Recently I came across this article at the CommLab India blog which presents an interesting opinion on measuring the training effectiveness using the Kirkpatrick model (diagram shown below). The author conjectures that the only practical way to measure this in practice is through Level 2 assessment (i.e., “testing” the student’s retained knowledge). Level 3 and Level 4 (degree of application of concepts and achievement of training objectives, respectively) are unreliable, the writer argues, since these types of measurements don’t exclude external factors, and thus make it difficult to attribute enhanced performance exclusively to training activities.
Category: Uncategorized
My new iPad 2 finally arrived over the weekend. It’s a pretty great device and I’ve been enjoying exploring all of the cool things you can do with it and all of the great apps available. One of the things that sold me on the iPad over an Android tablet was the new GarageBand app. I’m an extremely poor guitar player and have a little experience running a sound board from my days at WKCO, so I thought dabbling in songwriting would be a lot of fun.
As a technical communicator, I’m interested in the evolution of user assistance from the days of Big Tomes for PC Applications to modern apps running on smartphones and tablets. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that a well-designed, intuitive user experience and excellent copywriting on labels and controls obviates the need for formal documentation. For many small apps, this works out just fine, especially for “fun” apps, where exploring the interface to learn how it works is part of the enjoyment.
Your employees work for you for a reason. They are good at what they do. What happens when they leave? What information are they taking with them that no one else in the company knows? Will everything run the same after they’re gone?
Recently, I’ve been attending lots and lots of meetings. I like talking to people, learning, brainstorming, smiling, etc. One thing that has been pretty consistent though is that people are not doing their “homework”. Teachers didn’t talk about the importance of homework in our 17+ years of schooling for nothing.
In a previous post, I referred to an inelegant solution we devised to get my BlackBerry 9800 to sync with my Microsoft Outlook Calendar. Since that post was mostly to complain about Research in Motion (RIM) and how poorly the BlackBerry Desktop Manager (BDM) worked, I thought about all the individuals who posted complaints on the RIM (lack of) support site and how they must be suffering. So I figured it wouldn’t hurt to devote one post to the solution we found to get the BlackBerry device to sync with Outlook.
Categories
Why BlackBerry Is Doomed
After repeated insults about my Nokia flip phone, I broke down last week, went to the AT&T store, and purchased a new BlackBerry Storm. I also had a BlackBerry (that I used for mobile email, contacts, and calendar) so I figured I’d stay with what I knew — this despite repeated warnings from my colleagues that I should buy a droid.
Categories
The ROI of Technical Writing
A client recently asked us to take over the maintenance of a batch file specification she had been updating. She reached out to us because it was taking so much of her time to keep the document up to date.
As part of our proposal to do the work, we suggested that it would be better to convert the existing Word file into an HTML-based solution, such that there would be an HTML page for each XML element that was in the file. In that way, we argued, the developers using the material would have instant access to all of the information they needed when they needed it.
I recently completed a first round of reviews for a new product demo screencast that we are creating for one of our clients. One of the comments we received was that although they had requested for the demo to be silent, the reviewers felt that adding some background music would be a major improvement.
Categories
On Technical Writing Resumes
The I’d Rather Be Writing techcom blog posts 10 Alternative Tests for Technical Writing Job Candidates. Not all of the ideas apply to our situation at STS, as we are all technical writers here, we don’t really have in-house documentation, and tend to recruit more entry-level folks who we can mold to our ways before they are corrupted by outside influences. However, there were some interesting suggestions.
Categories
Why Technical Writing is so Bad
Why is it that when people get stuck trying to figure out a piece of technology, they invariably pick up the phone and call a help desk rather than open a manual or, if it’s available, click on the help button? Certainly, it would be quicker to find the answer than wait for the “next representative to become available.” The answer, of course, is obvious, as anyone who has tried to read a technical manual can tell you: Either the answer isn’t readily available (can’t find it) or doesn’t make sense (can’t figure out what’s being said when they do find it).