I've received a request, and I'm hoping my readers can help me come up with some ideas for a solution.
A colleague is developing a training program on an application roll-out that will be delivered in a traditional classroom setting. Inevitably, questions will be asked during the classes where the instructor doesn't know the answers. Traditionally, our instructors use a "parking lot", capturing those questions on an easel pad. Subject matter experts are consulted by phone or email, either during classroom breaks or immediately following the class. When the answers come in after class, the instructor usually emails them to the participants.
There HAS to be a better way!
Remember, I work for a very conservative insurance company, though I do have some leeway to be innovative. Privacy is an issue, and we prefer that the questions and answers only be seen by people inside the company. It would also be beneficial if screen-shots of the application could be posted if necessary to answer the questions.
We don't have any internal solutions for blogs, forums, wikis, etc. Assume that anything we use either has to be installed on a web server (which would be very prohibitive due to I/T constraints), or has to be available on the web. I have Dreamweaver and Captivate available for development of a web solution behind our firewall.
I'm registered at Yammer and QikCom, and I think either of them could work (except for the screen-shots). Of course, I was the first person in the company to register at both of them, and only 3 others have followed me to Yammer!
Ning could work too, but that might be over-doing it for this request.
Is there a way to do this with a blog, an RSS feed, and something like PageFlakes or NetVibes?
What about a wiki at a place like Google Sites?
I'm open to discussing any and all suggestions. Please post a reply with your thoughts.
2 weeks ago
13 comments:
I've used QuickTopic.com and found it to be one of the simplest tools, as compared to wikis or Google Docs. QT is not private but you can upgrade to QT Pro for more privacy:
Thanks for your input Harold. A discussion forum is another good idea, and I'll check out QuickTopic.com this afternoon to see if it might meet the need.
Collin..on travel but will post something later this afternoon when I get to hotel....
Mark
Thanks, Mark. I look forward to your reply.
Hi Collin,
If you are still interested in use of a blog, LiveJournal has "friends" mode to allow only your preferred group to access private posts. And that might work, too.
Cheers
WL
Hi Collin,
I think the most important thing to consider is that you have SMEs buy in on whatever you look at using.
Yammer, for example could be excellent due to its immediacy - however only if the SMEs are logged in to get the message!
With Yammer you could still share screenshots by uploading them to the web somewhere (e.g. imageshack, impernity etc) and put a link into the Yammer msg.
You may also find Jing to be useful that allows you to upload your screen shots at the touch of a button (see more about Jing here: http://www.jingproject.com/)
You could set up a collaborative blog between yourself and the SMEs and make this 'private' however I would only recommend this if the SMEs are comfortable with the concept of blogging. (There is info here http://snipr.com/4d804 about making a blogger page private).
Have a play around, and chat with the SMEs about what would work best for them!
Good luck!
PBWiki allows you to create totally private wikis for free, so you could post questions, screen captures, etc. on the wiki and then have SMEs respond there. That seems like an easier solution to me than using a blog for the type of thing you're talking about. I think wikis are a little more intuitive for most new users than blogs.
Collin,
I would recommend Google Sites. It is straight forward and I am assuming that you will be growing the base of questions over time. The search feature is great and it is by invitation. You can easily link in pictures/screenshots or even embed a presentation without too many extra steps. I have not used QuickTopic Pro so I cannot compare.
I am quickly becoming a Google Sites fan, I just used it to allow 30 people share their quarterly progress reports. I posted all 30 reports as attachments to a single page and had them post comments within the page itself. It was really useful.
I am sure you could do something similar with Microsoft Live Workspaces, but I am new to them.
I hope this helps. Good luck.
My sister works for a human services organization in which privacy laws are in place. They have just started using PBWiki. Our University uses an upgraded version of Confluence which is another wiki software, due to the privacy issue. In both cases, password protection makes access available only to those you give the password to. You can add the screen shots either directly to a page or as attachments.
The good thing about wikis is that your experts can add information from anywhere, anytime. You can also limit who can edit a wiki and who can view it. However, there are also comment areas. You can make some information (pages) public (FAQ's, or policy changes for example) with other related pages private for only some specific groups to work on. Our university currently is doing that for our reaccreditation and upgrades to the employee records.
I love starting the day with new comments!
Looks like a wiki is a popular idea so far, at least based on the last few comments. Still hoping to hear from Mark (above) & BlancheMaynard (from Twitter) who said they'd stop by and comment.
Thanks to everyone who's given their feedback so far. It's very helpful.
I thought of PB wiki too, but if real-time interaction is important to you, I would maybe try to use Twitter in conjunction with Twitwall. The privacy issue can be somehow bypassed by creating an account specifically for the class or meeting, and restrict access by protecting the updates. This way, only people within your organization could see the questions posted on Twitter and respond to them, either via Twitter or a comment on Twitwall.
Twitwall is basically like a blog. It allows you to post text, image and multimedia files, and it has a comments field. The advantage of using Twitwall in conjunction with Twitter is that you can then keep a central record of the questions and answers provided.
It would require, however, that participants sign up for a Twitter account and make sure to protect their updates.
I heard of another package - a combination of Twitter, blog, wiki, and Facebook-like applications - that can be hosted behind an institutional firewall, but I couldn't find the reference. When I do, I'll send it to you as well.
Hope this help
Blanche
Hi Collin! This is a tough question. I like all of the answers above and will probably bookmark this conversation for future reference.
I think whatever you decide to use, I think its important that your SMEs and others understand how to best GET to the information. The big failure of wikis is that people go to them 1 time, or maybe a few times, and then they just stop going back. Your SMEs MUST be set up to get "pinged" whenever changes occur. I think we tend to forget about this step when introducing new technologies to our workforce.
The most important thing is the remembering...and there are just too many things going on for your people to remember to go and interact with Twitter, blog, wiki, or whatever. So its important to teach them how to integrate these tools into their existing workflow. That's where RSS comes in. Get them to figure that part out and then it won't matter which tool you choose because they ALL generate RSS feeds.
With that said, I'll point out Utterli.com which is an update of Utterz.com. It is like TwITTER but allows for images, audio msgs, and text (not limited to 140 characters). And even better than that it is primarily set up to have that info sent from cell phones...ANY cell phone. I think there is a privacy feature as well, although I have not looked into it yet.
If that's to "beta" for ya then I like all of the ideas above presented to you by our esteemed eLearning colleagues ;-)
Good luck!
Brent
Collin - I'm just going to shut up now. I think the best point is to bring the SMEs on the journey with you - its their acceptance that will make it work...maybe have a "bake off" with several solutions and see which one they are more comfy with...
Post a Comment