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Where the white space came from (was Re: "Too Good" (was: Hi-Tech Company Hasn't Used Tech Writers in Years - Help!)
Subject:Where the white space came from (was Re: "Too Good" (was: Hi-Tech Company Hasn't Used Tech Writers in Years - Help!) From:k k <turnleftatnowhere -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 27 Oct 2003 13:00:27 -0800 (PST)
Hi. It wasn't "somebody," it was me.
>
> Somebody wrote:
> > One of the design principles we followed was
> > to have LOTS of white space in the manuals, so the
> > students would have areas where they could take
> notes.
> > The theory is, their making notes next to the key
> phrases
> > in the manual gives them a tighter memory
> association.
>
This came from ISD concepts as implemented in USAF
training programs. Our major customer was the Air
Force, and we were required to develop courseware
according to Air Force rules. If anyone wants any kind
of evidence, corroborating or otherwise, about the
studies involved in developing or the effects of using
this kind of instructional design scheme, the logical
place to start would be Air Force sources.
Please note that the preceding passage, and my focus
in my original email on this subject, were about
manuals that were designed for use in a formal
instructor-led classroom program. The manuals could be
skeletonized because the majority of the information
imparted to the students was supposed to come from
lecture and labs. (The ratios we were supposed to
follow were, 10% manual, 30% instruction, 60% hands-on
practice, and I did not think to add in my original
reply that the instructor guides were about nine times
as thick and excruciatingly detailed.) Obviously this
approach would not work for distance learning
situations, or classroom situations where there is not
a lot of lab time. Your mileage may vary. Contents may
settle during shipping.
When I wrote my original email on this subject, I was
responding to someone else's complaint that the boss
had decreed a course would be written by the trainers
with only minimal involvement on the tech writer's
part. I was attempting to show that there may be a
logical reason for the boss' decision. My point was,
if the boss envisioned a similar course design, then
having the trainers do the courseware is less of a
problem. (And as side note, when you're the person who
has to write the book before you teach from it, you
have both the incentive and the opportunity to get
really familiar with the material.)
I can report we did have good results with the
students using manuals designed in this way. We had to
make it clear up front the manuals were supposed to be
used for note-taking. Sometimes, students who were
expecting more detailed references would get upset at
first, because they jumped to the conclusion that we
weren't going to cover the material thoroughly enough
to get them trained up to USAF standards. But once
they understood how the course was suppposed to run,
they settled down to making sure they took *real* good
notes. Knowing they had to write down things as we
went along did seem to give them incentive to pay
close attention.
And it worked not just with USAF personnel. We did
courses using the same design principles with civilian
students, and as long as they were motivated, they did
fine. On the down side, with skeletonized courseware
the skills of the instructor have a much greater
effect on the quality of the training.
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