April 29, 2010
Dear Everyone:
I've been spending a lot of my time lately (73% last week) on recreating
the Documentum Federated Build (DFB - the most recent version of the
electronic
document management system that we use here at work)
Computer
Based Training (CBT) which someone else put together some four years
ago. A lot has happened in
four years. For one thing,
the person who put the original CBT together, based on my training
materials, left the company some time ago.
Don't know exactly when.
Just realized when I started looking for her that she's not on
the list of employees any more.
In the meantime, the system was upgraded any number of times, but the
CBT remained as it was when she finished it in 2006.
So there's a disconnect.
The basic functionality remains the same, but the "bells and
whistles" have changed. The
CBT tells people to get to the Information Screen by clicking a button
with the letter "i" in it.
That button is no longer there.
Instead people
right-click for most everything.
So I've been using a software that allows me to enter text and pictures to
show people what the screens look like now, rather than four years ago.
I thought I had finished the eight main "modules" last Friday,
but in the meantime, the people who support Documentum made some changes
and now some of my screen shots are "out-dated" (again!)
Also, I have to develop the "Assessment" as in the test at the
end of the CBT that proves you understood the information and now know
how to use the system.
So I took the assessment myself, but deliberately answered all of the
questions incorrectly. This
was so I wouldn't "pass". As
long as I don't "pass" the assessment, I'm still "In Progress" and won't
be charged for taking the course ($50 US).
I've taken this assessment many times in the past, usually to
check on something in the CBT, and since I was the person who handled
the billing, I always took my name out of the billing file.
But someone else does that now, so for now, I'll just keep
failing.
I discovered something I didn't know was happening.
Because I got all of the answers wrong, the system displayed all
of the questions, with the correct answers (how helpful!) and even had a
handy button to allow me to print all the questions with the correct
answers. The system also
helpfully displayed a link to allow me to take the assessment again,
which is what I suspect a lot of people have been doing, now that they
have a list of the questions, with the answers in their hot little
hands.
I spoke with one of the guys who answer the Help Desk phone for
Documentum. He told me that
sometimes he gets a call from someone who wants access to the system.
He tells them to take the CBT.
They call back in less than half an hour to say they passed the
assessment, give them their userid.
Even I can't get through the CBT in that short a period of time.
Now we know what's going on.
Someone else gives them the list of questions and answers and
tells them to skip the CBT, go directly to the Assessment and plug in
the correct answers.
That gets them the userid they want, but they still don't really know
how to use the system and wind up calling the Help Desk for simple
things they would know how to do if they'd just taken the time to go
through the CBT. We'll see
if we can do something about that.
Also, because I always answered the questions, there are 25 in all,
correctly, I've never before seen what the user gets if they fail the
assessment (less than 80%):
A picture of an adorable kid with his hands over his eyes, distraught
beyond belief in that way that only a two-year-old can experience.
The Company has a huge library of images called the Digital Asset
Management (DAM). You enter
a keyword or phrase like "people computers" and get dozens or hundreds
of images to choose from.
Some are available for "general use", while others are "restricted".
I tried to download one image of three young people looking at
something on a computer screen.
They have facial expressions of "Wow!
This is really great!"
And it's clear from their attire that they probably don't work in
the US. (60% of Company
employees work outside the US these days.)
I really wanted to use that image because it makes clear, at a glance,
that this CBT is meant for everyone in the world.
I actually had to fill out some special form as to why I wanted
to download it; but in the end it was cleared and it's in Module 1.
And I’ve found a lot more images to use.
The trick is in finding the right keyword.
And I’ve found that, if I try to place an image directly into the
software, it fills the entire screen.
Not exactly what I’m looking for.
I discovered that if I pasted the image into
PowerPoint, I could
then resize it to the size I want, then copy it into the training
software and it stays the size I made it.
This is working so well, that I created a PowerPoint file called
“staging”.
Another thing I discovered is to copy the main screens from one Module
and paste them into another Module.
Then I just change some text and copy-paste as many of the
particular screen as I think I’m going to need.
I can always delete the ones I wind up not using.
Next week I’ll begin recording actual training labs.
And that’s what we call “another ball of wax entirely.”
Love, as always,
Pete
PS. Programming Note.
I’m taking a couple of days of vacation next week to take care of
some things; so there probably won’t be a Letter next week.
P.
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