The scenario represents the overall process the students must learn. That process consists of a series of tasks, which you have already defined. Each task or learning objective needs a practice exercise. An in-class exercise is to your software class what a word problem is to a math class.
After writing the scenario, you will get out your list of objectives, sit down with your subject expert, and write a few paragraphs describing the exercise for each task.
The following example is a part of a training exercise description. During this exercise, the user enters information about an automobile accident. The entire exercise can be accomplished on one screen. Notice that the exercise description does not consist of step-by-step directions. For now, it’s just a word problem. We’ll write the detailed directions later.
- "An accident claim involving two drivers who both have Acme insurance is filed by Driver 1. Driver 2 is the party at fault. Property damage is estimated at $2,000. There were no injuries..."
During most exercises, you will want the student to interact with a single screen. If you write an exercise description and see that the student would need to navigate to an entirely different screen to complete the exercise, consider breaking it into smaller exercises.
Notice that each of the following exercise descriptions states the input the student will be given, the processing the student should perform, and how the output will be evaluated.
Based upon the information available, the student will create a purchase order. The instructor will review each purchase order, and approve it in class, to enable the student to see the results of the approval process.
At the conclusion of this unit, the student will be able to enter a new purchase order into the system.
The student will be supplied with the following information:
- Name of the vendor from whom the item is being ordered
- Name of the person within the company for whom the item is being ordered
- Item description, catalog number, price, and quantity
- Fund to which the expense applies
The fund that the student uses for this exercise should be a fictitious fund, to avoid using real funds in training.
The student will blend the last two seconds of one supplied video clip with the first two seconds of another. The student will save the resulting clip for the instructor’s review.
The student will demonstrate proficiency in blending the end of one video clip with the beginning of another.
The student will be supplied with two video clips, whose filenames will be clip1.mpg and clip2.mpg. The student will be instructed to blend the last two seconds of clip1 into the first two seconds of clip2, and save the resultant output as blended_[studentname].mpg. The student should then copy the clip to the f:/classfiles folder for review by the instructor.
At this point, you should:
- Know what tasks the students must learn in your class
- Know that a structured training class or classes really is the best way for the students to learn these tasks
- Have listed learning objectives, and obtained the stakeholders agreement upon them
- Have described a training scenario that simulates the business situation that the students will practice in class