Do your trainees like them? I was intrigued by a response to another discussion ("What are your trainee's biggest worries...) in which the contributor disliked software simulations where, as he wrote "the only thing I can do is select the correct answer."
We just got Captivate and were about to embark upon building software simulations.
If we in fact build them, we don't want to create something that trainees dislike. We certainly don't want them to dread future trainings.
Can anyone share tips about how to make software simulations successful (besides keeping them brief)? Or about what not to do?
Can anyone share feedback they've gotten from their trainees regarding simulations, especially software simulations?
Thanks to all who share their thoughts.

quote:

Originally posted by KathyS:
Can anyone share tips about how to make software simulations successful (besides keeping them brief)? Or about what not to do?
Can anyone share feedback they've gotten from their trainees regarding simulations, especially software simulations?
Thanks to all who share their thoughts.

I have two questions before I can actually help: what software are you simulating and who will be the audience?
Maybe the "only click the correct button" is OK for some audiences and some products. I have been programming (and using computers) for 33 years so maybe I have an unusual perspective. I do know that other people with whom I've spoken with moderate to high levels of experience tend to agree with me, though. Such exercises might be great for people who have little or no computer experience, though.

Our trainees generally have a history of using computers daily.
The majority of the software that we are teaching them to use does not have as many features or functions as, for instance, Word or PowerPoint does.
In most cases, our trainees are viewing (but not changing) data about our clients, and they need to know where in our software to look for certain pieces of data.
In the majority of cases, the training is for individuals new to this employer, and it provides them with an introduction to the software, and -- just as importantly -- to the terminology used by the software.
The trainees are off to a much quicker start than would be the case if they had to discover things by themselves over the next few months.
With our software, staff generally, but not always, go to a main page from which they can expand certain parts - then clicking on links within those parts -- to get additional data, although most of the time it is not necessary to click on links within those parts.
Those who need to do the additional clicking are generally more experienced staff whose skill level is already beyond that covered in our classroom-based trainings.
Some of the trainees are clerical staff and some are advisors/coordinators, with the majority of the latter posessing a bachelor's degree.
We -- just lately -- are beginning to teach some software that is somewhat more complicated to use, such as workflow software, which we are just discovering ourselves, and can't really comment on the nature of, yet.
And we will be teaching a different group to use certain (easy) tags to "mark up" their work (within a different system than that referred to above). A big part of this will have to do with helping people so they aren't uncomfortable when they hear "tags" and "mark up." Still, some practice will be required. It's a somewhat different world than they've been exposed to before.
Any insights are appreciated.

OK. Good. This sounds valuable. Now, my question is, why can't they use the actual software? Can you make up dummy data they can edit/process? Can you give them limited accounts?

A very good question.
We can create fake data, but if they are granted any access to the system, they have access to the whole system, including real and fake data.
So we wanted to create a completely fake environment using Captivate.
Then they wouldn't get access to the system at all, just to whatever fake data we include in the simulation.