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eLearning: More Reflection

by Kevin Siegel   

Last week I wrote about how you can use Reflector to create software simulations and demonstrations from your mobile device.

I received emails from several people who, having read the article, downloaded Reflector and attempted to create a simulation using Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline. While most folks were successful in reflecting the mobile device onto the computer, several people reported that none of the actions they took on the mobile device were captured by the eLearning tool. 

As I mentioned in last week's article, the reflection of the mobile device you see on the computer is passive; you cannot control the reflection with the computer. Instead, you can simply see what's happening on the mobile device through your computer.

During the simulation recording process, if you're creating a software simulation, programs like Captivate and Storyline only capture the screen if you click your mouse (or manually create a screen capture by pressing the appropriate keyboard shortcut). Since you're not clicking anything on your computer (remember, the computer is simply showing you a reflection of the mobile device), neither Captivate nor Storyline will capture anything.Unless...

On your computer, start the recording process using Captivate or Storyline. Just prior to performing an action on your mobile device, click the reflection on your computer to create a screen capture. Next, on the mobile device, perform the action. Back on the computer, click the reflection again to create a second screen shot that shows the result of whatever it is you did on the mobile device. Continue this process over and over until you have completed all of the processes you wish to simulate on the mobile device.

If clicking over and over again to create a simulation sounds too difficult, all three of the top eLearning development tools (Camtasia Studio, Captivate, and Storyline) excel at creating videos. If you create a video of the reflected mobile device, everything you do on the mobile device is captured because the video isn't creating individual screen shots, it's capturing everything you do without discrimination. 

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If you'd like to learn more about eLearning, come hang out in my next eLearning basics mini course. And if you'd like to learn more Captivate, Presenter, or Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you.

Technical Communication: Don't Wordpass on Passwords

by Megan Pitkin  

 

During one of my recent Electronic Medical Records (EMR) classes, a student asked about best practices for creating a password. Many people use the same password for everything (and I mean everything... from accessing Facebook to logging into their online banking account). Believe it or not, passwords are often very easy to guess. In fact, here are the top three most common passwords in use today:


Note: The image above features an avatar of Megan. If you'd like to create your own avatar, check out AJ's article.

Given the rampant reports about hacked accounts that have occurred in every industry, a strong password has never been more important. This is especially true in healthcare.

To create more secure passwords:

• Use passwords with eight or more characters with characters of mixed types. (Keep in mind that common substitutions for passwords like Med1c1ne are vulnerable and random combinations are difficult to remember, like m%&5Bg$d.)
• Use passphrases. Short words with characters or spaces separating are easy to recall. Rather than using common phrases, it is best to use random words as your phrase such a dog walk leash or sing_moon_jump.
• Do not use the same combination of username/password for multiple sites.

Ensuring safety and protection for patients by properly creating and protecting passwords is critical. I found it surprising that the FBI's most wanted cyber hacker got arrested the same week this question was asked of me. Why was he caught? His cat's namewas his password.

I won't elaborate on why I felt this was ironic, but I do feel it is important to highlight this cautionary tale.

Patient information is precious and should be treated appropriately since healthcare workers are the majority of keepers and the first point of contact for the electronic medical records.

Note: If you're finding it difficult to keep track of your passwords (perhaps you're following my advice and you're using different passwords for every site), consider a password manager. PC Magazine has a nice list of some of the top password managers available. 

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If you like Megan's articles, you'll love her live, online classes such as Train the EMR Trainer.

Writing & Grammar: More Grammar Pet Peeves

by Jennie Ruby

Thank you to all those who sent in grammar pet peeves! I'll talk about them here over the next few weeks.

 

First, Ann Ray brings us premise versus premises.

 

A premise is a basis for an argument:

I see his point, but I have to question his premise that municipalities should do all trash collection for free.

In the plural form, premises can mean multiple bases for an argument, or premises can mean a building and its grounds. This latter use comes from legal documents in which the location is identified in the "preliminary and explanatory" section of a deed or other real estate document (Webster's). It should always be used as plural, and a very strong usage tradition has this word always appearing in the phrase "on the premises." Weirdly, I usually hear this pronounced "premiss-iss," whereas the plural meaning bases for an argument I usually hear pronounced as "premis-eeze," although there is some crossover.

We can adjust your eyeglasses right here on the premises.

Here are Ann Ray's examples:

A local funeral home advertises that they do cremation on premise.

A huge telecom company writes about wiring the premise!

Jim Dages complains that young folks these days say on accident instead of by accident. The whole issue of which preposition goes with a particular word or phrase is utterly one of usage. Usage is basically a feel for or conventions for how people use words in phrases and sentences. I have also heard people in my kids' generation say "on accident." I don't know where it came from, and I failed to cure any of them of it.

 

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If you love Jennie's articles, you'll love her classes. Check out some of Jennie's mini courses.

Localization: Training & Development in Norway

by Jen Weaver  

 

As we make our way towards Scandinavia, let's explore some common cultural facts about Norwegians and their expectations when it comes to Training & Development.
  
Test your knowledge of Norwegian Culture

1. True or False? Norway remained neutral during World War II.
2. True or False? Norway is a monarchy.

Quick Tips for Training & Development in Norway¹:

• As members of the least punctual culture in northern Europe, Norwegians often run 10 to 15 minutes late for appointments. Be prepared to wait, but always arrive promptly yourself. While it's common for meetings to begin a bit behind schedule, be sure to end your classes on time, especially if they run until the end of the workday.
• While English is widely known in Norway, the official language is Norwegian and may be the preferred language for use in your training materials. Even when fluent in English, many Norwegians prefer written communication in their native tongue.
• More analytical than emotional, Norwegians tend to view outside information cautiously, and they are often slow to make decisions.
• Communication is typically blunt and straightforward, and it's the cultural norm to accept statements at face value.
• Individual freedom and independence are highly valued. As such, any kind of debt is avoided, as it's viewed as an impediment to one's freedom.
• Family units are perceived as a way to maintain stability and structure in life. Norway's social welfare system perpetuates this support as well and is a great source of pride for the Norwegian people.
• Gender roles are greatly minimized in Norwegian culture, as both parents share childcare responsibilities and women have great freedom in behavior and personal or professional aspirations.
• Norwegians are quiet people, so avoid speaking too loudly or boisterously.
• Talking with your hands in your pockets is considered too casual for business interactions, and the American "okay" gesture is perceived as rude.
• Although Norway is a very affluent country, gift-giving is not acceptable in business interactions due to strict anti-bribery laws.

Knowledge Answers from Above:

1. True. Although it was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II.
2. True. It's a constitutional monarchy with the king as chief of state.

References:

 

¹Morrison, Terri, & Conaway, Wayne A. (2006). Kiss, bow, or shake hands (2nd ed.). Avon: Adams Media.

 

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Developing international training and development materials? Contact Jen at Carmazzi Global Solutions. And if you love Jen's articles, check out her new Localization mini courses.

eLearning: It's Time for Some Reflection

by Kevin Siegel   

I was recently contacted by a client who wanted me to create software simulations of mobile apps. At first I thought he wanted me to create software simulations that could be accessed and used by mobile devices. Since I use Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate for my eLearning development, publishing projects as HTML5 would have taken care of his requirement. However, the client wasn't looking to create content that would play on mobile devices; he wanted lessons that were captured from a mobile device.

Neither Captivate nor Storyline are available for mobile devices so creating software simulations directly on those devices wasn't an option. One workaround was to create screen captures of the mobile app, upload them to DropBox, and then use the images in Storyline or Captivate as backgrounds. At that point, it would be a simple matter of adding hotspots and text to the backgrounds to create interactive eLearning. Of course, going the screen capture route would have required potentially hundreds of images.

I'm betting you're wondering if there's an easier way to capture software simulations of mobile apps. And there is: mirroring. There is a ridiculously easy-to-use application (Reflector) that will project (mirror) just about any mobile device onto a desktop or laptop screen. From there, Captivate or Storyline can be used to capture whatever is being done on the mobile device.

Here are the steps I took to create an interactive a simulation of my iPad in Adobe Captivate:

To begin, I downloaded and installed the Reflector program to my MacBook Pro. (There's a free trial of the Reflector available. Once you determine that you like it, and I'm thinking you will, you can purchase Reflector outright for a paltry $12.99. You can also purchase group licenses.)

I made sure that my MacBook Pro and my iPad were on the same wireless network, then I started Reflector on my Mac.

I switched to my iPad and enabled AirPlay. (While most mobile devices support AirPlay, accessing the option varies from device to device and from operating system to operating system. My iPad is using iOS8. To enable AirPlay, I swiped up from the bottom of the device to display the Control Panel. I tapped AirPlay, scrolled down, and selected my MacBook Pro. I also enabled Mirroring.)

Like magic, my iPad was projected to my MacBook Pro. Anything I did on the iPad was mirrored on my laptop. The image below is my iPad's settings.



And here's what the mirror image of my iPad looked like on my Mac:



Any gestures, taps, or swipes I performed on my iPad were displayed at the same time on my Mac. However, any clicks I made to the mirror image displayed on my Mac had no affect on the iPad.

I started Adobe Captivate and recorded a Software Simulation. During the recording process, I targeted the iPad as the Application to be recorded. When I finished recording, the result was a Captivate project just like any of the thousands of projects I've recorded over the years. 



I was able to add interactivity, quizzes... the works... and then publish as SWF, HTML5, or both. Pretty cool, eh?

 

See also: More Reflection

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If you'd like to learn more about eLearning, come hang out in my next eLearning basics mini course. And if you'd like to learn more Captivate, Presenter, or Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you.

Technical Communication: Applying Lean Principles to Documentation

by Megan Pitkin

 

While I was working as a bedside nurse, my organization decided to adopt a new way of approaching patient care and improve workflow: Lean. As described in this article about Lean in health care, "Lean is an industrial managerial system that aims to eliminate process waste in the forms of transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing, and defects."

While Lean was originally intended for industrial applications, the article describes the efforts of Dr. M. Peggy Hays, associate professor in the UAH College of Nursing, to bring industrial Lean practices in healthcare.

"Nursing staff today have more and more duties," said Dr. Hays. "How can they make their job more efficient so they can focus on patient care, which is why they got into the profession in the first place?"

According to the article, Dr. Hays said that "healthcare applications [for Lean] include unearthing greater efficiencies in emergency room waiting times, operating room use, use of nursing rounds, medication rounds, processing patient paperwork in administrative offices, and workflow of the staff."

The planning and assessment phase for my unit started with the team receiving Lean education and concluded with a list of probable projects and action items needed for the week. Because the main action item was patient wait times, data was collected for the time it took for call lights to be answered.

An initial assessment found that we walked over five miles each shift between patient rooms for medication delivery, gathering of supplies, locating equipment, and patient care needs. After streamlining workflows, reorganization of the medication rooms, and standardizing equipment processes, my walking was reduced by a mile for my first shift of the implementation week. With the improved processes and reduction in the amount of walking required for the nurses to complete their tasks, there was a significant decrease in call light wait times.         

Seeing how successful Lean was in my unit and throughout the organization, I began to question if the Lean principals could be applied to the materials I used in my Electronic Medical Records (EMR) training classes. While adopting an industrial process in the creation of training materials may sound like a stretch, I'd like to illustrate one simple way that I applied the Lean principles to a PowerPoint presentation I use in my classes.

Since standardization is a key Lean component, I used my organization's approved fonts and colors on my first slide.



I also organized my lesson plan sections and agenda using approved colors, and I used the colors in a very deliberate way. For example, in the image below notice that "Locating the Patient" is a dark purple on my agenda slide.



I used that same dark purple banner on all of the slides in the "Locating a Patient" segment of the course. (One of those slides is shown below.)



Lastly, I color-coordinated the supporting training materials, like pocket guides, so that they match the colors used in the presentation.



As a nurse, it is encouraging for me to see more hospitals doing an excellent job of implementing Lean tools that manufacturing has been evolving for more than half a century. As an Instructional Designer, I have been pleased with the overwhelming positive feedback I have received by adopting these Lean philosophies into the creation of materials for EMR classes.

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If you like Megan's articles, you'll love her live, online classes such as Train the EMR Trainer.

Adobe Captivate: System Time Variables

by Lori Smith 

 

Last week I showed you Captivate's date variables. This week, let's take a look at the Time variables, the System Information variables, and a handy little variable called cpInfoMobileOS.


 
Specifically, I am going to address the variables listed in the table below using 2:15 PM and 32 seconds as my example. 



Perhaps you do not like military time (24 hour) and instead you want to use 12 hour time. A little advanced action can easily convert military time to 12 hour time. I have also created two user variables to help out: am_or_pm and myHour.

 
 
When added to a text caption as shown below, the variables will display 2 PM.

 
 
Now let's talk about the cpInfoEpochMS variable. It can be used to determine the play time for a lesson (or part of a lesson). By subtracting the value of the variable at the beginning of the lesson from its value at the end of the lesson, you can calculate the lesson's play time down to the millisecond. In the image below I have created a couple of Advanced Actions that make use or CpInfoEpochMS and a few user variables that I created:startTime, endTime, and timeElapsed.

First, you need to capture the lesson's start time using this Advanced Action:


 
At the desired point in your project, capture the time and calculate the timeElapsed.


 
Last but not least, let's cover the cpInfoMobileOS variable. It's only job is to indicate if the learner is using a desktop computer of a mobile device (iPhone, iPad, etc). If you have certain elements or slides in your project that you want to behave differently depending upon the learner's device, you can use this variable in a conditional Advanced Action to create the desired behavior.
 

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Looking to learn Adobe Captivate? We offer several Captivate classes. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your training requirements.

Writing & Grammar: Word Crimes

by Jennie Ruby

 

This week I bring you more spelling and word usage aids. Aimee Bosse brings us three that are more about word usage than just spelling. These pairs of words are easily confused, so a memory aid is the best way to keep them straight, short of looking them up every time you use them.

Torturous (pertaining to torture) versus tortuous (indirect, not straightforward)--think of the extra R in torturous for Really painful.

Discreet (showing prudence) versus discrete (separate, distinct)--you separate the e's with the t.

Premier (head of state or first in rank) versus premiere (first public showing)--not sure of an easy way to remember, for me an extra e makes it look more fancy [you have to really dress up to go to the premiere--JR].

Lisa J Stumpf gives us another version of the desert versus dessert distinction:

You want more dessert so use more letters--two s's.

And one more, just on spelling, brought to us by Marsha Kuhn:

My seventh grade teacher told us that the "villain lives in the villa."

Grammar Pet Peeves: Word Crimes

While sending in these memory aids, several of you wrote in to tell me about Weird Al's video "Word Crimes." I totally love it! Thank you! Check it out if you have not seen it before.

And in the spirit of Word Crimes, this week I'd like to hear from you about your grammar pet peeves-you know you have them! Aimee Bosse starts us off with these:

Residence versus residents: this should be a no-brainer! Someone living in my college dorm actually wrote a sign asking "residence" to be considerate of others.

 

Feel free to post your grammar pet peeves below as comments.

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If you love Jennie's articles, you'll love her classes. Check out some of Jennie's mini courses.

Localization: Training & Development in the Netherlands

by Jen Weaver  

 

Ah, the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Today let's explore some common cultural facts about the Dutch and their expectations when it comes to training and development.
  
Test your Knowledge of Dutch Culture

1. True or False? Another name for the Netherlands is Holland.
2. True or False? The Netherlands ranks among the top 12 trading nations in the world.
3. True or False? The Netherlands is part of NATO.

Quick Tips for Training & Development in the Netherlands¹:

• Guard your words carefully. The Dutch highly value honesty and will take your statements at face value. Avoid exaggeration or misinformation as well. Make sure every point is substantiated by real data.
• While Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands, English is also widely understood. Find out from your in-country contacts if translation of your training materials is preferred.
• Outside information is often perceived as risky and viewed with caution. Greater importance is given to facts over emotion. Subjective arguments are not accepted as valid reasoning for decision-making.
• Decision-making is slow and involved, but resolutions are final.
• While it's difficult as a perceived outsider to form relationships with the Dutch, you'll find friendship and mutual respect go a long way in gaining buy-in from your students and local contacts.
• The Dutch favor hierarchy with clearly defined roles and structure. 
• Compliments and accolades are paid to the group as a whole, not to individual participants. In the same way, individuals are not singled-out for mistakes-rather, issues are attributed to a faulty system or failed oversight. If you must address an individual's achievements or shortcomings directly, do so in private.
• Consistent with their structured culture, punctuality is of great importance to the Dutch. Planning is a key component of daily life, and time must be used efficiently. In fact, people who arrive late may be assumed to be incompetent or untrustworthy since they are apparently unable to manage their time.
• Spontaneity is not a virtue.
• Dutch communication is straightforward and professional, with preference given to efficiency over pleasantries.
• In some industries, employees with higher rank may dress more casually than lower-level staff. Executives may dress in jeans and a button-up shirt while support staff are in suits.

Knowledge Answers from Above:

1. False. Holland, which includes Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and the Hague, is only a part of the Netherlands.
2. True.
3. True. It's also part of the European Community.

References:

 

¹Morrison, Terri, & Conaway, Wayne A. (2006). Kiss, bow, or shake hands (2nd ed.). Avon: Adams Media.

 

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Developing international training and development materials? Contact Jen at Carmazzi Global Solutions. And if you love Jen's articles, check out her new Localization mini courses.