EduTech gEEks…We’re a new brEEd

Not much activity from me this week, huh?

The latest opportunity is a ~ 4 month contract content development position with Information Mapping, Inc. The Information Mapping method of organizing and presenting content is definitely one of the better forms of standardized writing. As far as my experience goes…

Most of my responsibilities will be technical writing and document design oriented. Of course….these two areas of designing instruction seem to follow me everywhere.

The funniest aspect of this job is the transformation of training documents from Word Perfect to MS Word!

Yes…I said “Word Perfect.”

I thought the industry was moving more toward Adobe FrameMaker for template-based document design needs. So to be working with Word Perfect is a true shocker. Nonetheless interesting. I guess these are the types of jobs that help grow you into a true instructional design/technical writing professional.

I think I even said in a previous post about how all my FrameMaker training wouldn’t even be considered for the next job. Boy, did I hit the nail on the head.

My SME—working with my Subject Matter Expert has also been pretty interesting. It has only been a week, but I already realize the benefits to developing a supportive relationship with good communication.

The project has had a rough start due to many external factors that pre-date the arrival of my team and I. But, you know that’s the nature of the game. Either way I am sooooo on board and ready to work.

My Primary Goal: to develop the best instructional documents with my SME that the new batch of students will find useful during their entire program.

All my years as a student should definitely have prepared me for this position.

Writing & The Design of Instruction…They go hand-in-hand?

At least within these early stages of my career, yes! The better I have become at technical and professional writing, the better I have become at instructional design.

When studying those particular forms of writing, a lot of learned typography, formatting, and layout techniques brightened up my dreary world of plain, gray-scale unstructured text. This has truly transitioned my skill and understanding of Document Design.

Now my instructional documents and eLearning modules (even my blah blah surveys) have a new spice to them!

It excites me…puts a lil’ spark in my instructional document design tasks.

In a previous post titled, “Career Choices for an EduTech Star,” I posted a YouTube video that briefly described some of the job titles under which we EduTech Geeks fall. Look at the entire ISD process of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation…our skill is truly extensive when you really evaluate what we do.

These past two months my work as a Freelance ID has really picked up, thus creating a desire to share some of the secrets or best ways to land these freelance jobs.

Mostly, I have been doing writing and design & development jobs. Small technical writing and document design seem to be the needed tasks amongst many companies; creating templates for corporate documents is another frequently posted job. Note: Knowing a little HTML/CSS wouldn’t hurt either.

To quickly summarize, the most common freelance jobs for this ID have been:

• technical writing docs/reports,
• desktop publishing (DTP)
• document design and layout of instructional docs,
• compiling packets of instructional information,
• editing instructional content,
• eLearning module design & development,
• presentation design (for instructional content),
• development of assessments & evaluations, &
• MY FAVE = audio/video scriptwriting for eLearning content.

The audio/video scripting, or just plain scripting for audio content, allows me to combine the film/theatre background with instructional design. Its a good skill to have and, usually, the content is already there, you’re just responsible for turning it into a script. I enjoy doing this because it simultaneously adds to both the design and writing resumes.

Good places to add a profile:

• www.ifreelance.com
• www.linkedin.com

Also, consider the creative staffing agencies in your area. I live in Chicago, the city flooded with many creative types, here are a few I know of:

• www.paladinstaff.com
• www.creaitivedir.com
• www.creativegroup.com
• AD AGENCIES!!! Ad agencies are always a good professional contact. Many DTP, document design and web-based design jobs come through their network.

“Your net worth is your network.”…can’t remember who said it, but it rings true. So get out there and get those freelance jobs!!!

The money is great! The networking is awesome! The professional independence is unparalleled!

How detailed does a storyboard need to be so it is considered “sufficient”?

For any large-scale eLearning project there could easily be several instructional designers in addition to programmers, graphic artists, photographers, animators, videographers and SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) (Leonard, 2004; Alessi & Trollip, 2001). Both Kruse (n.d.) and Alessi and Trollip (2001) believe that in order for a storyboard to effectively guide the members of a team, it must (at a minimum) include the following:

• project information (i.e. title, unit #, section #, etc.),
• screen labels,
• audio and narration information,
• video clip descriptions,
• graphic descriptions,
• the content to be included in the on-screen text,
• navigation and interaction descriptions, and
• any notes that may pertain to design choices (i.e. text style and size).

At what point in the design and development process do you think content, graphics & assessments should be developed?

Assessment items help to narrow content, therefore I believe assessments should be developed after objectives have been defined and an instructional strategy has been planned. The research conducted in both of these phases can assist the designer in developing the most efficient assessment materials to help students master the learning objectives, while keeping them focused on the planned content (Dick, Carey, & Carey, 2005).

Content should be developed after assessments. I believe after one has decided the learning objectives and developed assessment material based off of those objectives, then writing and revising the content can begin. Assessments help a designer determine what primary and secondary textual content is best for the instructional phase (Alessi & Trollip, 2001).

Graphic artists (or whoever in charge of the graphics on your team) should develop graphics after the storyboard has been reviewed and understood. Since the storyboard is used by the instructional designer in communicating the appearance of the instruction, then those in charge of developing graphics need to know this document (storyboard) inside out before any creation begins. To save on time and money the graphic artist may want to take a further step and have a sit down with the lead instructional designer and/or project manager to affirm the details of the storyboard.

***Additional Storyboard Resources

Alessi, S.M. & Trollip, S.R. (2001). Multimedia for learning: methods and development (3^rd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Dick, W., Carey, L., & Carey, J.O. (2005). The systematic design of instruction (6^th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Kruse, K. (n.d.). Creating scripts and storyboards for e-learning. Retrieved on May 19, 2007, from http://www.e-Learningguru.com/articles/art2_5.htm

Leonard, T. (2004, November 15). Creating and using storyboards. Retrieved on May 19, 2007, from http://www.devshed.com/c/a/Practices/Creating-and-Using-Storyboards/1/

InDesign vs FrameMaker…What is the difference?

Since they both are used for our DTP needs, that was my question. This morning, I viewed a really good tutorial that helped answer that question. To give credit and thanks, it was created by the people over at Lynda.com (YouTube ID: “lyndapodcast”).

This InDesign CS3 Tutorial focuses on workflow, showing how efficient InDesign3 can be for the following DTP tasks:

• creating a layout,
• creating text and image frames,
• importing text and images from other non-ID files,
• editing those imported frames,
• working with multiple layers, and
• working in between multiple Adobe programs (as I do daily).

…Know of any other good tutorials out there that cover Adobe products? If so, Please leave the URL as a comment.

“They’ve done it again!” Adobe’s Technical Communications Suite is just that, Sweeeeeeeeet!

Finally!!! I am so proud of them for actually recognizing the needs of the eLearning and Instructional Design communities. I simply think it is “hott” idea that couldn’t have come any sooner. Some of the most effective software programs I have used for instructional design and learning media are included:

• Adobe FrameMaker8: for all our technical document publishing needs (You already know how I feel about FM8.)
• Adobe Captivate 3: for creating some of the hottest & interactive (Flash-based) courses, presentations and assessments
• Adobe Acrobat 3D: Okay, Pause! I have yet to use 3D because I do not need do much collaboration on engineering and architectural type of projects (i.e. those where I have to view ‘all sides’ of an object…Urgh! Blah!). Still, it’s a niiiiiice product for those who need the whole “3D Collabo”
• Adobe RoboHelp 7: for the creation of help systems. I have used this product once before during the development of a mock Computer-Based Training (CBT) Learning Program. But, from what I recall, it is also really helpful for any designer or new media artist who has difficulty relinquishing all control over to IT.

…Applause.

I was thinking of doing a whole ‘page’ dedicated to Adobe Products and their role in Educational Technology. Specifically, for the instructional designers responsible or interested in Desktop Publishing (DTP). But, for the sake of time…one post will have to do for now.

For my current position as an instructional designer, I was asked to have some knowledge of Adobe FrameMaker8 (FM for the purposes of creating structured templates for documents to be accessed by students in an online learning environment. Another eye opening moment in the Instructional Technology Design job search! Previously, MS applications such as Word and Publisher are what I preferred to utilize for my technical writing documentation. A new application just meant more time dedicated to a program that the next job wouldn’t even consider. So I thought!

Since working with FM 8 over the past few months, I learned there is a huge advantage to using this authoring/publishing software. As with just about all of the products created by Adobe, FM 8 takes into consideration the needs of (instructional) designers with varying levels of talent in document layout and use of white space. For a person who used to own a Coogi Sweater Dress, tasteful layout was not necessarily my best skill.

Therefore, I honor Adobe and the FM 8 Team for making my job a bit more enjoyable. Here are some of the features of FM 8 that I enjoy most:

1. Typical word processing/publishing projects can be combined with XML to create more visually stimulating templates for books, newsletters, reports, data sheets, etc.
2. When converted to a pdf, FM 8 will automatically create bookmarks based upon the layout and hierarchy of the document. Such a time saver when you have a 10+ page document to map/bookmark.
3. Ability to include rich, multimedia from Adobe Flash and Adobe Captivate (both of which I use heavily for the creation of learning objects and assessments)
4. MS Excel Graphs and MS Word Documents are easily integrated into the FM 8 templates.
5. There are a fair amount of structured and unstructured templates that I have used to lay the foundation for creating templates that fit my needs.
6. Top 5 Templates: FAQ, Index, Graduate Thesis Paper, Newsletter, and Harvard Outline…all of which can be time consuming when developing from ’scratch’
7. Picks up where InDesign leaves us hanging…FM 8 is made specifically for the creation of looooong, exhausting template-based textual documents (i.e. eBooks or eContent for an online course).

It is good practice to give the cons with the pros. So, here they are…the 2 (yes, only 2) issues I have with FM 8:

1. No integration with MS Publisher, and
2. Not enough varying font color choices…Step it up ADOBE!!!

Obviously, these are the opinions of a fairly new Instructional Designer. For more info on Adobe FM 8, check the following resources:

• FrameMaker FAQs
• FrameMaker Tutorials & Training
• InDesign vs FrameMaker
• FrameMaker vs Word