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Although my title states that I am a Technical Writer, I seem to be doing more instructional design work in my (relatively new) position.
I hope my questions aren't too far off topic.... Does anyone out there create both user guides and training manuals? Other than the obvious need to include practice exercises and review questions in a training manual, how do the two guides differ?
Also, I have been tasked with creating instructor guides where none have previously existed. Our instructors currently teach from the participant guide. I personally don't see a problem with this method; however, my boss has asked me to create an IG. Her vision, though, is to have one manual where the participant guide pages are on the right-hand side and the corresponding instructor guide pages are on the left. I find this method way too tedious and cumbersome. The way I've previously done instructor guides is to have the instructor teach from a participant guide where the PG contains small icons next to areas where this is additional information for the instructor. The instructor then has the pages of notes in front of them. These are all cross-referenced so anytime updates are made, the instructor guide updates accordingly. Doing it my boss' way would involve re-creating the IG every time updates to the PG are made, sometimes 4x a year or more.
Does anyone have any opinions/advice/examples? Thank you in advance for any help!!!
Aviva P. Wulfsohn
Senior Technical Writer, Client Education Department
Fiserv Mortgage Servicing Systems
1818 Commerce Dr., South Bend, IN 46628
office: 574-236-7577
fax: 574-282-3366
e-mail: aviva -dot- wulfsohn -at- mortgageserv -dot- com
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