ELearning for Large Scale System Change

Question

Our next project is training for a large scale company wide system upgrade. Our users are very dependent on the software that will be replaced and several departments will need to learn their job anew. Any suggestions on how to use eLearning to increase adoption and comprehension of the new software?

Answer 1

Hi Lincoln,
I've worked on a number of large-scale IT change projects for international clients. I can make a few suggestions, some Captivate related, some more general eLearning related.
On projects like this I tend to produce three types of training: face-to-face, interactive tutorials/simulations & job aids. Ideally the three are planned together, allowing you to create a single instructional design plan. You want people to be introduced to the system, learning to be reinforced and then everybody to be supported.
The face-to-face training usually contains lots of show and tell, where the users are shown how to do tasks and then have a go at doing this themselves. Ideally a number of small tasks are shown and repeated, then they are all brought together by getting the learners to follow realistic scenarios that require all of the discrete tasks to be performed together. I find that lots of training doesn't integrate deeply with people's real-life jobs and the use of real world scenarios helps to improve retention and performance. I have made materials where the show-and-tell pieces have been pre-recorded, which you can do with Captivate.
The interactive tutorials are usually used as follow-on material to the face-to-face modules, allowing learners to go through simulations with guidance when they do something unexpected, though sometimes there is no face-to-face training and the interactive tutorials have to deliver all of the teaching. Sometimes these include sections that merely show users and ask questions afterwards. Sometimes they become very complex branching scenarios. I usually build all of this in Captivate, though I do find it quite buggy and frustrating at times.
Finally, I build small job aids. These are very specific and show how to do a well defined function, such as changes an existing customer's address. Sometimes these are Captivate movies, sometimes they are PDF files, often they are implemented as both. They can be embedded and/or linked from the system help screens and FAQs, as well as used in support responses and post-training emails. The movies tend to be short and sweet: 30-120 seconds long.
In an ideal world the number of job aids grows rapidly after implementation in response to user support requests, though in reality I often have to anticipate what users are going to find difficult and create all of these prior to launch.
If you are going to use Captivate for your project, then I suggest that you test, test and test again before agreeing what you will deliver. It's a great bit of software, in theory, but it is quite buggy. I'm working on a project with CP6.1 and I'm having lots of audio synch problems and video corruption issues publishing my final work to as MP4 videos.
In terms of effort, my rule of thumb is 20% planning, 60% design and scripting and 20% implementation.
I hope this helps,
David