Nearly two years after the introduction of a suite of business software applications to MSU employees, support areas have continued to receive help requests and technical questions regarding these business applications. Diagnosis determined that with a majority of these requests the issue wasn’t with the business software, but instead were issues with the user’s computer software or settings; primarily with their web browsers, which are used to access and enter/receive business information.
Technical documents exist on a few pages of an MSU support website which outline the use, configuration and supported types of user interface software (abbreviated UIS, and covers any software loaded on an MSU employee’s computer which is needed to access and interact with the business applications). However many users report issues trying to find a pertinent support document, or they don’t fully understand the documented steps they need to perform in order to resolve their situation. To address this situation I created a narrative screencast for MSU employees. Covered topics included a background on MSU’s business systems, specific information related to MSU-supported browsers versions and how to check and configure them for optimum use. The screencast integrates videos, images and computer screen capture to provide an immersive multimedia presentation. There is an interactive table of contents which allows viewers to move to any specific content they want to review, and two quizzes to check student understanding of the presented content. A brief questionnaire at the end is aimed to capture viewer’s comments related to the effectiveness of the screencast.
From my original lesson plan, I ended up adding additional sections on operating systems (another key user software), and explaining a new software compatibility matrix that MSU will move to.
Lesson Implementation The intended audience are MSU employees that use automated business applications, and also the technical resources that support these employees. The screencast has not yet been released, as it contains information based on software testing that will not be completed until sometime in early December. I anticipate a late-December or early January release.
To evaluate the screencast I sent the link to two groups of individuals:
1) Twelve MSU employees who work with technology and/or as analysts on business teams whose processes are now automated under the software applications that my screencast covers. Their comments primarily focused on the content being presented in the screencast.
2) Nine family and friends with various levels of technical skills/knowledge and little to no knowledge of MSU systems. Their comments were primarily related to the aesthetics and pedagogy; how the information was provided, pacing, narration, and other methods that support the presentation of content.
Feedback received from internal MSU teams were:
Provide references and locations of additional support information (website/text documents) after each topic (as opposed to waiting until the end of the screencast).
Mention at the beginning of the screencast that a employee’s computer permissions affect their ability to what they can perform.
Provide additional information on the negative impact (what errors may occur, or what functionality is impaired) if using unsupported/incompatible software.
Several slides and embedded videos are difficult to see, especially on smaller monitors or laptops. Need to enlarge and clarify. Will recapture these screens.
Feedback received from family/friends (non-MSU comments) were:
Sections of the EBS overview portion were too drawn out; cut extraneous data that is not needed.
On slow network connections the screencast must run for a minute or two before the interactive menu system (Table of Contents) functions properly.
Leveling of music to the audio tracks.
On the quizzes, when users select incorrect answers, display which answer is correct.
The questionnaire didn’t work. Also, questionnaire responses are not available for future review. Will change to provide an internet link to an external survey.
Lesson Reflection
Learning goals of this screencast are to provide MSU employees with basic technical and software knowledge that they need to understand in order to effectively interact with and perform their daily job tasks. By also developing and enhancing troubleshooting and resolution skills, employees can more quickly address software issues that impact their job efficiency, as well as reduce the engagement of other technical resources that otherwise might be needed to correct the situation.
Challenges are with providing a learning tool that “connects” and engages a very large user base, who collectively possess a wide and varying level of technology skills and knowledge, and may prefer differing delivery methods to best learn content. Recognizing these variables, I tried to incorporate multiple pedagogy methods that improve the likelihood that information is provided in ways that engage and motivate understanding. This screencast is a supplement to existing text-based instruction on the same material, and I feel strongly that the multimedia delivery of narrated video with images and actual technical processes being performed provide alternative methods of learning that the text-based instruction don’t provide.
Employees using MSU software are located across campus and around the State of Michigan, so performing follow up observation/evaluation or obtaining immediate feedback to assess improvement of key topics is not possible. Self assessment will be provided through two sets of quizzes; overall affect will be assessed based on an updated questionnaire located at the end of the screencast, and by a review of support areas and the number of technical calls they receive in regards to MSU’s business software.
My desire is to invoke behaviorist operant conditioning, by showing how the acquisition of technical software instruction can provide MSU employees with skills that allow them to proficiently perform their job tasks and diagnose and correct commonly-reported errors. I also focus on fostering a cognitive apprenticeship (information-processing model) by providing content visually with the aim to help software users develop a basic set of software diagnosis and troubleshooting skills, or for more advanced users, add to their current level of knowledge and understanding.
This screencast can be watched multiple times; backed up and section(s) replayed again, and unneeded (or already known) topics can be skipped in order to move directly to content that is important to the viewer. Through the use of narration and video and images, this is an assistive form of learning to viewers that have visual or audio impairments. It provides an accessible, immersive delivery of technical information in a multimedia format. Users need to have access to a network connection and a newer web browser in order to access and view the screencast 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Link to current (draft) version of screencast: Screencast on Effectively Using MSU Business Software
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