How can I improve IT Systems Training design?

Hi Gary! Here's an example that may give you some ideas!

Hope that helps,

Allison

Thanks Allison, much appreciated. : )

You're welcome! :)

Hello Gary,

I do mostly IT systems training as well. Here are a few ideas I've tried:

Comic book or other story format: For introductory modules, I always tell a story because I find that when you're introducing icons and explaining page navigation, it can feel pretty dry without any context. Here is an example I shared for an old elearning challenge: https://community.articulate.com/discussions/building-better-courses/response-to-weekly-challenge-comic-book-theme

Chunking: I once created a Manager Self Service training called: Here's ten cool things you can do in the new MSS. I had ten icons as my navigation, which each one explaining a new feature. The navigation was open so people could look at as many or as few topics as they wanted.

Gamification: Believe it or not, games can work in systems training. On my current client, I am developing training for a GIS application. We are changing some of their map symbology and while this seems pretty straightforward (e.g. instead of something being symbolized as a triangle, it will now be a circle on your map), there are serious safety concerns if people misinterpret the GIS information. So I created a game where I had them find specific icons on the map, and for each one they found they collected a jewel. The goal was to collect all of the jewels to win the game. It was very well received. If you have the time and money, you could even add a leader board to something like that, and turn it into a competition across the organization.

Improved simulations: Like in Allison's example above, it helps to add conversational and contextual explanations to simulations (I see a lot of simulations that say click here, click there, for three minutes, *shudder*) otherwise they are really boring. Eye candy doesn't hurt either - add characters, use nice fonts and colors, and zoom in as close as you can to make your images more vivid.

I use Captivate a lot too so I may be able to share some ideas if you're wondering how to use Variables and Advanced Actions to make some of these work.

Thanks Yewande, this is really helpful advice! The comic book and chunking  are especially interesting.  Can I ask what software you used to create the comic book storyboard?

Kind Regards

Gary

Hi Gary,

That storyboard is just in PowerPoint. I used an old comic book character set that has been discontinued now, and created the backgrounds myself in ppt.