TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Have any of you worked with incorporating online help training with
regular training classes? I am looking for some good methods of doing
so, some success stories, or some good theories about why it is
helpful. I have a couple of STC research articles, but I'm not getting
very good reception from the training team lead.
We provide only online documentation, but we teach a two-week bootcamp
class for all new hires and any customers that want it (which is at
least a subset of users for each customer). Right now, the use of
online help in training consists of a one-paragraph thought that says
we have online help and having them open the help file.
We have just redesigned the online help and have added a ton of
procedures to what used to be a reference-based help system. To
compound the problem, we have acquired a new (important) client whose
user-base is not very PC/mouse literate.
To help with getting users accustomed to using the online help and
teach them how to be more effective at finding answers, I have been
trying to get our training team lead to incorporate online help
training into the bootcamp.
I would like to have a training section devoted to how to using help.
After that, I would like to see exercises sprinkled through the
training that present a background real-life scenario and have the
users use the online help to figure out how to complete the exercise.
It think that it will help get user into the help, provide an
environment where they can ask questions about the help, and provide
an opportunity for the tech writers to observe (kind of like an
informal usability test).
Anyway, what do y'all think?
Susan Hamilton
************************************
Susan Hamilton
shamilton -at- metasolv -dot- com
MetaSolv Software, Inc.
5560 Tennyson Parkway
Plano, TX 75024 http://www.metasolv.com/
************************************
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html
