The Problem
Our client, a Managed Care Organization, needed clinical staff to track case management activities using the CaseTrakker Database application.
CaseTrakker is a powerful database application with many customization options. Our client had customized the application extensively. As a result, the application’s embedded reference and training materials were no longer useful.
Prometheus Approach/Solution
Needs and Task Analysis. Working with our client’s System Administrator, we studied how the customized software was supposed to function, as well as common error records. We also interviewed users to identify where they had problems with the software.
We soon learned that there were multiple audiences for this application:
- New users needed to learn a broad set of functions and how to apply them in their specific jobs.
- Cross-functional users knew how to use CaseTrakker to perform one type of job. Now they needed to be able to use the same software to perform a different job.
- Power users didn’t care which job they were performing – but they were interested in learning how to make this slow, data-heavy software work faster and more efficiently.
We also identified technology constraints that prevented us from using "live data" during the training.
Our solution was a blended one:
- We created an online new-user course, using Articulate and Flash software to provide instruction, software simulation, and practice of certain key functionality.
- Once the learner had completed the online New-User course (or its equivalent), they were provided with a menu of Guided On-the-Job Training Worksheets. Depending on the job they needed to learn, the learner chose the appropriate Worksheet from the menu, then worked through a structured exercise which gave them job-specific experience in the database.
- For power users, we created a Tips & Tricks Web Site, with hints and techniques for using the CaseTrakker program more efficiently. We also set up the client’s screen-saver program to send users one of the Tips & Tricks from the web site each day.
Special Skills/Software
- Instructional Design
- Articulate software
- Flash software
- CaseTrakker software
Result/Benefit to Client
New users learned CaseTrakker more quickly, and more consistently.
Cross-trained users were pleased at the speed and ease at which they learned additional tasks.
The OJT Worksheets did double duty as reference guides, which particularly helped those once-a-month software users who did not want to work through the entire training each time they re-used the software.
Everyone enjoyed the Tips & Tricks. Power users sent in tips & tricks of their own to be added to the Web Site and Screen Saver.
For more information about this project, please contact us.