The Logical Blog

July 14, 2011

Writing & Grammar: More on Checklists

by Jennie Ruby

Last week I wrote an article about checklists. As I finish reading The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, I have learned that in fields where the individual expert is seen as the key to success, resistance to the idea of using a checklist is rampant.

Surgery and financial management are two fields where adoption of checklists has been slow, despite the fact that checklists work. In one study, the use of a pre-surgery checklist decreased the number of patients suffering complications by 50%. Nevertheless, surgeons have been slow to adopt the use of checklists.

Are there ways that the job of writing, or developing training materials, or creating videos is seen as one done by an expert who needs no help and no checklist? That is exactly a sign that a checklist might be needed!

A checklist does not need to be a static printout either. Fellow skills and drills reader Stephanie L. Carrigg says that she "LIVES by checklists." Task lists have helped her finish night school while working full time in a busy law firm. She adds that using electronic tools also helps. For example, a daily calendar reminder that automatically sounds the alert near the end of the day helps her remember a crucial task that she must complete before leaving work.

I am seeking new ways to use checklists. I have one for updating a publication website when the new issue comes out. I have one for changing the filter in my reverse osmosis water filter. Do you have a checklist about writing, editing, creating training materials, or other tasks that you can share?

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About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Editing with Word 2003 and Acrobat 7" and "Editing with MS Word 2007" to her credit. She is a publishing professional with more than 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.

July 14, 2011

eLearning & mLearning: Stop Motion & Time-Lapse Inspiration

by AJ George

Trond Kristiansen's eLearning Devcon 2011 session, Using Photographic Techniques In eLearning, really got the rusty gears of creativity in my brain churning about how to incorporate some photographic techniques into eLearning.

I've previously covered how to easily manipulate stock images, but Trond's ideas were decidedly more high brow…and fun. It had never before occurred to me to incorporate time-lapse or stop motion techniques into eLearning. Now that it's been presented to me I am flooded with ideas where this could be really dynamic in learning modules.

In Garin Hess's eLearning Devcon 2011 session, Intro to mLearning, Garin mentioned that the healthcare market made up 17% of the total US market for mLearning, which is a 24% growth rate. I think the medical field in particular could benefit from time lapse and stop motion in eLearning. What about a 360 degree tour of campuses/facilities/offices? 360 degree shots around medical equipment? What if those 360 shots had the option to zoom in on specific parts? We can do this in online shopping carts, so why not in eLearning? Or how about a time lapse video showing the accumulation of germs on unwashed hands or equipment?

So, today, for your viewing pleasure… some inspiration:

This one appears to have been made for fun, but could probably be very useful as a portfolio or how-to situation in the beauty field.

http://vimeo.com/2470086

This one is rather long, but just watching a small snippet of it illustrates how you could use this technique to run through software processes or to show how much work goes in to a project.

http://vimeo.com/927062

This is a fun use of stop motion for educational purposes.

http://vimeo.com/22869880

Time-lapse of a stop motion! Totally meta. (And, in case you'd like to see the stop motion he's creating, you can watch it here ).

http://vimeo.com/15669301

This is in another language, but is a good example of a 360 degree tour that allows for zooming in for a closer look.

http://vimeo.com/419831

And for some serious professional quality:

http://vimeo.com/16369165

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Communicator and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

July 12, 2011

Looking to Teach or Facilitate Online? Learn the Secrets to Success

The Art of Facilitating Online Training Classes

Published reports say "the average student in online learning conditions perform better than those receiving face-to-face instruction." That's encouraging news for trainers and training companies looking to offer classes online.

Before jumping into the online training world with both feet, consider this: the world is littered with online courses that fail. Why? Typically, online classes that do not succeed are dull and far from interactive. The simple fact is this: if you don't quickly and constantly engage your students, you've lost them.

During this live, 3-hour online training event you will learn how to facilitate online (synchronous) training classes. You will be introduced to the best practices for leading an online training class and the hardware, software and venture capital you will need to get started.

Instructor: Kevin Siegel

Note: Last minute registrations are always welcome! Click here to learn more or to sign up.

July 10, 2011

Writing & Grammar: Make a List… And Check It Twice

This week I am reading The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. It confirms an important part of what I teach in my proofreading and editing classes: Use a checklist. Although the book is written by a physician for application in the medical field, the points it makes are ones that I have been familiar with for decades in publishing.

The main point is that the human brain is not as consistent and infallible as we wish it were. Merely knowing facts, knowing how to do a procedure, and knowing the consequences of failure will not get us to the highest level of accuracy in actually accomplishing things. We forget details, even though we know them and know that they are important.

The solution? Make checklists and use the checklists, whether you think you need them or not. For years I was filled with anxiety when packing for business trips. Would I forget my flash drive? Would I forget my good shoes? One time I did forget my socks, and had to give a presentation wearing the crazy-expensive and uncomfortably snug "support hose" that were the only socks available in the nearby drugstore.

The solution? You've got it. A packing checklist. For years, I used a blueline checklist when checking the final printer's proofs for scientific journals. It prevented the occupational hazard of waking up in the middle of the night and wondering, "Did I remember to check the copyright date?" and the like.

And a mental checklist rather than a written one is not as effective. The short mental checklist of shut the windows, turn off the electricity, take out the trash, and so on recently failed me when leaving a vacation cabin. Days later a neighbor called frantically to tell me the front door was standing open, having been left unlocked! We were luckily not robbed, but you can be sure a written checklist will be in use the next time I go there.

Some of you noticed my failure to use a checklist two weeks ago to remind myself to log in to the Acrobat review of this newsletter and proofread my work. I incorrectly used an apostrophe in the word expression's in the first sentence of my article about apostrophes!

Do you have a success story about a checklist? Do you have a horror story that drove you to create one? We'd love to hear from you.

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July 6, 2011

mLearning: The Time is Now

by AJ George

mLearning students The push for mobile learning (mLearning) has been a surprisingly long one. Last year we talked about how mLearning wasn't quite ready, but we threw out some technical tips in case you were ready to dive in. Almost a year later we noted that the Horizon Report slated adoption of mLearning for one year or less. And now a recent T+D magazine features the article: "At Last: M-Learning Going Mainstream."

It looks like the future of mLearning is officially now.

From the T+D article:

"We were surprised at the slower pace of adoption," says Janet Clarey, senior analyst for Bersin & Associates. "However, after nearly 10 years of predicting that m-learning will go mainstream, we're finally seeing enough momentum now that it really is going mainstream, and it's driven by the consumer market."

The article says that a Pew Internet & American Life Project study from July 2010 found that 55% of US mobile web users go online daily, up from 24% the year before. There appears to be little evidence of adoption slowing down anytime soon, so it looks like if you've been itching to get started with mobile learning, the time is now. But be aware that mLearning, even if it is the right time, may not be right for everyone. Before jumping in, consider these points from Jason Bickle's eLearning Devcon 2011 session, Design Approaches for Adapting Content for mLearning.

Do you have…

an eLearning strategy that includes other forms of content?
an audience that needs mobile information?
a standard delivery platform?
the need to track interactions from mobile platforms?
content suited for mobile delivery?
a mobile content manager?
a mobile web developer?

If you find yourself with a lot of no's, it may not matter if mLearning has officially come into its own… it still may not be quite right for you. mLearning is, after all, just a buzzword unless you have the proper context for it in your learning.

In what may be another boon for mLearning, last week Google released a beta tool called Swiffy, a free Flash to HTML5 converter. My first thought about Swiffy was that it would solve a LOT of the problems I hear with SWF content not playing on Apple devices like the iPad. I tried Swiffy on some of my Captivate-published SWFs and I'm sorry to report that none of them converted using the Swiffy beta. Until Swiffy will convert Captivate SWFs, it appears that Swiffy will have limited use. However, I do think Swiffy will evolve and it won't be long before more elaborate Flash content (such as SWFs created with Captivate) will be easily converted to HTML5. Fingers crossed!

(Note: You must use a WebKit browser like Chrome or Safari for Swiffy to work at all.)

We aren't the only ones buzzing about mLearning. Check out these other recent Coming of Age articles floating around the eLearning community:

More from ELDC 2011:

eLearning: Putting it Into Context

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Communicator and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

July 6, 2011

Adobe Captivate 5.5: The Pros of Contrast

by Kevin Siegel

I fell in love with Captivate 5 the moment I started the program. The user interface (UI) was a vast improvement over every legacy versions of the program. Looking back on my experience with Captivate 5, I have few complaints. Honestly, Captivate 5 is really, really good and there's not much to gripe about.

That being said, I do have a few pet peeves in Captivate 5. For instance, what's up with the color contrast (or should I say the lack of contrast)? If you take a look at the Timeline of any slide, you'll see that the contrast between objects on the Timeline leaves plenty to be desired.

Check out the image below. If you're like me, the color contrast between one object on the Timeline isn't very good at all. For instance, the difference between the pale green color used for interactive objects (the Button and the Text Entry Box) and the light blue (used for captions and animations) are too similar. If your display's contrast is off just a bit, it will be difficult for you to tell one object group from the other. And in the image below, the click box object (fourth down the list) is selected. However, the contrast between the gray list at the left and the only slightly darker gray highlight color makes it somewhat difficult to see which of the Timeline objects is actually selected.

Captivate 5 Timeline Colors

So along comes Captivate 5.5 and now there's one less pet peeve in the world. As you can see in the image below, Adobe overhauled the Timeline colors. Now you can clearly see the interactive objects (dark green) from the static objects (blue). With a simple glance at the left side of the Timeline, you'll know that the click box object is selected. Nice job Adobe!

Captivate 5.5 Timeline colors

If you have Captivate pet peeves, let me know. I'm happy to share them here with other skills and drills readers.

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Looking to learn Adobe Captivate 5 or 5.5? We offer Beginner and Advanced classes. Both Windows and Macintosh developers can attend these classes.

June 29, 2011

eLearning: Putting it Into Context

by AJ George

Another eLearning Devcon has come and gone, and if you missed it you missed a great conference with great speakers…as well as gorgeous weather and scenery in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I attended many sessions (from mLearning, to 508 compliance, to HTML5, etc), but it seemed to me that it all came back to one topic, and that was putting learning into context so that learners could understand and easily retrieve the learned knowledge later so that it could be implemented.

When it comes to learning, the issue these days is not so much that we don't have the technology or the know-how to make some really cool stuff. The issue is how to use that technology in meaningful ways to create actual learning–not just flashy, technology-packed modules of fluff.

In Jason Bickle's session Design Approaches for Adapting Content for mLearning, Bickle started out with a warning: Don't go mobile just because it's the next thing to do. Make sure it makes sense in the context of your organization (more on that here).

Other presenters had differing ideas for using new technology in eLearning.

In his session Using Photographic Techniques in Your eLearning Courses, Trond Kristiansen touched on some interesting uses of photos (to create stop-motion video, time-lapse photos and 360 degree tours of places and objects) which really got me thinking about all the practical uses of these techniques, if put in the right context. There are lots of learning situations where these methods would be overkill, but in the ones where it is not (like the medical field), the possibilities are exciting (more on that in a future article).

In Gary Robinson's session Can eLearning Interfere With The Human Learning Process? Robinson advised us to make sure that our learning courses aided learners in the following: selection process, organization process, integration and trigger retrieval. In other words, you should present content so that with minimal effort on the learner's part, it is clear exactly what information is pertinent and the information is organized in small enough chunks for digestion. Additionally, each topic should be integrated so that it's clear why all of the information is together. The lesson then needs to be presented in a manner that will help the learner retrieve the information at a later date.

Robinson gave a great example of trigger retrieval in the form of eLearning that relied on a baseball diamond game to test learner knowledge on the average age of depression on-set. It may have been a fun game to test learning, but since baseball had nothing to do with the content, was it helping the overall learning process?

Robinson made the point that brains can have weird triggers. Instead of drilling home the point about age of depression on-set, adding the baseball game to the lesson might cause the brain to relate the information to baseball.

Robinson suggested an alternative approach: simply use stock photos of people of different ages so that the learner associates the information with images of people of the corresponding ages.

What are your thoughts on this? Have you seen (or created) impressive eLearning that really tied everything together and allowed learners to easily pull information from their knowledge banks later? Have you seen some things that looked cool but really didn't enhance the learning at all? I'd love to hear your success (and horror) stories. Leave them in the comments below.

More from ELDC 2011:

mLearning: The Time is Now

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Communicator and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

June 28, 2011

Adobe Captivate 5.5: Quizzes To Write Home About

by Kevin Siegel

You've always been able to create quizzes with Captivate. Of course, over the years the quiz features have gotten better and better. However, if you've spent any time with the quiz feature in Captivate 5, you are probably a bit disappointed with how bad some of the text formatting features are. For instance, when you add a multiple choice question slide, something simple like aligning the text horizontally is a real challenge.

You'll be happy to hear that all is well in the new Adobe Captivate 5.5… and then some. I've spent some time playing with question slides and it appears that the text formatting issues that plagued Captivate 5 are a thing of the past. Nice! But since that particular fix was to be expected, you will be happy to hear that there are more quiz enhancements in Captivate 5.5.

For instance, when your learners take a quiz published with Captivate 5.5, the answers now include some cool rollover effects that provide some nice feedback just before the learner selects an answer.

When learners review a Captivate 5.5 quiz, another great new feature will reveal itself. Take a look at the image below and notice that the feedback given to a learner is much improved… a red X appears on any slide that was answered incorrectly and a check mark appears next to the correct answer. (A green check mark appears if the question was answered correctly.)

Improved quiz results

Improved interactivity as learners answer questions and better feedback during the review process are both nice new features. However, neither feature is worthy of writing that letter home. What would get me to start writing that letter? For starters, it would really be nice if there was something that actually made the process of creating a Captivate quiz a bit less painful. And I love it if I was able to create better-looking question slides out of the box. Which brings me to my favorite Captivate 5.5 feature. Check out the image below:

Quiz Template

Adobe is now providing quiz templates… and they really look nice. When you visit the Quiz menu in Captivate 5.5, you'll find a new menu item at the bottom of the menu: Download Quiz Templates. Choosing Download Quiz Templates will take you to the Captivate 5.5 Quiz Templates page on the web. There are currently six templates on the site (and a promise for more).

The templates are cptx files that have been zipped for easy download. Once you've downloaded the zip to your computer, unzip the file and open the project with Captivate 5.5.

You'll find multiple question slides in the project that you can edit and use as your own. There's a master slide that will ensure new slides will be consistent with those already in the project. In addition, all of the object styles have been set. If you're happy with how the template looks, all you have to do is insert new question slides and type the questions and answers. You can't get more turn-key than that! Better-looking quizzes… and faster? Nice! I'd write more but I've got to dash off to the post office and mail that letter home.

Note: When you upgrade legacy projects that contain quizzes to Captivate 5.5, the enhanced learner feedback I mentioned above will automatically be added. (There aren't any special hoops you'll have to jump through to gain the new features.)

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Looking to learn Adobe Captivate 5 or 5.5? We offer Beginner and Advanced classes. Both Windows and Macintosh developers can attend these classes.

June 24, 2011

PowerPoint 2010: What’s the Difference Between Duplicate and Copy?

by AJ George

Recently I was asked about the difference between the duplicate and copy commands, since they seemingly do the same thing.

Duplicate (Ctrl-D) will automatically copy and paste whatever slide you select and place it right below the original slide. It will be identical in every way to the previous slide.

Copy, (Ctrl-C) will save a copy of the slide to your clipboard so that it can be pasted (Ctrl-V) elsewhere in the presentation.

Choosing duplicate is a time saver because it negates having to manually paste the slide by doing it automatically for you. However, if you would like to put the duplicate slide somewhere in the presentation other than right after its original, you will want to use the Copy and Paste technique.

You will also want to use the Copy command if you would like to paste the slide into another application (like Microsoft Word, for example).

Very important! Keep in mind that if you copy the slide and then paste it into another PowerPoint presentation, the pasted slide will take on the slide theme and formatting of whatever slide is immediately before it, even if it is different from the original's theme.

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Communicator and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

June 24, 2011

Writing & Grammar: Apostrophes and Possession

by Jennie Ruby

Lately I've been hearing a lot of people use expressions like Jennie and I's house. The most alarming use, perhaps, was in a sentence very much like this one: "All of the editing and proofing is handled by Jennie and I's department." When the head of the editing department struggles with a grammatical issue, you know it is a bad one.

As I discussed last week, having a person's name and a personal pronoun in the same sentence seems to make our normal ear for grammar go out the window. Surely no head of an editing department would ever say "I's department." So the solution to this problem is just about the same as the solution I offered last week: leave the other person's name out, choose your correct pronoun, and then add the other person back in: "Jennie and my department.*"

However, that is not quite where the grammar books leave us [my source is The Gregg Reference Manual]. We need to also make sure that it is clear that Jennie also has ownership of the department.

Separate possession with two names:

Jane's and Sam's cars are in the parking lot.

[They own separate cars.]

Joint possession with two names:

Jane and Sam's car is in the parking lot.

[They co-own one car. Think of this as taking the phrase Jane and Sam and adding an apostrophe-s to it.]

Joint possession with one name and one pronoun:

Jane's and his car is in the parking lot.

[They co-own one car, but since the pronoun "his" doesn't really apply to Jane, you have to add an apostrophe s to her name to make it clear that she is also one of the owners.]

Separate possession with one name and one pronoun:

Jane's and his cars are in the parking lot.

[Notice that this looks the same as joint possession, but the use of plural for cars makes it clear that they each have a separate car.]

So the right way to say the problem sentence we started with?

All of the editing and proofing is handled by Jennie's and my department.

Note: The asterisk (*) indicates an example illustrating incorrect grammar or usage.

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