I just read Cammy Bean’’s post Best Practices for Software Training and here she mentions about scenario based approach for software product training and I think this indeed is an interesting idea.
I have seen scenario based approach used for software demos. However I haven’t see any scenarios being used for tutorials.
Product Demos are not the same as Product Tutorials. I had outlined the differences in one of my earlier post.
Scenario based approach for software product training would mean highlighting how the learner can use the software product or tool in job or for some relevant purpose. For example a possible scenario for PowerPoint training would be a sales personnel using PowerPoint to create effective sales presentations. This way the learner quickly understands the usefulness of PowerPoint.
Software demos do not intend to teach how to work with the features in a product. Demos would tell you why you must use the product and how it will be beneficial to you. That’s why scenarios are used too often for software demos.
When it comes to software product tutorials, they are feature based and usually run up to many modules. When learners are interested in using the product and they want to quickly get started with the product, they choose product tutorials over product demos. Learners expect quick steps to work with the product features. So most often software product tutorials are simple and straightforward.
Using scenarios for tutorials would really be a good idea.However you need to be really careful when you use scenarios for tutorials.
In product demos, scenarios are the highlight because they bring out the usefulness of the product.However product tutorials focus more on steps to perform tasks using product features .
Scenarios I guess can act as a reference or tool tip for software tutorials.
For example in a tutorial on how to create animations in PowerPoint, you can have a Nice to know section where there are examples of using animations in PowerPoint for real business scenarios. The Nice to Know section can have clippings of animations used in real business presentations.
In product tutorials the tasks and the steps must stand alone. Scenarios and examples can be used as add-ons.
Have you used scenarios for software product tutorials? If so, please share you experiences.
Hi Rupa, In the past we have created software training for a handheld device that was also connected to the larger enterprise system back on the office floor. There were different roles that interacted with this software, right from on field sales people to the managers on the floor. In this case we first identified a path for learning which took into account the common components of the system , followed by role based components. In every section, we used scenario/problem based learning by picking up contextual situations of everyday business. for e.x we identified life of a sales person before and after introducing the software. We listed down X activities that he/she would now do using the system. Every activity was explained through a real life scenario that demonstrated the keystroke steps using a voice over. We personalized the whole experience by introducing agents who would perform the tasks. Obviously this would have been impossible without the dummy data provided by the SME’s.
The point is, rather than having tutorials, that explain what each functionality can do It is much more motivating for the leaner to see how functionality works in everyday life.
.
Hi Sameer
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Scenarios work very effectively when the roles are fixed for a software or at least when you know only these many roles can use the software.
Now take MS Powerpoint or MS Word. Different people use it for a variety of purposes. The roles are not fixed.
For such tools, the tutorials must only teach how to work with the features because the context can be varied.
If you check any tutorial in MS office site, they use no scenarios. However you should see the use of scenarios in the MS Office demos
I agree Rupa.
My last point on tutorial was more to do with situations where you know the target audience profile but still create enterprise software training using steps without a context. The WIIFM quotient becomes very low in such cases.
Point taken on the MS office comment.