Workbook needs a digital makeover

Oct 15, 2015

Leigh S
By Leigh S

Hey all -

In our current New Hire class learners are given a large paper workbook that contains activities, self-study, and all information that is covered in the final exam. It's expensive to print, but an important resource for our learners and trainers, so it needs a digital makeover. Here's what I need:

  • A search function/capability and ideally a highlighting capability
  • Something that is easily accessed/viewed on an iPad mini

Unfortunately most of the workbook topics are either proprietary or sensitive security information, so I don't believe an iBook pub is going to be an option. What other suggestions do y'all have for me for publishing this workbook to a digital format?

 

4 Replies
Steve VE
over 8 years ago10/15/15 at 7:00 pm (UTC)

As Bob mentioned, a PDF should do the trick unless you need something more interactive.

But a lot depends on your situation. If you can't allow an individual file to be downloaded to a device (which can then be passed around) then a PDF is out of the question. You might try converting the manual to a web page with a login and just have them access that. Or, if you have the resources, create an "app" that loads the web manual. Of course, both of these would require a content management system of some kind rather than static HTML pages sitting on the web. If you already have a company content management system you can use, this solution would be pretty straightforward.

Hope that helps.

Steve

Leigh S
almost 8 years ago07/19/16 at 5:37 pm (UTC)

Wanted to update what we ended up doing with this - since we needed a mobile solution for iPads, we purchased a MacBook and used iBooks (free) and a widget creator (paid subscription) to make an interactive workbook. It was a huge success from a user standpoint - in addition to teaching the necessary materials in a shiny new format, it helped our employees familiarize themselves with the iPad functionality before they had to use it on the job.

From a design standpoint, iBooks is still very clunky and slow to edit/update, but the widget application spiced up the written content with enough gamification that it's still a net benefit to the user. There are a few quirks we had to work our way through, so I recommend holding a handful of test classes (we did 3, but probably had the entire process solid by 4) with end users to troubleshoot. If you have a separate delivery/facilitation team, working with them is essential to ensure downloading/using the iBook goes smoothly in class. 

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