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When I *really* wanted to learn Pagemaker or AutoCAD, I used multiple
sources, including video.
It's a fact (*Jack, boomalacka, boomalacka*) that humans react to differing
learning modalities (auditory, kinesthetic, visual, et al.). I'm primarily
visual, which is why sitting in a college lecture hall with 200 others
didn't work for me, nor did having WWJ's chief engineer attempt to explain
the technical aspects of electricity, amplification and radio without a
single visual aid.
So.... videos are great, but one needs well laid documentation, too. The
Aldus PageMaker manuals still remain as the gold standard in my world. And
the video I acquired was longer than your suggested timeframes, but was
chunked out so a viewer could go to any segment at any time. The same holds
true for AutoCAD and CorelDRAW! videos I've enjoyed learning from.
Think about this: Does anyone you know memorize pages in a publication, or
portions thereof? Many of us do, and such material gets imprinted to the
extent that we can immediately pull it back up and recall some complex
piece of information. How can anyone do that from video alone? Yes, there
are those who memorize movie dialog and can reenact segments verbatim; I'm
not one of them.
BTW, to learn Framemaker, I bought the complementary Classroom In a Book,
which consists of background info coupled with exercises (located on an
accompanying optical disc). Auditory aside, think about how many modalties
such a delivery vehicle offers. And yes, specific segments can be instantly
referenced as many times as one wants. The series offers a great way to
learn Adobe products, IMO.
On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 10:52 AM, Stuckey, Ginger <X2BVSHEW -at- southernco -dot- com>
wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm back with another question. My company is switching some engineering
> software so they can get better metrics and make 3D and 2D models more
> intelligent. It is a major philosophy shift. Key team members from each
> engineering discipline are going through different types of training. Out
> of that, we need to train the rest of the employees.
>
> The person who is supposed to oversee training thinks video only is the
> way to go. You can find all kinds of documentation to support that but not
> much specific to software training (so far).
>
> My position, as an experienced writer, is that you need a blended
> approach. Video is fine but have some written documentation to go along
> with it so that users have something to refer to later if they don't want
> to find or watch a video. Documentation can be in any format so don't get
> hung up on that. I also think videos should be no longer than 5 to 7
> minutes not 15 or longer. Users also need someone available to ask
> questions and that should be part of the mix.
>
> Based on your experience in the real world, what works for software
> training.
>
> Ginger Stuckey
> Technical Publications - Design
>
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