35 More Qualities of the Ideal Instructional Designer

The effective instructional designer should:
Competently Work with SMEs
1. Put one’s ego aside when necessary and accept client feedback openly and non-defensively in order to nurture client relationships.
2. ‘Effectively channel’ SME’s—competently work with a ‘brain dump.’
3. Be a good listener. Tease out and focus on outcomes.
4. Be a good interpreter.
5. Ask a lot of questions.
Design and Develop Effective and Creative Content
6. Have good analytical skills.
7. Extract information from SMEs and structure and organize content it in a way that makes it easy to learn.
8. Organize information well. If it’s not something the learner can easily find, it’s not really there after all.
9. Conduct research and synthesize information from a variety of sources.
10. Write well-defined measurable objectives based on the needs of the learner.
11. Write well.
12. Have a capacity for ideation. This goes beyond thinking about learning and teaching and relates to the discovery of truth.
13. Communicate well both visually and verbally.
14. Create learning sessions with information that is useful and applicable to the learners’ real world—i.e. in the workplace where transfer of knowledge can occur.
15. Be a flexible problem solver who can apply instructional design concepts appropriately to unique situations.
16. Keep the problem uppermost while designing solutions.
17. Create deliverables that are learner-centered.
18. Create connections for the learner to the instruction, learning objectives and business goals through ID principles, multimedia design, activities and feedback.
19. Engage the learner with writing, layout, imagery, theme and activity/feedback.
Have a Passion for Learning
20. Be obsessed with learning everything, but be prepared to take action before you have learned everything you might want to know. Be courageous about the choices you will have to make. (Chris Barnes)
21. Have some experience as a teacher, lots of experience as a learner and a passion for learning.
22. Have a background in education coupled with curiosity and a love/hate relationship with technology.
23. Learn quickly and break things down in a way others can learn the information.
24. Engage in cross-disciplinary knowledge, consult with others and expand one’s own knowledge base and perspective constantly.
25. Have a passion and a thirst for learning. Be a learner’s advocate. Have a passion for truth, the ability to see things as they are (e.g., critical reflection), and a commitment to the learner.
Develop Business Savvy
26. Focus on expected business outcomes and design as leanly as possible to reduce time to proficiency and control costs. To be able to build a business case for learning and demonstrate why their solution will work cost-effectively.
27. Create an effective design within the constraints of a project regarding available technology, budget, time and human capital.
28. Be a skilled advocate for learning, for the audience, and for an effective process in order to gain resources and influence decisions.
29. Know how to facilitate—to teach a SME how to use a technology or demonstrate a new technique. It also helps guide design choices when you know how to facilitate.
30. Be cross-culturally competent and understand the needs of a global audience.
31. Be proficient in three areas; instructional design, instructional technology and project management. Like a three-legged stool—if one leg is missing or shorter than the other it is very difficult to remain seated.
Strive for Personal Growth
32. Have humility. This is a trait that many professors lose when they gain tenure. A great instructional designer, like a great teacher, is a servant-leader.
33. Have a passion to impact the lives of people in positive ways through designing suitable learning interventions.
34. Appreciate and value one’s—however small or big it may be—and really believe that someone’s life is getting impacted as a result.
35. Feel ‘powerful’ in helping people become more effective in their personal and professional life and rise to the responsibility of doing that work effectively and to the best of one’s ability.

GUI

Five Essential Elements of an e-Learning Module

Well defined scope and objectives:
Every e-Learning course must have a main objective that explains the need for this course and helps in developing the course outline. A well-defined course objective also facilitates the mapping of the content for the course.
Defining the scope and objectives for any e-Learning course will not only guide the development of the course but will also help any reader figure out whether the content is relevant and decide on the logical flow of the content. This will also enable the learner to understand what he will be gaining by taking this course.
Comprehensive yet relevant content:
It is important for an Instructional Designer to understand the content that is to be developed for a course. He should understand the context in which the course is going to be taken by the learner – the what, why, and how of it.
Next, consider the authoring tool. This is a tool that helps the Designer to not only create content but also to package it and send it to the end user or the client. Deciding on the appropriate authoring tool is one of the primary jobs of the Instructional Designer because it is useful in the development of interactive training content which is the backbone of any e- Learning course.
It is very essential for the Designer to decide on the content based solely on the course objectives rather than thinking about what the client wants. More often than not, the client is the major driving force in the development of content for a course. This process is highly detrimental for the course that is going to be developed as well as for the Designer. It will stop the Designer from using his creative talent and knowledge to develop the content.
Easy GUI:
Good visual design does contribute in creating an effective learning environment for the learner. It helps the learner to understand what he sees on the screen, understand the purpose of the elements and thereby, learn about the content by focusing on it. The benchmark of a good training module is not just the content but also the interface and the look and feel of it. A bad interface can lead the learner to believe that it is a sheer waste taking the course. On the other, a simple yet engaging interface helps the learner understand the efficacies of the course better. The challenge for the Designer is always to create something simple and interesting by blending aesthetics with functionality. A lot goes into developing an engaging course that sparks the interest of the learner and makes him want to continue with the course.
High Interactivity:
Having a course which is highly interactive is a good way to ensure the success of the developed course. Page-turners are definitely out of question these days unless there are restrictions for the course. People prefer learning by doing to learning by reading (and answering questions at end). The most common way to make a course interactive is by the use of simulations and scenarios. Simulations model the real world and give a scope to make mistakes yet not get penalized and learn at the same time. Similar is the case with scenario-based learning. It helps in creating engaging learning opportunities that mirror the real life and thus enable the learner to learn by making mistakes.

Well-designed Assessment:
It is imperative for any e-Learning course to have assessment provided along with, be it inline testing or assessment at the end of the course. The assessment should map to the objectives and reinforce learning. Ideally, the assessment should help the learner clear all his doubts based on the course and at the same time, learn a little bit more about the same. A good e-Learning course should provide immediate feedback so that the learner is able to judge how well he has understood the content of the course. The feedback shouldn’t be such that it discourages the learner and makes him feel like he doesn’t know anything, it should reinforce learner. A feel good factor is very important for the learner after he takes the course along with the assessment.

Tackling the SMEs

E-learning courses become 100% effective only if the right amount of information is presented in the right fashion, to the right audience. The Subject Matter Experts or SMEs play a crucial role in providing us the right amount of information.
A lot of Instructional Designers face difficulties in extracting the right info from the SMEs...Here are some tips that would help you tackle the SME issue to a great extent. (Tips courtesy: Article written by Tita Beal, Training Magazine Events web site)
1. Do your homework carefully so you can begin an interview with a clear explanation of what you want to discuss, why, and how long it will take (under 30 minutes), as well as a list of questions with space to write answers.
2. Train yourself to take continual notes while making eye contact in case your experts balk at a tape recorder. Make code symbols (e.g., asterisk, check, etc.) as you write to remind yourself where there's an important point, a follow-up question you need to ask, or a "to do" item.
3. Begin the interview by setting the right collaborative tone. For example, "I'm going to ask you some questions that will sound simple, but sometimes are hard to answer. And don't worry. If you want, I'll show you my first outlines and drafts so you have a chance to correct anything I didn't get right, and add anything you may not think of today."
Beal learned to do this the hard way when an expert got furious at her for asking "stupid questions" but later had the good grace to apologize and say, "Your questions about needed results and assumptions were so simple, I should have already thought through the answers. I felt stupid so I called you stupid. Apologies. Can we start again?"
4. If you need the experts' continuous support, consider giving them an invitation to speak in an on-site or online panel to the participants.
5. Don't make busy experts teach you their expertise. They'll become very impatient and exasperated. If you can't understand a technical term but sort of understand what the expert is talking about, spell it phonetically and ask someone else or do some research. If you need to understand a concept or term to make any sense of the conversation, ask something like, "If we have to explain this to new hires or newly promoted people, how would you define that in simple/plain English?"
6. Don't get into semantic arguments. You may need to develop "behavioral objectives" a certain way or you may have strong opinions about what is a benefit vs. a feature. However, just listen to the expert's discussion of needed performance, results, and ways to assess quality of performance. You can create the perfect statement of objectives or list of features/benefits later.
7. Listen for generic concepts and skills underneath the specific details that experts will discuss.
8. Finally, a last resort: If someone refuses to answer your questions with dismissive comments like, "Sales reps know all that," start packing up and say very politely, "I guess this training program isn't needed. I'll explain that to X." (X = the expert's own manager or a senior executive who has requested or approved the proposal to develop the training program.)

Creating Scripts and Storyboards for e-Learning

After a thorough needs analysis and design document is approved, the development of scripts is the first step in the creation of programmer ready materials, called PRMs. The script or storyboard is simply a screen-by-screen description of what students will see, hear, and do when running the program. Once the designer completes the script, it becomes the guidebook for all other team members: artists, audio/video producers, and programmers.
Depending on the project and the background of the development team, Instructional designers will create either scripts or storyboards. Both formats serve the same purpose, and include the same descriptive elements, but vary in their layout and treatment of graphics.
Scripts typically use verbal descriptions of on-screen graphical items while storyboards use sketches or clip art to visually depict required art elements. Because of the time it takes to create even rough composite artwork, a scripting approach typically takes less time, but storyboards provide a more complete picture of what the final program will look like.
Regardless of the format chosen, every script or storyboard has the following eight major elements:
Project Information includes the name of the client, curriculum title, course title, date, draft or version number, and script page number.
Screen Label indicates which screen of the program is being described. Sometimes screens are called frames or events. These screen labels are generally coded with both a lesson number and screen number. For example, Screen 03-0090 refers to lesson 3, screen 9. The extra zero at the end of the screen counter leaves room to fit additional screens into the script in the future. If you wanted to add a new screen in lesson 6, between the existing screen 12 and 13, the revised script would reference the new screen as "06-0125." While this labeling system might seem hidden at first glance, it can save a lot of time and energy later. Since artists name graphical images using these numerical screen labels as file names, this system avoids the need to renumber all the screens in the script whenever a new page is added.
Audio/narration is specified in the script if the technology used supports it. Typically an audio voice over (sometimes labeled VO in the script) of the narrator is used. Sometimes the audio segment of a script specifies "Play dramatic music," "Buzzer sound on incorrect answer," or some other sound effect.
Video clips, if used, are described in the script, giving both camera direction and writing out the actual dialogue for on-screen actors. Descriptive notes to the director are included, such as "executive at her desk," "prestigious environment," or "slow zoom as she reaches her conclusion."
Graphics are provided in the script as a verbal description of what should appear on screen, or a sketch. The purpose is to help both the reviewer (client or subject matter expert) and the artist who must create the final images, to visualize what the designer has in mind.
Descriptions might be "Show group of business people around a conference table, gender balanced and multiculturally diverse" or more vague like "Computer on desk." General descriptions enable artists to apply their own creativity and resources. At the same time, given only a loose interpretation, the final graphic the artist creates may not match what the designer had in mind.

On-screen text section of the script describes which words will appear on the screen. In many Web-based training programs that can not support audio, text is the primary learning media, thus this section of each script page may be quite long. In other programs where audio narration is the primary instructional media, the text is used to reinforce the audio. In these cases, the text is likely to appear as brief bullet points or short statements.

Navigation and interactivity describes the action items of the program - - what can the student do on this screen, and what will happen next. Standard navigation options include phrases such as "Next button moves to next screen in sequence" and "Menu button jumps back to Main Menu." These types of options that are available from every single screen often are excluded from the description. Once noted on the first script page, navigation is assumed to be constant. Other types of interactivity might be "Answer A: Play buzzer sound and display in feedback window, 'That's incorrect. Try again.'" Or even directions related to the theme or metaphor,
Ex:"Clicking elevator doors causes doors to open, followed by interior elevator scene and movement to fifth floor (topic name / lesson number)."

Notes is the final section in a script that provides an area for any additional comments that do not fit easily into one of the above categories. This informal area allows the designer to communicate directly to an artist or programmer. Comments might be: "The corporate culture is very Generation X. Let's make this opening screen colorful and extreme. Feel free to get creative!" or "This question segment needs to be tracked for final report purposes. We need to track specific answers in addition to correct/incorrect information."

Style Guide for elearning

e-Learning Style Guide

e-Learning Style Guide provides the standards to be followed when developing Web-based Training (WBT) and Computer-based Training (CBT).
This Guide focuses on the following areas:

1. General Courseware Design & Development Standards
2. Instructional Design Standards
3. Graphical User Interface - Menu and Navigation
4. Media Standards
5. Technical Standards
6. Writing Standards
7. Assessment Standards
8. SCORM Considerations
9. Quality Assurance
Table of Contents

GENERAL COURSEWARE DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS ......................................3


INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN STANDARDS...........................................................5

GENERAL STANDARDS....................................................................................5
LEVELS OF INTERACTIVITY..............................................................................5
USE OF INTERACTIVITY TO PRESENT INSTRUCTION............................................6
EMBEDDED PRACTICE.....................................................................................6
LEARNER FEEDBACK/REMEDIATION..................................................................6
STANDARD SCREEN TYPES..............................................................................6
Module Home Page.........................................................................................6
Module Intro Page..........................................................................................6
Knowledge Check...........................................................................................7
Module Summary Page....................................................................................7
Module Test Intro Page....................................................................................7
Module Test Summary Page..............................................................................7
Quiz Results Screen..........................................................................................7


GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE - MENU AND NAVIGATION................................7

MENU ORGANIZATION....................................................................................7
NAVIGATION.................................................................................................8

MEDIA STANDARDS...........................................................................................8

SCREEN DESIGN...........................................................................................9
TEXT............................................................................................................9
LAYOUT........................................................................................................9
GRAPHICS....................................................................................................10
ANIMATION .................................................................................................10
AUDIO .........................................................................................................11
VIDEO..........................................................................................................11

TECHNICAL STANDARDS.......................................................................................11

HARDWARE ......................................................................................................11
BROWSER SPECIFICATION…................................................................................12
AUTHORING TOOLS............................................................................................12
DATA FILE STRUCTURE.......................................................................................12
AUDIO..............................................................................................................12
VIDEO..............................................................................................................12
GRAPHIC AND PHOTOS.......................................................................................12
LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS)...............................................................12
WEB HOSTING SERVER.......................................................................................12
ANALYSIS AND DESIGN DELIVERABLES.................................................................13

WRITING STANDARDS..........................................................................................13

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS.........................................................................13
PUNCTUATION....................................................................................................13
BULLETS............................................................................................................14
NUMBERS...........................................................................................................14
DATE AND TIME..................................................................................................14
CAPITALIZATION.................................................................................................15
EMPHASIS..........................................................................................................15

ASSESSMENT STANDARDS .......................................................................................15

LEVEL ONE EVALUATION..........................................................................................15
LEVEL TWO EVALUATION .........................................................................................15
LEVELS THREE AND FOUR EVALUATION......................................................................16

SCORM CONSIDERATIONS.........................................................................................16

SCORM OVERVIEW....................................................................................................16

QUALITY ASSURANCE.................................................................................................17


General Courseware Development Standards

Development Process

e-Learning courseware will be developed using a variation of the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) process known as the ADDIE model.

The familiar ADDIE instructional systems design model specifically ensures that typical analysis-phase output is further defined to solidify the scope of the course for both instructional designer and client stakeholder alike. Additionally, where evaluation occurs after implementation in the ADDIE model, evaluation/revision takes place throughout the development life cycle ensuring our efforts consistently hit the mark. The phases of ADDIE include:

Analysis

This phase is the foundation of all other phases of instructional design. In this phase we look for learner needs, identify the problem such as lack of specific skill, and determine the possible solution. Deliverables: Instructional Design Plan and Project Plan.

Design

The outcome of Analysis phase creates blueprint for the instruction. This blueprint, called a Design Document, covers the training needs, instructional strategies, content and creative treatment. The document is invaluable for keeping the project on track.
IT begins analyzing and organize the “raw” course content outlines for each module at a detailed level and develops Design Components of what the presentation template will look like for client approval. Additionally, IT Storyboards the course content. Deliverables: Design Document (Course Outline, Performance Objectives, and Instructional Strategies.), Storyboards and Project Plan (Final).

Develop

IT authors the course content (text, imagery, audio) and addresses technical considerations with the client’s LMS. IT provides prototype of a course module or lesson. Deliverables: Prototype, and completed WBT or CBT Course.

Implementation

IT and client install and test the course within the LMS then release it to the learner or audience.
Deliverables: Completed participant feedback forms, Source Files and the final IT Certification for WBT or CBT Course.

Evaluate/Revise

An ongoing event is really not a “phase” at all. Evaluation/Revision points are built into the
Project Plan throughout the project life cycle. Deliverables: N/A

It’s important to point out the reason and value in the Evaluate/Revise phase. Evaluate/Revise is analogous to the familiar ISD concept of Formative Evaluation in that during the entire course of design and development, a review/revise step should be built into the schedule from conception through go-live.
Each phase’s output in turn becomes the input for the subsequent phase and at each transition point throughout development – at minimum – should be a built-in review/revise step to capture any and all errors in either the course’s design or development. Doing so ensures that the initiation of each new project phase begins with the proper and correct input, to the extent possible. If an error goes uncaught, it can understandably “snowball” to eventually become a much bigger and broader issue that could potentially be more time consuming and expensive to correct further on down the development road.

Development Team

It is IT expectation that an instructional designer (ID) will be responsible for the design and development of all of the e-learning deliverables. In the appropriate phases of the project, IT expects the ID to work with a multi-disciplinary team that includes:

Subject Matter Expert(s)
Instructional Designer(s)
Content writer(s)Editor(s) (also Subject Matter Experts)
Graphic Artist(s)
Web Developer(s)/Programmer(s)
Integrator
Audio/Video Producer(s)
Quality Assurance Specialist(s)

In some cases the ID may perform multiple roles, such as all of the design, authoring, and graphic/media design responsibilities.

Deliverables

The following should be specified as deliverables in contracts for custom e-Learning courseware development:

Phase
Deliverables
Analysis
Instructional Design Plan
Project Plan (Initial)
Design
Design Document
Course Outline
Performance Objectives
Instructional Strategies
Storyboards
Project Plan (Final)
Development
Audio Scripts
All Media
Prototype Course ware
Final Course ware
Implementation
Completed participant feedback forms
Final IT Certification WBT or CBT Course.
Source Files
Evaluate/Revise*
Test Items as submitted in Storyboards

*IT shall maintain ownership of the final courseware, including the underlying source code, including all audio, video and graphic files.


Instructional Design Standards

General Standards

Use the following general standards:

Design for the following hierarchy: course, module, lesson, topic
State learning outcomes (at course and module lesson levels minimally)
Allow learner to navigate between courses and individual modules in any order he or she desires
Include a “help” feature on how to use the courseware
Design for a screen resolution of 800X600 pixels
Write course welcome text, module welcome page text, and lesson welcome page text
Design courses that are no more than 30 minutes in duration (approximately 25-35); exceptions to this standard may be approved by IT
Provide for each module “what’s in it for me”
Provide a running page count (“X of X Pages”) on each page of each module.
Include a module summary page
Provide introductory statements, transitional statements, and summary statements as needed to ensure a coherent flow across pages
Do not assume that the learner will take modules or lessons in any particular order (If knowledge from a previous lesson or from the learner’s work experience is needed to understand the new ideas that will be presented in the lesson, provide a brief summary of this knowledge.)
Address one concept, procedure or item of instruction on each page
Provide verbatim audio script text on the page, if audio is used
Provide learners with information in the fewest steps and shortest time possible
Use custom illustrations, where possible, to teach complex concepts
Use royalty-free graphics and photographs to add visual interest
Avoid stereotyping by race, gender or ethnicity
Develop module-level assessments; test every terminal learning objective (module-level assessments are listed as a discrete selection on the left-hand menu)
Track student scores by module within the IT LMS

Levels of Interactivity

The level of interactivity to be provided in the courseware is agreed upon and documented in the work plan and further described in the analysis/design documents.

IT uses the following definitions to describe the degree of interactivity that will be included in courseware:

Level I – Passive. The learner acts solely as a receiver of information. The learner progresses linearly through course reading text from the screen, viewing video or listening to audio
Level II – Limited Interaction. The learner makes simple responses to instructional cues. The responses may include answering multiple choice or true/false questions
Level III – Complex Participation. The learner makes a variety of responses using varied techniques in response to instructional cues. Techniques may include building a model/diagram from available parts
Level IV – Real-Time Participation. The learner is directly involved in a life-like set of complex cues and responses. (Note: This would be a level developed for the style guide. Level IV can be expensive.)
IT understands that decisions on the degree of interactivity in any e-Learning product are based upon relative importance of the content, budget, time line and audience size. Minimally, IT expects learners to interact with the courseware approximately every four pages.

Note: It may be appropriate to design modules within the same course for different levels of interactivity (e.g., one module may focus on foundational principles and another module may use complex, branched case studies for application of those principle; an introductory module might be developed at Level I whereas a later module might be developed at Level III).

Use of Interactivity to Present Instruction

Engage the learner as frequently as possible through the use of interactive teaching strategies
Include a wide variety of screen (interaction) types to keep the learner engaged throughout the course
Develop and adhere to a standard set of instructions (learner prompts) for each screen (interaction) type

Embedded Practice

Use these standards to design and develop embedded practice exercises:

Provide opportunities for unscored practice after each concept or skill is taught
Provide the context for the practice activity (relate it to a concept or job skill in introductory text)
Ensure that practice opportunities are directly linked to learning outcomes
Use the standard IT screen for embedded practice exercises

Learner Feedback/Remediation

Use these standards to write feedback for embedded practice exercises:

Avoid using phrases such as “You are incorrect” or “That’s wrong.” Instead, use “Incorrect” followed by feedback that provides the learner with the correct answer when appropriate
Use “Correct” when the learner answers correctly; add additional language that paraphrases the correct answer

Standard IT Screen Types

Module Home Page The Module home page orients the learner to the overall module (describes the module goal and content). This page also provides instruction on how to begin the course. Learners are encouraged to complete the Help tutorial, if they have never taken a IT WBT or CBT course before. Learners are given instructions to click on a screen cue to begin.

Module Intro Page The module intro page orients the learner to the module. Most importantly, it captures the learner’s attention and creates anxiety for learning. This page should provide “What’s In It for Me?” This page also provides instruction on how to begin the module (i.e., click on a lesson title). The total number of pages as well as where the student is within that total is provided.

Knowledge Check Use the standard interaction screens for all unscored, embedded practice exercises.

Module Summary Page The module summary page wraps up the module. Module learning outcomes are paraphrased. This page also provides instruction on how to continue (e.g., select another module). If desired, one (the same) graphic may be used on every module summary page in a course.

Module Test Intro Page The module test intro page orients the learner to the module assessment. Clear instructions on how to take the test are provided. The number of questions in the test is stated. The test scoring page is explained. The learner is informed that the threshold for mastery is 85% for each module test. This page also provides instruction on how to start the test (i.e., select the Next button). If desired, one (the same) graphic may be used on every module test intro page in a course.

Module Test Summary Page The module test summary page is the module “scorecard” for the learner. The learner’s score on the module test is provided (expressed as a percentage). The learner is informed, in text, whether or not he/she passed the test.

Quiz Results Screen After each module quiz, the learner is taken to a Quiz Results screen where they are given instructions about where to go next. The learner is encouraged to revisit lessons of the module if he/she does not pass the quiz.
When the learner scores 85% or higher on a module quiz, he/she is instructed to click 'Next' to go to the course summary page.

Graphical User Interface - Menu and Navigation

Menus and navigational elements help learners move through the courseware. Menus guide the learner to modules, lessons and topics while navigational elements allow for maneuvering through the courseware.

This section addresses the standards for:

Menu organization
Navigational elements

Menu Organization

Course menu is provided on IT LMS; modules are listed within each course
Provide clear instructions on how to use the menu
Create the shortest module titles needed to convey meaning
Use descriptive headings such as Module 1: Introduction and Overview
Use the following common button naming rules:

o Use Help to access navigational guidance
o Use Glossary to provide access to a list of terms and definitions
o Use Exit to end the course. Do not use Quit, End or Stop, which might refer to quitting the immediate exercise or module
o Use Forward or Next and Back or Previous to designate page turning. Do not use Up or Down
o Use complete page counters such as “1 of 30”, not partial counters, such as “Page 5 that does not indicate how much longer the module will last




Navigation

Learners should spend time mastering the course objectives, not the course navigation.
Navigation must be learner-friendly and must comply with the following standards:

Provide learners with the ability to control all navigational activities
Navigation must be intuitive for the learner
Provide clear instructions or cues for all required learner activities
Navigational elements should be formatted as buttons should include the following functions:
o Forward (or Next)
o Back (or Previous)
o Exit
o Menu
o Glossary (possibly a future add)
o Tools (when applicable)
o Help

Note: Other navigational buttons may be added, as appropriated

The buttons should be consistent within each course and module; all buttons and icons should have a consistent and unique appearance
Visual cues, such as mouse cursor changes and rollover highlights, used on all buttons should be consistent
Navigation through the modules should be primarily learner controlled; however, a suggested sequence should be provided
All buttons are labeled with text descriptions or with rollover text where appropriate
Buttons should “gray out” or disappear when they are inactive
All non button graphics should have design properties distinct from that of buttons
Navigation buttons should be displayed in exactly the same position every time they appear
Buttons are grouped logically and located where the learner is likely to be looking
Learners should have one-click access to Help, Exit, etc.
Modules and lessons can be completed in any order, unless the instructional design requires sequential accomplishment
Identification of module and lesson titles as well as page numbers sequenced, as Page 1 of 20, should be utilized
The program should track which modules have been completed and provide a visual reference to the learner of what he has completed in the courseware
There should be three or fewer levels of menus (i.e., module, lesson, topic)
Menu items should be listed in sequential or logical order

Media Standards

This section defines the standard look and feel for WBT and CBT courseware. These standards are used to maintain style consistency within the following areas:

Screen Design
Text
Graphics
Animation
Audio
Video
Screen Design

Use the following standards for general page design:

Establish specific location for the presentation of instructions and prompts
Provide recurring information in consistent locations
Provide generous white space to separate blocks of text
Avoid scrolling (window and/or text box), to the extent possible

Text

Use the following standards for text layout:

Present information in a top down, left to right instructional format
Limit the amount of text on page
Use short lines of 40 – 60 characters; maximum of 60 characters per line
Design text layout in short segments or phrases
Use bullets, numbered lists, tables and charts to break up lenIthy sentences
Line up text under the first letter in any bulleted list, if the bulleted text wraps to a second line
Do not indent paragraphs
Left justify text

Use the following standards for text appearance:

Use consistent color for text and graphics throughout the session
User a San serif type font such as Ariel or Verdana:

o 16-point for the course title
o 14-point bold for Knowledge Check heading
o 14-point bold for subheadings (page titles)
o 11-point for instructional text
o 8-point for instructions within the instructional area of the screen

Break up blocks of text to make it easier for the learner to scan the content
Underline hyperlinks only
Use bold font or italics to emphasize a word or phrase.
Do not use all capital letters or underlining to emphasize words or phrases
Use standard Web conventions for hyperlinks (not yet selected, currently being selected, already been accessed)
Do not use blinking text or repetitive animation

Layout

Page layout should conform to the screen. Specifically, the instructional or content area of the screen should have a lesson title, spacing between the title and the screen instructional text, the instructional text, and any media (image, audio/video/animation controller and/or window) all placed in such a way that makes appropriate use of the screen’s white space.

The resulting screen layout should be pleasing to the eye, conform to left-to-right, top-to-bottom western text standards, and should not cause confusion or dissonance with the learning objective.


Graphics

Use the following standards for illustrations and photographs:

Use the standard 216-color Cross Platform Web Safe color palette. Most computers supports only 256 different colors, a list of 216 Web Safe Colors was suggested as a Web standard. Although more and more computers are equipped with the ability to display millions of different colors, it is still advisable to conform to the use of the 216 Cross Platform Web Safe Colors. This 216 cross platform web safe color palette was originally created to ensure that all computers would display all colors correctly when running a 256 color palette


See the 216 cross platform web safe color palette below:

Use colors that accommodate color-blind learners; as such try to include at least one color-blind reviewer in all deliverables, especially in the review of the course screen design components
Establish and maintain a convention for the use of color(s) to denote meaning
Maintain a constant perspective in a series of visuals
Do not include contractor or other corporate logos in the courseware
Avoid graphics that may become outdated in a short time
Use clip art sparingly, if at all possible
Do not use “cartoon” characters
All text within the graphic must be readable
Be consistent with all graphics (with the use of borders, effects and quality)
Make sure there is no advertising in the photo (i.e. car model name, billboard signs, license plates)

Animation

Use the following standards for animation:

Allow user to control the start of the animation when possible
Avoid timed effects (If one or more events are to launch on a page, the learner should trigger the event. Events should not be timed to launch.)
Do not use blinking graphics or text
Use special effects when required for emphasis or transition; do not overuse
Special effects (e.g., fly-in transitions, etc.) should not be used for “entertainment” value only. There should be some tangible and purposeful reason for their use; else do not use them
Do not use any special effects that detract from learning
Use animation to display concepts that are difficult to describe

Audio

Use the following standards:

Use audio judiciously (e.g., to demonstrate interpersonal skills, to demonstrate sounds heard on the job, to engage the learner – such as providing a talking coach)
Provide verbatim text that matches audio script
Ensure that audio volume levels are consistent throughout the course
Provide an audio “Replay” button when possible
Use one audio talent throughout the course. If role-playing, multiple voice talent may be used, but roles must be consistent.
Do not use sound effects

Video

Use the following standards to select video for courseware:

Use video to reinforce, clarify or emphasize a specific behavior or performance objective that cannot be effectively taught using graphics, stills, photographs or animation
Do not use continuous video clips (more than 15-20 seconds in lenIth) because of file size
Provide a “Replay” button when appropriate
Use appropriate video (e.g., talking head, show and tell, interview, panel discussion, simulation or dramatization)
Because buffering problems tend to hinder streaming media performance, where possible, avoid traditional techniques such as zooming, panning, transitional wipes, dissolves, and fast motion subjects

Technical Standards

This section describes standards for specific technical issues related to the courseware. This section includes the following topics:

Hardware
Authoring tools
Data file structure
Installation
In addition to these standards, all web development and computer security standards specified by client must be followed.

Hardware

The courseware must be designed to perform on the standard hardware configuration in use at the time of development.

Information to determine minimum configuration should include the following specifications:
Operating system: Windows 98 and above
Minimum processor speed: 328 MHz
Standard screen resolution and color depth 800 x 600, 16 bit


Browser Specification

Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer
Note: Keep in mind that some users may access the courseware over a 56K modem

Authoring Tools

Course ware should be developed using non-proprietary authoring tools.
Some examples include:
Articulate Presenter v5 / Quiz maker v2
Dream weaver
Flash
JavaScript
Shockwave

Data File Structure

Each page must load in no more than xx seconds on a 56K modem. (To be tested during courseware development/beta testing.)
Files are stored in a central location and accessible to the entire production team. File names cannot have spaces or special characters and should not be longer than 20 characters.

Audio

WAV format
MP3 format

Video

Compressed digital files – Shockwave, AVI, Quick Time, MPEG, Real Media, Windows Media Player

Graphic and Photos

Compressed, processed files with ALT text descriptions – JPEG, GIF,PNG – are acceptable for web delivery or CD-ROM
Adobe Photoshop file format with layers is also acceptable for uncompressed files. Adobe illustrator is acceptable for uncompressed files

Learning Management System (LMS)

The IT LMS is my moodle and service is provided by the moodle.
Course developers are expected to read the MOODLE LMS Reference Guide (PDF document) prior to developing and installing any courseware on MOODLE. Course must be developed to these specifications. (MOODLE LMS Reference Guide is to be provided)

Web Hosting Server

The IT has installed a server for the development and deployment of its elearning courseware.
More to come on the specifics of this server and requirements of courseware developers.


Analysis and Design Deliverables

Create all analysis and design documents in:

MS Word 98 and above files (Instructional Design Plans, Storyboards, etc.)
MS Power Point (Storyboards, if preferred)
Visio (site maps)
MS Excel or MS Project (project plans)

Writing Standards

The section provides standards to be used when screen text for e-learning courseware. Use the following standards for text language:

Use active voice, second person (you), present tense, and conversational tone when appropriate
Keep language simple, concise and consistent
Write to an 8th Grade reading level (use MS Word’s Flesh-Kincaid Readability Index calculation to manage the appropriate reading levels)
Do not use hyphens to break words
Avoid jargon and slang
Use examples that are universally understood
Avoid references that learners with English as a second language would have difficulty in understanding
Avoid the use of contractions (unless the course is consistently conversational in style)
Avoid language and examples that will reduce the shelf life of the courseware (e.g., dates, references to current events)
Avoid using all capital letters. Learners have more difficulty reading text that is all capitalized than mixed-case letters
Italic should only be used for titles of published works and words that are appropriated from other languages and have not become standard English (e.g., détente)
Use “click” (not “click on”) in learner prompts

Acronyms and Abbreviations

To introduce an acronym for the first time on a page, write out the full name of the entity, followed by its acronym in parentheses
Acronyms do not include spaces or periods
Abbreviations should be used when using titles before and after names (e.g., Mr., Mrs., PhD)
Abbreviations should be used when the acronym for a corporation, institution or country is more familiar than the full name (e.g., USA, IBM, FBI)
Abbreviations should be used for mathematical measurements (e.g., lb., kg.)

Punctuation

Punctuation Type
Standard
Spaces after punctuation
Use one space after periods and colons
Commas
Do not use serial commas immediately preceding “and” or “or” (a serial comma is the last comma in a series of items)
Hyphens
Use a hyphen to connect words in a sequence (e.g., 2003-2004, pp.28-72)
Do not use hyphens to separate syllables within a word
Do not use hyphens to connect two related parts of a sentence.
Quotation Marks
All punctuation goes inside the punctuation marks.
Bullets - symbols
Establish and adhere to a standard symbol for first and second level bullets.
Em Dash
Do not use an Em Dash. The em dash is the mark of punctuation most of us think of when we hear the term "dash" in regard to a sentence. It is significantly longer than the hyphen.
En Dash
Use an En Dash to connect related parts of a sentence (e.g., IT expects the vendor to ensure – through thorough quality testing – compliance to this Guide, SCORM/AICC.) Use a space before and after an En Dash (as shown in example above). The en dash is slightly longer than the hyphen but not as long as the em dash. (It is, in fact, the width of a typesetter's letter "N," whereas the em dash is the width of the letter "M"—thus their names.) The en dash means, quite simply, "through." We use it most commonly to indicate inclusive dates and numbers: July 9–August 17; pp. 37–59. An en dash is the same lenIth as the small letter “n.”

Bullets

Maintain parallel construction in a bullet list (e.g., start all bulleted items with a verb)
Bulleted or numbered lists in a training module should be no more than two levels deep
Use numbered bullets where sequence is important; use symbols for bullets when order is not important
Use a colon at the end of the introductory sentence (i.e., stem of before bullet list)
Capitalize the first word in each bulleted phrase or sentence
Learning Objectives, even when stated in a complete sentence, should not end with periods
Begin phrases (bulleted items that are not complete sentences) with caps and end without punctuation
Do not use “and” or “or” in bulleted sequences
Do not use a comma after each bulleted item
Do not put a period at the end of the last bullet in a list of bulleted items
Do not use a bullet (number or symbol) when there is only one item; there must be at least two items to make a bullet list

Numbers

Use figures to express the numbers 10 and above, all numbers representing mathematical functions or quantities, dates, ages, time, money, and numbers as part of a series
Spell out the numbers nine and below unless they represent precise measurement (e.g.,8.2578) or are part of a complex mathematical formula
Spell out any number that begins a sentence, title, or heading


Date and Time

Write out the date in full (e.g., January 1, 2020)
Use a colon to separate hours and minutes (e.g., 9:00 a.m.)

Capitalization

In headlines, capitalize all words except definite/indefinite articles, prepositions and conjunctions that are shorter than four letters
When using bullets, capitalize the first word contained in each bullet

Emphasis

Avoid excessive use of bolding (it can be distracting and should be reserved for headings)
Do not use italics for emphasis (they are hard to read on screen, and are used specifically for citations)
Do not underline (it can be confused with a hyperlink)
Do not use quotation marks
Use headings and subheadings to draw attention to specific concepts

Assessment Standards

This section provides general guidance on the assessment of learner mastery of course content.

Level One Evaluation

Upon completion of all module tests/quizzes in a course/module, learners will be encouraged, and in some cases, required to complete a Level 1 Course Evaluation, on line for WBT.

The learner accesses the course evaluation via instructions within the course or module itself.
For example Articulate/Quiz maker, have built in assessment development tools that allow the course developer to build and then deliver assessments as part of a course and/or module or as a standalone assessment. Choose the option (built-in or stand-alone) as required. However, built-in assessments require less thought and navigation on the part of the learner and are often times preferred to stand-alone assessments as a result.

Level Two Evaluation

All IT courseware must include an assessment of the learners’ mastery of the course learning outcomes. It is IT expectation that all course/module design documents will state:

A course goal, and
Learning Objectives
Generally the course goal appears on the Course Intro pages and the learning objectives are paraphrased on the Module Welcome page(s).
All learning objectives must be tested.

The threshold for mastery has been currently established at 85% for each module test.
Learners may take each quiz as many times as they wish. Each quiz will be automatically generated from a pool of question items. The quiz presented to the learner will generally be a subset of that total pool of question items and randomized so that each test presented is somewhat unique, to discourage the sharing of quiz answers to other learners. Each time a quiz is completed, the score for that learner, for that quiz, gets overwritten within the LMS.
Whenever a learner returns to the course menu, any modules associated with tests that were successfully passed will be clearly marked as being completed. This will allow the learner to better track their progress throughout the course.

The IT LMS is the training database that will track the learners’ progress through online courses, as well as their pass/fail status on the course tests. Only after a learner successfully passes all module tests then the LMS reflect a “passing” status for a course.

Levels Three and Four Evaluation

Not Required

SCORM Considerations

SCORM Overview

SCORM assumes the existence of a LMS. The LMS launches learning content, keeps track of learner progress, figures out in what order (sequence) learning objects are to be delivered, and reports student mastery through an e-learning course. An LMS is smart enough to know what is to be delivered to the learner, when he/she has mastered a skill or competency, and can branch to the right content when needed (e.g., for remediation). Regular web content and servers don't know how to do this.

SCORM is needed to standardize how to launch and track directed learning experiences, and to define the intended behavior and logic of complex learning experiences so content can be reused, moved, searched for, and re contextualized. Simple hyper-linked web sites don't need SCORM because users aren't being tracked and assessed for skill/competency mastery.

SCORM is like a bookshelf housing volumes (specifications) that originated in other organizations
including AICC etc. However, these specifications have been extended and additional detail, implementation guidance has been added. SCORM is, therefore, more than just a collection of others work, though it directly relies on the source specifications.

SCORM has three parts:

Overview - about the model, vision and future.
Content Aggregation Model - how to put learning content together so it can be moved and reused.
Run Time Environment: How content is launched and the learner's progress is tracked and reported back.

What’s important for the e-learning course developer is the second bullet above: how to design and develop course content that is SCORM compliant. An instructional designer should know that the typical instructional design process does not change for a project to create SCORM conformant content. SCORM considerations by project phase:

Phase
Considerations
Discover/Define
Verify that the content will be deployed in a SCORM conformant LMS. If a SCORM conformant LMS will not be available, re-evaluate the requirement for SCORM conformant content
Identify potential secondary audiences for content. Determine which sections of the content can be shared by multiple audiences
Identify an appropriate strategy for recording meta-data and storing content in a repository. Meta-data enables learning resources to be described in a common way so that they can be searched in a repository and retrieved for reuse
Design
Chunk your content so that sections can be reused
Collaborate with technical developers who are familiar with the SCORM to determine the best way to organize the content to meet the project requirements
Design Sharable Content Objects (SCOs) for content that requires data about the learner's experience with the SCO to be tracked
Design assets for content that is launched by the LMS but does not require data to be tracked about the learner's experience
Development
For content that will be reused:
Storyboard the content so that it can stand alone. For example, do not refer to a previous lesson if it appears in a different SCO
Determine how the reusable content can be effective without context-specific information. Or, provide context-specific information externally from that content

Quality Assurance

This section describes IT expectations for quality assurance efforts performed by development teams.
It is IT expectation that the development team will conduct quality assurance testing on all deliverables prior to submission to IT. Quality assurance is to be performed on all draft and final deliverables from each phase of the development process.
In particular, IT expects the development team to:

Ensure that all teaching and testing strategies comply with the standards provided in this Guide
Ensure that all text complies with the standards provided in this Guide
Ensure that all media with the standards provided in this Guide
Conduct Alpha test on all supported operating systems and browsers
Perform LMS integration testing
Conduct thorough quality assurance testing on Alpha, Beta, and Final versions

The role of IT is to review for content accuracy. IT expects the development team to ensure – through thorough quality testing – compliance to this Guide, SCORM/AICC.

Style and Format for User Guides

Style and Format for User Guides
A user guide is a combination of many things presented in this online textbook. At its core is instruction writing; you need to be good at the writing style, headings, lists, notices, highlighting, tables, graphics commonly used in instructions. As a set of instructions, a user guide should use the style and format.
Headings—Use headings to mark off key contents of the information so that readers can find it quickly. See the chapter on headings for details on planning and designing headings.
Lists—Use numbered and bulleted lists to help readers scan information quickly. See the chapter on lists for details on planning and designing lists.
Special notices—Use special notices such as warnings, cautions, and notes to alert readers to potential problems or emphasize special points. See the chapter on notices for details on planning and designing notices.
Instructional design—In general, use the standard design of instructions; primarily, this means task-oriented headings and sections and numbered vertical lists for actual steps that readers are to perform. See the chapter on instructions for details on planning and designing instructions.
Instructions—and therefore user guides—also make abundant use of:
Graphics—Show readers key components of the objects they will be working with, before and after views, and illustrations of key actions that readers must perform. See the chapter on graphics for details on planning and designing graphics.
Tables—Provide statistical information and other such details in easy-to-access table form. In user guides, tables are particularly useful whenever reference-type information must be presented. See the chapter on tables for details on planning and designing tables.
Highlighting—Use a consistent and standard scheme of highlighting (bold, italics, alternate fonts, color, caps, and so on). See the chapter on highlighting for details on planning and designing highlighting guidelines.
Components of User Guides
As a book, a user guide must have some combination of the standard book-design components such as the following:
· Front and back covers
· Title page
· Edition notice
· Trademarks
· Disclaimers
· Warranties
· License agreements
· Safety notices
· Preface
· Appendixes
· Glossary
· Index
· Reader-comment form
There is no standard combination or sequence of these elements; every company does it differently. Details on the contents, format, and design of these elements can be found in the book-design chapter.
Information Included in User Guides
Here's review the common contents of user guides:
Instructions—The most obvious are those step-by-step directions on how to assemble, operate, or troubleshoot the product. Instructions in user guide should generally be task-oriented—that is, written for specific tasks that users must perform. Instructions should generally use vertical numbered lists for actions that must be performed in a required sequence. Similar or closely related instructions in user guides should be grouped into chapters.
Precautionary information—You'll see notes, warning, caution, and even danger notices in user guides. These represent liability concerns for the manufacturer of the product.
Reference information—User guides typically contain plenty of reference information, but only up to a certain point. For example, if there are numerous commands, a separate book for commands is necessary. Reference information in user guides is often presented in tables: columnar lists of settings, descriptions, variables, parameters, flags, and so on.
Getting-started information—Some user guides will actually include brief tutorials that will help new users get acquainted with using the product.
About the product—User guides also provide some description of the product, a review of its essential features or its new features. Sometimes this information also gets put into a separate volume, if it is extensive. Typically, the volume will be called something like "Introducing New Product...."
Technical background—Sometimes, users guides will include technical explanations of how the product works, what physical or chemical principles are essential to its operation, and so on. For example, you will see considerable background in user guides for graphic or audio programs—you can't operate them without understanding the concepts of brightness, saturation, and hue; mu law, A law, and other such.
Examples of User Guides
Consider a few examples:
Delarina WinFax LITE User's Guide. This book is 5.5 × 8.5 inches and under 150 pages. It is uses by-chapter pagination, with new chapters and sections beginning on a righthand page.
Covers: On the front cover, you see the full book title, a version number, the company name with its logo, and warning that the book is not for retail sale. The back cover contains advertising material—rather atypical for user guides—on the product's best features, special offers on the full version, a 1-800 number to call, and the book number.
Title page: The first page inside this user guide is the title page, which includes the product name, the book title, the book edition number, the date of the edition, the company logo (which includes its name), several addresses for the company, and the not-for-retail-sale warning. The company name has a registered trademark symbol beside it; the product name has the trademark letters beside it. No trademark symbols are shown on the front or back covers.
Edition notice: On the back of the title page is the edition notice. This edition notice includes the book title, a copyright notice, legal statements concerning copying the book, list of trademarked product names occurring in the book, and the document number.
License agreement: On the next page is the software agreement, a two-page thing that outlines permitted uses of the software and related warranties.
Table of content: The TOC begins on a righthand page numbered "i" and lists up to level of headings within the chapters.
Headers and footers: The book title is used for both the left and right footers: on the left-page, the title is right-aligned; on the right-page, the title is left-aligned. The page number appears opposite of both footers, and a solid ruled line is placed just above both footers. The chapter title is used for the inside header on each page; the current heading is used for the outside header on each page. A solid ruled line is placed just beneath these headers.
Preface: The Overview which is treated as chapter 1. It contains some promotion of the product, a diagram of the product's many uses, hardware and software requirements on its use, an overview of the manual contents, and instructions on how to get help.
Body chapters: Chapters use the following design features:
o Chapter title — Large bold Arial letters with the chapter title on the left margin and the chapter number on the right and a double ruled line below.
o Headings — First-level headings are about 1 point smaller than chapter titles, left aligned, with a solid ruled line just below. Second-level headings are about 2 points smaller, left aligned, with no ruled line. Third-level headings are the same size as body text but use bold-italic Arial and are placed on the left margin.
o Text — Body text is a serif font about 10 points in size. This manual does not use hanging-head format; text extends to the same left margin as do headings.
o Graphics — numerous screen captures are used through the book; they are all centered.
o Lists — Numbered lists are used for items in sequence such as steps. Open squares are used for bulleted items that have a subhead. otherwise standard filled disks are used as bullets.
o Highlighting — Text that users must type uses a sans serif type (probably Arial) as do screen buttons, options, field names, and system messages. Bold is used for simple emphasis.
o Notices — Only notes and hints are used. The word "Note:" or "Hint" uses bold-italics. The text of the notice is regular body font indented an inch.
o Appendixes — The book ends with two appendixes: Appendix A addresses common problems with a situation/solution format; Appendix B addresses fonts. These pages are numbered A-1, A-2, . . . B-1, B-2, and so on.
o Index — The book ends with a 10-page index whose page are numbered with lowercase roman numerals starting at i. The index uses the standard but does something unusual with entries. It uses a table-of-contents format for the entries and their page references, connecting them with the sort of leader dots you'd see in TOCs.
IBM Aptiva Reference Guide. This book is also 8.5 × 5.5 inches. It is uses consecutive page numbering throughout the book and is about 120 pages long.
Covers: The front cover has a graphic design with stylized numbered 1, 2, and 3 along with large grid pattern and various sorts of shading. The three elements of the book title are placed at the top, upper third and bottom of the area, respectively. You also see the words "information," "getting help," and "troubleshooting" seems to float between the second and third title elements, giving readers a more detailed sense of the book's contents. The back cover continues the grid pattern and includes the IBM logo with the part number of the book, its print date, a statement that the bopok was printed in th e"USA" and a bar code for the book number.
Title page: This page contains the words "Aptiva Reference Guide" is large serif letter in the upper right of the page—and that's it!
Edition notice: The edition notice occurs on the back of the title page. It is pushed to the bottom of the page and uses a smaller type size, probably 7-point, for its body text. The heading for the edition notice is the edition number followed by the month and year of th edition. The paragraphs of the edition notice states that the book is provided "as is" without any warranty, that the book is for multiple models of the product and that portions of it may not refer to the reader's own particular model. Also included are an address where comments can be sent, a 1-800 number to request additional copies, and the standard copyright line.
Table of contents: The TOC is an unusual design in which all entries are left aligned in the center of the page, with the page numbers to the left about an inch. First-level entries use bold. TOC begins on page iii.
Notices section: The first body section of this manual is for notices—specifically, trademarks, highlighting conventions used in the book, safety notices, and regulatory (communications) notices. The section begins with its own title page on which is displayed the word "Notices" in a large serif font in the upper right corner and with a grid/shading design similar to that on the front cover. The text of the notices section begins on a right-hand page as does the chapter title page.
Body text: Here are the key design features of the body text:
o Text — Text for this book is indented nearly 2 inches. Body text is a rather small sans serif font, probably Helvetica, probably 9 or 10 points. The hanging-head format is used.
o Headings — First-level headings align to to the far left margin, use a blocky bold sans serif font with a solid ruled line above. Chapter titles use a large gray serif font in the upper right corner of the first page of the chapter. Second-level heading align with body text, use sentence-style caps (as do first-level headings) and use the same font as do first-level headings but about 2 points smaller.
o Highlighting — In stepwise instructions, the following elements are bold: buttons, tabs, menu options, menu names, keyboard key names, icon names, parameter settings. Names of disks supplied with the product are in italics. System messages are in regular roman and double quotation marks.
o Steps — Instructions sequences are introduced with a gerund-phrased heading in the block bold font. Substeps or alternate subtasks use infinitive phrasing with the same font but smaller and are punctuated with a colon. Actual steps use a number in the same smaller font with out a period.
Headers and footers: Only footers are used. Bold page numbers (using the same font as the first-level heading but much smaller) are on the outside; the current heading, not chapter title, is centered and in a serif italics font using sentence-style caps.
Special notices: This book uses a light gray box with a white checkmark in it to call attention to special notices. the text of the special notices is the same as the footers: small italic serif font. Usually, the checkmark box is located on the far left margin and the notice text is aligned to the normal body text. Where possible, the checkmark box and the notice text is in the open area between the far left margin and the body text.
Troubleshooting section: The body of this section begin with a flowchart that must be meant to orient a user to the overall process of troubleshooting and to the different troubleshooting resources available. The next section consists of common questions with actions to take depending on yes or no answers. The text of the actions is bulleted or numbered depending on the content and contains cross-references to other areas of the troubleshooting information. The next section is designed in two columns, the left column with the heading "If the problem is.” and the right column with the heading "Here's what to do..." The problem statement in the left column is in bold. the next section is similar except that it lists error codes that are displayed on the computer and actions to take.
Index: The book has a 6-page index formatted in 3 column. Two levels of index entries are used. The page references are set about a half inch away from the text entries.
Process and Internal Documents for User Guides
An important part of user guides—in fact, of almost any technical document—is the process that produces it:
Initial planning—Early planning on a user guide involves needs assessment (is any documentation needed at all?), audience analysis (who will be using the user guide; what are their needs?), task analysis (what will users use the product for; what are their common tasks?), library plan (what books, in addition to a user guide, are needed to support the product?), and so on.
Documentation proposal—If you are working freelance or as part of an independent documentation firm, you may have to write a proposal in an effort to win a contract to do a certain technical documentation project.
Documentation plan—User guides need documentation plans, which are internal supporting documents that specify content, audience, design, format, production team members, schedule, and other such information about a documentation project and its "deliverables." The documentation plan resembles the documentation proposal in certain ways, but the plan represents an established plan agreed upon by everybody involved in the production process (and that means both the user guide and the product it documents).
Prototype and specifications—Important planning tools, which also serve as useful reference tools during a documentation project, include the prototype of the user guide and the specifications for the user guide. The prototype is a dummy version of the book with all planned components of the book (see the list on book-design components) and all planned elements (see the list under format and style). However, the prototype uses "greeked" text (also known as Lorem ipsum like the following, instead of real text:
Typically, the prototype of the user guide is very brief: it need include only as many pages as it takes to illustrate every unique textual component and textual element that will be used in the user guide. Specifications are descriptions of a book design in table form. Specifications describe every unique component or element of a book, so that it can be recreated by someone who might not have access to the electronic files, templates or styles of that book.
Template and style catalog—A well-designed user guide, and a well-designed process to produce that user guide, should include templates and style catalogs. A template is an electronic file that defines such aspects of the user guide as page size, headers and footers, page-numbering style, regular and special page layout, and other such detail. A style catalog is also an electronic thing that defines the format and style of textual elements such as headings, headers, footers, lists, paragraphs, tables, and so on. For example, a style for a "heading 1" might specify 24-point Arial bold with 24 picas above and 12 picas below. Styles help you create a user guide more efficiently; styles also help you maintain consistency in the format and style of that user guide.
Multiple review drafts & sign-off—A good process for the production of a user guide also includes several drafts that editors, technical experts, usability testers, and documentation team members can review and provide comments on. You as writer then implement those comments and produce a new draft for these same people to review again. When everybody is satisfied with the draft of the user guide (or worn out or out of time), they sign off on the user guide, and it can then go into "production," which means producing the finished bound copies.
As you can see, a user guide brings together many of the topics covered in this online textbook. If you are taking a technical writing course, you probably cannot implement all these features and phases of a user guide. Get with your instructor to see which are required.