Interactive Training on CD-ROM Interactive Training on CD-ROM

May 22, 1995

3:00 pm

Randolph G. Terlecki | Alena Huges, Federal Language Training Laboratory

Bob Ainsley Moderator

Jay Hoffman

Key word here is interactivity

Primary how you design and develop it

Randy Terlecki

Bell Atlantic

Senior Human Factors Designer

Visual Communications, Architecture and Psychology

mm since 1982

specific processes in mm, past and current projects

=== Randolph G. Terlecki

GUI What?

Human Who?

Usable Where?

moving ahead with interactive multimedia

(music)

Bell Atlantic Performance Enhancement

Emerging Technologies

Interactive Multimedia

Human Factors in MM

conclusions

many open areas - CD-ROM, convergence, mm authoring

digital agents - digital butler

(small video pops up and talks)

("I'm here when you need me")

Can be sports or professor type.

Several years ago Bell Atlantic went through downsizing, cut

leader -led instruction for 60,000 employees, 100s of instructors.

Cut 68%

Evaluated who they had

From training to performance improvement

From Group-paced to student centered

From leader -led to alternative media - which will not do everything.

DOWNSIZING - focused inventions

(more music - Performance Enhancement - everything is different

course delivery - employee can access different types of training, learn on the job. Decentralize)

use video quite a bit, consultants and technicians.

(go out and see if person can perform on the job ...)

lines of business established in last year or so

120 job titles, 60,000 employees - lots of day to day training

reorient from training to solving the performance issue

Anaylze the performance problem, come up with interventions

Major goal - decrease training time, on the job training, increase proficiency

PSS where appropriate

Decrease maintenance - modularity is really important

Common elements that can be used, use throughout programs or processes.

Just in Time Interventions

- based on recent performance of consultants

- poeple who answer phones to line repair people

Measurement

- critical part

- evaluate users as they are going through

Even in CD-ROM based courses - user has diskette, use tracked along with that.

The nine dots game.

Part of culture change

Take the four equal size rods and connect all the dots

You have to go outside those nine dots

Break down those barriers

Turtle sticking his head out, take the risk. Different types of solutions.

Resolution of problems - using inflection of voice. Record voice, compare to top achiever in the office. Allows individual prescriptions, certification. Establish design principles and standards for deployment.

"Better one sure way than many in which you cannot count."

CD-ROM solutions

Design Principles

knowing your user

simplicity

mental models

Standards

templates

Courseware flow, Structure, and User Data Collection Conventions

menu structures, exit branches, user data

Delivery Solutions

Distributed Performance Labs integrated into the work environment

- move away from centralized training

- performance labs right where they work

- establish CD-ROM delivery solutions

SCPL - service center performance labs

will facilitate training -ergonomic concerns - adjustable, lighting, lines of sight from learner to computer, learner to instructor

Blend of multimedia, instructor based, CBT without animation - X termials, still motivating

What is an interface?

Any context surface

The door, the mirror, the dashboard

The User Interface - anything a user might encounter

What is usability?

People do things quickly and easily

Be very aware of that

Press ANY key to begin - his mental model was that of the typewriter

Human Factors

perception

knowledge is a psychological concept

Information is a mathematical concept

Within Using Human Factors

- determine how uses thing

Methodologies

ISD - Instructional Systems Design

Front end

Traditional Stages in Developmet - waterfall

Usability Engineering

Develop Product Concept

Prototyping is very important.

Watch GUI Development Process

- develop requirements

- form a conceptual design

GUI and software models tied together (marks on screen with Astound)

Title Area

Data Display Area - vendors in only one area

Feedback Display

Navigation Control Area

Who's on the teams?

Instructional Designers

Programmers

Human Factors

Target Users

User Interface Specialists

Why Prototype?

The iterative process of finding out what users really need

- instant society -quick expectations

-doubting Thomases - show me

People what to see different things.

Location, location, location in real estate Prototype, prototype, prototype in mm development

Benefits - simulate improve and test

Better specs and standards

ROI

Who 100 consultants broken into four groups

A Received no training

B Pencil/paper

C

Reactions

How feel

did they really learn anything

did they transfer knowledge to the job

did the training translate to higher sales revenue

mm came up higher on all four categores

Not an instant return, depends on project. Area over period of time.

Maybe showing how to learn

or using humor to learn about products.

(animation of old man moving VERY slowing to ringing phone)

Know thy user!

Obseve Negroponte, Brenda Laurel, Ben Schneiderman and Gabe Ofeish -at conference today.

Being Digital:

The challenge is .. to make computers that know you.

Q: In performance support, how do you know people aren't just asking their neighbor?

Depends.

Evaluation levels built in, different tools. Training support tool, consultant can access their current sales, updated so they can compare themselves to the top achiever, weekly.

Q: Actual results of performance evals.

Can send results on statistics.

Ainsley: On ROI slide, that would be interesting.

Q: What are you using as Authoring Software.

We have different platform needs. UNIX And PC. Multimedia Toolbook on PC. IconAuthor.

==== Alena Huges, Federal Language Training Laboratory

Tim Hayes, Author

Reset Ramierez

From time of first interview through finished product.

Who we are, what we do, and how we do it.

Part of CIA. Created by the CIA in 1991 by DCI

started mm in 1995

now sharing with Analysis Corporation, cooperative agreement. They market what we do.

Part of FL Lab Consortion

Mission - improve language learning AND testing

Languages

0 or at higher levels for maintence.

Today - 40 hour course in Spansih from level 0

Russian - similar, level 0 to 1 - you can go to the country and survive

more than twice as long to reach the same objective

Finishing the French - out 1 July for beta testing - develop 1 month, beta test 1 year

Also, the design for Arabic (Al mumtaaz) Excellent - gives basis for continuted study.

Chinese - prototypes

Designed for proficiency skills - we know what they need

0 to 5

0 no ability

5 in English - educated native speakers

at 3 you can function as a professional

At level 1 you can go abroad as a tourist - rent room, hire taxi, call for service, call doctor, give minimal information to survive, gas station - exercises are fun, ENGAGING get student to stay at the workstation.

There full time - 4 hours per day. Interact with the screen.

Important part - approach

NATIVE

NOT Videodisc

Video in CD ROM

Not doing analog any more

Lot of input to student - absorbing - the modelling part,

responding - input followed by output

practicing - output - student is asked to do all production - talk to screen

crafted very, very carefullly, Character has been prevideo taped. No speach recognition yet.

Native speaker says - compare - self assessment.

We have come a long way. A never ending challenge. Industry is so alive, in development. Always have choices. Make a choice and stick with it. Tell everyone to most minute detail what you need to run what you have.

These are our specs. But maybe something was not there.

Remember Microticcit? Moster install box. Gigantic floppy. Really floppy. All you could see was the cardboard. That's what we used for the students to record their voices.

A young person drew picture, it was really much bigger than that.

A lightpen

Microticcit

Reduced to Mac or PC

Authorware Professional in Mac, convert to PC

Authors know how to do this. Without a seam.

Mouse, not light pen.

Phase 3

Video Disc is gone

Develop to deliver on only Mac or PC on CD-ROM.

Some requires real magic board with real nice video.

We are used to having analog

Gone MPEG route.

With Chinese we are using QuickTime, so we don't need any hardware. If they keep improving, we will use a lot more.

We have won awards.

Exito Khorosho

End users

Federal Government

Academic Sector, all over

Private Sector

Results:

It is easy to ask, where is the taxi stand. But can they understand the answer.

CIA - 47% stay at 0

40% made to 1

Results out of oral interviews.

What has worked.

Several teams

Designer teams

Graphic Artists teams

What we do first is interview customers.

CIA, FSI and Defense Language Institute.

Interview

Syllabus

use approach

do design on Microsoft Word - on paper - play on paper

Don't do things on-line right away. What works, do design on computer. Print it out. See the navigation. See what branching. What buttons we need. Nothing goes to graphic artists. Use outside reviewers.

What's wrong. What works. What we lack. Sometimes you skip a step or sol

Here is the French.

Digitized video available. A news program. Show student, hear language in context. Just passive listening. May pick up cognates.

(video clip plays mid screen in French)

lip movement is important

NO interaction here. Student should listen to language. Expose without interruption. Then, after 30 activities, play the same news program. Hit them with listening comprehension. They can usually answer all the questions.

[Icons need to be explained]

Can listen to video segment, then select right or left. Highlight correct response in green.

(C'est bien).

If the wrong choice is made, video clip replays.

Second error, shows them the right number.

Screen was designed for quarter screen. MPEG.

Bigger picture, less quality.

Cataloged video. That's how I learned the numbers.

Spanish is not very interactive.

Differnet levels on interactivity. All kinds with dragging action

TPR - Total Physical Response, we mimic that.

Category 3 language - one of the main things is that it is very gender oriented. Keep track of whether student is male or female. Characters wil then address you with the proper gender.

Arabic.

Every word, translation and audio available.

Buttons are now on right side of screen. Arabic is read from right to left.

Already teaching the student, right side is where you should begin looking.

First activity. Modelling, responding and the actual output.

Set up scenario -

two gentlemen speaking of others in the room

goal -teach occupations

As each occupation is mentioned, icon is highlighted.

Student can click as many or as few times. See translations.

Next step. Listen and click.

If I had gotten it wrong, two tries and we move on.

We use the hour glass approach.

Whole language, then discrete, then whole language again.

Let student decide to review.

Another activity -

a notebook activity

a place where student can review vocabulary

list every word. Save and print selective words to practice at home.

Click on Doctor - camel button is move forward, map is mapping out/quitting, question mark for help.

Course is modern standard arabic. Practical dialects.

Spelling option. Russian has this. Not in Spanish. Especially in level 2 and 3 languages.

Every letter of alphabet in Arabic has four variations. Student must learn each letter, times 4.

In print in script. Each letter is sounded as clicked.

Shape of letter depending on position is also shown.

Next button is dialectical variations. Audio is on the blitz here, but countries where egyptian dialect is used are highlighed on a map.

Grammar note button. Note explains variation of letters. Make student aware of unique grammar aspect.

A recording activity:

It's your turn. Student is actively producing language at this point.

Content now is members of the family. This is my brother. I can introduce my brother.

Record button.

Play conversation - recorded voice, followed by response by on-screen character.

Playback is only student's recording.

Native speaker is model of what student is supposed to record.

Ask Ali how he is today. I work at. I am 45 years old. Template is pretty much the same.

Progress bar shows how far through all the lessiosn.

Occupations are trained differently.

The training has a story line. We follow them through several things happen to them.

This is a prototype. It has been very helpful to see the prototype. The design is going to stay. The interface will see changes. Bring teachers to beta test first. They can find errors. Students will then not be tripped up.

Since authors don't know all these languages, sometimes others cataloging errors are made.

Very important.

Q: How many minutes of running audio and video? Recording on CDROM?

MPEG - 70 minutes on CD. Audio, mix of 1/2 hour per day of video. 1/2 hour to 1 hour of audio.

Recording on CDROM, Authorware calls UCD, records on local hard drive.

Q: Are you teaching grammar too? Verb tenses? Noun translations?

We address, in the Spanish, none on-line. Workbook goes with the prograom. No conjugations. For those individuals who need conjugations.

Q: So it is all converstaional?

Yes.

Q: I am familiar with Hyperglot. Are other security agencies, such as Deptment of Interior using this?

Analysis has pricing for other agencies.

Funny, when Washington Post came, nothing spooky. Totally innocent of our outfit.

Foreigners can come to it.

Q: Compared to foreign language school by State Department, what is the time required? How many days?

This is very intensive. The amount you can learn in 2 intensive weeks might be the same as 2 months or 3 months. The student is getting so much input, by the end of the day the student is dying to try this out on a real person. Teacher knows what is in series.

If student needs grammar, that is in notebook. In Russian, you will hear different ones, ending varies. Grammar notes for cases.

Q: How many minutes of video and audio on CD-ROM?

70 minutes with MPEG

Minutes of audio - not 70 of audio - a lot more. Each CD

9-10 MB per minute

Digital audio takes 1/10 of that. We are using MPEG MPA for audio - with real magic card.

Q: Cost in terms of time and money to develop?

It is usually takes 200 man hours for 1 hour of instruction.

Numerous people. - subject matter expert, graphic artist and depending on how fast you want it.

It depends on what type of material

DV adds time

anywhere from 200 to 400 per hour.

The LOOKS are different for different languages.

We want the students to get the feel for the culture.

Q: Who is using. Universities? How?

As part of curriculum. 1 hour 3x per week, 5x per week. Not the way we do it.

Not like we do 8:00 - 5:00

George Mason - 4x a week. Once a week, meet with teacher.

Very good results. A control group.

Q: For the culture - Spain, Latin America?

In audio - from Spain. Based on Latin America. Instructor from all over 20 countries in Latin America. Picked language that is standard.

Sometimes I think "I wouldn't say that, but I know that"

We didn't do it with Spain because I'm a teacher. Native speaker of English, English accent is going to come across.