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Subject:Developing Training Materials From:"LOWERY, MELISSA L" <MLOWERY -at- SCANA -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 1 May 1997 10:51:39 -0400
Techwhirlers,
I am looking for a book, article, anything that explains, in
straight-forward language geared at non-writers and non-training
developers, a good high-level approach to developing training materials.
The technical writing team I belong to is currently supporting a
training team that consists of subject matter experts with no training
background or training experience.
We are involved in a project that requires training employees on both
new technology (going from mainframe systems to client/server apps) and
new business practices (going to a new accounting system). So far the
process has been to have the "trainers" develop the course content and
have the technical writers format it and turn it into PowerPoint
presentations and student handouts. While the content they have
collected has been good, the format and training approaches are abysmal!
I realize that the problem is, of course, that they are trying to learn
how to be trainers without any formal model to follow. I would like to
be able to help them become better trainers and thus reduce the amount
of reworking that the technical writers are doing (we have other
documentation to develop!). Also, seeing some of the advice that we are
giving them regarding presentation and approach written down in a book
or article might lead them to heed it instead of arguing and doing
things "their way" because they want to. Please help me train these
trainers! Offlist replies will be most appropriate and I'll summarize to
the list if anyone's interested. Thanks!
Melissa Lowery
mlowery -at- scana -dot- com
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