Hi all,

I have been tasked with doing reserarch on the pros and cons of printing particpant guides for trainees. Does anyone have any such resource created or can you point me in the right direction?

If you did not print, what would you do?

• Print nothing? Not so good if there are job aids in the Guide.
  
• Print just the job aids and reference sections?
  
• Have them read electronic copies on tablet PCs, Phones, PDAs or laptops?
  
• Distribute notes on Kindles?
  

My problem with not printing is note taking. It is easier to take notes on printed materials than on electronic platforms, given current implementations of technology. I am looking forward to an ebook reader that lets me write on the screen and does a good job of reproducing graphics. I have not found one, yet.

Some people don't/won't take any kind of notes. How will those people be able to access the information if there are no printed materials?

I don't understand the question.

If you have a participant guide, why wouldn't you print it? What good would it do you unprinted?

So, is the real question whether or not to create participant guides?

I think the answer to that should be based on the individual class. Our participant guides are not reference manuals with a bunch of text. Those live on the intranet.

Our participant guides are guided notetaking documents and contain the activities, instructions, and exercises the participants will do as guided and independent practice. So, in our case the participants need their guides to do things in the class... and to take notes.

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies. Too elaborate a little more. We are training on a new phone system. We created a partcipant guide that was intended to be printed and handed out to each particpant. The participant guides intent is to be used for not taking, activities, and reference. We are now getting pushback from certain department as they do not see the value of printing the guides. So I am charged with drafting the pros and cons for printing or not printing the particpant guides.

Tell them if you don't get the guides that it is likely that abandonned rates and average wrap-up time will increase as the agents won't know how to use the new phone system. As a result, customer complaints will increase.

I wouldn't print pax guides, but just colorful job, laminated job aids. Give the learners some note paper and pens during the briefing on the new system if they need to write more detailed notes.