Are you using application simulation tools to build on-line training courses for software rollouts? If so, then pay attention – you may be using the wrong tool!  If not, then you still need to pay attention because you’re missing out on a major opportunity to improve your e-learning strategy.   Application simulations are one of the hottest areas of e-learning.

Bersin & Associates recently completed a detailed review of application simulation products and training strategies.   We talked to many customers and vendors and discovered that there are some great products available for building on-line training to teach users how to use a new software application.  Based on our research, we reviewed the top 5 products on the market:

History of the Market

The early products in this category (remember Lotus ScreenCam?) were not specifically targeting training but were intended to offer recording and playback for a variety of applications like marketing demos, product documentation, and how to’s for customer service.  Since then, as software and ERP systems have become complex, training on using software has become a huge market -- and these products have added more and more instructional features.

The word "simulation" is now the key.  These tools are now designed to simulate some or all of a major software system and include many features which help learners step through and interact as if they were using the real system.  Developers can capture screen shots easily and even record many series of transactions.  Most of the products also include built-in capabilities for creating and tracking assessments, so you can certify an individual’s competency on a software application.  This is especially important for mission-critical ERP software training where competency with the application is critical for effective job performance

Figure 1 - This interactive simulation, created using Firefly from Knowledge Impact,
enables users to try tasks on their own

Summary of our Findings (Buy the Product Selection Guide for Details!)

In addition to a review of major tools, our report also includes several interesting case studies on successful software training rollouts.  Interviewing these training managers revealed several important considerations for your software training efforts:

Software Training Problems are not all Created Equal.

It turns out that many of the decisions you make during a software training project will depend on what type of application training you are doing.  Is the application easy to learn, or complex?  Does the final simulation need a high quality user experience or not?. 

Let’s look at an example. 

A tutorial that shows a user how to add a new contact into their PDA is very different than one that shows them how to enter a new order into an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system like SAP or Oracle.  The former may have 2-3 steps while the latter may have 12-15 steps and require intimate knowledge of the business process involved and the order in which the data must be entered.   Obviously, the number of error messages and implications for m aking mistakes are quite different. Also, training on using a PDA is probably targeted at customers. Therefore, the quality of the user experience in the simulation is very important.  ERP training, on the other hand, is a forms-based application with a simple user interface.

Entering a Contact in a PDA vs. Entering a new order in an ERP system: 

Figure 2:  Different Types of Application Training

While these two are extreme examples, all software training projects fall somewhere between these two scenarios in terms of complexity.  The various available tools on the market offer different degrees of support for the type of application training you are doing. Some products are better at building high quality, Flash-based simulations while others are stronger at helping you build assessments to track user performance.  Do you require Flash-based output? Will the simulation need to be available off-line as well as on-line?

Instructional Strategy may require Blended Learning 

One of the big challenges in ERP training is the need for learners to understand all the details of the underlying business process – not simply the keystrokes involved in using the application.  When Hertz rolled out an entirely new system for reservation processing in 600+ locations, they felt it was necessary to use a blended approach including application simulation exercises, webinars, a live system for user experimentation, and access to an on-site mentor to answer any questions.  Again, the tools in the market provide support for some of these requirements.  Do you need a hardcopy job aid to go with the training?  Can you use the tool to simulate a live system (saving the trouble and expense of setting up an instance of the application just for training)?  Software training is one of the applications which often needs multiple forms of content to drive competency.   In any large ERP-like training a blended approach is probably needed. (See our Blended Learning: What Works” study for best practices and case studies in blended learning.)

Combining Various Simulation Types.

Once you’ve settled on a macro-level instructional approach (e.g. a blended combination of different media types), the next question is: how can you use the simulation to maximize the learning experience for the user?   In most application training problems, the process begins with a simple demonstration of performing a task.  The question you must ask is how much more do you need beyond this basic demonstration?  Some of the issues include:

• And what degree of competency will you demand of your learners?
• Does the learner need to understand all the possible error conditions? 
• How much of the underlying business process must they understand? 
• What is the risk of error? If the application is a stock-trading application, the user must be totally certified before you turn them loose on the final system. If you are training sales people on how to enter their prospects into a PDA, a few errors are acceptable.
• What is the right level of interactivity required in your simulations? As mentioned above, interactive simulations give users a much more interesting experience since they can get actively involved in the learning process.  But interactivity can be implemented in stages with various levels of help and prodding as users try things, make mistakes, get frustrated, etc.
• Based on the issue of mastery, you need to decide how rigorous the learning process will be. Will you test the learner and give them a score? If so, how will you decide what a “passing grade” is? Will you allow users to attempt various tasks multiple times?