be helpful, and to ignore what clearly does not apply to them.
- Users do not need to learn it or use it the “right” way – only the way that will work best for them, which is sometimes the “right” way and sometimes not.
- If you don’t know what software is for, using the software for the first time will be more confusing and frustrating than it would be if you had a sense of the software first.
- Frustration in users reduces how much room you have to help them learn. Teaching software is an art – helping people learn new pieces of information and guiding them to prioritize what they need to remember. Make it easier on both of you and reduce the frustration level as much as you can.
- If learning is not engaging and done with energy the students will have to work harder to focus on the material (this makes it harder for you – see above point).
Ok, now find someone who has taken a Captivate class. If person thinks the software is no fun and is really hard to use, my bet is that the training showed the software “the right way” (which is often a methodical tour of menus and the screen as the first topic). Ask that person how class started and you will probably hear “well, we opened the software and started to learn all the features”.
*buzzing sound* NOPE – care to try again?
That behavior is fine for teaching how to create mail merge in Microsoft Word, but Captivate is a product that needs to be introduced to most people. Saying “it makes training movies” or “It’s like PowerPoint with quizzes” does not give a clear enough picture for students who unfamiliar with e-learning tools. Before you show them the interface you need to help them to relax and be ready for what’s next The best way to do that is to show them the reason Captivate is awesome.
So… the first thing? Show what it does.
Have a few sample files, or links to ones you like. I’d suggest one or two pretty basic ones (one soft skills and one software sim if you can swing it) and then one really good one (so they can see what is possible at an advanced level).
Now you can turn on the software.
Second Step? – Learn the basic interface. One of the best ways to do this is to make a very fast little movie.
A software simulation can be a nice simple introduction. Pick a very, very basic skill (like changing the desktop wallpaper) and have the students make a quick sim. Be sure to let them know that this is just so they can see how the software works and this is NOT all they need to do in a proper recording.
What should they do? Have them get out pen and paper. Then put these steps on the board.
- Describe what you want to do
- Rough out the steps on paper
- Practice First
- UNDO ALL
- Record
- Publish/Preview
This is not the list for a final movie – it’s only for the very first movie someone makes. Have the students follow these (don’t forget the undo step). When they preview their movies you often will hear “Oh!” when they see what they have done and how much Captivate does for them.
At this point they will be in the software and looking at the interface. This is when you can show them different views and buttons.
Why not use an exercise file?
If you have people open a file they have never seen they will not automatically have an easy, relaxed sense of what the file is for. IF on the other hand, you have them review the file they just recorded you will have the benefit of automatic engagement on their part. This is their file, they know what they did – so now they will have an internal conversation that goes more like this…
“What is that? Oh, that’s when I was moving the mouse. Hey, there’s a label made for me – that’s cool”
rather than this…
“Ok.. what am I looking at? What are those things over there? Why is there a mouse icon and what is that blue thing? What are those little boxes for? Why is there text here? Do I have to type that?”
What’s Next?
There is a lot of information that goes into Captivate training and this post does not cover all of it – just the introduction piece. They will eventually need to learn about adding rollovers and hotspots, using sound, planning out a template, adding graphics, quizzing, adding PowerPoint files … you get the idea.
However – the MOST important parts of making Captivate movies are taking time to script and storyboard – this is often left out of “intro to captivate” material and that’s a huge mistake. If you don’t give them at least a little amount of practice making a script and storyboard most of them won’t really do it after class.
In a future post I will go into more detail about the rest of the class and show examples of scripts and storyboards.
The class is only the beginning of their learning experience
Make sure they leave with links to blogs, videos, and any other suggestions that will help them keep moving forward. Often the people who they work for will assume that a one , two, or three day training is all it takes to go from “never seen it” to “Subject Matter Expert”. Unless people have tried using the software, it is pretty common to have them assume that making a decent training movie is “practically magical” and that simply giving the software to someone (**bippity boppity boo**) “makes” them an e-learning expert.
Making a Captivate movie is easy. Making good and engaging Captivate is much more work – just like making a website or PowerPoint presentation is not that hard, but making a good ones? That’s a different kettle of onions.
Set your new users up for success by helping them have reasonable expectations about what kind of effort goes into making e-learning modules. If they get that it’s something they will get better at over time and that they will NEED practice, they will end up making much better work in the long run.
Captivate is a wonderful piece of software and making engaging e-learning should be a fun and exciting experience. Teaching a Captivate class is nearly the most fun you can have as a trainer – make it fun and memorable for them and you’ll get to “Oh!” much faster.
From the Blog
- WordPress, I both love and hate you
Saturday, April 28th, 2012 - A Learning and Development Professional’s Continuing Education
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 - Photoshop CS6 Sneek Peek #3
Monday, February 13th, 2012