[WEB4LIB] Re: CBT and Video training Products

[Nelson, Sharon]

Tim,
In my "previous life" I worked in the IT department of a small liberal arts
college.  When the campus switched over to using Windows from DOS, we
mounted a number of self-paced instructional programs on the campus network.
They covered the Microsoft Office suite and cc:Mail. There were icons to
them on all networked PCs, and we promoted their use in any "live" training
sessions we held for students, faculty and staff.

However, we found that use on these programs was abysmally low. I don't
think the quality of the programs was the problem--I thought they were quite
good--but people just didn't even log into them and try them out. Instead of
learning via the tutorials, people preferred to send e-mail or to call the
Help Desk. They also preferred to have paper reference books to hand instead
of using the tutorials. (IT ended up subsidizing some book purchases--each
campus dept. got $50-ish to spend on whatever books they wanted.
Fortunately there was an excellent technical book store nearby.)

The library also ordered some training videos on the same programs.
Unfortunately I do not know what the circulation history was but I suspect
it was low as well.

Based on that experience, tutorials/videos didn't seem to really meet the
needs of our users.  But since your users have a strong sci-tech orientation
they might be more accepting of this type of training.

Sharon

Sharon L. Nelson
Reference/Technology Librarian
Benedictine University, Lisle, IL
snelson at ben.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Klassen [mailto:tklassen at mail.wesleyan.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 1999 12:32 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] CBT and Video training Products



We're supporting our faculty and student's web design efforts through the
provision of enduser training materials. Currently we are providing a
collection of manuals (Visual Quickstart Guides, O'Reilly Nutshrell books,
etc). However, we want to subsidize these with some training videos and
possibly CR-ROMs or Internet based computer based training. The products we
are most interested in supporting are Adobe stuff (Photoshop, Illustrator
etc) Filemaker HomePage, and MS's Office.

Any suggestions for products that have worked for you?

Best,
Tim Klassen



Tim Klassen
Science Librarian
Wesleyan University Science Library
Middletown Connecticut 06459
ph: 860-685-3729
fax: 860-685-2661
tklassen at wesleyan.edu
http://www.wesleyan.edu/~tklassen/